Questions over bad state of schools as budget vote adopted

While the Gauteng department of education budget vote report was adopted by the Gauteng Legislature yesterday with an allocation of R59.7 billion for the 2022-2023 financial year, questions were still raised if it would be able to cater for the schools which are in a sorry state.

Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi said the departmental overall budget would respond to priorities such as the delivery of quality education in a conducive learning environment and transforming public schooling.

Phineas Xulu High School in Vosloorus, on the East Rand, was one of the schools in a poor state. A parent, Mandla Dube, said the crisis at the school had forced them to take matters into their own hands when some pupils were suspended for asking the principal and school governing body to account for the overcrowding and lack of textbooks.

“The pupils were threatened. This is now the third term, these pupils don’t have textbooks and chairs,” he claimed.

“The classrooms are also not enough. The desks and chairs are not enough to accommodate all our children.”

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A pupil at the school, Hector Hlungwani, said he was pleading with Lesufi to address their dire situation and also act against those who failed to spend the allocated funds to improve the state of the school.

“We came to an agreement with the district officials and the school committee on the lack of resources and when we went to ask about the progress of the situation, we were suspended,” alleged the pupil.

“Our lives are in danger because the principal has bodyguards who intimidate us.”

At least 10 schools in Gauteng have been abandoned, while others had pupils crammed in classrooms. Siyabusa Secondary School also faced overcrowding.

According to Democratic Alliance shadow MEC for education Khume Ramulifho after conducting an oversight at the school, there were allegedly 63 pupils in a Grade 10 classroom at Siyabusa, where pupils were confined to a tiny mobile classroom and there was no space for a teacher to move around.

“The school hall has been converted into two classrooms, while the library has been converted into a staff room. The principal and the deputy principal are sharing an office and there is no privacy,” he claimed.

“The department only delivered five additional mobile classrooms, while the school had requested eight and those classrooms are still not enough to accommodate all the pupils. There is also a shortage of desks and chairs.”

Ramulifho claimed the school was in a bad state and it still used pit toilets, while the department claimed they had eradicated all pit toilets in the province.

“The service provider that is hired to drain the waste from the pit toilets does not always follow the schedule; sometimes they do not arrive on time, leading to the waste flooding around the school yard. This poses a health risk,” he alleged.

The provincial department had a budget of about R1.6 billion, but Ramulifho said the department failed to spend its entire infrastructure budget.

“We will continue to fight to ensure the pit toilets are eradicated at this school and it is provided with all the necessary resources,” he said.

Lesufi promised to intervene, adding that there were still 38 schools in Gauteng which were on rotational learning. This was mainly because of overcrowding and they would eliminate this practice from the beginning of the 2023 academic year.

“Every pupil should be in a classroom and pupils will never be turned away due to overcrowding. We will have to tackle the problem,” he said.

But the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) rejected the budget. EFF Gauteng provincial chair Itani Mukwevho said they did not see the reason for the increased budget because the department cannot spend the funds and there was no improvement in schools, especially in the townships.