Ceilings collapsing during lessons, more than 100 pupils squeezed into a single classroom and learning taking place on a veranda or under a tree.
This is the dire state of affairs at Mpfariseni Seconday School in Thohoyandou — one of 1 800 Limpopo schools flagged by the provincial education department as being in such a bad state that they require urgent renovation, complete rebuilding, or demolition.
The school has eight classrooms for its 382 pupils, but three blocks have deteriorated so badly they have been abandoned. The remaining five are barely usable: windows are shattered, ceilings crumble, and some rooms don’t even have a functioning blackboard.
Because of extreme overcrowding, pupils spill into the teachers’ staff room to study, while others stand outside on the veranda or gather under trees for lessons.
In one class, 122 matric pupils are taught in a space meant for half that number. Another grade has 100 learners sharing what little furniture that is left. A desk designed for two pupils now seats three.
Sanitation is equally dire. The entire school relies on four pit latrines toilets for its 382 learners, and the boys’ toilets have no doors.
When Sowetan visited the school, the grade 11 maths class waited for their teacher outside because the classroom was already occupied by maths literacy pupils.
Despite the impossible conditions, principal Humbelani Mphaphuli said the school’s Grade 12 class of 2025 achieved an 82.2% pass rate, a result she described as “nothing short of remarkable”.
But the situation, she said, has been worsening for more than a decade.
“It’s very bad and learners are not motivated to be here,” she said. “I have written many letters to the department of education asking for intervention, without any success.”
Last year, the department sent an official to assess the infrastructure. According to Mphaphuli, the official confirmed what staff already knew: the old blocks were beyond repair and needed to be demolished and replaced. He (the official) promised two mobile classrooms as a temporary solution.
We need help. It is unacceptable that in 2026 we still have learners who are forced to learn under a tree.
— Khathutshelo Nthambeleni, chairperson of the Mpfariseni secondary school governing body
“Until today, we haven’t received them,” she said.
The school runs with only six teachers but needs at least five more to cope with overcrowding.
“We are still waiting for the department to complete their teacher placement processes,” Mphaphuli added.
For now, pupils continue to learn in crumbling rooms and open spaces — a stark symbol of Limpopo’s ongoing school infrastructure crisis and the human toll of long‑delayed promises.
Limpopo education department spokesperson Mike Maringa said the list of priority schools, like Mpfariseni, was long.
Maringa said the department is aware of the state of the infrastructure at the school but that it was previously not prioritised due to low enrolment.
He said Mpfarisen had 143 pupils in 2022 which resulted in the school being earmarked to be merged with another one, Thusalushaka secondary, as the latter had more classrooms to cater for learners from both schools.
However, Maringa said, Mpfarisen has since managed to attract more pupils to the school.
“Currently, due to the increment of the learner enrolment, the school has been prioritised with a maintenance project which will focus on the renovations of classrooms,” he said.
“There are 3,800 schools under the department of education in Limpopo, [and] I can say that more than half [of them] are on the priority list. Some might need to be renovated, while others need to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch.
“We are hoping to start with contracting for about 40 schools on the list by the next financial year,” said Maringa.
A grade 11 learner at the school said they feel like their school has been forgotten.
“The main problems are the ceilings, the toilets and the doors. Our toilets are unbearable and not dignified,” he said.
“The windows are broken in almost all these classes. We don’t have enough teachers and we also have a water shortage problem because it gets switched off randomly and we have to go for days without water.”
A grade 12 learner said: “The classes are very chaotic because there are too many of us in one small room. We have normalised our suffering and have accepted it. Sometimes the ceiling keeps falling in class while we are studying.”
A teacher, who spoke to Sowetan, said she matriculated at the school in 2008 and was surprised to find that nothing had changed since then.
“The ceiling falls apart while we teach and we remove it in such cases. We are always in fear of the hazards. In grade 11, we have 100 learners in a tiny room; it makes teaching so difficult,” she said.
Khathutshelo Nthambeleni, chairperson of the school governing body, said the situation at Mpfariseni was heartbreaking and they didn’t have solutions.
“They told us that the department doesn’t have money to build new classes and advised us to ask for mobile classrooms,” she said.
“We wrote a letter to request the mobile classrooms and since then, we have been waiting for a response; nothing has come.
“We need help. It is unacceptable that in 2026 we still have learners who are forced to learn under a tree,” Nthambeleni said.
Sowetan
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