The name of Mbuqe Extension Primary School in Mthatha has been changed to Nkululeko Rali, who played a major role in ensuring that the school was functioning when it started in 1992.
This was announced in the handing over of the new classrooms of this school by Deputy Minister for Basic Education, Reginah Mhaule, and MEC for Education, Fundile Gade.
According to the principal of this school, Kholeka Gilman, they decided to change the name with the aim of avoiding confusion in the community. She said in their area they had two schools who had similar names (Mbuqe Primary School and Mbuqe Extension Primary School).
“To change this name would make people to easily differentiate between these two schools because they are in the same area. We named the school by late citizen of this area who played a major role when the school was started.
“In some of the things he did for this school he gave us his garage and a container to use them as classrooms.”
Deputy Minister for Basic Education, Reginah Mhaule, said they wanted to see learners from this school progressing in life.
She urged parents to ensure that they take part in education.
“If we can take part in this journey, we would not have learners who are drop-outs.
“It is clear that our school infrastructure building programme is beginning to bear fruit for our people.
“This is part and parcel of our comprehensive programme of action as encapsulated in our action plan towards 2024.
“One of the main goals of this programme of action states clearly that we must ensure that the physical infrastructure and environment of every school inspire learners to want to come to school and learn,” said Mhaule.
She said a positive school environment was defined as a school having appropriate facilities, well-managed classrooms, available school-based health supports and a clear, fair disciplinary policy.
Mhaule added that they know from experience that poorly designed schools gave an impression to learners that their school was undervalued, worthless, dirty and uncared-for.
