THE Grade 9 class has had no textbooks since the beginning of the academic year and have all failed their mid-term exams as a result.

Also, their school is so rundown pupils relieve themselves in buckets. The teachers rush home whenever nature calls.

Welcome to ZM Seatlholo High School where the entire Grade 9 class failed both quarterly and mid-term exams, largely due to the textbook shortage.

The school in Lotlhakane village, near Mahikeng, North West, is in a state of chaos with broken windows and doors.

Strangely, though, the school scored an impressive 100% matric pass rate last year. And while the 88 pupils in Grade 8 and 9 face a myriad of challenges, life seems to be normal for the matric class despite the challenges.

Since January this year, the Grade 8s and 9s have not been taught agriculture and Tswana because there are no teachers for those subjects.

The Grade 9 pupils had been taught for the past nine months without a single textbook. All of them failed as a result.

"Government kept on promising to deliver the textbooks but they never arrived. Our children are failing not because they are slow or stupid but because government does not care about them," said school governing body member Setshego Dikoma.

A teacher who did not want to be named fearing victimisation said everyone in her class failed since the beginning of this academic year.

"They have turned to be rebellious. I don't blame them. They don't have books, all they do is make noise and smoke. I write them notes but it's not enough; time is also not on our side," said the teacher.

She said they were forced to interrupt lessons to answer the call of nature at their home due to the unbearable condition of the school's toilets.

A Grade 11 pupil, Themba Tonyela, said they had changed history teachers four times this year.

"No one wants to work here, it's terrible," he said.

All the toilet seats are broken and all the toilets are blocked and filthy.

Girls relieve themselves in buckets that were meant to dispose off their used sanitary pads.

"You come in smelling [of] nice perfume and you come out stinking. Don't be surprised if you see flies following us, it's because we smell awful, we are forced to live in these conditions," said a group of pupils who were just loitering outside the class during lessons.

The Grade 11s do not have natural science textbooks. The school's computers and furniture have been stolen because there is no security fence around the property.

In June 2012 the department of labour shut down the school for two weeks because of its poor state.

However, parents raised funds and fixed the toilets and broken windows, which led to the reopening of the school.

The school has enrolled 300 pupils this year; it has only seven teachers.

Grade 9 pupil Mogomotsi Choene failed two terms.

Education spokesman Brian Setswambung said textbooks ordered were delivered in February 2014. He said the school did not place an order for Grade 9 in 2013.

He said the department repaired the toilets in August 2012 and they were then vandalised.

tshehleb@sowetan.co.za

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