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.