The launch took place on Wednesday  March 6 at Sehlaku Secondary School in Burgersfort.

Kagiso Trust is one of South Africa’s leading development agencies, with the mandate to overcome poverty through creating and implementing sustainable development programmes in areas of education, institutional capacity building, socio-economic development, fundraising sustainability and special projects.

The programme was piloted in 2004 at 1 school and was later implemented with 8 other schools in the Vhembe District.

The programme also piloted in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.

The BNSDP was rolled out in Free State in partnership with the Free State Department of Education where 166 schools in Thabo Mofutsanyana district benefitted from the rand-to-rand partnership.

Kagiso Trust has since invested more than R400m in education development over the past 15 years.

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The success of the programme in the Free State has led to the expansion into the Riba Cross District in Sekhukhune Limpopo.

Kagiso Trust aims to bring a comprehensive and tailored programme that will address the challenges rural schools are currently facing in South Africa.

The programme provides the infrastructure and builds the instructional leadership and curriculum capacity in the schools. This aims to improve learner outcomes and the functioning of the educational system at district level.

Key areas of focus for the programme will be fostering community participation and buy-in from local schools.

The BNSDP aims to create environments conducive to teaching and learning and help solve challenges that hamper effective school functioning.

“Cultivating partnerships with the Limpopo provincial department heads is key to achieving the strategic growth and the advancement of this provinces’ education system. We hope that this intervention yields great results and can also be a learning curve for our combined stakeholders,” said Mankodi Moitse, Kagiso Trust CEO.

Moitse further elaborated that, since the programme’s initial piloting in Lwamondo High Schoolthe ripple effect of the programme resulted in an improved matric pass rate of 84%and that Kagiso Trust, along with its stakeholders, hopes for a holistic growth in programme schools in the next 5 years of implementation.

MEC for Education, Ishmael Kgetjepe added that emphasis needs to be given to schools’ infrastructure inrural communities.

“Partnering needs to be deliberate with each region’s mandate in mind. We are pleased that Kagiso Trust is re-visiting Limpopo through the BNSDP and commit to work hand-in-hand to ensure a smooth transition”.