Enraged parents march to demand additional school grades

Dennilton

Dozens of parents of children at Mailankokonono Secondary School and pupils, joined by concerned community members from Magakadimeng and Mpeleng Villages, have on Wednesday 21 February, marched to Moutse Central Circuit Offices in Dennilton to demand more grades and classrooms at the school.

During the march, the demonstrators crowded the circuit offices opposite Moutse Mall in the morning to deliver their memorandum of demands to LDoE officials.

They said they want Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) to provide the school with and additional grades 10, 11 and 12 and more classrooms. Currently, Mailankokonono admits only grade 8 and 9 pupils.

Over 300 learners from Magakadimeng and Mpheleng Villages, who are doing grade 10 to 12, are urged to walk for about 5kms to attend school at Ntota Secondary in Five Morgan and Sebakanaga Secondary in Ntswelemotse Villages.

A community leader, Abel Mogalaki, said they marched because they have approached the department on several occasions since 2014 and their demands were never met.

“We convened a number of meetings with the circuit manager to demand the additional grades and extra classrooms and we are still in vain. This march is a final call to the circuit and the department to address our concerns,” he said.

According to Mogalaki, a number of letters were directed to the LDoE Provincial Office in Polokwane and were never responded to.

“Our pleas have been ignored in all levels of the department and we feel like this is a serious violation of children’s rights to education. The local circuit manager and other educators have said it publicly during the meetings that they will not allow the school to have extra grades,” he said.

 Mogalaki said they are demanding the department to realign the school that will allow the establishment of additional grades and more classrooms.

“We also want the reshuffling of three teachers who made it clear that they will not attend to the additional grades should they be introduced in the school. This is frustrating because they do not want to perform their duties. We no longer want them in our school, we need new dedicated teachers,” he said.

Mogalaki said all parents of the affected learners were expecting their children to study grades 10, 11 and 12 at Mailankokonono Secondary this academic year.

“For the past ten year, we have been pleading with the department to realign the school. It is now long overdue. We are also not happy with the fact that the children are not safe when traveling to other schools while there is a local school that should admit them,” he said.

Mogalaki said they have given the LDoE to respond to their memorandum within seven working days.

“If the department fails to meet our demands, we are going to stage a total shutdown in the affected villages,” threatened Mogalaki. At the time of going to press, the LDoE was not available for a comment.