This was evident at the Olympia Skills School for Impaired in George, (Delville Park) South of Cape Town.
The school with 120 hectares has the students at work, from gardening to a butcher from painting to farming (63 cows) from catering to panelbeating, all thanks to 28 teachers, who are behind the success of the school.
Visiting the school as part of Eskom’s Development Foundation throughout the country, theirs is to show to the outside world how lives can be changed, irrespective of the background and calamity the students went through.
EDF donated R 356,248-00 worth of equipments to the school.
Caring for 500 learners both boys and girls, Olympia is the school on a mission. It only caters for only 150 students with accommodation and food prepared by themselves.
“We’re fighting hard to get the best out of these kids,” says deputy principal Darryl Sauer- in jeans and boots- a sign of hardwork as opposed to designer labels.
According to Sauer, these learners originate from disadvantaged areas, as far as Cape Town, recommended by schools from those respective areas.
“When they came here, they had no desire for school or purpose of life. But today, we’re pleased that, that has changed as you can see for yourself,” he says, pointing at the learners who were hard at work, albeit in school uniform.
Why, I probe, and that was followed by ‘we have no protective clothing material’ continued Sauer. “We hope Eskom Foundation will put this into their next budget,” he quipped.
Started in 1840, the school keeps learners busy with such projects; unfortunately, they cannot sell what they produce to the outside world.
According to Sauer, this is against the law because this might be interpreted wrongfully and we don’t want to find the school hogging unpopular headlines.
Some of the parents can hardly afford R40 monthly school fees and with diesel/petrol on the increase transport cost per child is R50, this has brought constraints to our budget, continued Sauer.
“Look, ours is to equip these kids for after school career since they can’t write to save themselves. With such projects they learn to be active, participative and trust one another considering their background and abject poverty they come from.”
If you give them a question paper, they re-write the same question paper as an answer,” pointed Sauer, unfortunately.
Leo Noordman, (did not give age) says this has been a life changing experience for him.
“Since being admitted at the school my life has improved significantly and I’ve learnt to trust and share with others, whereas in the past I wouldn’t dare,” says Noorman, who was attending to what is termed ‘Garden Nguni Project’ alongside other boys under the scotching heat.
Their mission going forward is to solicit more funding and of course, increase capacity to handle the influx of ‘naughty’ students.
