The residents of Libode in the Eastern Cape were beaming with joy when Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, officially handed over a brand new school to the community. Sonata Junior Primary School was built as a result of a private public partnership between the Departments of Basic Education (DBE), Mineral Resources and Anglo Gold Ashanti.
The project saw the various stakeholders come together to replace an inappropriate mud structure with six classrooms, an administration block, ablution facilities and fence the school grounds. Speaking at the handover, Minister Motshekga said that the school had brought new hope to the young people in the area.
“This successful partnership that’s aimed at bringing quality schools to historically disadvantaged children in rural parts of the country has given us a new hope for Sonata Junior Primary,” said Minister Motshekga.
“We thank AngloGold Ashanti for the commitment to uplift the standards of education, particularly in rural areas, which have seen decades of exclusion and unequal treatment. The new structure will improve the quality of life and education of the children and teachers. It will contribute to their constitutional right to dignity.”
AngloGold Ashanti Vice President, Mike O’Hare described the handover, on April 3, as a proud moment in the collaborative partnership.
“This is an ongoing commitment for us and we have built a number of schools in collaboration with the government since 2006,” he said, as he announced that the company would provide new school uniforms to every learner at the school.
The investment by AngloGold Ashanti has advanced government’s drive to eradicate mud schools and inappropriate and unsafe school structures by 2015. Government has committed funds to deal with the infrastructure backlog through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative and this in conjunction with private public partnerships is making headway in providing learners with safe and suitable environments conducive to learning and teaching.
In the past year alone the DBE has collaborated successfully with business partners to build several new schools. In Lephalale in Limpopo the DBE and Vodacom came together to build the new state of the art high school to service the town which is experiencing rapid population growth. Through this collaboration Lephalale Primary School was built, comprising 26 classrooms, a computer lab, a science lab an administration block and sports field. The school also received a multimedia centre which features the latest communications technology.
In the North West, Sunrise View Primary school was officially handed over to the community of Boitekong in January 2013. The school is part of an R80 million partnership between the DBE and the Impala Bafokeng Trust which will ultimately also include a secondary school and a community hall.
In February 2013 the DBE opened a brand new Grade R facility at Mbonisweni Primary School in Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal. The facility was the latest project of the Adopt-A- School Foundation.
It is through projects such as this that the Department of Basic Education and Private Partners are working together to steadily ease the backlog of school infrastructure.
