The Chairperson of the North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development, Hon Karabo Magagane was shocked to discover that Ratsela Secondary School only receives R78,000 after every six months to run the school of over 140 learners.

The Chairperson of the North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development, Hon Karabo Magagane was shocked to discover that Ratsela Secondary School only receives R78,000 after every six months to run the school of over 140 learners.
This was during the oversight visit that Hon Magagane conducted at Rabotsile Primary School, Ratsela Secondary School and Mmajane Secondary School as part of assessing the state of readiness for the 2025 school year.

“We appreciate and congratulate the class of 2024 at Ratsela Secondary School for achieving a 100% pass rate, even under dire circumstances where the school has to go out of its way to seek funding in order to make the school a success, R78k is not sufficient enough to carry the daily operations of the school,” said Hon Magagane.

Ratsela Secondary School receives funding or donations from local businesses and does not have the support of parents and surrounding members of the community. The principal also teaches Grade 8 to 10 learners due to shortage of teachers. Currently the school needs four (4) teachers.

All three (3) schools have amongst other challenges of toilet blockages and learners have no option but to use pit toilets, schools are often flooded during rainy seasons, Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) is not functional, no network or connectivity, poor infrastructure, under-age pregnancy with no reported or registered cases with law enforcements and no learner profiles.

Amongst recommendations made by Hon Magagane was that teachers must prioritise acquiring learner profiles, that members of the School Governing Body (SGB) should work on finding or recovering all learners who dropped out of schools and ensure that they have access to education, the QLTC must be active and functional to prohibit the abuse of child grants by parents or under foster care. The Chairperson also committed to engage with the Department of Education to move Ratsela Sec School to quintile one from quintile three due to lack of funding.