The North West education department has opened a R15-million school in Freedom Park, outside Rustenburg, on Friday. The Freedom Park High School was built by the department in partnership with the Vodacom Foundation, with each contributing R7,5-million.
The school — in the village with mostly shacks and mud houses — has 24 classrooms, a library, a technical drawing room and an administration block. It has the capacity to enrol close to 1 000 learners from grade seven to 12.
The principal of the school, Boipela Njuza, said that in the past it could only enrol 420 learners in grades seven, eight and nine. He said he expects the school to have grade-12 learners by 2010.
This is the only high school in Freedom Park. Pupils in the area were forced to travel for about 20km to high schools in neighbouring townships.
Vodacom’s managing executive for corporate social responsibility, Monde Mama, said: ”Vodacom is passionate about strengthening communities. One way of doing this is to invest in education to equip young people with the necessary skills to meet challenges of the global environment and ultimately contribute to our country’s economy.”
An official from the education department, Matanzima Mweli, said the partnership between Vodacom and his department to build schools in the province is an effective way of assisting local government to deliver necessary infrastructure and services.
”No country has succeeded without educating its people,” said Mweli.
Joint strategic projects with the department to build more schools will play a key role in alleviating the shortage of classrooms.
”Walking long distances to seek education will be a thing of the past for learners in the province,” Mweli said. — Sapa