When Nolubabalo Mngomeni left Lusikisiki where she was teaching to take up a principal’s position in the rural village of Siphusiphu, near the Majola Tea Estate in Port St John’s in 2011, she had no idea what she was letting herself in for.
Having taught in a rural school before, she was convinced that her stint at Gobizizwe Senior Primary School would be a breeze.
But the first day in the village proved to be a real shocker for her.
“When I was shown the school , I couldn’t believe my eyes because I thought it was actually someone’s home. It didn’t look anything like a school at all,” she told a Daily Dispatch team that visited the school recently.
That was because in front of her stood two unfenced mud flats that looked no different to the hundreds of homesteads in rural Siphusiphu village.
The school was reportedly built by villagers in 1984 and has more than 200 pupils. The classrooms were made from mud and tree branches.
As Mngomeni was starting to get used to the idea of teaching at the school, disaster struck – both structures were blown away by strong winds.
The school is classified as a no-fee school, so Mngomeni had no choice but to go and beg the department of education to help fix the school.
She said she was told that they would have to fix it themselves as the department did not repair mud schools.
However when another classroom collapsed after being hit by strong winds, the department provided the school with a prefab structure.
“It’s been tragedy after tragedy,” said Mngomeni.
Despite this intervention, Grade R and Grade 1s are still forced to study in dingy mud structures with poor ventilation.
Pupils are forced to share desks as the school does not have enough desks available.
Siphusiphu village headman Khaliphile Mahluthuza said the whole village had been shunned by government because there was virtually no development as people still had to collect firewood from forests to cook and draw water from polluted streams.
Principal in nightmare battle
Having taught in a rural school before, she was convinced that her stint at Gobizizwe Senior Primary School would be a breeze.
But the first day in the village proved to be a real shocker for her.
“When I was shown the school , I couldn’t believe my eyes because I thought it was actually someone’s home. It didn’t look anything like a school at all,” she told a Daily Dispatch team that visited the school recently.
That was because in front of her stood two unfenced mud flats that looked no different to the hundreds of homesteads in rural Siphusiphu village.
The school was reportedly built by villagers in 1984 and has more than 200 pupils. The classrooms were made from mud and tree branches.
As Mngomeni was starting to get used to the idea of teaching at the school, disaster struck – both structures were blown away by strong winds.
The school is classified as a no-fee school, so Mngomeni had no choice but to go and beg the department of education to help fix the school.
She said she was told that they would have to fix it themselves as the department did not repair mud schools.
However when another classroom collapsed after being hit by strong winds, the department provided the school with a prefab structure.
“It’s been tragedy after tragedy,” said Mngomeni.
Despite this intervention, Grade R and Grade 1s are still forced to study in dingy mud structures with poor ventilation.
Pupils are forced to share desks as the school does not have enough desks available.
Siphusiphu village headman Khaliphile Mahluthuza said the whole village had been shunned by government because there was virtually no development as people still had to collect firewood from forests to cook and draw water from polluted streams.
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