Eastern Cape’s school of broken dreams

Pupils at adangerously dilapidated Eastern Cape high schoollose at least two hours of precious time in the classroom each day because of limited space. With only seven classrooms available for 280 pupils, teachers at Lukhozi High School are forced to split classes into different groups, or “streams”. When life science and agricultural science pupils are in class, those studying economics and accounting have to wait outside under the tree, and then they switch.

A visit by the Dispatch to the school, situated in Ezihlahleni village, Debenek, near Qonce, has laid bare the appalling conditions under which pupils and staff are forced to work. The school’s seven classrooms have huge cracks in the walls, leaking roofs and broken windows and doors. In one classroom, two teachers have been injured over the years after falling through the floorboards.

There are gaping holes in the floor in front of the blackboard. In one of the offices, bricks have been placed on top of the roof to hold it down. Theinfrastructure woesat the school, which was built by community members in 1976, were worsened by a devastating storm in 2022.

[paywall]

Initially, 10 classrooms were built with money collected from parents. The storm destroyed two staffrooms, forcing teachers to move into two classrooms, which are also used as libraries.

[/paywall]