27 August 2013
Basic Education Deputy Minister Enver Surty attended the handing over of Mqokolweni Senior Primary School to the community of Dikela location in the Libode district in the Eastern Cape on Friday.
The new school was built under the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, a national programme to tackle school infrastructure backlogs in the country.
The R8.2-billion public-private programme aims to eradicate the 496 “mud schools” in the country, provide water and sanitation to 1 257 schools and electricity to 878 schools by March 2016.
The Eastern Cape has been prioritised under the programme, which will see about 50 new schools being built to accommodate more than 10 000 learners in the province.
Educators and learners at Mqokolweni Senior Primary say the new school has made learning and teaching convenient. Learners will now be able to get computer lessons on laptops in fully equipped computer laboratories.
The standard facilities in all the new schools include a multi-purpose centre, library, science lab, dedicated Grade R centre, decent sanitation facilities and administration block.
Speaking at Friday’s handover, Surty said the government had made education an “apex priority”, adding that what had once been a bleak prospect was now a promising future.
He encouraged the learners to make the best possible use of their brand new facilities.
The Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative is now one of the programmes overseen by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Council.
Source: SAnews.gov.za
