Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga congratulated organisations like the Nelson Mandela Foundation that invested in schools in South Africa when she attended a 10 March event celebrating just such a strategy.
Last year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation provided library books for Bushbuckridge’s Mapaleni Primary School’s new library as part of the Mandela Day Library Initiative. Mapaleni is the feeder school to Makhosana Manzini High School in the rural village of Calcutta C in Mpumalanga on the edge of the Kruger National Park, and a beneficiary of a partnership between the Adopt-a-School Foundation, in collaboration with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and the Department of Basic Education to improve schooling in the poverty-stricken area.
It’s five years since the foundation and the department went into the partnership to support schools Bushbuckridge. The three adopted schools have improved their pass rates by an average of 20 percentage points.
“The progress made by the IDC, in collaboration with Adopt-a-School, in uplifting marginalised learners deserves recognition,” said Motshekga, speaking at the event.
“The quality of our schools and other educational institutions is at the heart of our commitment to our children’s future. We welcome all committed stakeholders to join our efforts to further the cause of educational transformation throughout South Africa.”
IDC chief executive officer Geoffrey Quena said poor education was a major contributor to South Africa’s high youth unemployment rate. “Nearly half of people aged 15 to 24 years are currently unemployed. A lack of educational attainment is a major contributing factor to this crisis, and one of the ways of addressing this is through the kind of sustained intervention we have achieved in our partnership with Adopt-a- School,” he said.
In 2015, the IDC adopted Mapaleni Primary School. The organisation has built a library, renovated an ICT centre and rolled out development and support programmes, including one to support grade four to seven learners with learning barriers.
Makhosana Manzini High School has also benefitted from this partnership. Over the last five years, science and computer laboratories have been renovated, ablution facilities revamped and a new administration facility built.
Also, training and support programmes are provided for both educators and learners. The sessions cover skills such as planning, leadership and governance, career guidance and personal empowerment. Both learners and educators have received supplementary support in the vital subjects of mathematics and physical science.
“We are thrilled with the progress made at Makhosana Manzini over the past five years,” said Adopt-a-School executive director Steven Lebereat. “The matric pass rate at the school has improved from 53.8% in 2012 to 82.5% in 2016. It’s a great example of our whole-school development model at work.”
In 2016, along with the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s provision of library books for Mapaleni’s new library, new ICT centres at both schools were established in partnership with information technology company Wipro, which made a significant contribution of software and hardware.
Lehlasedi High School, a rural school near Bushbuckridge, received a science laboratory, six new classrooms and a range of support and training programmes for learners and teachers. As with Makhosana Manzini High, there is special emphasis on mathematics and science. These subjects are vital to a range of careers that are in critically short supply in South Africa’s economy. In 2016, learners at the school obtained four distinctions in these subjects in matric.
“We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with the IDC and Mpumalanga’s education department, making further progress in uplifting South Africa’s next generation,“ said Lebere. “We are extremely proud of what has been achieved so far and grateful to our partners for their invaluable contributions to this effort.”
IDC chief executive officer Geoffrey Quena speaks to a Bushbuckridge schoolgirl. (Image: IDC)