04 Apr 2013

Francistown City Council has dismantled ceilings of primary school buildings where notorious bats had been hiding.

Deputy city clerk, Mr Robert Letlole said the two most affected schools: Phatogo and Phase IV primary schools have had their classroom ceilings dismantled to force out the bats. “For these schools, there was need for us to urgently remove the ceilings and drive out the bats. The ceilings will be replaced,” he said.

Mr Letlole said although in the two schools, only one classroom out of a block of four was affected, they were compelled to remove ceilings for the entire blocks in order to avoid recurrence.

“There was foul smell and bat droppings from the ceilings in every classroom,” he said added.

He said the council initially used chemicals to kill the bats but the method had to be abandoned since it solved the problem partly. While the chemicals killed the troublesome creatures, they did not deal with the offending smell of their decomposed bodies.

“We ultimately found a permanent solution in forcing them out of their hiding spots behind the ceilings and then blocking all access points before erecting new ceilings,” he said.

At Phatogo Primary School, the classrooms were already back in use at the time of the interview, while at Phase IV Primary School two classrooms were still to be painted , said the deputy city clerk .

As for the other schools in the city, Mr Letlole said the problem would be gradually attended to depending on how bad the situation was. He said it was impossible to attend to all schools at once because of shortage of funds, adding that four schools would be attended to per financial year.

North East regional education director, Mr Oupa Masesane said standard two and three classrooms at Phatogo were so affected that students had to be accommodated in the staffroom, other classrooms and the library.

Mr Masesane said at Phase IV, it was standards seven and four classes that were affected. The standard fours were accommodated in the library and staff room while the standard sevens were relocated to the standard three classes.

He said although there could never be noticeable effect on the students performance due to the renovation, it normally took two to three days to adjust to a new environment.

“We relocated the standard sevens to the other classrooms because we were trying as much as possible not to disturb them by accommodating them in a library or staff room, where there is always movement and noise” he said.

The regional director said the situation was expected to be back to normal when schools re-open. ENDS