The principal of a Khayelitsha school, the first to make it on to the province’s list of top 10 schools, was brought to tears after hearing the news.
|||The principal of a Khayelitsha school, the first to make it on to the province’s list of top 10 schools, was brought to tears after hearing the news.
“I didn’t expect it,” said Phadiela Cooper, principal of the Centre of Science and Technology in Khayelitsha.
“The kids come from very poor social backgrounds. This shows that it can be done, whatever their circumstances. They believe that education is the key out of poverty.”
At the matric awards ceremony at Leeuwenhof on Tuesday, she said she was thrilled about the school’s “tremendous achievement”. “Our kids do work hard. We expect our kids to be here six days a week and they know that when they start. They know they don’t go home early, classes don’t get cut, they will have homework.”
Cooper said the school had a number of special initiatives to ensure pupils were constantly learning, even when they thought they were having fun and being entertained.
Pupils were also given extra English grammar classes with one of the school’s top teachers.
One of the school’s top pupils, Zikhona Matyesini, said her success could be credited to the teachers who were always willing to put in extra time after school.
Matyesini, who achieved six distinctions, said she hadn’t minded being at school until late in the afternoons and on Saturdays. “I knew what I wanted and if I worked hard, I would achieve that.”
The school is one of three STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) facilities in the Western Cape where pupils with an aptitude for maths and science are accepted. The other two facilities are the Cape Academy in Tokai and the new Claremont High School.
Premier Helen Zille, who announced Cosat’s number nine spot on the top 10 list, said it was a historic moment.
“For the very first time a school in one of the most disadvantaged parts of South Africa is among the top 10 schools in the province,” she said.
“Cosat scored 100 percent. Every single pupil did mathematics and they had a 99 percentage pass rate... which is a spectacular story for a school in Khayelitsha. It really is the first township school to make it into the top 10 purely on merit.”
Zille said the school had previously been situated on the False Bay College premises on its Khayelitsha campus, sharing the site with the False Bay Further Education and Training College.
The final decision to relocate the school was taken in 2009 after a visit by Education MEC Donald Grant.
Enrolment at the school had increased from 194 in 2010 to 278 in 2011, and was expected to reach 500 by 2014. - Cape Times
E-mail Michelle: michelle.jones@inl.co.za
