Learners’ action brings change
Learners of a high school in Khutsong had to picket before their toilets were fixed and cleaned.
It took learners of Tswasongu Secondary School in Khutsong to close the school temporarily for the Gauteng Department of Education to attend to serious issues at the school.
Members of Cosas (Congress of South African Students) led an action to close the school temporarily on 15 February.
“We have complained about the terrible condition of the school’s toilets for years. The teachers told us they had also asked the Department of Education to sort out the problem, but nothing has happened,” the Cosas chairperson, Motlalepula Molefe, told the Herald.
Numerous learners in the forefront that day explained how it had affected them.
“The toilets are so dirty that some of us girls get infections from it. I have been at the school for five years now, and we have been complaining all the time. I am now in Gr. 12 but nothing has changed,” a matric learner complained.
“It’s been years and years that we have struggled to use the toilets, but no one wants to help us,” a Gr. 11 learner lamented.
Because the learners did not attend school on that day, representatives of the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE)came to the school for a meeting with the learners, teachers and the school governing body.
According to Molefe, the department finally decided to do something about the problems following this meeting.
“We are so happy because it is the first time we have been able to get such a positive response,” he says.
“The GDE is aware of the ablution challenges at Tswasongu Secondary School. As a result, we delivered 30 chemical toilets to the school on Thursday, 15 February. Teaching and learning are continuing as normal,” said the GDE spokesperson, Mr Steve Mabona.
Here is a video of what some of the toilet’s looked like before the past week’s intervention:
