Pretoria – Telecommunications and Postal Services Deputy Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize, together with members of the Vanderbijlpark Parliamentary Constituency Office (PCO), visited two schools in the area as part of the “Making Schools Work” programme.
Thursday’s visit was aimed at inspecting the condition of the schools’ infrastructure and looking at other issues that include school material, uniforms, teacher capacity and the schools nutrition programme.
During her visit, Deputy Minister Mkhize engaged with school teachers and principals on the challenges they face on a daily basis.
School Principal Peter Seholoba, from Ramosukula Secondary School in De Barrage, told Deputy Minister Mkhize about the shortage of classrooms and the increasing numbers of learners.
“We wanted to use our school hall to create space for classrooms, but we don’t have funds for a partition,” Seholoba said.
Deputy Minister Mkhize said the PCO was going to look into what they can do to provide a partition for the school while they consulted with the relevant departments.
“Education is very important and I know that if the learners are in a conducive learning environment, they are motivated to work hard,” she said.
Despite the challenges the school faces, it has managed to achieve a 100% matric pass rate for two consecutive years.
Deputy Minister Mkhize also visited Bophelong High School.
“This school did not have a good story to tell with its matric pass rate having dropped from an impressive 98% pass rate in 2014 to 77% in 2015.
“With this significant drop, members of the PCO unanimously agreed that they had to make a follow up visit to the school again this month to encourage the learners and teachers.”
Deputy Minister Mkhize told the school principal that she will visit the school again and she expects the school to provide an analysis of what caused the drop in matric results.
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