The Limpopo Department of Education's apparent failure to provide classes or mobile classes prompted parents to shut down the dilapidated Tshivhade Primary school at Mashau village last month.
Tshivhade School is one of the schools that were burnt during the violent protest actions at Vuwani, when community members protested against their incorporation into the new Collins Chabane Municipality.
The doors of learning have now been shut for three weeks. Members of the school governing body (SGB) and officials of the Department of Education met earlier and, according to the parents, they never received the promised buildings or mobile classes. The decision to close down the school was taken by the parents and the community because they feared for the safety of their children.
Fed-up parents are now saying that they will allow their children to go back to class only after mobile classrooms have been made available.
The SGB and parents locked the educators and learners out of the buildings, arguing that the classrooms may collapse at any time. The school has five classrooms, which were built in 1959 but are now dilapidated. The walls are cracked, the floor is riddled with potholes and the roof leaks.
The chairperson of the SGB, Mr Thomas Khosa, said parents had pleaded with the Department of Education since 2005 to build new classes. He said that they had opted to meet with officials of the department to seek answers to their request for new classrooms.
"Our children are no longer safe in these classes, and that is why we took a decision to close the school," Khosa said. He said that the conditions at the school made it very difficult for education to proceed smoothly. "The walls and roof may fall in at any time. We risk our lives and those of our children every day," he said.
He added that mobile classrooms could alleviate the situation as the lack of classrooms was a matter that required urgent attention. "Either that, or else the government must build classes for our children. Look at other schools in the province and you will see that they have the luxury of air conditioners," he said.
The spokesperson for the Department of Education, Sam Makondo, responded saying that they had a huge backlog in the department. "We are in the process of providing classes to all schools that have the need, and Tshivhade Primary is one of the schools that have been identified for that project. We are worried about the issue of removing children from the school. Removing children from the classrooms is denying them their future and we strongly condemn that," he said.