Pupils at Pretoria Secondary School are aiming high for the 2015 Eskom Simama Ranta enterprise education competition.
This follows after the school received second place in Gauteng last year. “In 2013 our grade 11 pupils entered the competition for the first time, but were not short-listed. However, they entered the competition again when they reached matric last year,” business studies head of department Althea Williams said.
Williams said when they were not selected in 2013, education with enterprise trust, which facilitates the competition, was greatly attracted to the pupils’ business plan so they encouraged them to work harder the following year. “According to them, we had the best idea but just needed to do a bit more.”
She said out of the more than 2 000 schools that entered the competition, only 27 from all nine provinces were selected. “Each province had three finalists and we were lucky to be chosen as the first runner-up in Gauteng.”
School principal Saul Magengenene said the pupils were working hard to prepare for the competition. A win would make improvements at the school possible. “If our pupils win, we plan to install an intercom with the money and also acquire items we need to improve our school.”
Last year, the grade 12 pupils’ plan focused on improving education through technology. “They were working on building a gym and an internet resources centre, not only for the pupils, but for the community as well,” Williams said.
He said this year the pupils have been working hard for the first prize. “We cannot reveal anything yet because we are competing with other schools who want this as much as we do.”
The competition is open to all schools in South Africa and the top prize is a R100 000 in cash.
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