The DA has written to Limpopo Education MEC Dickson Masemola demanding that he address chronic problems at the school attended by 3 Limpopo learners who were stoned to death after an education protest march last week.

The DA’s enquiries about the primary school have revealed that it is facing an acute shortage of educators to the extent that these learners were not taught in 3 subjects since January this year.

As a result, the June reports for Dikobo Primary learners show blank spaces where marks for English, Natural Sciences and Technology are meant to be filled.

The schools’ problems were compounded this year by the fact that 5 teachers were moved from Dikobo Primary, already with a vacancy of 5 teachers from 2011, to fill the gap in a new school in the area, Mookgopong Primary School.

Effectively, this meant that rather than advertising new posts for the new school, the provincial Department of Education put the learners in Dikobo at a considerable disadvantage.

These 3 learners spent the last hours before their brutal murder protesting for their right to a basic education. The least the Education Department can do is fix the problems at this school without delay.

Learners must be in class during learning times and not be protesting about what is essentially their basic right. If learners are not in class, they are exposed to all sorts of bad things as has happened in this case.

This is yet another incidence where learners in Limpopo are being failed by our education system.

The Democratic Alliance will tomorrow be visiting Montadi Youth Care Centre where the murdered learners were housed to monitor, first hand, the extent of the problems faced by these learners.