Volunteer teachers rescue Vuwani pupils
TO SHOW their yearning for learning, pupils in Vuwani have attended classes at Radzambo High School under the tutelage of three volunteer teachers who have availed themselves during the winter vacation.
Pupils from five high schools in Vuwani – Radzambo, Ramovha, Hayani, Khwara and Vhafamadi – are taught by volunteer teachers from Gift of the Givers.
Initially, only 49 pupils attended classes but by last Friday the number had risen to 128.
Kahlik Malik Mahummad, his wife Bashura and University of Johannesburg student Andile Donga are the teachers helping pupils. “We are here to help during the vacation and will go back later,” Mahummad said.
Rotondwa Baloi, a Grade 11 pupil at Vhafamadi High School, said after the burning of his school he tried to look for a place to learn at other Vuwani schools.
“I went to four high schools but I was told they do not want pupils from schools that were burnt because the community can come and burn their schools,” he said.
He said he was later told that local traditional leader, Chief Livhuwani Matsila, was helping children to continue with learning rather than wait for demarcation issues to be solved.
“I later learnt that after the kids who were helped by volunteer teachers at Radzambo went to camps the chief had arranged other volunteer teachers to teach Grade 11 pupils. I came here and we’re learning,” said Baloi.
Matsila said nothing would please him more than seeing education normalising and all children getting back to school.
Limpopo education department spokesman Naledzani Rasila appealed to the community to support the catch-up plan which will start when schools reopen for the third term on July 18.