Going to school can be quiet a daunting task for teachers at students at Lwandisa Primary in Mdantsane.
Strong winds have hammered the Mdantsane school over the past five years, leaving some classrooms roofless and pieces of plaster regularly falling down on the pupils.
Parents and teachers are frustrated that, despite a school block being rendered unusable by strong winds in 2019, the school had received no financial assistance from the education department to repair the damage.
Principal Zameka Zikode said they lost part of the roof in the 2019 gale, and the ceilings started to leak.
“We had to squash an entire grade into one classroom, so there are now 85 grade 7 pupils in one classroom and 90 grade 6 pupils in another.”
The media arrived at the school on Tuesday morning to find more than two classrooms roofless and vacant, with rotting ceilings.
Pupils were sent home to keep them safe when the roof lifted up and was carried 100m before crashing down onto a neighbouring house.
“We had to build temporary structures on our own to accommodate grade R and grade 1 pupils. Each structure cost us about R35,000, and we built five. But they are slowly falling apart.”
Zikode said they had used R250,000 in school funds to try to fix the school.
Deputy principal Linda Dwangu said: “We have 620 pupils in total. We are struggling to accommodate all of them.
“Last week, we tried to raise the issue with the district offices, but we were advised to accommodate some of the pupils at the school next to us, Ncotsheni Primary School.”
The primary school had also been damaged by the gales.
She said disaster management officials and other stakeholders had visited but nothing happened afterwards.
Source: https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2023-08-09-leaking-roofs-falling-debris-just-another-day-at-lwandisa-primary/
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