This, as MEC Tate Makgoe is set to hand over more schools across the province after handing over science laboratories, libraries, and ablution facilities to schools in Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo earlier this week. Makgoe will on Tuesday hand over Grassland Secondary School in Bloemfontein as part of the department’s plan of enhancing learning and teaching in the province. 

Following the blaze at the Dr Blok Secondary School where more than 100 learners had to be rescued from its hostel after the building caught fire at the beginning of the year, Makgoe announced that one of his main priorities this year will be the building of new schools and improving infrastructure at many schools in the province.

Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to Grade 10-12 learners at the Charles Mopeli Stadium in Qwaqwa earlier this month, expectations are high that Makgoe’s department will also soon eradicate pit toilets at schools in the eastern part of the Free State.

According to the latest audit outcome of school sanitation facilities by the Basic Department of Education, there are more than 50 schools with pit latrines in Qwaqwa alone. The report has indicated that schools with unacceptable sanitation, are still mainly found in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State, and North West.

Delivering his address on April the 7th, Ramaphosa announced that the lack of infrastructure maintenance and lack of adequate water and sanitation at schools in the Free State are among some of the issues that will need to be attended to before the end of the year.

He noted the number of pit toilets at different schools in the province and assured the public that the plight faced by learners, who are subject to such poor conditions, is receiving his attention.

OFM News