Rural pupils forced to use old church buildings for classrooms

Hundreds of rural pupils from an Ngqeleni school are being taught in crumbling old church buildings scattered throughout their village after education authorities failed to provide them with prefab structures.

The Daily Dispatch reported two months ago how many schoolchildren from Nkantsini Senior Primary School in rural Ngqeleni were left without classrooms after five classes were blown away by gale-force winds which hit Lujizweni village on February 11.

This was the second time in less than five months that the school had suffered a similar fate after three classrooms were destroyed by gusty winds last year.

But after the second incident, education authorities demolished the damaged classes promising to replace them with prefabs.

School principal Gcobani Bango however said the contractor appointed for the work had vanished after informing them that it had not received a works order number from the department which meant it would not be paid for doing the job.

"Now we have five schools because we managed to get permission from some churches in the village to use their buildings," he said.

A Dispatch team which visited the school found that the church buildings were made from mud and most were adorned with huge cracks on the walls.

Even some of the roofs had huge gaping holes.Teachers said it became impossible to teach on rainy days as the roofs leaked.

Bango said the situation was proving a hindrance in properly managing the school because he had to use his own car to all the sites to ensure that pupils ate.

"We have only been allowed to use the buildings and no toilets which means children have to relieve themselves on open fields. We are disappointed that the situation has been allowed to escalate this far," he added.