Cape Town - Livingstone High School’s decades-long wait for a fully-equipped science laboratory will soon be over thanks to the intervention of tIndependent Media's executive chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé.
This announcement was made by Dr Survé, the guest speaker at Livingstone’s 90th anniversary dinner, in the school hall on Saturday evening.
Dr Survé, a Livingstone alumnus, who matriculated in 1981, told an audience of former pupils, teachers and their spouses that principal Theo Bruinders and his team had expressed the need for a science lab at the school.
Advanced tutoring programmes for mathematics and science, and computers with relevant software programmes for the library also featured high on the school’s wish-list. “We are very happy to commit towards helping Livingstone meet its goals,” Dr Survé said.
He told the audience he could not at this point quantify the monetary value of this help, but he added he had made a personal commitment that would probably amount to about R1m. This, he said, was only the start.
A key part of the project would also involve the participation of pupils in an internship programme. He said all the companies in which he is involved would be required to provide mentorship for pupils from Livingstone.
This would form part of a full programme of initiatives, over and above the R1m commitment, which will be launched to help Livingstone achieve its targets, Dr Survé said.
Explaining what had prompted him to become so personally involved in helping the school to achieve its ambitions, he said: “Livingstone is a very special school.”
He said he would always be thankful that he had been one of its pupils - and he had had the opportunity to participate in its various activities, most notably in sport and the SRC. It was in the SRC that he honed his understanding of politics, having been raised in a home that was apolitical.
“I’ve always seen Livingstone as a school that both produces and demands excellence from its pupils,” said Dr Survé.
“The school is able to demand excellence primarily because of its principals and teachers,” he said. “They promoted the values, the culture and the principles we all bought into.
“They made us believe that everything is possible. The way we were taught at Livingstone, and the way we were inspired, made us believe in the school song penned by Ray Carlier that we could indeed conquer the world.”
Cape Argus