Classes at a Limpopo school came to a standstill on Monday after parents closed the school's gates to prevent learning and teaching from taking place.
Teachers and pupils at the Machaka Robert Mamabolo Secondary School in Makgobathe section of GaMamabolo village‚ about 50km east of Polokwane‚ were barred from entering the school premises by angry parents who held protests at the entrance.
The parents are complaining about the failure by the provincial department of education to intervene to resolve the shortage of classrooms at the school. This follows the mysterious burning of four classrooms at the school in December last year.
Since then‚ classes for grades 10‚ 11 and 12 were being conducted under trees.
A local headman‚ Simon Mapheto‚ who joined parents at the protest‚ told Sowetan the department was gambling with the health of the teachers and pupils.
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"It pains us that our kids have to learn under trees when all the department has to do is provide mobile classrooms for them‚" said Mapheto.
He said they would continue with the protest until the department acted to improve conditions at the school.
Mmadishego Mamabolo‚ deputy secretary of the school's governing body‚ said there were two mobile classrooms lying unused at a nearby primary school and a recommendation had been made for them to be moved to the struggling school.
"We do not know if the department wants to act after one of the pupils would have died or fallen ill as a result of learning under those trees. It is not safe for them and their health is at risk‚" she said.
Department spokesperson Naledzani Rasila said‚ "We are aware of the challenges at the school and are doing our utmost to make an intervention".
- TMG Digital/SowetanLIVE
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