This is according to a statement issued by DA constituency head for Benoni and Member of the Provincial Legislature Michele Clarke. In the statement, Clarke has called on Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to improve conditions for staff and learners.
“During an oversight visit to the school, the DA was alarmed at the rate of the school’s deterioration,” said Clarke.
“It was opened in 2013, for the Albert Luthuli community of Daveyton, for pupils from Grade R to Grade Seven, but overcrowding has become so severe that Grade Six and Seven learners were placed in the nearby high school.”
She added that the education department’s supply of temporary classes has not been able to reduce overcrowding in classrooms.
Clarke said the department supplied learners with tablets last year, but without >3G cards or any sort of broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity.
There is no telephone at the school.
“MEC Lesufi and the Gauteng Education Department must realise that one under-resourced primary and one high school are simply insufficient for a community of more than 6 000 households,” said Clarke.
“With a reduction of overcrowded classrooms, learner and teacher morale will improve, increasing the outcome of quality education and giving young people from this impoverished community an increased opportunity to build a better life.”
At the time of going to print, the Gauteng Education Department had not responded to questions which were e-mailed to them by the BCT on Friday.
