Building SA one teacher at a time
Learners of Lowveld High School, Hoërskool Nelspruit, Hoërskool Bergvlam and of the Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust baked a 20-metre cake to pay homage to teachers.
As the world celebrated World Teachers’ Day, the provincial Department of Education honoured educators, who have been working tirelessly and fearlessly during Covid-19, at Hoërskool Bergvlam on Monday. In the province 539 teachers have been infected by the virus, 524 have recovered and 15 have died.
In honouring these brave educators, the MEC for education, Bonakele Majuba, said 2020 has been an extremely painful year.
“We keep our banner half-mast as we pay homage to these heroes who braved it all until their last hour. We salute them as they demonstrated endurance and their love of education and their country until the end. May their souls rest in peace,” he said.
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“All of us celebrate the excellent job done by teachers, especially under the Covid-19 conditions. We appreciate the work they do, they come to school sometimes under difficult and unbearable conditions.”
“We also commemorate them because teaching is the mother of all professions and they are helping to build the nation. Teachers must know that they are precious to us, the Mpumalanga Department of Education.
Without them it would be extremely difficult to bring development to the world, because development comes through education. They are the people who make sure that the nation is educated,” Majuba said.
He said they will develop a tribute booklet to honour all the teachers who passed away this year as a result of Covid-19. “We are currently consulting with their families. If everything goes well, the department will unveil the tribute booklet at the end of October.”
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The MEC admitted that the virus has exposed the lack of resources. “It is true that the pandemic has revealed the historical inequalities that exist in our country and province. It is unfortunate and will take time to deal with,” Majuba said. “We are working extremely hard to improve our resources at schools so we can deal with the water and sanitation challenges that we currently have in most of them,” he added.
“We will continue with the MTN SA Foundation collaboration to donate ICT equipment and gadgets to learners in rural and farm schools. We are doing this in an endeavour to improve the conditions in which teaching and learning must take place,” said Majuba.
Learners of Lowveld High School, Hoërskool Nelspruit, Hoërskool Bergvlam and of the Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust baked a 20-metre cake to pay homage to teachers.
