Almost 300 Diepsloot pupils have not been at school this year due to a shortage of schools in the area, and one of the schools the department said would be ready by yesterday to accommodate them is incomplete while construction has not even started on the other one.
A report from the Gauteng department of education has revealed that 285 pupils from Diepsloot have not set foot in class this year and that 79 of them are high school pupils while 206 are in primary school.
Eunice Jacobs, 32, whose daughter has already missed five months of school due being unplaced, said she has had to watch her grade 8 child cry almost everyday whenever she sees other children returning from school.
“Seeing my daughter cry everyday and asking me questions of why her older sister is going to school while she's staying behind has been very hard for me as a parent. I don't know what to say to her. I have not heard anything from the department or the district and that's what's frustrating me the most.
“I applied for her admission at Seshegong Secondary School and Olievenhoutbosch Secondary School, and they told me to wait for an SMS [for confirmation] but they never got back to me,” said Jacobs.
Overcrowding at Diepsloot
secondary schools
Sunrise: Overcrowded by 400 pupils
Itirele: Overcrowded by 250 pupils
St Ansgars: By 320 pupils
Diepsloot secondary: By 515 pupils
Diepsloot combined: By 581 pupils
Kwena Molapo: By 250 pupils.
Overcrowding at Diepsloot primary schools
Diepsloot primary: Overcrowded by
443 pupils
Witkoppen: By 339 pupils
Paradise Bend: By 514 pupils
Musengavhadzimu: Overcrowded by 832 pupils
Reshomile: Overcrowded by 440 pupils
Muzomuhle: Overcrowded by 434 pupils
— FACT BOX
She said her daughter has even started smoking hubbly because she just idles around the house all day doing nothing.
In a quest to find out what the issue is with schools in the area, community leader Reggie Lebetshe sought answers from the department of education after being approached by parents for help.
The department compiled a report which was then shared with community leaders, giving a glimpse into placement problems besieging the community. According to the report, there is an overcrowding issue, with primary schools bearing the brunt. The report shows that primary schools are overcrowded by 3,002 pupils, while the figure is 1,844 at high schools. The area needs 102 more classrooms to deal with the overcrowding.
The most overcrowded primary school is Musengavhadzimu, which has a 1,660 capacity but has 2,492 pupils and needs 16 classrooms to accommodate the extra 832 children. On the other hand, Diepsloot Combined Secondary School has a 1,600 capacity but enrolment is at 2,181 and needs 10 more classrooms for the extra 581 pupils.
When Sowetan spoke to the department in April on the placement issue, they said they were busy with the construction of Tanganani Primary School which would be ready for occupation on May 5, to ease overcrowding and help absorb children who are still unplaced.
However, when Sowetan visited the school yesterday, there was no-one there. It is still incomplete as there are no toilets and no admin block. The yard is filled with long grass and weed. Despite that, it has staff that is yet to report for duty.
In the report, the department also states that another school, Bambanani primary, will be ready for occupation in June. However, no work has yet started on the school. All that is there is just a piece of land with fence around it.
While the department has blamed the progression of Tanganani on community unrests, a member of the Tanganani Residents Committee said the blame was squarely on the contractor for dragging his feet.
Loyiso Louis Mathipa said the school project began on November 11 2024 but came to a standstill mid-January.
“ I don't know what went wrong in January. I come to check the progress everyday and there is no-one on site.”
He said when he calls the department to find out the progress, he is referred to the contractor. The contractor would then tell him someone would be at the school. “I will go to the school and wait but no-one would come,” he said.
Sowetan reached out to the department for a comment on this matter. However, they had not responded at the time of publication.
Back in April, a spokesperson for the department told Sowetan that a catch-up programme for the unplaced children will be implemented to cover lost time.
However, education activist Hendrick Makeneta said there was no way the children will be able to catch up with schoolwork of the previous terms halfway through the year.
“Looking at the Caps curriculum, it’s actually overloaded already...that’s why even teachers offer extra lessons to the learners. It requires some additional hours for even a learner who started school in January to catch up and be able to do well in their studies.
“This will strain these learners who now have to go and do a catch-up programme. Even if they have to be progressed to the next grade, they still have to work extra hard in order to do well in their schoolwork.”
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