No respite for open air Borolong pupils

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday January 22, 2014 17:33

The best that the ministry can offer is to tell the school authorities to rotate the use of classrooms. “The six classes taught outside are normally given the opportunity to be based in the classrooms on rotational basis,” said senior principal public relations officer at the ministry, Silas Sehularo.

However, the reality on the ground shows that this will not solve the problem. So far more than 117 pupils have been registered for Standard One at the school where a class carries 35 to 40 pupils. The school has more than 1,000 pupils while it is supposed to cater for 800. This has forced some classes to be taught under trees. The Minister of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi visited Borolong twice last year and expressed shock when she learnt that pupils are still learning under trees.

The minister suggested that some parents should send their children to nearby Chadibe Primary School to ease the overcrowding but the status quo remains.

Last year, Borolong teachers were not happy about the idea of some pupils attending lessons under trees saying it affects their learning abilities. The teachers argued that movement of cars and people disrupts learners as they spend most of their times staring at the road.  At one point, the teachers boycotted classes complaining about the situation and pleaded with Venson-Moitoi to provide a solution. Residents pleaded with the minister for the construction of a second primary school to address the problem in vain.