State of the art science lab for Lodirile
The project was coordinated and managed by Ahmed Motala of the New Africa Education Foundation.
Learners at Lodirile Secondary School, which actively promotes the study of science, who have up to now had to imagine the outcome of their experiments because of the lack of a laboratory and science resources, are now able to see the real thing, thanks to Conlog’s sponsorship of a state of the art science laboratory.
The quality of maths and science education in South Africa has failed to impress for two consecutive years, with the country ranked last among the 140 economies on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index for 2015–2016. With this uppermost in its corporate mind, Conlog, a 50-year-old Durban-based company which is the world’s leading metering solutions provider to utilities and municipalities, decided to change the situation by providing learners with the best possible resources, in order to improve their results.
Under the management of Conlog’s Socio-Economic Development (SED) committee, an amount of R330 000 was provided to fund this project.
“At a time when maths, technology and particularly science education has become a national imperative, it is most heartening to find Lodirile Secondary School, a school that is extremely enthusiastic about science.
It is sad, however, that in spite of this forward-thinking approach, the school lacked the basic facilities necessary to ensure that its learners have every opportunity to excel and that they were unable to benefit from actually conducting experiments in order to better grasp such obviously difficult scientific concepts,” said Logan Moodley, CEO of Conlog.
King Jiyane, the Principal of Lodirile Secondary said, “Regardless of the challenges this school faces, it’s a school that simply refuses to buckle and slip into the mire of mediocrity because of its situation and location. This is a school with the initiative, resourcefulness and courage to rise above its difficulties. As a result, we have introduced a range of science and maths programmes to improve the education we offer for the benefit of our learners, and for the past five years we have had an average pass rate of 90 per cent”.
The West Rand District Executive Mayor, councillor Alderman Boyce Maneli, who attended the historic opening and was the keynote speaker, said, “We hope that this science laboratory will help to improve the performance of our learners in science subjects at the school. We appeal to all of you, and the local community, to take care of these resources as they are an investment in the future of our community. Corporate South Africa has a critical role to play in this process and we are proud that Conlog has partnered with the West Rand Municipality and chosen Lodirile Secondary School to be a part of this noble initiative”.
The project was coordinated and managed by Ahmed Motala of the New Africa Education Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has partnered with Conlog and the Department of Basic Education to roll out other projects at previously disadvantaged schools.
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