Daily struggle as pupils forced to relieve themselves on open field at rural school with no toilets and only one teacher

Gcina Senior Primary School in KwaGcina village, Cofimvaba. (Photo: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik)

1 Oct 2024

Gcina Senior Primary School in KwaGcina in the rural Eastern Cape has only one teacher and a principal, but the principal has been on leave since October 2021.

Learners at Gcina Senior Primary School in KwaGcina, Cofimvaba, are relieving themselves on an open field because their school has no toilets. The school is also struggling with a shortage of teachers.

According to parents, the school was initially built with mud by villagers in the 1980s. Before then, most children from KwaGcina had to wait until they were old enough to cross a river to attend a primary school about 3km away.

In the rainy months, the river can be dangerous, parents say.

School Governing Body chairperson Nowelcome Mgqebisa told GroundUp that she was among the villagers who hadn’t been able to go to school and had wanted to ensure that their children had the opportunity.

“Before this school opened, children were forced to wait until they were 15 to start school. Some of us ended up not going to school at all,” she said.

Pit toilets

She added that when they built the school, each household donated what they could for windows and roofing. Years later, the Eastern Cape Department of Education provided prefabricated structures. Mgqebisa said learners and teachers first used pit toilets built by parents, but the toilets got old and had to be destroyed.

Then two years ago, parents say, the department decided to hire a contractor to build toilets at the school. But they say the contractor was only on site for a few days before abandoning the project.

Now the learners must cross the road to an open field each time they need to relieve themselves.

Gcina Senior Primary School in KwaGcina village, Cofimvaba. (Photo: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik)

Another issue, Mgqebisa said, was that the school currently had only one teacher and a principal, but the principal had been on leave since October 2021. The school currently has 27 learners and caters for grades R to 6.

“This used to be the best primary school with a lot of teachers. Things changed in 2019 or 2020, when a new school principal was hired. This led to conflicts among the staff. We asked the department to intervene and many teachers were transferred to other schools, and the number of learners started to drop,” said Mgqebisa

She said things got worse in October 2021 when there was a physical altercation between the principal and one of the kitchen staff.

Pleas for more teachers

Parent Thanduxolo Mfeketho said their pleas for more teachers for the school had fallen on deaf ears.

“Our government is dragging its feet when it comes to people living in villages,” said Mfeketho.

Education Department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima promised to investigate why the contractor had abandoned the site. He said the department was working on recruitments and expected another teacher to join the school when the new term started this week. DM

First published by GroundUp.

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Pit toilets

Pleas for more teachers