DURBAN - While matric pupils worry over losing classroom time and resources, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga said that the department will do its best to assist flood-damaged schools so they can get back to teaching and learning.
The minister was addressing members of the media and delegates during her visit to Brettonwood High School in Durban on Tuesday, as part of her assessment of the extent of damage suffered by the schools in the various districts.
According to Motshekga, the department will do its best to get the schools fully functional.
“For now we are assessing what the damages are, what is possible under the circumstances and what we need to do where we are unable to really send kids back to school for normal learning,” she said.
KZN Education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu said the 124 extensively damaged schools would require a huge amount of money to get up and running again.
“The preliminary figure currently stands at R442 million and that is for infrastructure. We are quantifying those figures now but definitely they will go up,” said Mshengu.
This comes after last week’s floods that left more than 400 people dead and hundreds displaced, while some remain unaccounted for.
According to the Department of Basic Education in the province, 630 schools were affected, 101 inaccessible and 124 have suffered extensive damage, at last count.
While 57 learners are confirmed to be deceased and five still missing. One educator and food handler are also said to have lost their lives during the floods.
The MEC said more needs to be done to prepare the students for examinations due to the lost time.
Matric pupil Farrid Twai lu also said he was worried about the lost teaching time.
“What has happened has really affected us as we lost out on a lot of learning time,” said Twai lu.
He added that he hoped that the school would place emphasis on online learning in order to catch up so that they will be ready for the examination.
Amahle Luthuli, another Grade 12 pupil said that the flooding did not only cause them to lose time, but it also damaged their learning resources as they had left some of their books and portfolios at school.
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