By STAFF REPORTER
Makhanda has emerged as the best-performing educational district in the Eastern Cape, and the Rotary Clubs of Grahamstown and Grahamstown Sunset are playing their part.
The two Rotary clubs are working with seven Makhanda no-fee primary and secondary schools to upgrade their kitchen and toilet facilities to the tune of R6 million rand.
This follows a similar upgrade in 2020 of the kitchen and toilets at Ntsika Secondary School, as well the installation of water tanks and pumps at 10 schools in 2021.
In the Khutliso Daniels Secondary School, several hundred school meals are prepared every day. The kitchen was overhauled with new tiling for the walls and floor and stainless steel basins. To prevent water outages from derailing the meal preparation, a hot water system attached to a tank system has been installed to keep the water running during water shedding days.
The brand new upgrades at Khutliso Daniels and Mary Waters Secondary Schools were completed just in time for the start of the new school year. “Phase 1 has seen the upgrade of the kitchen at Mary Waters Secondary School completed, and the revamp of the kitchen and toilets for staff and pupils at Khutliso Daniels. Similar work is currently underway at Fikizolo and Tantyi Primary schools. The intention is to complete this work – as well as similar upgrades at Nombulelo Secondary, George Dickerson Primary and Samuel Ntsiko Primary – by mid-2023” said Gavin Keeton of the Rotary Club of Grahamstown.
Led by the Rotary Clubs of Grahamstown and Grahamstown Sunset, the current project was funded by Rotary Clubs and individual Rotarians in the USA, Canada, Brazil and South Africa, as well as the Rotary District into which the Makhanda clubs fall, and by the Rotary Foundation.
“This investment in local schools from Rotary is fitting acknowledgement of their extraordinary success of recent years, and that their efforts are recognised far beyond our local boundaries. In this way Rotary is playing its part in helping to – in the words of GADRA’s Ashley Westaway – “put Makhanda at the centre of the educational map of South Africa”” Keeton said.
