Pre-school children used to use the older children’s toilets but these are broken. Photo: Buziwe Nocuze
4 April 2017
Children at the Ndlumbini pre-school in Port St Johns are using the nearby bushes as a toilet.
Class teacher Cebisa Mpongo says the 30 children in her class had to use the bushes because the toilets at Ndlumbi Junior Secondary School where the pre-school is located are broken down and not safe for small children. The children are four and five years old.
The school is 30 years old, she says, and has never had toilets for the pre-school children. They used to use the same toilets as the older children.
Mpongo is also worried about the condition of the classroom which she says is very old and broken down.
When it rains the teachers tell the children not to come to school.
Junior Secondary School principal Mlamli Lubelu said the pre-school children could not be accommodated in any of the other classrooms at the school because the roofs leaked.
“I don’t think there is any other school where kids are doing what the kids of Ndlumbini are doing”, said Lindinkosi Nkuntyuza, a member of the school governing body. He said the community had been promised a new school, with a pre-school. “Since that promise has not been fulfilled, the people who are suffering most are kids”, he said.
Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the matter would be dealt with in the new financial year. “We will put this school on the radar”, he said.