The departmental spokesperson, Elias Malindi, says this as the department has been troubled by sporadic and heinous incidents that over-shadowed all the good things happening at schools across the province. The department has a two-day safety in schools summit that kickstarted on Tuesday night with the hopes of finding solutions to safety issues at schools.

He says while there has been a lot to celebrate in this quarter, incidents like the stabbing of a teacher and sporadic school disruptions by irate residents have left them wondering at some point. Malindi says generally, as the quarter is concluding, they are happy and hopeful that the summit will help them deal with the issues of safety in schools.

The battle of service delivery and the rampant protests by angry residents in the province continues to disrupt education in the province with residents either taking pupils out of classes, burning classes or shutting down schools. Protests in Boitumelong in Bloemhof shut down five primary schools, including Thamagane, Matlhajaneng, Tshenolo, Vaaloewer Combined, and Boitumelong, and two secondary schools, including Thuto-lore and Gaopalelwe.

In March 2018 two schools, G.S. Phoi Secondary School and Molelema Primary School in Molelema Village near Taung, were burned down during community protests after schools were shut down for six weeks in the Madibogopan area.

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