Pretoria - The Phelindaba Secondary School in the west of Tshwane is hoping the donation of a science lab will help them turn around their dismal performance in one of their major core subjects.
The school which achieved a 90% pass rate for matric in 2019, had a difficult 2020, much like most schools in the province who saw a drop in results with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy Principal Mike Mongau said the school achieved a 72.95% matric pass rate in the 2020 exams, with their performance for science alone dropping to a worrying 30% average.
Mongau said the school battled not only with transitioning to predominately online teaching but also in getting the learners to return to school after the numerous interruptions due to the national lockdown.
He said the school which serves the nearby squatter camp settlements also experienced a high number of Covid-19 infections.
Of the condition of their previous lab before the donation of the mobile lab Mongau said the building itself was dilapidated, floors, cabinets and equipment were in a poor state, which left them improvising often.
“We didn’t have much so all we could do to continue with teaching was improvising especially with experiments so it was a challenge and often we left unsure of the outcomes as we did not have everything.”
“This donation means a lot to the school and these learners are so excited to get started now. We can only hope that with such improvements we can get the community behind us.”
The school had their old science lab refurbished, with the addition of the mobile lab thanks to the PPC Cement manufacturer Hercules branch.
Pretoria News