Township schools either abandoned or used as small business hubs

Classrooms and corridors which should be full of the sounds of boisterous kids are either silent, or filled with the noise of small businesses in testimony to the sad failure of education in parts of Soweto.

The South African education system, characterised by crumbling infrastructure and overcrowded classrooms, has led to many parents abandoning township schools and seeking better quality education for their children in suburban Model C schools.

This has left several township schools vacant and abandoned. After scores of lower and higher primary schools were merged in Soweto due to low enrolment numbers, more than 10 schools in the area were abandoned, some were vandalised and others taken over by the communities.

A parent, Veron Makhafula, said many of these schools had been abandoned for more than a decade and were now in dire disrepair, with ceilings falling, blocked toilets and broken windows.

They had either been vandalised or were being used as houses and shops. Makhafula said in 2016, the Gauteng education department promised to put some of its abandoned schools to use, spending millions of rand on turning them into hi-tech, specialised institutions.

However, many of the schools were abandoned and turned into crime havens where people were raped, killed and robbed. Thieves also used the schools as a hideout.

“You could say that people in Soweto have turned their backs on township schools and are flooding Model C schools, but who wouldn’t want their child to have the best education?” she asked.

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When The Citizen went to Soweto to see the abandoned schools this week, we found some had been turned into residential areas and churches, another was a workshop, and others were being used for farming and gardening.

However, several were just abandoned and vandalised. Some of the schools which have been abandoned by the government are Bakgomana Primary School in Diepkloof, Soweto, Lebowa Higher Primary school, Mabewana Primary, Tirisano Primary, Igugu Primary and Leitsibolo Primary School.

While some schools have been occupied by communities and refurbished, some residents expressed concern over the severe shortage of schools in these areas and urged the department to turn the schools into clinics and skills facilities, which would benefit the communities.

Community member Leonard Xobise said it was very disappointing to see that some of the schools had been hijacked by residents in dire need of housing, while many children in the township needed these facilities.

“The government is showing us that they do not care about us and the schools they have built. If we continue like this we’ll end up with no schools at all,” he said.

“This is not the only school in Soweto that has been turned into a residential area. One is even rented out to people for R500.

“Clearly, as a community, we have proven not to care about the most important things. We’re even failing to respect a school.”

According to a teacher, who wanted to remain anonymous, the state of township schools was certainly cause for concern and those schools which had at least 85% of black pupils attending, were poorly funded, dysfunctional and mostly overcrowded.

“It’s not only in Soweto. In Randburg there is a whole school that is state-owned and used by Telkom as an operations unit,” the public school teacher said.

“Education Minister Angie Motshekga is always on about not enough schools to accommodate pupils, while schools have up to 50 and 60 pupils in a classroom. I wonder how many schools are used by state entities for their operations,” the teacher said.

The National Association of School Governing Bodies also urged the department to ensure these schools were reopened, refurbished and maintained.

“We can’t close schools when schools are overcrowded,” the association’s secretary, Matakanye Matakanya, said.

“This is millions of rand going down the drain.”

reitumetsem@citizen.co.za