/ 29 April 1999

PEACE CORPS IN N PROV SCHOOLS

UNDERSTAFFED Northern Province schools are set to get a boost on Thursday when roughly 100 United States Peace Corps volunteers arrive to help out for three years. Education Department spokesman Bernard Matsane said on Wednesday the volunteers will be welcomed at Magoebaskloof, where they would make public pledges of service to the province. “The volunteers will help pupils and teachers in subjects such as maths, technology, science and accounting,” he said. “We are going to distribute the volunteers to the most needy rural schools in the province,” he said. The volunteers will have to get used to pit latrines, and crowded classrooms, teaching amongst colleagues who are frequently unprofessional, or even drunk.