Hard work up in smoke
TARGET: A classroom at Northway Primary in Ravensmead was destroyed in an arson attack TARGET: A classroom at Northway Primary in Ravensmead was destroyed in an arson attack
The fire, which broke out on Monday, gutted a Grade 5 classroom and destroyed equipment worth more than R50 000, also leaving the school without electricity.
The principal of Northway Primary School, David Ockhuis, explains: “My cousin lives across the road from the school and called me. She said: ‘David jy moet skool toe kom, die skool brand!’
“When I got there, the people had come with buckets and the firefighters were already on the scene.”
Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson, Theo Layne, says firefighters were called to the school shortly before 2am when they found a classroom on fire.
APPEAL: Principal David Ockhuis
The blaze was doused just before 3am but the classroom suffered extensive damage, causing the roof to cave in.
The palie says: “This was our Grade 5 Maths class where the teacher, Marionette Maart, had transformed the classroom into an interactive space to encourage children. There was so much equipment, textbooks and even a piano because sometimes she would play for the children. This was our trademark class in the school.”
Ms Maart says she invested more than R50 000 of her own money into the classroom to improve the learning experience.
Ockhuis says: “This is a plankies gebou and the school was opened in April 1956. The floor was wooden and so it all gave way [in the fire]. I won’t speculate [about the cause], but the police report says arson and the fire report says undetermined.”
Layne says it was established that the fire started outside the classroom.
HIT: The fire destroyed equipment worth R50 000
“The cause is undetermined but the police will list it as arson because when we arrived everything was locked up and the classroom was unoccupied at the time. The fire started outside the classroom that is why it is suspected arson,” Layne says.
Ockhuis says learners have lost all their assessments and will now have to redo all the work they completed between January and September as it will go towards their year-end mark.
The school is now appealing for help to replace the equipment such as copy paper, scissors, files and other stationery.
“A list of what was destroyed, such as desks, will be sent to the education department. We are very sad but now the staff and learners are picking up the pieces,” he adds.
Anyone who would like to assist can contact the school on 021 933 7682.