Parents and pupils demonstrate outside the Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto yesterday. They want the Gauteng education MEC to address their concerns. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Afire that destroyed five classrooms at the Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto last month has been blamed for just 25 of its Grade 8 pupils passing exams.
The school governing body (SGB) says the fire also affected the administration block but the damage has yet to be repaired.
Pupils and parents protested outside the school yesterday. They demanded that the education MEC address them and provide a response regarding the burnt administration block and repairs to the damaged infrastructure.
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SGB member Ravern Martin said the fire was caused by an electrical fault which had damaged the admin block and affected six other classes, including the science laboratory. Martin said because of the fire, only Grade 12 pupils had returned to school after the June holidays last week.
“Others grades were told they will rotationally attend class from today, like they did during Covid. This is why parents are protesting, their children are missing out because classes are being revamped,” he said.
He said despite previous budget allocations for rebuilding after Covid, no progress had yet been made, leaving pupils without classrooms.
“We are still fighting them [department] for mobile classrooms. Parents are saying when they bring these mobile classrooms, they should take them straight to the soccer field, not here at the school,” he said.
“This is because the entire school needs to be rebuilt, not revamped. This school has been here for more than 80 years. Pupils don’t have a library and the infrastructure is old.”
With three weeks left to preliminary exams for Grade 12, a pupil said the “situation at our school is devastating”.
“The school is not functioning properly. There’s no copy machine and some of our classes were affected by the fire. Teachers are not always present, but they do communicate online and send work,” she said.
The pupil said the school must be rebuilt for a better educational environment and called for the MEC and community to come up with a solution.
“My message to the MEC is that we need real action, not just superficial promises. Noordgesig has been neglected for too long; we deserve better facilities and support to achieve the pass rates expected of us.”
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