Song, dance and ululations characterised the occasion as the Eastern Cape Education MEC, Mandla Makupula handed over the brand new Notsolo Senior Primary School in Libode near Mthatha.
Community members recalled how the school’s previous structures were built in response to the apartheid government’s refusal to provide facilities for education in the area.
“During apartheid when the then government neglected the African child by denying them proper schooling, the community got together and decided to do something about the dire situation and build the school using their hand, soil and water to build a mud school and through prayer God has really answered our prayers,” said Lusanda Matoti, a parent at the school who also attended school there.
“Today we have a state of the art school in our village something that one could regard as a dream some years ago, we are thankful for what this government has done for us, this is really unbelievable,” she said.
The school has an admin block, a fully equipped science lab and a computer lab with 27 laptops. Before the ceremony started the MEC had a brief meeting with the school principal and teachers where they highlighted some of the challenges they encountered on a day to day basis.
In her welcome address the local councillor Ms Madwantsi said when it started, the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative was met with scepticism.
“Some people used to say ASIDI would not succeed, where are they today? They will never come back to say we were wrong and you were right we apologise, please forgive us,” she said.
Delivering his speech, the MEC of Education in the Province Mandla Makupula urged the community especially parents to work closely with teachers and learners to ensure that learning and teaching takes place on a daily basis and that the child is not robbed of his or her democratic right to proper education “which many people fought for, including Tata Mandela”.
In receiving the school on behalf of learners, teachers and community members, an elated school principal Ms Nontobeko Sonjica thanked community members who helped build the school from scratch, thanked teachers who taught at the school for years under difficult conditions, thanked learners, thanked government and thanked God.
