Nata hostels repair almost complete

Following the outbreak of fire at the end of November last year which left two hostel flats accommodating boarding pupils at Nata Senior Secondary School burnt down, the situation at the school is almost back to normal.

Speaking in an interview Tutume sub-district regional chief education officer, Ms Khumoyame Mosetlha said the situation at the school was almost back to normal.

Ms Mosetlha explained that there were two other flats which were not affected which housed the current form five pupils.

She said the two flats had a capacity of accommodating 248 learners, with each room housing 10 learners.

She noted that currently there were 219 form five learners accommodated in the boarding facilities hence they managed to make arrangements for additional bunk beds in the rooms as a temporary measure to accommodate form fours admitted for boarding.

She highlighted that there were 314 form forms admitted in boarding and so far 270 had been allocated spaces created in the rooms available, while the remaining number were still being housed in common and luggage rooms temporarily awaiting completion of renovations of the burnt flats.

In addition, Ms Mosetlha pointed out that after the disaster last year, assessments were done and two contractors were engaged to do the maintenance on the affected flats so that by the time new learners commence school the works would be almost done.

She noted that one of the flats would be ready today and handed over for use by the school.

Regarding the other flat, she said the contractor had promised to complete it by mid next month.

She said the Ministry of Basic Education had given them 140 mattresses to replace the ones destroyed in the inferno and an additional P50 000 towards purchasing more mattresses to replace old ones.

Deputy council chairperson for Tutume sub-district council Mr Thatayaone Kehitile the ministry and regional office for acting swiftly to address the situation to normalise the situation at the school.

He nonetheless encouraged the school management to always engage the leadership about everything happening at the school not only to wait for disaster to happen.

He said there were issues of pupils vandalising government property which they at the same time needed for learning.

He emphasised the need for partnership between school management and district leadership to address the problem.