Africa-Press – Angola. Marginals had invaded the public system’s educational establishment, stole and destroyed all processes related to the life of the institution, but the director confirmed that classes, scheduled for September, are guaranteed
Elias Ernesto, a 13-year-old boy, is sitting on a desk without a top, which he found in the school’s backyard, who has been waiting for almost three hours to receive the transfer declaration.
The teenager, who attended 6th grade, in room 18 of Complexo Escolar 9020, in Calemba 2, municipality of Talatona, wants to study at another institution. The fear of missing the academic year ahead is one of the reasons for the parents’ decision to withdraw from the institution.
Accompanied by his older sister, Elias smiles, as if happy for the position of the parents, when he reveals that, since the vandalism of the school complex, in July of this year, nothing else comes to his mind.
Despite transmitting this air of joy on the outside, the boy recognizes that the decision is hard. Leaving colleagues, with whom he has developed a strong friendship, and teachers is no easy task.
But the present aspect of the school discourages him from continuing. Classrooms with broken boards, windows, doors and desks. The scenario is practically the same as in the directors’ offices and in the secretariat.
Unlike the last time the newspaper reported the school, today, we no longer find the agenda scattered on the floor. By some luck, the final agenda of Elias’ class was complete. It wasn’t ripped apart by the thugs who vandalized the school.
“I was lucky, because the thieves didn’t spoil my school records”, he emphasizes, an advantage that allows him to request a declaration or certificate of driving.
The conversation with Elias is interrupted, because the teenager has to go looking for the declaration. But when he comes into contact with the document, he changes his countenance. He resumes his seat at the desk that is under a fig tree, takes advantage of the shade and now complains.
“These grades are not mine. These averages should be higher”, he vents, while staring at the white letterhead paper with numbers written in ballpoint pen. Even so, he still thinks that having the document is an advantage, taking into account the approach to the start of enrollment.
As he leaves the vast backyard of Complexo Escolar 9.020, the boy looks back and already misses the more than 50 colleagues with whom he shared the same room in the past school year. Maybe that’s why they have a slow gait, dragging their red flip-flops and slightly bending a part of the toes of their blue training pants.
Although he seemed undecided about the secondary education he wants to follow when he finishes primary school, Elias has a clear dream: to be a judge.
A Light At The End Of The Tunnel
On the pretense of collecting documents to leave school, not everyone is as lucky as Elias. This is the case of Paulo Lukoki’s brothers, who attended the fourth and second classes. The two boys’ sheets were torn in the act of vandalizing the school.
Like Paulo, many other parents and guardians had no contact with the final guidelines of the last school year. Therefore, under the guidance of the parent, the young man decides to keep his brothers in school.
“As it is a school close to home, I prefer that they remain here”, he emphasizes, while asking the authorities to do everything to rehabilitate the institution.
On this issue of rehabilitation, there is light at the end of the tunnel. At that moment, the lamps are already on, after the electrical installations replacement work.
This work pleases the Commission of Parents and Guardians of the School Complex 9020, according to the group’s vice-president, Francisco Macuma da Silva. For now, it stresses the need to focus on the recovery of classrooms.
“At this moment, the electrical supply cabin, which had been without the circuit breaker, has already been replaced”, says the head of the Commission, while we see a group of technicians from an electricity company.
Guaranteed Academic Year
The school is in disarray. The vandalism, which took place about a month ago, left classrooms, offices and bathrooms without doors, windows and most of their equipment.
But efforts are being made by the Municipal Directorate of Education, under the guidance of the Talatona Administration, so that things return to normal. For example, to ensure school facilities, a private has eight men working in the establishment, divided into two 48-hour shifts.
The school’s director, Conceição José, confirmed the hiring of security guards, aided by a group of National Police agents who guarantee greater tranquility, at this time, for employees and the assets left over from the theft.
Conceição José adds that the school is not registering or confirming, the latter process being automatic. “We are delivering transfer documents and organizing the cesses and lists of finalist students and others who transited”, he emphasizes.
Although she guarantees the start of classes, this school year, including night classes, the director explained that the school will only receive new students from initiation.
In the case of students who finished the 9th grade, Conceição José guaranteed that, although it was difficult, it was possible to recover the guidelines and advance with the certificates, and allow them to enroll in high schools.
The Municipal Education Directorate directed the school to carry out a survey of the number of missing desks and other needs, work already in progress, according to Conceição José.
The Fight Against Vandalism Is One Of The Biggest Challenges For The Institution
The school’s biggest challenge, which operated with 3,604 students last year, is to ensure that new acts of vandalism do not occur, considers the director.
For this, the school has relied on the strength of the Commission of Parents and Guardians, which carries out an awareness campaign with the communities neighboring the school, to be the first protectors of the institution.
Predicting a decrease in the number of students, to around two thousand students, taking into account the departure of the finalists and a considerable group that asks for a transfer, Conceição José says that the classes will be less crowded.
With fewer students, the control of students and people visiting the school will be greater, emphasizes Francisco Macuma, who believes that the police will find the perpetrators of the July act of vandalism.
Complexo Escolar 9,020, with 21 classrooms, suffered two robberies on consecutive days. Personal documents of employees and students, attendance class guidelines and all the initial work on the evaluation of finalists were destroyed, as well as electronic equipment, lockers and other office equipment were stolen.
At that time, the institution had 3,605 students, 84 professors and 13 administrative staff. For the academic year 2022/2023, the director believes that the school has only about two thousand students.
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