Pupils at Injongo Primary School will, for the first time ,have access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) thanks to the Department of Water and Sanitation and a network provider.
Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pam Tshwete, handed over a media classroom sponsored by the MTN Foundation to the school on Friday August 18.
The state-of-the-art media classroom worth R580 000 is equipped with 21 computers and an inter-active board that will be used for school projects. The school became eligible for the MTN media classroom after entering the Baswa Le Meetse (Youth in Water) competition last year.
Injongo Primary School took first place in the music category as well as second place in the drama category.
The Baswa Le Meetse Awards is a ministerial project that has been active since 2003.
It aims to recognise the role of young people in educating society about integrated water management, sanitation, health and hygiene related issues.
The competition promotes health and hygiene, stimulates the interest of youth in water-related careers, and promotes cultural diversity.
The programme also educates pupils about water resource management and promotion of water sector careers to address the sector’s scarce skills challenge.
Through this project, the Grade 6 pupils convey health and hygiene messages through arts and media such as drama, music, poetry, praise singing and posters under the identified theme.
During last years competition , all nine provinces communicated their messages under the theme: “Washing of hands, use and care of sanitation facilities for a healthy lifestyle, and water conservation”.
Congratulating the pupils and their parents, Ms Tshwete encouraged the community to look after the media classroom.
She also encouraged young people to use it wisely and called on the community to guard and protect the centre from vandals.
Ms Tshwete said the country had few engineers and the centre would contribute to the pupil’s growth immensely.
“It is their chance to learn IT.
“As the government we want to put the formerly disadvantaged schools on the same level as others.
“We want our children to learn and not do drugs. They should know that discipline goes a long way,” she said after the handover.
She said she was excited that a township school could be empowered. She said schools were training grounds for the leaders of tomorrow and called on teachers to provide leadership.
Kusile Mthunzi-Hairwadzi, general manager of the MTN SA Foundation, said her organisation was proud to have partnered with government departments to make computer labs a reality at schools.
She said the foundation hoped to address the shortage of infrastructure at schools through the foundation’s school connectivity programme.
Injongo Primary School is among the most impoverished schools in Khayelitsha and teachers and pupils said the establishment of the centre was a positive contribution to the school, particularly to the pupils.
The teacher who won the competition with the pupils, Pamela Mtati said the classroom would provide a platform for pupils to pursue IT subjects and those that are offered at the school. “I am happy that we won. These are the results of hard work. At least the children have seen their toil,” she said.
