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BAD STATE: Pupils stand outside a classroom of the dilapidated Refilwe Secondary School in Klopper, Limpopo, which does not have ceilings and windows. PHOTO: MABUTI KALI

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The new building is near their homes, while their old school - which is in disrepair - is situated 5km from their village.

The 37-year-old school has no fence, no ceilings in most of the classrooms and few have chairs and desks. Most of the windows are broken and the entire structure is surrounded by thick bushes.

While pupils lurked outside the new building, their teachers sat chatting at the old premises.

"It rained hard on Thursday evening and we could not go to school on Friday since classrooms were flooded," learners' representative council secretary Clement Molala said yesterday.

"We cannot go back to (the old) school (building) because we are tired of promises."

Limpopo education spokesman Pat Kgomo said: "We don't understand why they (pupils) are not in school. The (new) school is theirs, but incomplete. We cannot tell as to when it will be completed."

Kgomo could not say when the pupils would be moved into the new school building.

School governing body member and chairman of the school's construction steering committee, Ramatshedi Makwenga, said construction started in 2010.

"The contractors are now telling us they don't have money to finish construction," Makwenga said.

"In June there was no schooling for two weeks because there was a koma (initiation school) in the bush next to the school."

Addressing the pupils, community leader Conrad Tsiane said: "There's no need to sit outside this school. You are our children and we don't want you to ruin your future.

"Go back to school and wait for the department to hand this school over to you."

But the pupils were adamant that they would continue to camp outside the yet to be opened building.

"Those who have exams will go to the old school, but the rest of us will continue camping here," Molala said. "The department needs to understand that we are serious." - monamat@sowetan.co.za

Comments

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Sat May 25 18:29:58 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 14, 2012

candilious

SA alive with possibilities,.............These kids just dont want tot go to school. How many children study with no electricity yet achieve more
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Sep 14, 2012

thandoluhle

it is a dangerous culture of fighting for rights and strikes and toyi toying and children have also imbibed this nonsense culture. burning schools, government buildings and destroying stuff is fast becoming a way of life.
we are no longer fighting apartheid, we are now in a democracy, if a Party is not performing, vote them out, even if it is ANC, instead of destroying things and fighting and yet we still vote for them.

ARRRggg!!!!!
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Sep 14, 2012

cornelius

Another example of sheer incompetence . How is it not possible to know when the new school will be ready ? A building project has time lines, completion dates, etc. How the f can they not know ? I am not surprised the kids are boycotting, maybe it will draw enough attention to the issue so that the lazy incompetent a$$holes can at least find the f out when the new scool will be finished.

Odds are the school is being built by a Mathale/Malema crony, with no experience, at hundreds of millions of rands.
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Sep 14, 2012

SetlaboswanaBoy07

Advice to studends,

Stop sticking your noses where it does not belong....You will regret what you are doing at the later stage. Yours is to study hard and become better people of tomorrow let the relevant people deal with such matters.

NOW, GO BACK TO CLASSES

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Sep 14, 2012

Mosquer

Maybe the teachers are involved.
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Sep 14, 2012

MommaC

"The 37-year-old school has no fence, no ceilings in most of the classrooms and few have chairs and desks. Most of the windows are broken and the entire structure is surrounded by thick bushes"

What happened to having a headmistress or headmaster who sorted these things out? Fix the flippin school already and find out how a new school takes two blerrie years to still not be completed.
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Sep 14, 2012

cornelius

MommaC, you are expecting too much effort from the pedagogues of our ANC run South Africa ? Careful with your criticism, you will have SADTU on your case in no time.
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Sep 14, 2012

Doculam

Jerrr, these children! Most of my school days happened under trees. My university days were harsh in the late eighties and early nineties being one of the few non whites in a "white" institution. today I am educated and doing good, without any handouts, just hard work. Wake up children, you are wasting your future with your lazyness!!
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Sep 14, 2012

MommaC

cornelius

Jirrie, old Ms Armstrong would have had us kids out there cleaning and she would have personally been on the roof with a bunch of teachers fixing it. You can't have a school with so little respect and expect kids to have discipline or to learn anything.
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Sep 14, 2012

Lehido

This is what their leaders are teaching them.....the fat limpopo prick
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