PICS: How do we make learning fun with such conditions?
How do we expect children to perform when there are no proper tables and chairs for them?
The new school year is off to a flying start, but for many township schools, ailing infrastructure and poor learning conditions mean that their children receive instruction in an environment which is not conducive to learning.
Meadowlands Primary School in Zone 7, faces such challenges on a daily basis. According to parents who have children enrolled at the school, this dire situation has been in existence for years now, and it seems that there is no end in sight for parents, teachers and learners who are subjected to the deteriorating conditions every day.
It is not surprising that the school has been identified as an underperforming school when you factor in that the school has been without electricity for years and the lack of adequate fencing leaves the learners vulnerable to attacks from predators who are able to gain easy access to school.
Learning and teaching are disrupted during inclement weather, which has proven to be frustrating for educators who are unable to teach in those conditions.
A parent whose child is enrolled at the school, said, “This is really disappointing and it needs to end now. Our children can’t carry on like this-our education system is failing such schools because this amounts to the school being effectively abandoned.”
“They do not care what happens to our children because it is not their children who are affected. The school has become a thoroughfare or shortcut as people just enter the school premises as they wish because the school next to it has been converted to a school for adults.”
She cited safety concerns for the learners, saying, “It is easy for anyone to walk into the school and take a child without anyone noticing because there is no fencing, people just roam about freely. Our kids are not safe, enough is enough.”
A few other parents decried what they referred to as the Department of Education’s flippant attitude, saying that they felt that parents were not taken seriously, asking, “What do we have to do in order for our cries to be heard?”
Yet another parent added, “This school has produced so many good leaders but look at it today. We are even ashamed to say that Ndofaya has a primary school named after it.”
“This school needs serious renovations-the outside looks the same as on the inside. There floors are cracked, the windows are broken and some cannot be closed. The doors do not have handles and the teachers use their fingers to open up their classrooms.”
“The school library had to be shut down because no one was monitoring it. How do they encourage reading in schools when the school library is in a complete mess?”
The school has experienced four break-ins with no arrests following the incidents of burglary.
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