The Pilot Schools
There are more than fifty schools in
South Africa that have been defined as
historically significant. The pilot schools are
geographically dispersed, and they occupy a range of
positions on a spectrum of education. Each school has
its own dynamic which shapes its interaction with, and
participation in, the HSRP.
We are currently working with fifteen pilot schools in
seven provinces of South Africa, five of which are in
KwaZulu-Natal:
Adams College in Amanzimtoti was a famous
educational institution founded by the American
Board of Mission in the early 1840s, and where one of
the old buildings was refurbished as a multi-purpose
centre during the 1990s. Today Adams is a bustling coed
public day and boarding school of more than 1000
pupils with a proud academic record.
Another famous American Board Mission school in
Durban, Inanda Seminary, was founded in 1869. Under
the umbrella of the Congregationalist Church Inanda
continued to fly the flag of quality education for black
African girls through the 1970s and 1980s. However,
in 1998 the Congregationalist Church announced its
closure. In response, some alumnae formed a campaign
to save the school and lobbied President Mandela.
Today, Inanda Seminary is a thriving boarding school
for some 400 girls providing an outstanding, holistic
education.
Inkamana High School outside Vryheid is a small
boarding school of 200 rural students and it achieves
excellent academic results. It is an independent school
closely affiliated to the Catholic Benedictine Inkamana
Abbey.
Ohlange High School is situated in Inanda Township.
The school was founded by Reverend John Dube of
the Congregationalist Church, who was first president
of the ANC in 1912. When Nelson Mandela cast his first
vote in 1994, he chose Ohlange as the symbolic place
to do so.
Vryheid Comprehensive School has Lutheran roots
and was one of the top performing Department of
Education and Training (DET) schools in the country
during the 1980s. It has grown its enrolment significantly
in recent years, both of boarders and day pupils, putting
pressure on its resources and high academic standards.
In 2012 we brought two Gauteng schools into the HSRP
fold. Two schools that stood their ground in the face of
injustice and their stories have not been forgotten.
Classroom block at Ohlange.
The School Museum at Inanda Seminary, named after the founder.
Inkamana’s school hall.
Original stonework of the Tiger Kloof administration building.
Orlando High School in Soweto was established in
1939 and is known for some of the most important
events in the struggle against apartheid including the
1976 Soweto uprising when the school was vandalised.
The new school was constructed in 1990 and has a
history of excellent academic achievement.
Founded by ANC veteran Charlotte Maxeke in 1908
under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, Wilberforce College in Evaton was famous
for teacher training and providing basic trades to men
and women in and beyond South Africa. In 1953, the
AME Church leased the school to the South African
government and in 1995 the Church reclaimed its land
and buildings and set up a multi-purpose educational
facility.
Situated in Limpopo is Lemana High School in the
Elim Village near Louis Trichardt. The school was moved
from the premises of the old Swiss Mission school in the
early 1990s, becoming a day school and is campaigning
to return to its original site. It has an enrolment of 900
students.
Glen Cowie Secondary School in Groblersdal is one of
the most recent additions to the HSRP’s pilot schools.
This Catholic school formerly known as Guardian Angels
was established in 1967 and is renowned for its quality
education. Glen Cowie is a boarding school for girls only
with an enrolment of around 600.
Tiger Kloof Combined School in Vryburg, North West
Province was begun by the London Missionary Society in
1904. It was forcefully closed down by the government
in 1963, and its majestic buildings – made from stone
quarried on site and constructed by generations of
African stone masons – were allowed to rot for 30 years.
The school was re-opened in 1995 through an initiative
involving prominent alumni in South Africa and
Botswana, the visionary educationist David Matthews,
and church and business leaders. Today Tiger Kloof is a
leading public day and boarding school situated on the
privately owned property of the Tiger Kloof Educational
Institution.
In other areas of this report you will note that significant
effort has been expended the two schools in the
Eastern Cape.
Healdtown, near Fort Beaufort received some attention
from some of its alumni during the 1990s. In 1976 it was
one of the first schools outside Soweto to be set alight
by its students. In the early 1990s a group of alumni
mobilised to restore partially one section of the school.
St Matthews in Keiskammahoek is 157 years old, has
a rich heritage as part of the Anglican St Matthews
Mission, and currently enrols some 700 students. It has
a boarding hostel for girls, and there are both girl and
boy day pupils. It has a good academic record amidst
the many challenges of being a school in the rural
Eastern Cape.
A further 24 Eastern Cape schools have been identified
as historically significant and the Methodist Church has
undertaken to conduct a profiling of the schools.
In the interest of extending our footprint into all of the
provinces by the end of 2013, the HSRP has explored a
variety of opportunities for a number of historic /schools.
Zonnebloem College was the first African school in the
Cape and established in 1858. A teacher training college
was opened in 1869 to train black teachers. The school
was reopened in 1998 and focuses primarily on the arts.
While Zonnebloem has not been declared an HSRP
pilot school, Archbishop Ndungane was asked by the
school to intervene when the Western Cape Education
Department announced the school was targeted for
closure at the end of 2012. Zonnebloem is our heritage.
It was founded under the auspices of the Anglican
Church as a school for the sons of chiefs and the land
should always be used for education purposes. The
decision to close Zonnebloem was withdrawn and a
number of proposals have been developed to further
improve the condition of the buildings as well as the
standard of education at the school.
Moroka Secondary School in Thaba Nchu, Free
State was established in 1937 and under the current
management the school has improved its academic
performance by 19% within one year. Moroka has
recently joined the HSRP as host school in the Denel
Maths, Science and Technology programme.
As a result of a discussion between the HSRP Executive
Director and the Deputy President who suggested that
the Northern Cape also be put on our map, we have
adopted two schools in the province – St Boniface
Catholic School in Galeshewe and St Cyprian’s Anglican
School in Kimberley. St Cyprian’s evolved from the once
famous Perseverance and Gore-Brown schools, both fine
educational institutions in their days. The school focuses
on the performing arts and is currently situated in a very
confined space near the cathedral. It has recently been
allocated a large piece of land by the Province and is
now seeking partnerships to build a quality centre of
cultural and academic excellence.
St Boniface, established in 1957 and previously a
Catholic ‘Christian Brothers’ school, is a high performing
school with nearly one thousand learners. The current
principal, who is the first female layperson in the history
of the school hopes to receive funds soon from the Irish
missionaries for much needed new classrooms.
Both these Northern Cape schools are eagerly awaiting
the promised opening of a new university in Kimberley.
Left: Outdoor chess at Moroka – a popular activity at the school.
Healdtown ‘drummies’ and band.
|