Joy as new Porterville school is opened

TEACHERS and pupils from a Porterville school, where assemblies had to be held outside under the trees for 40 years, are overjoyed with their new state-of-the-art buildings, which were officially opened yesterday.

The R77 million Porterville Primary School has 29 classrooms, computer and science laboratories and a multipurpose centre.

“The school was previously known as Willemsvallei Primary and we were a so-called plankie (prefabricated) school. We didn’t have any laboratories and we didn’t have a hall so for about 40 years assemblies were held outside under the trees in summer and winter,” said deputy principal Elizabeth Swarts.

“We are so excited about this new school. I have also noticed a new attitude among the school community. Everyone is more positive.”

The school was built as part of the Accelerate Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, who opened the school, said the objective of the R8.2 billion public-private programme was to eradicate the basic safety norms backlog in schools without water, sanitation and electricity and to replace those schools constructed from inappropriate materials.

“To date, the ASIDI programme has delivered 136 state-of-the-art schools, another batch of 299 schools have been allocated to implementing agents, 571 schools have been provided with water, 410 given decent sanitation and 294 connected to electricity.

“As a result of improved infrastructure, a higher proportion of younger children are accessing classroom facilities.”