Classroom ceiling collapses on pupils

Seven grade 10 learners were injured when the ceiling fell on their heads while they were sitting quietly in class waiting for their teacher at a school in Soshanguve, Tshwane.

One of them had to stay in hospital for more than a week but the department of education ignored parents' concerns about dodgy infrastructure and vandalism at MJ Mgidi Senior Secondary School in Soshanguve that Sowetan has found to be in bad shape.

For months parents requested the department to fix the infrastructure at the school but they say their pleas were not heeded. This week, parents protested outside the school and disrupted classes in a desperate move to force the department to intervene immediately. The department has now promised to deploy a team to assess the infrastructure defects at the school. 

Sowetan visited the school and discovered more than 1,000 learners were sharing two toilets as the rest had broken down. The boys toilets have not been working for months and they urinate in the bush. The taps weren't working and the drainage system was blocked. 

The school did not have electricity and a classroom was being used to feed learners due to the lack of a kitchen. Some of the fence had been stolen resulting in drug addicts and the public using the school's grounds as a thoroughfare. The windows and doors were broken.  

Teachers at the schools said the problem started in 2017 after the school was changed from a secondary school with only grades 8 and 9, into a full-blown high school. This resulted in overcrowding, they said.

“The department of education promised to bring mobile classrooms to the school then parents refused and asked for a permanent structure. Up to this date, nothing has been done,” said one teacher.

Dikeledi Mokoele, a parent, accused the department of abandoning the school.

“This school needs to be rebuilt with new furniture and more staff. The department should stop employing CPF (community policing forum) members to guard schools and get proper and armed security companies that can guard the school against vandalism,” said Mokoele.

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said their infrastructure unit has been dispatched to the school to assess the situation for further intervention. He also urged parents to refrain from any further disruption of learning.  

“It is difficult to recover lost curriculum time, particularly during the beginning of the academic year,” said Mabona.

Pupil Ntsako Makhubela, 16, described how the ceiling had fallen on their heads: “We heard a creaking sound and we all looked up. Within seconds it [the ceiling] had fallen on our heads before we could not figure out what was happening. I couldn't move my neck and, for a second, I thought it was broken.”

Their parents had to rush to the school to take their children to get medical attention.