Shack school remains an eyesore for residents

MASAKANENG – Poor conditions at Aquaville Combined School in Masakaneng settlement outside Groblersdal have raised concerns among residents.

Residents complain that the poor state of the school rendered teaching and learning impossible as teachers and learners were subjected to inhuman conditions.

The residents say the situation at the school was abnormal as learning and teaching occurred in shack structures.

They say the learners were forced to be crammed into the shack structures without proper ventilation, risking their health.

According to the residents several of their attempts to get the Limpopo department of Education to attend to the matter bore no fruits.

The corrugated iron sheet structured school currently accommodates 500 learners with 12 teachers and it caters for grade R up to nine learners.

The parents are appealing to the department to build a proper school for their children as winter season approaches, provision of more teachers and for the school to be fully operational and cater for Grade R up to Grade 12.

They claim that the department rejected a site earmarked for the building of a school and the reasons for the rejection were not sensible.

Seun Mogotji, Bolsheviks Party of South Africa leader, said they have made means to engage the department to assist without success.

Mogotji said they could not continue to have a learning environment which appeared as an insult to the education of children and that urgent attention was need on the matter.

“We as community members came with the initiative to erect the structure for the children who had to travel long unsafe distances to access education as there is no school in Masakaneng. We hoped that the department will intervene and build a proper school for the children,” said a parent who did not want to be named.