Kliptown parents demand action as school facilities collapse

Months after education officials promised to fix collapsing Kliptown Primary School, the start of the 2025 academic year has seen no improvement in the school’s condition.

The school governing body (SGB) and parents gathered at the school yesterday, frustrated with the state of the school.

Avril Morris, an SGB member, expressed disappointment with the department of education.

SBG disappointed with department

“This has been ongoing since November. They promised the school would be ready by 15 January. We are very, very frustrated as parents. These classrooms have stood for a year and three months, yet they remain unfit for our children.

“The department is playing with our children’s lives and those of the teachers. They don’t care because their children are in private schools. We need this school fixed.”

When The Citizen visited the school yesterday, pupils were moving furniture from old asbestos classrooms to mobile units that had been standing unused for over a year.

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There is no water or functioning toilets near the mobile class to the old asbestos building for drinking water and to use the restroom. Teachers face the same challenges.

“This school is as old as I am, but no-one seems to care. We had to fight for them to install electricity and after they did, they disappeared,” Morris said.

That prompted some parents to withdraw their children and skip the start of the school year.

Parents withdraw their children

“I kept my children at home. I won’t let them stay in these unsafe conditions. Children must walk from the back to the front unsupervised,” said one parent.

In November, the department promised to deliver furniture, install mobile classrooms and provide functioning toilets and running water by this month.

Parents claim none of these commitments have been fulfilled.

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The old asbestos building, still accessible to pupils, poses safety risks, with no warnings in place, according to parents.

The school accommodates over 700 pupils from Grades 1 to 7.

Simone Theron, a parent of a Grade R pupil said: “When you bring a child to school, you expect a safe environment with proper facilities, but this is not the case. They came here to learn, not to work. Everything is in terrible condition, and the department doesn’t care.”

‘They came here to learn, not work’

Theron added: “It’s better to move my child elsewhere. There’s no progress here. But the problem is finding space at other schools.”

Ironically, education MEC Matome Chiloane, speaking at the opening of a primary school in Braamfischerville, Soweto, said the 2025 academic calendar was on track.