Seven years after construction, these school walls are frightening Quelimane students

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Seven years after construction, these school walls are frightening Quelimane students

1:02 CAT | 11 Mar 2020

Photo: DW

In central Mozambique, students, parents and guardians are afraid that a school in Quelimane is in danger of collapsing. The building has large cracks in the walls, and the classrooms are run down.

The district director for Education, Youth and Technology has promised to send a team to Sangaiveira Secondary School, in Quelimane, to assess the situation.

The school was built less than eight years ago, but large cracks in the walls are already visible, and there are signs of deterioration in the classroom floors.

In 2015, two years after the school was built, there was already criticism of the building’s quality. Now, students, parents and guardians fear the school is in danger of collapsing. “I want the school principal to rehabilitate the classrooms, and corridors too,” a student told to DW Africa.

Directq — *Principal Paulina Chombe says the school is not in danger*

Some students hold the school management responsible for the building’s precarious condition. “[The director] should look at these facts in order to minimize this situation. Some rooms show cracks and the corridor itself is worrying”, points out another student.

Principal Paulina Chombe assured DW that the school was not at risk of collapsing and that problems in the building could be solved.

Quelimane district director for Education, Youth and Technology, Rijone Bombino, raised the possibility that the problems at school were related to soil erosion. Erosion caused by a branch of a river just one kilometre from the school is already causing damage to houses.

Bombino has promised to send a team to the scene to investigate.

“We will invite the provincial Directorate of Education to collaborate. We have a team from the construction sector there to see what is happening with the infrastructure and the classrooms,” Bombino said.

Bombino noted that Quelimane has structures built below sea level and is prone to erosion. “It could be something like that affecting the Sangariveira Secondary School,” he proposes.

Source: Deutsche Welle