On the first day of school, you expect the school to be a little chaotic as everyone is still on the verge of settling in. Unfortunately for Nancefield Primary School, they are faced with many challenges.
Taking into consideration that the school is a no-fee school, overpopulation is a major problem. With that being said the school also feeds the children twice a day, Monday to Friday, breakfast, and lunch.
Raymond Fransman principal of Nancefield Primary School said that some of the children only come to school to eat.
Feeding the children is not the problem for Fransman and his school but it’s keeping up with it that bothers him, as they rely purely on the stipend received from the department, sponsors, and donations.
Fransman said his challenges at the school were staff problems, the fact that parents never did the online registrations, “The results of that were that parents came to the school on the first day and tried to enrol their kids,” he said.
Fransman said that because of the parents failing to apply online they now have to be referred to the department and then the department will be able to place them into a school.
With regards to the staffing problem, “We had teachers who had retired last year and now we have to find suitable replacements for them,” he said.
He added, “One of the other problems that we are faced with is the vandalism of the school. Over the holiday period, the school had been extensively vandalised.
“Our taps were stolen, in the boys and girls toilets, they actually forced out the basins because they were metal and there built in the concrete.
“Basically, one of our biggest problems is the infrastructure, the school was built in 1937, so the pipes are rusty, and we hardly ever have running water at the school and so on.”
The vandalism of schools should stop especially because this is the place where children are supposed to feel safe and by the looks of things, it is far from it.
Fransman has made a request that if anyone is willing to help the school please visit the school in Dartmoor Avenue Extension Seven Eldorado Park.
