POLOKWANE – It’s official.
A high school for Bendor is on the cards, as confirmed by the acting MEC for education, Jerry Ndou during his budget speech on Friday.
Sources in the department, however, could provide little more concrete information on the project.
Due to continuing growth patterns, the department is looking to start construction on Bendor Secondary School.
“The city is one the fastest growing cities in the country and migration into the city has been huge, be it in migrant labour or otherwise,”
He said a new school was needed to ensure better quality and accessible education for all in an effort to ease the frustration of parents, children and schools.
Dr Naledzani Rasila, head of the communication section at the education department confirmed that construction will start by 2016.
“It will be a modern school, with whiteboards instead of the old chalkboards, and each class will have a storeroom,” he said.
Envisaged in the initial phase will be 16 classrooms each accommodation 35 learners, a laboratory and an administration block, while the need to expand will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.
The school will open in 2017, said Rasila.
The location of the new school as earlier reported by Review, is an open space in Outspan Drive.
The school will cater for 560 learners but this is a drop in the bucket for Polokwane in terms of the demand for schools.
In recent years, the problem of learner placement has been escalating in both primary and high schools as a result of increasing application numbers.
Altoghether 4 000 learners could not be accommodated in Polokwane schools this year among eight schools (secondary and primary) phoned by Review at the beginning of this year.
In the previous year, as per the then education spokesperson Phuti Seloba, the waiting list was 15 000 learners strong. Many learners though, applied at more than one school.
During the budget speech, Ndou said 10 new schools in Limpopo will be completed during the financial year with a further 16 completed over a longer term.
Ndou said an additional 858 classrooms are also to be built in public schools during the financial year and 1 892 classrooms over the medium term.
The department has been allocated a budget of R805 million for infrastructure development, solely funded by the education infrastructure grant.
According to the department, the plans for Bendor Secondary School still have to be drawn up.
