Blown away roof halts school’s reopening

DIKGALAOPENG– The resumption of teaching and learning for 2022 academic calendar at Dikgalaopeng Primary School outside Groblersdal within Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality has been halted.

This after the school’s roof was blown away by a heavy storm which ravaged the area last year during the festive season.

According to the Limpopo Department of Education (LDE) the school could not resume teaching and learning on the basis that all existing structures collapsed and it was not safe to allow learners to roam around.

Parents of learners at the school are calling for the LDE to intervene speedily so that more teaching and learning time is not lost.

Tidimalo Chuene, LDE Spokesperson, said that if things went according to plan, mobile classrooms could have been delivered over the weekend and teaching and learning could have started yesterday (Monday).

Chuene said they were hopeful that the service provider would deliver soon. Therefore parents never closed the school because the school never reopened officially, added Chuene as she thwarted allegations that parents in the area closed down the school.

“What we did was to request parents to accompany their children to collect food packs so that the feeding scheme program is not compromised,” explained Chuene.

She concluded that the LDE district office was working with the school to craft a recovery plan for the lost time.

More than sixty families in Dikgalaopeng, Motsephiri, Jerusalem and Monsterlus were left devastated in December last year when the heavy storm hit.

Some of the members of the families whose houses were destroyed in the heavy storm were admitted to local clinics and hospitals.

In wards 20 and 21, where Dikgalaopeng Primary School is located, 16 households were reported as affected while 48 households were destroyed in the Monsterlus area.