By Amy Musgrave
The Gauteng education department is urgently working on a plan to ensure that schooling is not disrupted at Riverlea High School, south of Johannesburg, following a blaze that gutted 11 classrooms and furniture on Sunday night.
The department said on Monday that according to preliminary reports, the fire started in an unused classroom and rapidly spread, destroying a block of 11 classrooms and all the boys’ toilets.
It said four of the classrooms were currently being used by Grade 8 learners and the remainder were unoccupied.
Schooling resumes next week on Monday.
“A temporary plan has been put in place to use the school hall for affected learners while arrangements are being finalised for the delivery of four mobile classrooms, fully furnished, to replace the lost classrooms,” the department said in a statement.
“Approximately 230 learners are directly impacted by the aftermath of this fire, and every effort is being made to normalise the situation swiftly.”
The rest of the school’s infrastructure remained intact and operations for other grades would continue without significant challenges.
Education MEC Matome Chiloane has warned that those responsible for the blaze would be dealt with.
“We condemn this senseless act of destruction in the strongest possible terms. An attack on a school is an attack on the future of our country and acts of this nature must be treated with the utmost seriousness,” said Chiloane.
He appealed to anyone information to come forward and assist the police with their investigations.
Meanwhile, the school’s governing body told Newzroom Afrika that security was an issue, with guards and wardens only in place from Mondays to Fridays.
It said it had reached out to the department on numerous occasions to assist the school with security and upgrading facilities.
The SGB welcomed the mobile classrooms, but said it was not enough. It appealed for the entire school to be rebuilt as infrastructure was in desperate need of an upgrade.
No one was hurt in the blaze.
INSIDE EDUCATION
