14 classrooms for 2,000 learners at Limpopo school as department delays construction

For more than a decade now, Elim High School in Limpopo has been pleading with the provincial department of education to provide them with adequate infrastructure but they are still waiting in vain. Currently, the school is faced with a critical shortage of classrooms and adequate sanitation.

Speaking to Elitsha, the chairperson of Elim’s school governing body (SGB), Katekani Nabela says that the school has been applying to the education department for new classrooms since 2007 but, till today, nothing has happened.

Overcrowded classrooms and the long wait for new ones

“We are faced with a critical shortage of classrooms at our school and this is not something new as we have faced this problem for years and nothing is being done, while our learners are suffering. Most of our classrooms are overcrowded and it makes teaching and learning impossible,” says Nabela.

Established in 1989, the school consists of 14 classrooms for all grades, from 8 to 12, which Nabela says is not enough to accommodate the more than 2,000 learners enrolled at the school. “Our classrooms are overcrowded with more than 80 learners inside a single classroom, and to be honest this is not fair to our learners and teachers. This is something which the department needs to address as soon as possible as we cannot carry on like this. We need at least about 20 new classrooms to ease our burden,” says Nabela.

Teachers are not happy

Edson Nemukula* a teacher who works at Elim told Elitsha that the current situation at the school is not conducive to teaching and learning. “It is so difficult to teach a group of more than 80 learners cramped inside a single classroom; you can just image the situation. It becomes even worse when you have to monitor learners’ work as it is impossible for a teacher to even move around inside the classroom,” she says.

Nemukula who started teaching at Elim in 2014 says that she was shocked to witness such overcrowding when she first arrived at the school. “The first day I arrived here I was so shocked about the school’s condition. I had worked at other schools before I came here but I never experienced such conditions. Despite the issue of overcrowding, even the conditions of the available infrastructure is not up to standard.”

Poor sanitation

Besides classroom shortages, Elim High also does not have adequate toilets for learners. Nabela says that the unsanitary toilets harm learners’ right to dignity. Some of the sanitation blocks do not even have doors. “Our learners do not even have working toilets as most of them are not in usable conditions and some of them are broken. The situation is so bad and it is not conducive to be used by learners and our government has to do something to address the situation as soon as possible,” says Nabela.

The spokesperson for the Limpopo Department of Education, Mike Maringa told Elitsha that they are aware of the infrastructural challenges faced by Elim High School. “The school’s development is being implemented via IDT (48 schools) and we have appointed the PSP (Isago Architects). It is a major project and construction of sanitation facilities is included in the scope of work,” says Maringa.

Maringa says that the school recently received a donation for mobile toilets to temporarily ease the burden. But they have plans in place to construct new sanitation blocks. “We will construct the toilets as per the norms and standards for schools infrastructure based on school enrolment. The school is in planning and has passed stage two but construction will only commence once stage four is approved and a contractor appointed,” says Maringa.

But Nemukula says that at the school they have grown tired of the promises from the department which never materialise. “We are tired of complaining each year and all we do as teachers is to do our best and teach these learners under these difficult conditions, so that they can become successful individuals one day,” she says.

* Name has been changed to protect the identity of the source.