Ngwaketse school benefits from top publisher

Mpho Mokwape | Thursday October 10, 2013 22:26

Lekgolobotlo Primary School, which was officially opened in 1986 by current Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe, has an enrolment of 328 pupils.

Although the relationship has only just been officially recognised, the school has enjoyed benefaction from the publishing company since June last year.  Speaking at the ceremony the school head, Kepaletswe Doreen Rabasimanyana extended her gratitude to DEP for the help noting that her school is relatively one of the smallest, having 14 teachers and five other staff members.

'We had written proposals to different companies, and of all of them, DEP was the first to respond and they have not turned their back on us since then,' said Rabasimanyana.

She further stressed that DEP has assisted her school with among other things furniture, school kits and many other developments have been brought to her school through this noble initiative. The Managing Director of DEP Johnson Chengeta revealed to Mmegi that for this year DEP has donated a total P150,000 to five other junior schools that had also requested the company to adopt them. He explained that despite the latter, it was Lekgolobotlo primary that touched their hearts as one of the relatively small schools with needs. 

'Each school was given P30,000 to assist in whatever ways they saw fit, these schools include Lerala J.S.S in Lerala, Patikwane J.S.S in Paje, Mannathoko J.S.S in Serowe, Chichi in Molaowabojang as well as Sedimo J.S.S in Sefhope,' said Chengeta.

DEP announced that since their encounter with the school, they have already spent P118,000 in furniture and other goods that the school desperately yearned for. For their biggest project yet DEP assisted the school with constructing top of the range rest rooms.

For his part, Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri mentioned that such projects are a good example of the positive role portrayed by the private sector institutions in improving the local educational landscape.

'An assessment made by DEP of the school needs resulted in priority being given to constructing toilets for the students at a cost of over P500,000 which DEP deserves a standing ovation over,' said Matlhabaphiri.

The Adopt-a-School initiative was launched earlier this year by the Minister of Education, Skills and Development (MoESD) Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi as a way of encouraging the private sector to help government support schools with their various needs such as books, computers provision of transport amongst others.