Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto has adopted a rotational learning system due to a shortage of classrooms. Following the Department of Labour report, which has declared 13 asbestos classrooms unsafe for learning and teaching.
Learners are now being denied access to quality education and every day learning due to the Gauteng Department of Education’s (GDE) failure to eradicate all asbestos structures in Gauteng.
Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, and the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Education, Sergio do Santos MPL, conducted an oversight inspection at Noordgesig Secondary School. We discovered that 13 asbestos classrooms were declared unsafe and were locked.
The department made several commitments to eradicate all asbestos structures in 2016 and 2022 and it never happened.
The DA urges the department to urgently provide mobile classrooms for learners to attend school on a full-time basis. This will be a temporary solution while we wait for a permanent solution to replace all asbestos structures.
We reiterate our call for the department to eradicate all schools built with improper materials, including asbestos. This will ensure that learning and teaching take place in a conducive environment.