Pretoria - A positive school atmosphere encourages attendance, cures most learner woes, reduces teachers’ stress and boosts learner morale.
It’s with that hope in mind that great things are expected from learners at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom School in Mamelodi after the school received a revamp worth R4 million, thanks to the Ford Motor Company and the Gift of the Givers Foundation.
Regional cluster leader Makgabo Nethonzhe, speaking at the official unveiling of the revamp and opening of four newly built classrooms, said they felt honoured that the organisations and companies had come on board to plant a worthwhile seed, to give learners the best chance to succeed.
Nethonzhe said the school was located in an area that experienced a huge influx of people and they often battled to place learners at the start of every year.
She said despite guidelines by the Department of Education on classrooms ratio, the school had an excess of 1 512 learners and had only 32 classrooms available.
Now with the addition of the four classrooms and 660 desks, Nethonzhe said they would be able to reduce overcrowding in classrooms, which would have a huge and positive impact on learner outcomes.
“We say the impact is huge because our learners were sitting two at a desk and others were sitting on the floor because of the influx we had, but now our learners, starting from Monday, will be in a conducive learning environment. Teaching and learning cannot take place effectively if the environment is not conducive and you have turned that around here.
“Things such as fixing broken windows may not seem like much, but to the learners and teachers here it will help to ensure that the classrooms are not as cold come the winter season.
“The ceiling was falling apart and the roof was a mess, but now school safety is no longer a thorn in our sides, and we appreciate how you have alleviated that stress for us,” Nethonzhe said.
Masape Mashishi, a Grade 11 learner and school regional cluster leader, in thanking the stakeholders for the upgrades, vowed that they would show appreciation for the gift they had been given by maintaining the school.
Neale Hill, president of the Ford Motor Company, said the day was a special one, not only for the company, but for countrymen and women as the country was fighting a war against poverty, inequality and unemployment which was crucial to development.
Hill said the opening pointed towards the best the country could be and where its destiny lay, which was through wisdom of investment in the youth.
“Surely the youth is our nation’s greatest human capital and advantage we have going forward. Succeeding with this initiative points to the collective power and effort businesses like the Ford Motor Company, civil society organisations such as Gift of the Givers and the government have in addressing the challenges we face and to unlocking our greatest potential.
“It points to the power of heroic role models that guide us like Solomon Mahlangu who sacrificed himself at 22 years for the ideal of a just, non-racial and equal South Africa.”
Pretoria News