A delegation of about 30 representatives from Deben Primary School travelled to Kimberley from Kuruman and succeeded in cornering the HOD of the Northern Cape Department of Education, Moira Marais, in her office as they demanded answers regarding the overcrowded school.
A DELEGATION of about 30 representatives from Deben Primary School travelled to Kimberley from Kuruman and succeeded in cornering the HOD of the Northern Cape Department of Education, Moira Marais, in her office as they demanded answers regarding the overcrowded school.
The delegation, consisting of concerned school governing board (SGB) members, parents and teachers, told the HOD on Thursday that there had not been any schooling for a week at Deben Primary due to a shortage of classes.
It was also revealed that the children at the school hostel did not have any food to eat as the school’s financial allocation had been reversed.
The 2023 intake is already more than double the number of pupils that the school is required to accommodate.
Deben Primary, which is situated about 80km from Kuruman, was built for a capacity of 800 pupils, but currently accommodates 1,900 pupils.
Over and above the registered pupils, there are almost 90 more pupils on a waiting list who cannot attend the school due to the lack of space.
The decision to stop all pupils from attending school was taken by parents, who felt that it was unfair for some children to attend school while others remained at home.
The delegation explained to the HOD that there are mobile classes that have been accommodating about 500 pupils for a number of years.
They said they exhausted all attempts to get intervention from the district department and so decided at a community meeting on Wednesday to personally come to the provincial offices in Kimberley.
They intended to camp at the offices if the HOD was not available.
The delegation was not happy to find out that Deben Primary was not on the department’s priority list of schools that needed urgent intervention, as officials had declared that there was no crisis at the school.
They were, however, pleased with the outcome of their engagement with Marais, after the HOD promised them to be at the school the next day.
The Northern Cape Department of Education confirmed that concerned parents from Deben Primary were demanding school space for their children.
Department spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe explained that pupil numbers are rapidly increasing at Deben Primary as a result of the mining job opportunities that exist in the area.
“This school has a waiting list of 86 learners that must still be placed and the department has stepped in to resolve the matter. We appointed a contractor to relocate three mobile classrooms to Deben Primary so that schooling can continue as normal from Monday, February 6. The HOD will visit the school to assess the situation,” said Van der Merwe.
The SGB chairperson, Abel Booysen, expressed satisfaction with the outcome and said that they now wanted to see the interventions implemented.
“We are impressed thus far because we could see that there is already movement and the HOD was phoning around in order to secure mobile classrooms as soon as possible. The way forward is for us to go back home and wait for the HOD, then we will take it from there,” said Booysen.
