The delighted learners and teachers of Thulisa Primary School received a heartwarming donation of a new library from the Mandela library programme and GM Hytec SA, at Skhosana Section, Katlehong, on March 11.
The new library is furnished with shelves of books and children’s chairs and table. The library joins the Mandela library projects and will have access to their warehouse where teachers will make use of select new books for 15 years.
Thulisa Primary School principal Gladys Tibane said the library is for the whole community and not only the learners, adding that it will bring a great difference as learners will be exposed to various writings, which will assist them.
Matric learners can also study at the library, she added.
“As a school, we are aspiring to be the centre of excellence where community activities take place. “We have classes on Saturdays and those classes are not limited to learners from our school, even children attending neighbouring schools may utilise the library,” said Tibane.
She said what is key is for the community to use the library while sustaining it, as there is no use for the school to accommodate everyone only for them to vandalise it.
“I need the community of Skhosana to take ownership of the institution before they take ownership of the library, once we start taking ownership of the institutions in our communities, we will be in a position to protect them.
“We have a good relationship with the community around here and we hope to sustain it because the majority of the people who live around the school are learners or some of them have turned to be parents in this school,” said Tibane.
The CEO of the Mandela education programme in South Africa, Robert Coutts, said the programme aims to accommodate less advantaged schools to gain access to quality literature and reading material so they can change the national average of literacy in primary schools to 100 per cent.
He said the current average is very low on a world scale with an average literacy ratio of 32 per cent in Grade Five.
“The objective of the exercise is to ensure that every child that leaves Grade Seven has 100 per cent independent literacy,
“The driving factor for this is that we have about two million children a year that enter the schooling system, and in the press, all we see about the matric is the pass rate but actually that 80 to 90 per cent pass rate is not the problem, the problem is that we only have 400 000 matriculants a year. This means from the two million that enter the system only 400 000 make it to matric, where are the other 1.6 million children?” said Coutts.
Coutts said the school did all the work to be selected as a beneficiary of the project as it was not only identified by the Soul Buddzy Club but also the Department of Basic Education for being one of the schools invested in growth.
Kathorus MAILl spoke to two excited Grade Six learners, one of the learners, Simphiwe Kubheka, said it feels great now that they have a library because they have been looking for one for a while.
She said she spends most of her weekdays reading after finishing her homework. Her current favourite book is Becoming by Michelle Obama.
Nkosingiphile Moabi shared the same sentiments. He said he is happy about the donation, adding that they will have a peaceful space for studying.
What is next?
According to Coutts, they will monitor the use of the library through the Soul Buddyz programme, which will ensure that the teachers are equipped with the knowledge to use the resources.
“We look at how the teachers use the library, it could be used as a daily function for reading classes, or it could be used as space for children to do their homework before they go home, so based on that we will start expanding to different programmes, specifically with Soul Buddyz who have acting classes, drama, reading programmes, spelling bees and literacy competitions,” he said.
“Once the library and the literacy ratio improves and starts getting better, we will then go into the next phase of our programme, which is the digital learning platform.
