Cape Town – Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has handed over the 99th school that was demolished and built from scratch in Riverton in the Western Cape.
The handover of Valhalla Primary School, the Minister said, is not only a milestone, but significant as it will create a conducive learning and teaching environment for the learners and teachers at the school.
“For us as government, what we aim to do is to create a conducive learning environment for both our learners and teachers.
“What it will bring into the community is infrastructure that is versatile, that they can use it as a pubic hall so there is a good relationship between the school and the community. It means we are also bringing an asset to the community itself.
“For us it is an asset that we bring to the community. It is a lifelong infrastructure that creates a conducive working and learning environment for our kids with all the necessary facilities that are needed in the school,” she said.
The hand-over was part of the R8.2-billion Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASIDI), a massive public-private partnership programme that aims to eradicate and replace about 510 schools nationwide that were built on inappropriate structures or material.
Established in 1980, Valhalla Primary School was demolished and build from scratch at a cost of R34 million.
From a school that only housed 600 learners in 2006, it now accommodates 1 047 learners in 32 classrooms, which now boasts a library and a science laboratory.
A new soccer ground will be built in the area where the old structure was situated.
Andrew Lochner, the school’s principal, said the new-look school will raise the bar of learning.
“It gave us just that hope to build a better future and I can say that the fact that we are in Elsies River doesn’t mean we need to settle for mediocrity.
“We need to tell learners and prove to learners that we need to raise the bar and build on a better future,” he said.
He also said that the school was the pride of the community, and that he was excited at the news that his school was identified as part of the ASIDI programme.
“We will teach our leaners and we do hope that they will appreciate this building and that it will uplift them as learners. They must not wait for something to happen. They must get to a point where they will actually say ‘I will do my bit in order to make things happen’.”
Dorrington Matsepe School in Kroonstad in the Free State will mark the 100th handover and it will be unveiled at a date that is yet to be confirmed.
The school was named after Dorrington Matsepe, the father of the late former Communications Minister Dr Ivy Matsepe Casaburri. – SAnews.gov.za
