Questions were raised about why the Gauteng Department of Education would consider building a satellite school in Birchleigh when an abandoned, unfinished school is less than 5km from the proposed site.
In the December 7 edition of the Kempton Express, we reported that Birchleigh residents were up in arms after learning of a proposed satellite school for the area.
Wanting answers, the community, led by ward councillor Amanda Davidson, called a meeting with all the relevant stakeholders.
At the meeting, Metja Maja, the assistant director of resources planning at the Department of Education, told residents that because of the shortage of schools across Gauteng, the department established several satellite schools in the province.
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“The department decided one such school is needed in Birchleigh,” she said.
She added that the department hopes the satellite school will deal effectively with the overflow of learners from schools in the area.
Residents questioned why they were not informed about the proposed school.
The DA member of the provincial legislature, Refiloe Nt’sekhe, has stepped in and said that while the Gauteng Education Department wants to build the satellite school near Birchleigh Hoërskool, there is an abandoned ‘new’ school less than 5km away.
“The abandoned school is said to have about 50 classrooms with an administration section, and each quadrant has ablution facilities. The abandoned school can easily accommodate over 1 000 learners,” she said.
Nt’sekhe confirmed that in March last year, she tabled a question about including the abandoned school into the R6b set aside for refurbishing schools in Gauteng.
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“In answering, the department said R21.8m had been set aside to complete the abandoned school, but work would only start after appointing a contractor.
“At that time, the department was busy with the appointment process. The abandoned school did not even have security for protection from vandalism,” she said.
Since 2014, Nt’sekhe has highlighted the need for additional feeder English medium high schools for the Kempton Park area.
She said it was not sustainable to have 22 primary schools feeding into 11 high schools.
“My calls have fallen on deaf ears.”
According to Davison, in preparation for the 2024 academic year, the Gauteng Department of Education is scrambling to fix the problem by putting a satellite school in a park in Birchleigh as if they didn’t know about it all along.
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On January 2, Davison wrote an open letter to the Department of Education and the CoE.
In it, she asked for clarity on the land’s ownership and whether the CoE’s City Planning and Building Control was aware of the project.
She also questioned whether the Gauteng Department of Education received permission to use this land for 25 temporary structures and whether the CoE’s City Planning knew that a ‘brick and mortar’ school was planned for the same property.
CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said, “Unfortunately, our officials seemed oblivious to the matter in question. We shall provide clarity on other questions after our site inspection and further investigations,” he said.
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He added that according to the city’s records, no permission was granted for the aforementioned structures, and the Building Control Division is unaware that a ‘brick and mortar’ school is planned for the same property.
Dlamini said the city’s records show that no building plans were submitted for the structures in question.
The Kempton Express sent an enquiry for comment to the Gauteng Department of Education on January 4, requesting comment on January 8.
At the time of going to print, we had received no comment.
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