More than 80 to a class at Elim High

Classrooms at Elim High are in disrepair and without ceilings. Photos: Thembi Siaga

Broken toilets, unhygienic facilities with rundown and overcrowded classrooms are the conditions under which over 2,000 learners have to study at Elim High in Limpopo.

The only high school in the area catering to both Xitsonga- and Tshivenda-speaking pupils, it has operated on the current site since 1989.

School governing body chairperson Katekani Nabela said the school urgently needs at least 20 more classrooms and additional toilets. The school applied for more classrooms to be built as far back as 2007.

“The biggest challenge is overcrowding,” said Nabela.

Over 80 grade-9 children are crammed into one classroom.

There are only 14 brick-and-mortar classrooms. They have broken doors, holes in the floors and ceilings missing, and some roofs leak when it rains. There are also 14 prefabricated units, some donated, introduced over the years in an attempt to ease overcrowding. They are unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter. Some classrooms are being used as storerooms or makeshift offices divided with boards.

The school has just five toilets for girls and five for boys. The toilets have to be flushed with buckets. Grade 10 learner Minkheso Mudaka describes them as dehumanising. Only two of the boys’ toilets have doors, both riddled with holes. There are no handwashing facilities.

Recently, a local businessman donated toilet seats and two urinals for the school’s 60 teachers, who had been sharing two toilets.

The poor conditions under which the learners must study at Elim look set to continue for some time.

Limpopo Department of Education spokesperson Mike Maringa told GroundUp that Elim High was one of 48 schools included in an infrastructure programme managed through the Independent Development Trust (IDT), with Isago Architects appointed as the service provider. (See the Daily Maverick’s exposé involving the IDT.)

Maringa confirmed that new sanitation facilities are included in the project and new toilets would be built in line with the national norms and standards for school infrastructure.

He said there was a budget of R50-million for the school and a contractor will be appointed in the third quarter of the next financial year (starting December 2026).

Co-published with the Limpopo Mirror

One of the broken toilets at Elim High in Limpopo.

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