MTHATHA, May (ANA) – Children in Eastern Cape’s impoverished OR Tambo Coastal district are still enduring difficult conditions in their bid to get education, with almost half of the 650 schools being described as “not conducive for teaching and learning” by a senior official of the Eastern Cape department of education.
Speaking at the Upper Corana primary school in Misty Mount, some 20 kilometres from Mthatha, at a handover ceremony of school uniform sets for all learners donated by Gauteng-based IT enterprise Bigtime Strategic Group, District Director Varkeychan Joseph said the situation in his area needed urgent intervention.
“The OR Tambo Coastal District is so humbled and blessed with the presence of the Bigtime Strategic Group. When we talk about that, the district has got 652 schools. Out of these 652 schools, [at] almost 300 schools, the situation is not conducive for teaching and learning. So you can imagine the magnitude, and also the situation of this disadvantaged area,” said Joseph at an event attended by parents, learners, unions and traditional leaders of the community.
Joseph called for more public-private-sector partnerships from corporate South Africa to chip in and help alleviate the learners’ plight in the OR Tambo District which comprises of Ngqeleni, Libode, Port St Johns, Lisikisiki, and Flagstaff.
The OR Tambo District is reportedly the most impoverished in the province. At the Upper Corana primary school, users are using filthy toilets. Hanging to the flagpole by the threads, what remains of the colourful South African flag nonchalantly dangles in the air, as scores of learners run towards the stinking toilets.
The Bigtime Strategic Group, led by businessman Justice Maphosa has adopted the rundown school since 2016, providing daily lunch and breakfast for learners, school buses and additional four teachers paid monthly by the company.
School Principal Nomandla Mavis Ndamase said the intervention of Bigtime Strategic Group has turned around the school's fortunes.
"At one point I had decided to resign from this school because of the situation, but you arrived on the scene and revived our hope. You have even hired teachers for us. Now it is upon us as teachers to deliver on the core business, which is teaching the children of Misty Mount," she said.
Maphosa said he was moved to intervene in 2016 when the school was on the verge of shutting down.
"At that time, there were two teachers and a few children. The school was closing down. We have not done much, the journey is still long, and I am not happy. There is still a lot of work to be done. When I came here first time, I met many of the children who didn't have school uniforms and I realised that this was not a school in order ... because of the economic hardships, the ills of the past and a lot of things that have happened," said Maphosa who hails from Zimbabwe.
"We took a decision to buy all the children uniforms, including jerseys and ties. I am a man who understands both worlds. I know what it means to be poor, I know what it means to have plenty. I know what it means to be warm and to be cold. I was once a street kid in this country. I was raised in Cape Town by the Xhosa people. We have to give back."
Maphosa handed out packages of another donation of school uniforms on Thursday.
The dilapidated school now boasts of almost 300 learners.
- African News Agency
