BARBERTON – It has been proven that the outcry of last year’s grade eight learners of Mjindini Secondary School didn’t fall on deaf ears beacause it yielded positive results last Friday.
This comes after Barberton Mines and Adopt A School Foundation officially handed over phases one and two of the eight brand-new fully-furnished classrooms and ablution block. Building started last year.
This positive move that shows that the private sector and companies are responding to the call of making education everybody’s business.
They responded to the grade eight learners’ nightmare when they saw the old classroom that could be mistaken for pigsties last year.
Welcoming the delegates during the handover ceremony, the executive mayor of Umjindi Local Municipality, Cllr Lazarus Mashaba, applauded the role played by the mines in taking education to another level.
He said the Barberton Mines had become a helping hand on numerous occasions when it came to education and he was quoted saying,
“A country that doesn’t invest in young people is destined for bad things.
As elderly people, we are living on borrowed time, so I’d like to appeal to young people to take education very seriously by focusing on their studies since there are a lot of challenges that are faced by young people these days such as teenage pregnancy, drugs and crime.
Why should young people settle for less?” asked Mashaba.
Meanwhile, the human resourcs manager of Barberton Mines, Mr Essie Esterhuizen challenged the class of 2015 to obtain an 80 per cent pass rate,
“Education is very important and we are determined to change the lives of young people who want to become better people through education.
“As we are handing over phase one and two of the project, I’d like to take this opportunity to challenge the class of 2015 to obtain an 80 per cent pass rate because now they have a new structure which is a very friendly environment,” Esterhuizen explained.
This publication learnt that the mine also awarded bursaries to seven pupils from different corners of the province, most of whom are pursuing their careers in mining and mechanical engineering.
The school principal, Mr Aaron Matsebula indicated that he was very pleased that they had new classrooms and made a promise that the class of 2015 wiould make history in the town.
“We are currently in third position, but this year this school will make history as we are aiming at obtaining a 100 per cent pass rate,” he concluded.
When Mpumalanga News visited the school early last year, the state of the classrooms was a disgrace.
Some of the learners were playing outside while teaching and learning were taking place.
