PHUTI MOSOMANE
DEMOCRATIC Alliance (DA) councillor Boitumelo Sebego has called on the Provincial Education Department to urgently intervene in the closure of the overcrowded Deben Primary School in the Gamagara Municipality, Northern Cape.
The school has a capacity of 1400 learners but there are 1 885 learners enrolled at the school, and an additional 88 on the waiting list.
Despite efforts to report the overcrowding challenges by the school to the district, there appears to be no solution insight. Now, the school has been shut for four days due to overcrowding and the non-placement of learners who remain on the department’s waiting list for school placements.
Parents are angry and are keeping their children away from school, also making threats towards the school.
‘‘I conducted an oversight inspection of the school today [Wednesday], during which the school principal addressed teachers. He informed them that the school would remain closed because learners were not attending classes due to the department’s failure to address the current school crisis,’’ Sebego said.
To deal with overcrowding at the school, the principal ordered an additional mobile classroom through the department in August last year. It was meant to be delivered in December 2022 but has yet to arrive.
Although the school is scheduled to meet the education department on Thursday, the school community is growing increasingly agitated at the situation.
INSIDE EDUCATION
