- Leaking roofs, collapsing toilets, and no water
- Students and teachers abandoned as officials stall on action
For nearly a decade, Leratong Primary School in Matheneng, Mafeteng, has been battling extreme infrastructural decay, forcing teachers to teach under umbrellas as rain seeps through broken roofs.
Newsday was told that despite repeated pleas for intervention, the government has allegedly turned a blind eye, leaving students and teachers to fend for themselves in dire conditions.
In an interview with this publication this week, the school principal, ‘Malebohang Nthama, painted a grim picture of the school’s state, which has said has been deteriorating since 2015.
Ntlama said they have written countless letters to the Ministry of Education and Training seeking assistance with classrooms, but their cries have fallen on deaf ears.
With no help forthcoming, the school, owned by the New Church of God, sought aid from local businesses to construct classrooms. However, the assistance was not a donation, payments had to be made in instalments.
“We have finally settled the cost of building materials, but we still owe for labour. Worse, the classrooms are already falling apart,” Nthama revealed.
Leratong Primary School, which accommodates between 170 and 185 students from Grade 1 to 7, has only three teachers who are stretched thin, each handling multiple classes due to a lack of staff.
However, the crumbling infrastructure poses an even greater challenge.
“It is devastating. Teachers have to hold umbrellas while teaching because of the leaking roofs. On some days, we are forced to send children home early due to sudden rain. If we anticipate bad weather, we cancel classes altogether,” Ntlama added.
The school’s problems extend beyond classrooms. The toilets, or what remains of them, are a ticking time bomb. While a separate toilet was built for teachers, according to the principal, students are left to use facilities on the brink of collapse.
“The situation is dire,” Nthama said. “The toilets provide no privacy, and we fear they could collapse at any moment. For girls managing menstruation, it is even worse. They have to wait for moments when no one is around, often missing lessons in the process.”
Leratong Primary School is also grappling with a water crisis. With no borehole on the premises, teachers and students rely on a community tap, which is often dry due to ongoing water shortages in Mafeteng.
“When there is no water in the community, we have no choice but to bring water in containers from home and ask students to do the same,” Nthama said. She indicated that a local business owner once offered to donate a borehole, but the initiative was abandoned due to the school’s lack of electricity to power the pump.
Speaking after the budget speech on February 19, Minister of Education, Professor Ntoi Rapapa, admitted that classroom construction under a World Bank loan program would only begin in the 2025/2026 financial year.
“The money from the World Bank is meant only for construction of classrooms, toilets and laboratories. When it comes to primary schools we looking for struggling schools which do not have any class rooms. There are schools already which were selected and they will be the ones that will be prioritised and most of them are in the mountainous parts of the country,” he said.
According to Rapapa the construction of schools has not yet started because an environmentalist is required to go and inspect the sites before construction starts.
“An environmentalist needs to inspect the sites before construction starts. We have already submitted a request to hire one, and if approved, we may begin by April,” he said.
Lesotho, through the Ministry of Education and Training, secured a $20 million loan from the International Development Association for the Lesotho Education Improvement Project (LEIP).
Component 2 of the project entails enhancing physical learning conditions in targeted primary and secondary schools through improving basic infrastructure in targeted primary schools and constructing laboratories and workshops in targeted secondary schools.
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