Crammed into a barely ventilated storeroom, the 70 grade R pupils at Van Der Kemp Primary School shift in their seats as the sweltering heat takes its toll.
Just a few hundred metres from their makeshift classroom, an overpowering stench wafts over the quad from leaking toilets at the Salt Lake school.
“We have been forgotten,” a grade R teacher said as she described the unbearable heat and smell.
A shipping container houses about 10 toilets and two urinals for the school’s 700 pupils.
To access the toilets, however, the pupils must navigate puddles of urine and water as most of the toilets are leaking, missing fixtures or do not flush.
Deputy principal Freddie Mentoor said the dilapidated school structure was at a point where vandals and thieves just kicked holes through the paper-thin walls to gain access.
Education department officials saw the decay for themselves when they were given a guided tour of a number of Nelson Mandela Bay schools on Tuesday.
Following the oversight visits, education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko faced criticism from some principals that the annual visits were just a show, with nothing tangible resulting from them.
Speaking on the state of Van Der Kemp Primary, Mvoko said: “If you look at this school, there is no school here actually.
“We have to go back and ask what’s happening.”
Among the major concerns raised by principals at the schools visited – Van Der Kemp Primary, Republiek Primary and Cowan High – were overcrowding, infrastructure, safety and security, as well as maintenance budgets.
Mvoko will spend the next two days in the Bay teaching district, visiting schools to assess school readiness and to get a first-hand account of problems plaguing the schools.
Mentoor said that the school would turn 50 in 2020 and was still a temporary wooden structure despite being told by late education MEC Mandla Makupula in 2015 that its infrastructure would be prioritised.
Republiek Primary School principal Charles Adams said the school had been trying to have a section of the grade R block refurbished for at least a decade.
Despite their good intentions, Mvoko – accompanied by Bay district director Ernest Gorgonzola and a group of provincial and district education officials – were criticised by two of the three principals who said the annual visits yielded minimal action.
And while Mvoko has said the department will prioritise infrastructure, he failed to provide allocations and deadlines, saying only that “we will know once we receive the budgets in the new financial year”.
Mentoor remained sceptical, however, saying that in addition to the crammed grade R class, the school was dealing with a host of other issues, including the walls and foundation of the school shifting, ablution facilities in a state of disrepair and rising crime.
“I am in charge of maintenance at the school and I can tell [you] the maintenance budget doesn’t nearly cover what is required,” he said.
“Since 2015, we have been sending requests for assistance to no avail. These issues are nothing new, that’s why I remain sceptical after this visit.
“In 2015, we were visited by MEC Makupula who made the same promises.
“Yet since then, we have had to sacrifice our staff room, my office and the storeroom to accommodate pupils.
“We have an average class size of about 50 pupils. The situation has got worse.”
Mentoor said break-ins occurred regularly, with thieves kicking several holes through the wooden block of classrooms, and stealing everything from books and stationery to kettles and printing paper.
“With regard to safety and security we have put up burglar bars, but with the holes in the walls there is not much we can do,” he said. “We received a few pieces of wooden sheets from a guy in Gelvandale which we just put over the holes to cover them.”
The grade R teacher, who did not want to be named, said: “What makes matters worse is the fact that almost half of the class is English speaking in an Afrikaans-medium school.
“So we teach in Afrikaans and the others just have to keep up.”
Adams said while he was happy that education officials had visited Republiek Primary, he was worried that it might come to nothing.
“We have been sending requests for assistance for years – but nothing as yet.
“What is concerning is the bad state of that classroom is affecting the rest of the block as cracks start to surface throughout,” he said.
“A maintenance budget does not accommodate these types of repairs.
“In the past, we have been forced to look for help elsewhere through donations from other schools like Alexander Road and Framesby as well as the bikers from the Toy Run to help with the upkeep of the school.”
Cowan High School acting principal Nonkoliseko MraraMrara said while the school had issues with progressed pupils (those who are pushed through to a higher grade after failing) and pupils with learning barriers, they had been assisted by Gorgonzola.
With regard to overcrowding, Gorgonzola said: “If the PPN [post-provisioning norm] is 21 [teachers] for 700 pupils but there is substantial growth, then we can consider supplying them with a growth post.
“The MEC also said ‘do not allow your school to grow out of your capacity’.
“And these schools have their PPN which caps their intake at a certain number.
“But if you have excess, you need to submit that to the department which will then accommodate those pupils.”
Mvoko said the department was looking to conduct an audit in 2019 and compile a list of all unfinished infrastructure projects undertaken by the department, which would then be attended to according to severity.
“The biggest problem we have in infrastructure is actually buildings themselves, followed by ablutions.
“We know this is not something that will be done overnight,” he said.
“Once we have sat down, I will be able to better assess the situation and our priorities.
“We will also look at better monitoring – we will look at rather finishing the old projects than starting new ones.
“We are in the last quarter now and we should have a plan later once we have tabled our budgets.”