Learners from Manokwe Secondary School in Bolobedu’s Malematja village took to a march with members of their community and other communities from the area last Wednesday, in a bid to stand up for their right to education.
The Kgapane Local Grounds served as the ideal place for the communities to gather together as the area is open enough to accommodate the large audience that attended the march.
Although there were other matters of concern amongst the public, the most pressing and predominant one was that of Manokwe Secondary School being closed down by the circuit manager(s).
The learners stated that they were taking part in the march as a way to stand in unity and demonstrate that they will not allow themselves to be moved to Magoletsa Senior Secondary School.
“Our parents grew up attending school at Manokwe and never have they been told that they will close the school down,” said one of the learners, while the community of Malematja say that it does not make sense that their children should be moved to a school far from ‘home’ but not be offered any form of transportation to and from the suggested school.
“Most of us are unemployed, so how are we going to manage to get our children to Magoletsa?,” a concerned parent asked the Rakwadu 1 Circuit Manager, Modika Lethwane.
Another learner boldly asked the question as to why a well performing school would be closed down and the learners be moved to a lower performing school in the circuit.
“Instead of you looking at how we have been performing as a school, you look at trying to grow the population elsewhere.
“Manokwe is the top performing school in the circuit while Magoletsa is the least performing.
“Yet instead of closing their school and bringing those learners to Manokwe, you want to degrade our level of education by sending us far from our community which will only add onto their low pass rate,” exclaimed a learner.
The march was organised by the Bolobedu EFF ward councilors, who are also known as the Russia 3-48, with the aim of helping the communities to voice out their concerns to the Mayor, Peter Matlou; the Circiuit Manager, Modika Lethwane, and the Acting CEO of the Kgapane Hospital, Collen Ramatapa.
The chairperson of the Russia 3-48, Carlton Mopai, stated that people in Bolobedu are being taken lightly and not being granted their Basic Human Rights, and that the Russia 3-48 was there to help ensure that such behaviour is put to an end.
Mopai told Lethwane that if the learners of Manokwe had no teachers by Monday, then the EFF would take to going back to the circuit to have a meeting with all the circuit managers, “because there is no way that you will be closing Manokwe’s doors,” said Mopai.
In attempt to find out whether the learners have been going to school and if they were assigned teachers, Dikeledi told the LETABA HERALD that the children have been going to school since last Thursday but they still don’t have teachers at the school.
She also told the HERALD that the School Governing Body (SGB) would be meeting on Tuesday, February 26 to discuss the way forward and that they should bear in mind that there will be no closing down of Manokwe’s doors.
The HERALD tried making contact with the Spokesperson of Education, but at the time of going to print, he had not yet responded nor given comment regarding this matter.
