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Deputy minister visits eMbalenhle school

The Correctional Services used parolees to clean the Osizweni Secondary School two days before to prepare the premises for the children and teachers.

Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Lindiwe Ntshalintshali visited Osizweni Secondary School on the first school day this year.

She said her visit on January 15 is part of the government’s back-to-school campaign encouraging learners and teachers throughout the country.

Ntshalintshali congratulated the school for attaining a 74.2% matric pass rate and encouraged the new matrics to study hard to get 80% in the next matric results.

“We are here to support you. I am aware of your school’s poor infrastructure, and it is concerning.”

The Correctional Services used parolees to clean the school two days before to prepare the premises for the children and teachers.

“I didn’t want teaching and learning to be delayed by first having to clean your school. We want you to be in class from the first day.”

Ntshalintshali said the parolees were there to plough back into communities they had wronged.

“We appeal to you not to stigmatise parolees being brought back to their communities because it will make them turn back to crime.

“They deserve a second chance,” Ntshalintshali told the learners, adding that the inmates who wrote the matric exams attained a 96% pass rate. Some have been accepted to the higher learning institutions.

“We want them to have skills when they come out of prison and to stop crime. The department has a programme that takes learners to visit our prisons so they understand what a prison is. This discourages them from committing crimes,” said Ntshalintshali.

Govan Mbeki Municipality Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma said he was a learner at Osizweni when the school was founded in 1995 and completed his matric in 2002 at the same school.


Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Lindiwe Ntshalintshali encourages the new matric learner at Osizweni Secondary School to increase the school’s results from 74.2% to 80%.

Zuma said, as government, they owe the school a faster transition.

“We started this school in 1995 when it was still Osizweni Combined School. This secondary school opened in 1998 because the combined school was overcrowded.

“There was also a shortage of schools, and this school was not meant to be a permanent option because of its infrastructure, which is the old dilapidated hostels.

“The municipality has allocated two sites in Evander for Osizweni secondary and primary schools to be built there. We plead with you, minister, to request the public works and education departments to accelerate the process of building schools so learners can learn in a safe environment,” said Zuma.

Ntshalintshali promised to engage both departments.




ALSO CHECK: Lekwa’s mayor congratulates matrics of 2024

ALSO CHECK: These are the top matric achievers and schools for 2024 in Govan Mbeki municipal area

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