Not the time for demands
While communities are busy picking up the pieces after a hail storm that left more than 10 villages in distress, the residents of Ireagh A are demanding a school that was also damaged to be rebuilt instead of being repaired.
BUSHBUCKRIDGE – While communities are busy picking up the pieces after a hail storm that left more than 10 villages in distress, the residents of Ireagh A are demanding a school that was also damaged to be rebuilt instead of being repaired.
Several classrooms at Phulani Secondary were left roofless with some walls damaged. Last week, the community chased a contractor which was appointed by the department of education.
“This is a very old school without resources like a laboratory, like the schools the department is building in other places. What is the point of fixing this old thing?” asked a parent of a learner at the school.
But learners say the storm happened at a bad time while they were preparing for exams and the parents’ demands are making it worse because all they want to do now is write the exams without interruptions.
“We fully understand our parents’ concerns, but the timing is not right and I wish the whole issue could wait until we finish writing,”said a grade 12 learner of the school. Last week, in a statement, the education department condemned the parents’ action.
“The department has wished to move swiftly in repairing the damages so that there is a conducive environment for learners in all grades to learn and to write final examinations,” said Mr Jasper Zwane, the department’s spokesperson.
He further expressed the department’s concern of heavy rains and that the stance by some parents will delay the process to repair the school. “Mobile classrooms are going to be delivered as an interim measure,” he said.
