Belgian students bring expertise to Komatipoort schools
Twelve students from Belgium will be spending three to four months at schools in the area and will be implementing projects from their homes.
KOMATIPOORT – For the next four months, 12 final-year education students from Belgium are bringing their energy and expertise into local classrooms.
The group arrived in town last week and will be implementing some of the projects they do in their home country here as part of an internship.
The students need to do practical work for their early-childhood-development studies, and chose to do so in South Africa following a successful project run last year.
READ MORE: Komatipoort children mark Belgian hearts
The first group consisted of five young women, who left behind playground games painted at Komati Care Centre.
This year, four students will spend four months in town and the rest, three months to observe, teach and assess at Komati Care Centre, Cromati Combined School, Komatipoort Akademie and Toddle Tots Pre-primary School.
Two social-work students are part of the team this year and will gather information about the South African education system.
The group is used to temperatures around 5°C on home soil and immediately fell in love with the weather and Komatipoort and its residents.
According to Cromati’s principal, MS Sibiya, the students are open, easy to work with and socialise well with the children.
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The group at Cromati saw that the school did not have a library and were motivated to establish one soon.
They also want to get involved with sport and hope to use money that was made through fund-raising projects, like selling cookies, for these projects.
The community is urged to get involved with the library project by donating their old books and magazines that are still in a good condition to the school.
Luckily it will not be all work for the students during their time in Komatipoort. The group of vibrant young people paid a visit to the Samora Machel Monument in Mbuzini last week and are planning on visiting the Kruger National Park.
READ MORE: Samora Machel’s legacy lives on
