TIRELONG SECONDARY SCHOOL GRADE 12 LEARNERS HAD A SUCCESSFUL FIRST DAY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING AT THEIR NEW PLACEMENTS
The Grade 12 cohort of Tirelong Secondary school near Rustenburg had a successful first day in their temporary placements at boarding schools, namely Naawpoort High School, Moedwill Secondary and Boons Mega Schools.
This follows after their school was extremely vandalized during the school holidays making it impossible to welcome learners and a have a productive first day of the academic year on Wednesday, 12 January 2022.
Criminals walked away with valuable assets of the school like window frames, doors, electricity cables, water taps, school roof, etc.
The department intervened immediately after realising the destruction of the school is extremely unfavourable by embarking on a profitable consultation process with all stakeholders at the school to offer the school a temporary solution to the problem.
The provincial MEC education department, Mmaphefo Matsemela visited the school to engage with parents and learners.
“I visited the school to inform parents about the alternative boarding schools which we have been identified by the department namely: Naawpoort, Moedwil and Boons Mega schools. This was done because their school was destroyed by the criminals and was not ready to accommodate teachers and learners.
“Therefore, parents of Grade 12 learners agreed to the proposal by signing the consent forms which gave learners permission to relocate to the boarding school.
On Wednesday, Grade 12 learners were transported to the boarding school and today we are transporting the Grade 8 and 10”, said MEC Matsemela.
MEC Matsemela indicated that the department will protect the right of learners to access education which has been entrenched by the constitution of the country.
“Those people who are blocking the road are not parents of the learners they just want to destroy the future of learners. Once all learners are taken to the identified boarding schools the task team which consists of the School Governing Body and the officials of the department will continue to engage to come up with the way forward about the future of Tirelong Secondary School’, said MEC Matsemela.
The Communication team of the department spoke to one of the Grade 12 learners who relocated to the boarding school yesterday.
“We are very happy about the intervention of the department, today we have been taught like every learner in the country. We are very excited about this new place and we believe we are going to excel in our studies” said one of the learners who cannot be identified in order to protect his safety.
The department is pleading for cooperation with all stakeholders in order to build the future of the learners of Tirelong Secondary School.
For more information please contact:
Elias Malindi
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 072 892 8399/072 1154 855
