John Bisseker Secondary School has become an indictment of the EC education department’s failuresand the maelstrom of challenges at the school came to a head last week Friday when classes were suspended to force the department to act against the decade-long teacher shortage.
Pupils are crammed to capacity with only a handful of teachers providing education in a crumbling building in an impoverished community. On Tuesday the department finally deployed two of the eight teachers needed to alleviate the pressure, albeit on a temporary basis.
Since the academic year started, more than 350 pupils from grades 8-11 were spending periods unsupervised because there were no teachers at the school for business studies, creative arts or life orientation.
These staff shortages added to a tense learning environment characterised by theft, vandalism, power cuts, squatters, blocked lavatories and sewage overflows.
The school will remain closed until a solution to the teacher shortage can be established between the SGB and the department.
The school said the teaching staff were committed to catching up on time lost by having extra classes and classes during holidays and weekends.
Parents say the department’s lack of urgency to alleviate issues indicates the disregard it has for children from disadvantaged communities.
One parent said: “I come from this school, and I know what it used to be like and its sad to see that now sending our kids to the school means they either won’t have a teacher, will sit in a broken classrooms or must walk through sewage that may make them sick. What message does that send?”
The SGB said in a meeting with the parents on Monday that it had made repeated attempts to bring the teacher shortage to the attention of the department last week, however department officials did not return their meeting requests.
One teacher said: “My classes suffer because I must teach the 40 pupils in front of me while keeping an eye on the 100 other pupils who are wandering around unsupervised.
“We are few teachers on the staff already and our effectivity is reduced because our attention is being taken away by noise coming from the pupils who don’t have teachers.
“There are grade 10s and 11s that don’t have life orientation classes and that is an important subject at that age.
“I have been teaching here for almost seven years and ever since I started, we have had teacher shortages, but this year is the first time it has reached an unmanageable level.
“It is difficult to teach at this school, but the children here make it worth it.
“They push themselves and they are motivated to learn and its just sad that the department is letting them down.”
Pastor Deon Vengadajellum from the minister’s fraternity in the community said it was heartbreaking to see such a once proud institution laid waste by neglect.
He said: “John Bisseker Secondary School is no stranger to adversity because it was plagued by many challenges relating to apartheid, yet despite those challenges, the school has produced some of the most respected leaders of today in business, politics, teaching, and ministry.
“The department of education needs to get its house in order.
“We cannot have normal teaching in an abnormal system. It’s the department’s role to provide the infrastructure and resources required to achieve the learners constitutional rights to education.
“Shortage of teachers is a huge problem that is depriving hundreds of learners from normal classes.
“It is important for us to take action quickly and I am urging the department to appoint adequate teachers immediately to prevent what seems to be heading towards total closure of the school.”
Department spokesperson Mali Mtima said that by the end of the week all the outstanding teachers needed would be sent to the school and that steps were being taken towards addressing infrastructure issues but a deadline for this was not given.
