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Sex, drink and drugs at FS schools
10/04/2003 00:02 - (SA)
Bloemfontein - Girls as young as 13 and 14 years regularly fall pregnant at Free State schools, according to a provincial legislature report tabled this week.
According to the report pupil pregnancies were "the order of the day" at both Springfontein High School and Willemsville Primary School in the southern Free State town.
The report was tabled on Tuesday after an investigation by the legislature's portfolio committee on education.
It stated that primary school pupils and their parents in Springfontein often drank together, with parents turning up at the school while under the influence.
The town's schoolchildren were being used as prostitutes and labourers due to poverty among their families.
The spelling and reading skills of the high school pupils was on Grade 7 level. They had no basic command of English - one of the two instruction languages used in the school, the report said.
The high school's matric pass rate fluctuated between
32% and 41% in the past four years.
Dagga
At the Thabo Vuyo Secondary School in nearby Rouxville toilets had to be locked during the day to combat the dagga smoking problem among pupils. Most smoking was previously done in the toilets.
Some teachers at Thabo Vuyo refused to work overtime because they were running their own businesses, the report read.
The Taiwe Secondary School in Theunissen was found to be run without timetables.
"No teaching was taking place, learners were roaming while educators were sitting in their cars on the school premises," the report described a visit to the school.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) described the report's findings as shocking.
DA leader in the legislature Pieter Geldenhuys said the provincial MEC for education, Papi Kganare, painted a rosy picture of education in the province.
"Pipedreams may be good, but they do not ease the situation on the school grounds and in the classrooms," Geldenhuys said.
- SAPA
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