Malalane - The community of KaMhlushwa near Malalane in Mpumalanga is eagerly awaiting the opening of a new primary school which they say has been long overdue.
Education MEC Reginah Mhaule has promised that pupils at KaMhlushwa Primary will move into their new brick-and-mortar classrooms by the beginning of the 2011 school year.
Overcrowding in the only other primary school in the area, Matsafeni Primary, led to 200 pupils being crammed into one room at a nearby private school in 2008 to start a new school under the leadership of principal Andries Ngobeni.
"The number of pupils has since grown to 822 and they've been forced to learn in five mobile classrooms provided by the Department of Education. We are very thankful that construction of the school has begun and we're amazed that 80 percent of the school is already finished, although they only started on November 27," said Ngobeni.
The new school will have 24 classrooms, a library, computer centre, Grade R centre, assembly hall and three sports fields.
Mhaule, who visited the new school's premises on Monday, said KaMhlushwa Primary was one of five schools which would be built soon to relieve overcrowding in classrooms.
"We went to Gert Sibande district and found a school with 2 500 pupils, which is double our limit of 900 pupils per school," said Mhaule.
"We also plan to build one school with boarding facilities in four of our district municipalities that are rife with poverty and have many pupils coming from farms. This will be done in the next financial year and the schools will have boarding facilities for pupils from Grade R to Grade 12 to address the issue of child-headed households."
