When Permie Isaac updated her Facebook status one weekend in May this year to reflect that there weren't enough chairs for all the pupils in her Grade 1 class, she hadn't expected the online community to respond so generously.
When Permie Isaac updated her Facebook status one weekend in May this year to reflect that there weren't enough chairs for all the pupils in her Grade 1 class, she hadn't expected the online community to respond so generously.
Within three days she had raised enough money to buy 38 chairs for the children in her CM Vellem Lower Primary class, which were finally paid for and delivered to the ecstatic pupils this Tuesday.
Isaac is a Rhodes University student studying foundation phase teaching and doing her practical training at CM Vellem in Extension 9. When she started at the school she was shocked at the state of the chairs that the children had to sit on.
“They were falling off the chairs and some children were just sitting on frames,” she said. “It is important that young children who are learning to write have the correct posture and proper chairs.”
Issac decided to take action by appealing to friends on Facebook to each fund a chair by donating R100. Her friend and colleague, Kerry Philips, was able to rally together enough for 10 chairs simply by sharing Isaac's status.
Grade 1 teacher at the school Ethel Mdingi was delighted when the chairs arrived. “Permie is a real blessing in disguise – you should have seen this classroom before,” she said. “I hope that with the new chairs the children will improve academically.”
