Minister officially opens primary school

LEPHALALE - The minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga visited Lephalale last Friday for the official hand over of the newly-built Lephalale Primary School.
The school was handed over to the Lephalale community to realise a partnership that was formed between Vodacom and the Limpopo department of basic education to address the need for educational infrastructure in the Lephalale area.
The concept to build the school was first developed in 2009 when the department identified Lephalale as an area in need of a new primary school due to an influx of workers into the municipality following the construction of the Medupi power station.
Motshekga said in her keynote address that reaching out to rural communities, by providing schools and other services, as Vodacom has done, will go a long way in reducing the number of people without any schooling in the province.
“It is by expanding educational opportunities that we can hope to bury poverty. Children who will go through this school will have better choices on their fingertips other than leaving Limpopo in search of an elusive pot of gold.”
Joe Dlamini, regional executive manager at Vodacom said that the project demonstrates that the information and communication industry is committed to enhancing the quality of education in SA. “We trust that this will provide much-needed investment in our youth, who are the future of our country. We have a long history of partnering with government on projects in the education sector.
"You never know, sitting before us could be the future engineers and technology experts that make our company one of the best in South Africa.”
The school has 26 classrooms, a computer- and science laboratory, a multimedia centre, an administration block, a hall, a nutrition centre, two toilet blocks, and space for a sports and netball field. It can accommodate 900 learners.
The minister also welcomed Vodacom’s launch of the Limpopo chapter of the Vodacom Mobile Education Programme next year, in Makhado. The resource centre will train 1 400 teachers from 172 schools annually, in the use of technology.
In closing she apologized for the textbook debacle and said that a lack of funds in the provincial department resulted in orders not being placed in time. She however assured all that orders for 2013 have already been placed to ensure “we do not relive this nightmare”.