Learners exposed to unhygienic toilets and dirty drinking water

Learners at the Duikerbos primary school near Delareyville are subjected to unhygienic pit toilets and are forced to drink dirty water.

This is according to the DA, member of parliament Dr. Tutu Faleni, after a DA delegation visited the school on Tuesday 19 April.

“An Unbearable stench hung in the air and flies gathered in the dirty toilets. It is a shame that our children have to be subjected to these circumstances – 22 years after democracy,” Faleni said in a statement

Duikerbos primary school  is waiting for a new school to be built that will see the merger of Duikerbos with another school in the vicinity.

According to the DA the contractor is already two years behind schedule on finishing the school. In the meantime, a total of 363 learners has to share five pit toilets without doors. Not only is it unhygienic, but also undignified.

The ten teachers at the school share the other two pit toilets on the premises.

The DA has demanded that Education MEC Ms. Maphefo Matsemela immediately supply the school with clean drinking water  via water tanks and that portable toilets are delivered to the school as a temporary measure.

The DA is already engaging with sanitation experts to go and visit the school and investigate methods to alleviate the smell of the toilets and assist with a method to purify the drinking water at the school.

“We cannot allow our children to learn in such inhuman circumstances. Section 24 of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution insists that everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing. We should protect the most vulnerable amongst us,” Faleni said

According to Elias Malindi, spokesperson for the Department of Education, the Department condemns the allegations made by die DA that the learners at Duikerbos Primary School are drinking unhygienic water.

“Duikerbos Primary School is situated on a privately owned farm land and has been experiencing some vandalism challenges. A hostel belonging to farm workers in that area is situated next to the school, unfortunately, they do not have an ablution system. They have been using the school’s ablutions system. In the process of this shared usage, the toilet doors were vandalised and the department has on numerous occasions replaced the doors,” he said in a statement.

Learners will be relocated next week to the newly built school along with learners from Morgenster primary and Phenduka Primary.

“The contractor of the school has issued out an occupational permission letter to the school to use 11 classrooms and the school will be fully completed by mid-June 2016.  The delay of the completion of the school was due to community protests,” he said.

he new school has been built at a tune of R31 million and has 18 classrooms, administration block, media centre, multipurpose centre, NSNP kitchen and sporting facilities. The MEC of Education and Sports Development , Maphefo Matsemela expressed her delight over the progress made at relocating Duikerbos Primary School.

“The DA is joining the bandwagon at the end of the tail. The department has intervened to ensure that learning and teaching take place in a conducive and humane environment. It is progress like this that proves that there is hope in the education system and as a department our mandate is to offer quality education to all learners in spite of their geographical location”, she said.