STELLALANDER-TOSCA: Seven classrooms of Tosca Primary School in Tosca Informal Settlement under Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality, were burnt down on Friday, 19 April.
It is reported that the Department of Labour closed a block of three classrooms on Tuesday, 16 April alleging that the conditions were not in good standard for teaching and learning. Later the community came to close the entire school.
It is further alleged that on the day of the incident around 11:00 a group of people entered the school premises and burnt down seven classrooms, school furniture, school files, and textbooks and damaged the Grade R equipment. The Department of Education MEC, Viola Motsumi condemned the incident in strongest terms. “This is extremely sad and disturbing. It is disturbing that there are still communities in this province who vent their anger by burning school properties. A school is a centre of knowledge for the community. Really, how do we expect learners to acquire information when we burn schools? “Learners have lost five days of learning and teaching. We have lost all the records of learners due to this horrible incident. As a department we condemn this incident in the strongest terms and call for the immediate arrest of all those behind this fire”, said MEC Motsumi. On Sunday, 21 April the department dispatched a team of officials led by the Acting Superintendent General, Mr Maropene Seshibe to meet with leaders in the area to discuss a possible solution. The department committed that mobile classrooms will be delivered on Monday, 22 April in order to assist with teaching and learning. A team of counsellors from the department has been put on a standby to counsel learners and teachers as soon as teaching and learning resumes.
