School shocker
It was further established that the plight of the school will be taken to the Education Spokesperson, Mbali Ntuli, who will submit a parliamentary question to the MEC.
Wasbank Primary School is in a state of disrepair with broken toilets, damaged classrooms, gaping holes in the roof, overflowing septic tanks and water shortages.
The school, which is not only riddled with insurmountable problems, faces yet another problem of an incorrect quintile ranking.
According to Democratic Alliance Councillor, Dr Bedassi, “the school has received a quintile ranking of 5, this was after it had been changed in 2009 from 3 to 5.”
South African Schools are divided into 5 categories or ‘quintiles’ according to their poverty ranking.
The poorest schools are included in quintile 1 and the least poor or affluent schools are in quintile 5. The ranking is used to determine how much funding each school gets,” Bedassi explained.
“As a result of the incorrect ranking, schools are generally given limited funds and teaching resources, lack of basic infrastructure and maintenance, inability to pay for basic services, not being part of the provinces School Nutrition Programme and access to the Learners Transport Programme, in essence as the schools quintile ranking increases its government subsidy per child decreases,” Bedassi added.
With that being said Wasbank Primary subsequently bears the wrath of the incorrect quintile ranking with damaged classrooms as a result of a severe storm in the area during August 2014.
The Grade R’s classroom’s ceiling and roof had been extensively damaged and as a result there is no electricity. This however is yet to be repaired despite numerous calls made by the principal to the Department.
The learners of that classroom had been relocated to the staff room.
A septic tank in the school overflowed and posed a health risk to the learners and staff. In addition to that a ‘honey sucker’ was requested since October 2014 in a bid to clear the waste but that too is yet to come.
The septic tank, however, is undergoing repairs. The school is plagued with broken furniture and even broken toilets due to the lack of funds that accompanies an incorrect ranking. Dr Bedassi further highlighted that, “the school does not qualify to participate in school nutrition programmes and learner transport programmes and as a result the Principal purchases groceries out of his own pocket to feed the children.
” Furthermore, every learner does not possess their own text books and some text books were delivered in the incorrect language, Bedassi added. The Department of Education has been approached for comment but had not responded at the time of going to print.
A separate email was sent to the Media Liaison for the DA in the KZN Legislature, after the Premier and the DA highlighted a school in KwaNgoma as being one of the worst schools in the province, a school very similar to Wasbank Primary. It was further established that the plight of the school will be taken to the Education Spokesperson, Mbali Ntuli, who will submit a parliamentary question to the MEC.
