Sacono uplifts local schools
Goodie bags for local learners to shift their focus from what they lack to their books.
Learners in Kagiso and Munsieville recently benefited from Sacono’s visits to their schools to offer a helping hand through talks, stationery and sanitary products.
The entities who made this road show a possibility considered the many challenges that confront the South African schooling system, particularly previously disadvantaged communities, and the particular educational challenges that were encountered by Generation X learners during their schooling years.
Gender-based violence ambassador, Palesa Mboweni said they saw value in partnering with the Congress of South African Students, the Department of Education, the business community and local leaders in order to help motivate students to pass their academic year. “We hoped to prepare learners for their transition into the next grade through a variety of platforms whose design must be to keep them motivated and foster an acceptable work ethic,” she said.
“It is our hope that many people will be inspired through this initiative to extend a helping hand to school-going children throughout the District to make South Africa better,” said Palesa.
There is an indication that the number of learners who sit for final year National Senior Certificate exams is on a decline. For instance, there were 1 303 016 learners who registered for Grade 1 in 2004. Yet, only 801 688 of them sat for matric examinations. This means more than 500,000 learners were lost somewhere in the schooling system and cannot be accounted for.
“This is a generation of people the country must endeavour to protect and ensure that they do not fall victim to poverty and hopelessness,” said Palesa.
Another issue facing the youth when they graduate their high school career was that a large majority do not make it to institutions of higher education for various reasons. Whereas some do not meet entrance requirements at these institutions of higher learning, others do not have access to funding to enable them to enrol with such institutions.
Palesa highlighted what the road show entails.
“Our road show is inspired by the idea that every single citizen can and should make a meaningful contribution to the education of our society in order to redress the legacy of apartheid. All responsible citizens need to help government make our education system work,” she said. “We organised a Motivational Assembly for Grade 11 learners across the district. This road show comprised university graduates and young black professionals who each narrated their educational journey and how they survived the aforementioned challenges all the way to university,” she said.
The Mogale City schools that had their road shows on Wednesday, 25 October include: Thuto Lefa Secondary School; Madiba Comprehensive School; Lodirile Secondary School and Maatla Comprehensive School. About 10 other West Rand schools benefited on Thursday, 26 October. The programme for the day entailed the distribution of sanitary towels, stationery items, prospectuses from institutions of higher learning, motivation and the distribution of T-shirts.
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