Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Haseena Ismail MP here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned after a recent school year readiness oversight visit to Erasmus Monareng Secondary School in Ekurhuleni.
The oversight visit exposed the infrastructure, resource, and the deeply entrenched learning environment challenges the school faces.
These challenges range from basic, to extreme:
- Severe shortages of essential furniture, with a need for 200 double desks and 100 chairs;
- Insufficient teacher to student ratio, exacerbated by a shortage of specialized teachers, particularly in mathematics;
- Leaking gutters, the staff room roof is leaking , classroom floors have what can only be described as potholes in them;
- Seriously deteriorated classrooms; and
- An insufficient amount of classrooms.
Pictures can be found here, here, here and here
The school, originally built as a primary school, is now used as a high school, and an overfull one at that. In February of 2024, the school applied for additional classrooms and furniture – they have yet to receive a response from the Gauteng Department of Education. Lesufi’s failures as premier are becoming more and more clear in his executive’s portfolios.
Due to the shortage of furniture, children carry their chairs from class to class.
The school is considered a quintile 4 school; however, the school mostly serves children from informal settlements and learners from lower income backgrounds, illustrating how out of touch Lesufi’s cabinet and their departments are with the lived reality of Gauteng.
Despite these challenges, the school has achieved a notable increase in pass rate, from 75% to 79.6%. However, concerns around safety, infrastructure, and resource allocation must be addressed.
We urge the Gauteng Department of Education to prioritise the needs of schools like this and provide the necessary resources to ensure a conducive learning environment.
As a matter of urgency, the DA will be taking this matter up in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, demanding answers on how it is that this school has seemingly been left behind. The learners of Erasmus Monareng Secondary School deserve better.