Perhaps our greatest obstacles in this country is that not all our children are afforded the opportunity to realise their full potential. By partnering to improve the quality of education, we can help to ensure that South Africa’s future is a bright and prosperous one.
Our Coal SA business set out to make a meaningful contribution through its recent investment into education. Our aim was to make a positive impact in the lives of thousands of young and aspiring learners through a host of programmes and initiatives. By investing a total of R400 million over the past 5 year, these programmes looked to uplift the communities around our Coal operations by making quality education and school facilities accessible to all. Here is a brief look at some of these initiatives:
Landau helps turn Kopanang Senior Secondary School around
With dire academic results, Kopanang Senior Secondary School was on the verge of being shut down. This is when our Landau colliery stepped in. With 1,100 learners, this school was featured on the Department of Education’s list of ‘dysfunctional schools’ with an abysmal matric pass rate of 13% in 2010. While this figure improved over the years to 42% in 2012, there was still a lot of work to be done.
Tina Malau, community development superintendent at Coal SA says, “When our involvement with Kopanang began, we noticed a distinct lack of motivation among the teachers and learners who enjoyed little external support and academic resources.”
The colliery quickly realised that if they were to help the school increase its pass rate, it had to boost morale and build team spirit in the learners, the teachers, the school management team and the governing body.
What Coal did was centre its approach on leadership training and mentorship provided through employee volunteerism, led by the colliery’s general manager Vijay Kumar. A three-week revision camp at the school was set up to prep both students and teachers for exams, which included intensive revision and a review of teaching practices.
“The results exceeded our expectations. Our target was to achieve a 75% matric pass rate in the first year of the programme, and to make further improvements from there. The school ultimately gained a final pass rate of 86%,” says Tina.
From this we realised that leadership, partnership, innovation, communication and strategy are key ingredients to success in any project, especially when it comes to getting schools on the path to success.
Greenside colliery’s revamp of Philip Ndimande Secondary School
Unfortunately many South African schools are faced with the difficulty of having limited to no access to even the most basic of school facilities, such as desks and chairs, forcing learners to sit on the classroom floor.
In response to a request for assistance, our Greenside colliery donated 234 double desks, 60 single desks and 528 chairs to Philip Ndimande Secondary School in Tembisa – with a further 100 school bags to add to the difference.
Golda Riba, Coal SA’s community development superintendent on this project says, “This school was a non-fee paying school in an economically stressed area, which relied purely on the funding it received from government to educate its more than 1,350 learners. Its most obvious problem was the lack of furniture which meant many learners had to share chairs.”
When addressing the school at the handover, the acting circuit manager for the Department of Basic Education, Charles Masilela, commended Anglo American saying that we have justifiably gained widespread recognition for our efforts in supporting education in the region. This is our commitment. “Not many schools have received so much in a single day. Your challenge now is to look after it and use it to the best of your ability,” he said.
The extent of Coal SA’s impact
As education and skills development is a major focus for us, here are some highlights of Coal SA’s impact on South African education in 2013:
- Supplementary school programmes run on Saturdays and during school holidays by our Goedehoop, Kriel and New Vaal collieries. These programmes benefit more than 6,000 learners and 300 educators – paving the way for improved matric results and teaching standards.
- The Protech School of Excellence for eMalahleni learners that saw 880 participants achieve a 100% matric pass rate at a cost of R15 million.
- The Anglo American Science, Career Guidance and Information Communication Technology Centres were established by our coal mines at a cost of R20 million. These centres aim to increase the knowledge and skills of learners and teachers, and to inspire passion for technology, mathematics, physical and life sciences.
- Our Goedehoop colliery, with the help of Unisa, provided early childhood development training for 100 practitioners in the Middelburg area.
- Thanks to our Kriel colliery, Sibongamandla Secondary School now has a modern administration block, ablution facilities, a kitchen, a library and computers, a home economics centre and a science laboratory.