Residents' lives have been severely affected by the collapse of the mine dam wall at Jagersfontein. The incident is said to have also had a damaging effect on the schools in the area.
Reports further confirm that many residents in the area lost their homes. After the dam burst on Sunday, at least one person died and hundreds more were left without electricity, but there were no reported effects on the local schools.
Free State Education Spokesperson, Howard Ndaba went on to say that although school infrastructure in the area has not been affected, some learners' ability to access the schools has been impacted.
More than 100 learners have been relocated to an alternative accommodation facility by the municipality. The provincial education department also took measures to accommodate learners, particularly, Grade 12 learners who have been relocated to two hostels.
The department's spokesperson further stated that this was done to allow them to continue preparing for their upcoming preliminary exams. The department has also provided psychosocial support to all impacted students and teachers, he added.
Since Monday we have deployed our psychologists and social workers to debrief and give psychosocial support to our learners and also that is even today our officials our social workers and psychologists on the ground having sessions with learners.
In having taken these measures, the department officials say that they are hoping and praying that, in due time, their learners' schooling will come to normal as they are approaching a critical time in their school calendar.
In response to whether the physically unaffected infrastructure would be safe for learners to return when the flooding has been cleared, the department stated that they are still waiting for a report from environmentalists in the hope that this will not affect learners and teachers in schools across the province.
