Farm school takes education to level of posh schools
● When Nashley Karelse, 10, walks through the door of her primary school in the Cape winelands, she enters a world-class facility where nature, the latest technology and sustainable architecture come together.
This is not what many farmworkers’ children can boast. According to the International Labour Organisation, only about 50% of farmworkers in SA have been to secondary school, and 17% have completed matric. Their children often get stuck in the same cycles of low education levels and poverty.
But at Botha’s Halte Primary School in the Breede Valley, near Worcester, such children are the beneficiaries of a partnership between the trust of nearby Bosjes wine estate, the Western Cape education department, the school governing body and Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Pedagogy.
From chairs that are designed for comfort and good posture, to technology, outdoor equipment, and a roof landscaped with indigenous plants, every aspect of the school has been designed for optimal learning. “When I grow up I want to be a teacher and teach at a school just like this,” said Karelse.
The farm school hall built in 1920 still stands, but the apartheid-style buildings added later were demolished to make way for architect Tiaan Meyer’s new design. The curved roof imitates a silhouette of the surrounding Witzenberg foothills. It covers a multipurpose hall, classrooms with hi-tech learning aids and audio-visual equipment, a science lab, a discovery centre and a library.
Teachers receive training from Stellenbosch University, and the school can accommodate 240 children from grades R to 7, about double its former capacity.
Mark Saint Pôl is a director of Square One Landscape Architects, which did the outdoor design. He says a large reservoir beneath the school “harvests, filters and stores all excess waste and stormwater run-off”. It also creates a natural habitat for indigenous wetland species, while dry river beds have been created to prevent seasonal flooding.
The planted roofs, accessible via a curved walkway, “act as natural insulation to the harsh external climatic conditions” and include a “broad range of indigenous species”.
This gives the children a multi-sensory experience while also keeping the building cool. Almost entirely off the grid, the school uses solar and wind power.
Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schafer said: “There are not many positive stories in our country at the moment, but this really is. We would love to build schools like this in every rural community because schools such as this change lives.”
Root-to-Grow School Veggie Gardens helped the children grow produce. Raised veggie beds now adorn one side of the school.
“The learners are cultivating their own crops to earn pocket money and that symbolises the dream we have about this school,” said Leonard Stemmet, a trustee from Bosjes. He said problems in the education system should be solved “at an earlier age” rather than trying to fix them at secondary or tertiary level.
Principal Nicolaas Pedro said it was a privilege for pupils to be taught in such a beautiful school. “It was always my dream to be involved in a school where academia, sport and cultural activities would all come together.”