Twinning of schools good for racial integration
JOBURG - Gauteng MEC for Finance, Barbara Creecy has hailed the twinning of Alexandra’s Bovet Primary School with its suburban counterpart, Lyndhurst Primary School, as a good omen for racial harmony and integration in the quest to build a rainbow nation.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News soon after completing her visit to both schools on opening day, Creecy said her visit, as that of all other MECs to other schools in various areas, was part of a government programme to ensure that teaching and learning took place on the first day of school.
“I am delighted with the progress achieved so far in the pilot programme of twinning the two schools,” Creecy said, adding that the twinning programme meant the two schools had one governing body, shared resources and facilities such as libraries, sporting facilities and other infrastructure and learning materials, including sharing teaching staff where necessary.
“The twinning addresses the concerns of inequality between our less fortunate township schools and their well-resourced suburban counterparts. It also seeks to address the issue of racial segregation as practised during the apartheid era and endeavours to forge racial harmony and social integration in our quest to build a rainbow nation,” Creecy said.
She expressed her disappointment that, despite 22 years of democracy, there was still a huge gap between township and suburban communities. “One way of achieving integration is by mixing the parents of our schools under one school governing body to also share resources, information and skills as part of the social integration programme,” she added.
Creecy said one of the problems at Bovet was overcrowding as it was one of two schools in Alex that offered educational opportunities to Xitsonga and Tshivenda language speaking pupils, and this was a challenge that needed to be addressed.
Bovet has 1 600 pupils compared to Lyndhurst’s 800.
