New building relieves classroom congestion
THANKS to the donation of eight new classrooms, ablution facilities and a storage room, Aquadene Secondary School will now enjoy smaller classes.
This after Hillside Aluminium funded a new block of state-of-the-art classrooms to help the school's class congestion challenge.
The project was launched earlier this year and officially opened last week.
Despite large classes, Aquadene Secondary has overcome many challenges to become one of the top performing schools in the district, with an excellent academic track record.
The official opening was attended by King Cetshwayo Department of Education (DoE) district director Welile Nzamo, departmental officials and local community leaders.
Hillside Aluminum vice-president of operations Calvin Mkhabela said they continue to strive to make a difference in communities for today and the generations to come.
''Education has been a key focus and
Aquadene Secondary School was one of four that were refurbished this year, together with Mkhobosa Primary, Mevamhlophe High and Ongoye Secondary School," said Mkhabela.
''At Aquadene, the new block has an eight classroom, double storey building with a storeroom and an office as we believe it is important for teachers and learners to be in classrooms that are conducive to learning.
''We have also built additional ablution facilities, including one for paraplegics.
''Having been a product of the Bantu education system myself, we had to compete with others from the private education system, yet at university it is all the same for every student."
Identifying with the resource and infrastructure challenges many schools face, there has been a massive investment in education to give learners equal opportunity.
''We strive to add value wherever we operate, and this year we worked on four schools to remove asbestos roofs and gutters, refurbish 27 classrooms, build 19 new classrooms, refurbish 46 ablutions,
donate 100 laptops, build 50 new ablutions (4 paraplegic) with 19 urinals, build consumer studies class with full resources, and much more," said Mkhabela.
''We are grateful to our contracting partners, Inqubeko Consulting Engineers and MET Builders, who ensured their teams comprised members from the local community, and to the Department of Education and local leadership for choosing to work with us to help transform this school.
''We believe tangible change can come about only when we work in partnership and toward a specific purpose," he said.
Meanwhile, principal SG Pakathi said the school was overjoyed with the opening of the new classrooms, and in record time as promised by Hillside Aluminium.
"We are so appreciative to Hillside and their ongoing support in developing our school; our new classrooms will alleviate the congested classes and we promise to continue to strive to be the best performing school in the district.
Nzamo sang the praises of Hillside, and thanked them for bringing dignity to the education arena through their ongoing support to schools in the region.