100-Year-Old Flagstaff School Is Falling Apart

The classroom blocks at Flagstaff Comprehensive High School in Dlibona village in the Eastern Cape are in disrepair. The school was built over 100 years ago by the community.

• The Flagstaff Comprehensive High School in Dlibona village in the Eastern Cape was built 100 years ago by the community.
• In 2013 it was identified as one of three old schools to benefit from a R195-million refurbishment project.
• But years later, the school is in a terrible state. The classrooms are dilapidated, leaking, have broken windows and doors and cracked walls.
• The Eastern Cape Department of Education says finding suitable land to build a new school has been challenging.

Flagstaff Comprehensive High School in Dlibona village in the Eastern Cape, built more than 100 years ago by the community, was to have been rebuilt in 2013. But years later, the school is in a terrible state. The classrooms are dilapidated, leaking, have broken windows and doors and cracked walls. During heavy rains, learners are often sent home because the classrooms are flooded. There are 14 pit toilets, only two of which are in working condition. The rest have no doors and the seats are broken.

Since it was built by the community in 1924, the school got its first upgrade in 1975 to make it a junior secondary school. In 1996 it became a combined school. In 2013, the education department identified it and two other old schools for refurbishment. The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) was tasked with managing the project.

In its 2015/16 report, the ECDC said the school, had been identified as one of three old schools to benefit from a R195-million reconstruction project. The school was to get eight new classrooms, an administration block, a media centre, a science lab, a social science room, two offices for heads of department, a teachers’ workroom, a dining room and kitchen, a guardhouse, 19 new ablution facilities, and new covered walkways. “The school will be the first to be completed and should be ready for its 1,105 learners in the new school year,” the ECDC said.

ECDC spokesperson Malithatwe Nombewu confirmed that the school was allocated to them by the provincial treasury. Nombewu said that a contractor was appointed in October 2015 for the construction of the primary school which was completed in 2018 for about R40-million. She said a separate budget was to be secured for the construction of the new high school but the education department instructed them to close the project in the 2019/20 financial year. The project was then handed back to the education department as no additional budget had been allocated.

The school currently has 31 classrooms with more than 1,200 learners from grades 8 to 12. Out of the 31 classrooms, only five were built by the government.

Learners at Flagstaff Comprehensive high school use pit toilets because the toilets built by the education department do not have water.

School Governing Body committee member Zifezile Dling-Dling told GroundUp that when the new primary school was built, the provincial Department of Education told them that they need to look for another site because the current site is not suitable for the construction of a new school.

He said a site was then identified in Sigingqini, not far from the school but nothing has been done to date. “This is very frustrating … We are left in the dark and our fear is that our classrooms are falling apart,” he said.

Dling-Dling said that the poor state of the school has contributed to the decreasing attendance rates, particularly in winter. He said the department built 27 flush toilets in 2023, but the toilets aren’t connected to water.

Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson Vuyiseka Mboxela told GroundUp this week that they are still looking for a suitable site to build the new high school.

“The issue is not building the school but the land suitability for the construction of the school … In this case, we are engaging the school, community, SGB, and Ingquza Hill municipality.”

Asked about the incomplete toilets built at the school two years ago, Mboxela said there were water issues beyond their control. “The project was stopped because the municipality had no running water,” she said.

Mboxela acknowledged that the department is waiting for the school to find another suitable location so they can resuscitate the project.

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