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My name is Masinge Engetelo, I’m a grade 10 at Job Rathebe Secondary School, in my school there are about 900 learners. Before grade 10, when I first joined the school there were more than 1,000 learners. Each class is about 5m x 5m with more than 50 learners in it, the shortage of tables and chairs makes it hard for us to learn properly because we have to share both the chairs and tables.
Currently, there is only one toilet room for us as boys while there are about 200-350 boys learning at the school. At the same time, the toilets in this room are not in a good state because they are dirty, they only get cleaned after a long time. The toilets also do not have piped water supplied to them, which increases the risk of getting sick.
Some of our classes in the school have broken windows which makes it hard for other kids to learn, especially when it’s cold. The learning conditions are quite bad because the teachers don’t even look at our books.
Sometimes even our teacher fails to explain topics because some of them don’t have the experience of teaching grade 10. Our classroom has cracks, and it shows it can fall at any time.
Although we do have smart boards, we don’t have an internet connection to use them, the learning conditions get worse at times as other teachers are not given the equipment which they need in order to teach.
The textbooks were not delivered on time this year since the principal told us that they have been ordered. The books were delivered three weeks after schools were opened. As for the feeding scheme, it can get better because everytime they cook, the meals get finished before they have been dished out for every child. To me, it feels like they are making learning conditions hard because they are lazy to do their work.
This article was submitted on 15 April 2025. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
