Awqaf SA – an endowment-based organisation that focuses on sustainable development – and Adenco Construction, an Electrical and Contracting Company, embarked on a joint project to set up a PC lab at Dennemere Primary School.
The school is situated in Blue Downs on the economically challenged Cape Flats.
With a dedicated staff of 39, and an enrolment of over 1 000 learners, the school has a proud tradition, with its motto “Enter to learn, leave to serve” its welcoming sign.
The PC project was completed in April this year after Awqaf SA, as part of its expanded focus on infrastructure development through its Share the Care Campaign, set up a PC Lab at Dennemere – as it has already done at educational institutions across South Africa.
Awqaf SA’s Deputy CEO Mickaeel Collier said: “The world has evolved into an online digital reality through which individuals, communities and businesses engage. Establishing PC labs at schools that do not have proper functioning access to the online world therefore becomes imperative for our communities.”
Adenco Construction, a privately owned company based in Blackheath, headquartered not too far from where Dennemere Primary School is situated, jointly originated this project with Awqaf SA as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to invest in the local community.
Kashif Wicomb, Adenco Construction’s CEO, said: “Well rounded education prepares and equips our youth for the challenges of the real world.”
Muhammad Khalid Sayed, Shadow MEC for Education, said: “This project involving the NGO sector, the private sector, the school and the community’s involvement represents the future of fully developing the education sector.”
The challenge that the school faced was that learners had to use one PC Lab. The project assisted by supplying the school with an additional 20 computers in a separate classroom, helping create an uncluttered, conducive environment for learning, and equipping learners to face the digital future with confidence.
Wendy Leukus, Dennemere Primary’s principal, says the school uses an online curriculum-based application supplied by the Western Cape Education Department. “This includes limited access to computers wherein learners are only being able to access the lab once every two weeks. The opening of this lab will now allow our learners to access the PC lab once a week. This will bring benefits to our learners and the community,” she says.
The Lab was posthumously named after one of its progressive former principals Mr BA van Wyk.
