MATSULU – Tinkhontele Secondary School in Matsulu B is the provincial winner of the 2015 Eskom Sinama Entrepreneurship Education schools competition. It received a R50 000 cheque at a short handover function last week Wednesday.
This awards programme is run by Eskom in conjunction with the Education with Enterprise Trust (Ewet) and aims to identify, honour and empower secondary schools in previously disadvantaged communities. It acts as an incentive for those institutions that promote entrepreneurship as a career choice.
According to Ms Busisiwe Mabuza, who led the project at the school, they were expected to come up with an entrepreneurship idea they wanted to pursue. Later they presented the products to the community to get their buy-in.
For their entry the school designed ironing board covers that they sewed from fabrics of their choice and sold to the community. “We thought that since every household has an ironing board, the product would be well received,” she said.
The main aim of the programme is to provide a variety of models of comprehensive, quality entrepreneurship education, representing South Africa’s diverse education system. “The programme is important because it will enable learners to become job creators instead of all of them studying to become employees,” Mabuza added.
She said that entrepreneurship education was highly relevant in our country, where we are faced with the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
The school will use the R50 000 prize to sew uniforms that will be sold to new grade eight pupils at the start of each year.
The school choir sang songs with evident joy as representatives from Eskom presented the staff with the cheque. Teachers from local schools and business people from the community attended the event.
The best South African school (national winner) in the competition will receive an award of R100 000 as venture capital to be applied to enterprising projects by the pupils at the winning school.
