There is an eerie silence as abandoned textbooks, tables and chairs scatter the hauntingly desolate classrooms that were once hives of intellectually brilliance. Yet, just metres outside these seemingly forsaken walls, the unity and spirit of a determined school outweigh the colossal structure that they are forbidden to enter.
For over a year now, Hoërskool Roodepoort have been making the best of a bad situation as 18 of their most valued classrooms have been inaccessible, hidden behind caution tape and warning signs. At the beginning of the 2019 school year, in the wake of the Hoërskool Driehoek tragedy, one of the school’s main buildings was closed as it was deemed structurally unsafe.
Read more here:
https://roodepoortrecord.co.za/2019/02/06/ageing-infrastructure-da-also-denied-access-to-hoerskool-roodepoort/
The building that houses the main science laboratories, biology classes with multiple exhibits, and the bulk of the school’s toilets has left a hole that has been filled with a sense of community. “We have had a lot of support from Old Roodies who have tried to help out where they can,” said Lucinda Human who is in charge of coordinating the financial aspects of this unfortunate scenario.
At three storeys high and over 120m long, the building is a monolith of concrete, brick and steel with the classrooms on the bottom and middle floors now having props that run end to end in order to keep it from imploding. Engineers have done evaluations, and samples of the concrete have been analysed, but the truth is that there is no quick fix.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has supplied the school with seven temporary classrooms and initially a rotational schedule was implemented to share what classes remained. Lucinda confirmed that the GDE had communicated efficiently with the school to keep them notified of any progress. “We are happy with the way the GDE has handled everything and the school is coping well,” said Lucinda.
Those responsible are truly between a rock and a hard place as ideas on what to do with the building are limited. “Demolishing the building and rebuilding it is not an option as that cost runs into the tens of millions, while repairing it is an incredibly complicated task,” Lucinda explained. The school perseveres though and has since juggled the layout to give the Heads of Department permanent classrooms to create a sense of permanence and stability.
Sixty five years after the cornerstone of this great school was laid by then Minister of Works and Public Works, Jan de Klerk, its centrepiece of learning excellence slowly succumbs to age. The fortitude of the school’s teachers, administrators and learners keep the foundations of learning in place despite the loss of the pulsating energy that once coursed through the corridors of the building that lies at the heart of the school grounds.
The GDE was contacted for comment but by the time the article was published, none has been received yet.
