East school received new library
‘The new literacy centre worth R948 294 was established to encourage learners to read, was unveiled last Wednesday.’
A mining company has come to the aid of Refentse primary school in Mamelodi by building a new library.
The school had been using one of the classrooms as a library.
The donation to build a brick and mortar library for the school as part of the local economic development project in the social and labour plan was made by Afrimat Silica company.
The new literacy centre, worth R948 294, was unveiled last Wednesday.
Joanne Giles of Afrimat said the company was passionate about the education and the development of the youth as well as investing substantially in the development of communities.
“It is, therefore, a great pleasure to be able to hand over this library to Refentse primary school to encourage learners to read,” said Giles.
The school’s use of one of the classrooms as a library limited expanding potential and did not fully serve the needs of the learners and teachers.
“The free-standing library has been built under the specifications of the Department of Education,” said Giles.
The library also created job opportunities for 17 locals for three months, under the guidance of Triple Weave Construction.
School principal Hazel Mahope said the Afrimat gift was appreciated “not forgetting our previous headmaster Dr Sekolo Maponya who journeyed with this project from the beginning to the end”.
“We would also like to thank our previous headmaster for donating two books he authored to the library,” said Mahope.
“The contractors have done a great job for creating job opportunities for unemployed residents.”
Dr Maponya said: “My hope is that this library would not become a white elephant but would be fully used by the learners.”
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