DA shadow education MEC Edmund van Vuuren has appealed to education MEC Mandla Makupula to put a building plan in place for ET Thabane Primary School pupils and the Ugie community
The decrepit school building caters for 2000 pupils from around Ugie, but after almost four decades, the prefabricated structure is falling apart.
The Daily Dispatch reported earlier this month on the state of the school and how it had been left to rot since 1980.
Van Vuuren said the school was a health hazard and unfit for teaching and learning.
“I have urged MEC Mandla Makupula on numerous occasions to intervene at ET Thabane Primary School. The letters sent to the MEC and the parliamentary questions have fallen on deaf ears.”
Van Vuuren said the MEC had failed to honour his requests.
“I conducted oversight visits to the school in 2013, last year and earlier this month and found the situation had not changed.
“It is the only primary school in Ugie and it has a dedicated principal, as well as committed teachers and parents,” Van Vuuren said.
The department and its MEC have failed these pupils, their parents and teachers by ignoring the requests for a new building, he said, adding: “Makupula’s behaviour towards the community of Ugie is scandalous and unacceptable.
“This is just another example of how an uncaring government is abandoning the most vulnerable in our society. The department must provide total change for the pupils of ET Thabane Primary School.”
School governing body chairman Victor Foko says the roof leaked and there were holes in the walls.
“It is a nightmare for pupils studying at the school in winter.”
Provincial education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said ET Thabane Primary School was one of the schools under the national Department of Basic Education’s Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative project. — thembiles@dispatch.co.za