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Parents together with the School Governing Body at Nico Bekker Primary School in Williston took a decision today to temporarily close the school until the education department pays the school a visit in relation to serious infrastructural challenges.

This comes just two weeks after Hantam High School also closed its doors, due to safety concerns as result of the classrooms being held up by supports and movement of the building taking place.

Nico Bekker has been without electricity since March this year due to cable theft at the old hostel building, from where it draws its power. The hostel is an abandoned state building, left to the mercy of thieves and vandals.

The school has been making use of a generator, at a cost of R400 per day for fuel, which is only adequate to provide power to a certain part of the school. The power is not sufficient for equipment like the photocopy machine. This affects the printing of exam papers and lessons. Data can also not be updated on computers and learners haven’t received their reports for the second term. On cloudy days, learners also sit in dark classrooms.

Eighty school windows were also broken during the June holidays. When the children returned to school two weeks ago, they were exposed to the cold until former residents of Williston clubbed together to sponsor the repair of the windows. See pics here, here , here and here.

After that, there was another incident at the school whereby classroom doors and locks were broken, resulting in the children having to be sent home again.

There are no burglar bars and no security guards at the school, both during and after hours, placing the safety of learners at risk.

The school has repeatedly requested the education department for help in respect of the ongoing vandalism, damage to infrastructure and in restoring power. The most they received so far, was a commitment given today, that the department will visit the school between the 12th and 17th of August. They were also informed that the contractor has visited the school and will start with reconnection of the electricity cables on Friday.

While, after four months of silence, there is finally hope on the horizon, the question remains as to why parents first had to close the school to get some kind of a reaction from the department. The department owes the learners of Nico Bekker an investment into infrastructure repairs and security. It also owes all learners, parents and educators an apology for having dragged its feet.

The DA will closely monitor developments in respect of the restoration of electricity to the school, other structural concerns, and school security issues.

The matter will also be referred to the DA’s provincial education spokesperson, Priscilla Isaacs, to address with the department and the legislature portfolio committee. More and more infrastructural challenges at Northern Cape schools are coming to light, that warrant an in-depth investigation into the state of schools, especially the turnaround time for infrastructural maintenance.

Issued by Antonico Steenkamp, Cllr. - Karoo Hoogland municipality