Hlanganani – Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has branded her Back to School campaign as a “magnificent success”.
The Minister visited 20 schools during the week-long campaign. On Friday she visited Akani High School at Tiyani ka-Magoro in the Vhembe District in Limpopo.
“I’m very happy with the progress that we have made during these school visits… [and] meeting with all the stakeholders to show our interests in education.
“I’m so encouraged by the commitment…starting with the circuit managers, principals, learners, teachers, including the traditional leaders. It shows that everybody understands that they have a part to play in ensuring that we improve the education system of our children,” said the Minister on Friday.
She said she would be monitoring the progress being made to ensure that the challenges that were raised during the visits were being addressed.
“I’m so excited. Indeed, this Back to School campaign was a magnificent success,” she said.
The Minister was speaking to SAnews at Akani High School which falls under the Hlanganani South circuit.
Minister Muthambi visited a number of schools in the villages bordering the Kruger National Park, outside Malamulele on Tuesday and Thursday. Today, she visited schools in both Hlanganani central and South.
Apart from listening to the challenges faced by the learners and educators at the schools, the Minister also handed out school shoes to the best performing learners and those from impoverished families.
Principal of Russel-Bungeni High School, Osborn Ntshavhi, pledged to achieve a 100% matric pass rate this year. In 2013, the school achieved 80.4% but the figure dropped to 64.3% last year.
“We feel very motivated by the Minister’s visit and we want to promise her that we will work very hard to get 100% pass rate in Grade 12,” he said, adding that this academic year there are 823 learners and 27 educators at the school.
The school has four blocks with 18 classrooms, however, as there is no administration office and three classes are being used to accommodate educators as staff rooms.
There is no computer laboratory at the school so the learners who do science are usually transported to the nearby Hluvuka High and the University of Venda to conduct experiments.
Circuit Manager of Hlanganani central, Ronnie Hlungwani welcomed the visit by the Minister. He said he believed the visit came at the right time at the beginning of the year.
“While we value the Minister’s visit, we want to appeal to the private sector to help the department by building, libraries, computer centres and laboratories’ at our rural schools because our view is that education is a societal responsibility.” - SAnews.gov.za
