LISTEN | Put your hand up to fix Nelson Mandela Bay schools

The reality for many Nelson Mandela Bay pupils is that they have to attend schools with some of the worst infrastructural problems in SA.

Some of these schools — Arcadia, Machiu, Die Heuwel, Fontein and Van der Kemp in the Bay’s northern areas — appear on the Eastern Cape department of education’s priority list of schools that will require a complete rebuild due to crumbling infrastructure.

These schools could cave in at any moment, seriously injuring or killing a child, SGB members and parents have warned.

In Behind The Herald Headlines with Daron Mann this week, we speak to a community activist who reported a criminal complaint against basic education minister Angie Motshekga, saying she had violated their children’s rights to a good education.

We also chat to The Herald editor Rochelle de Kock about what the editorial team is doing to help these schools through the newspaper’s new Put Your Hand Up campaign, launched in January.

Have a listen and see how you can help:

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Put Your Hand Up

The Herald launched a campaign in January to help fix our schools called Put Your Hand Up. 

Over the coming weeks, the newspaper will highlight the plight of the schools and publish a list of what is required in the hope that the public will contribute what they can to make a difference in the lives of our young pupils.

Those contributions will be documented in the newspaper in the hope of encouraging more assistance.

The first school to be featured is Greenville Primary School.

Here is their wish list:

• Four Jojo tanks that the school can use as a source of water;
• Plumbing materials to fix water pipes and taps;
• Plastic basins; 
• Toilet seats;
• Sanitary pads for girls who cannot afford to buy them;
• Doors for classrooms;
• Glass to replace broken windows;
• Cleaning supplies and materials  (mops, brooms, spades, and so on);
• Sanitiser and masks;
• Paint and paintbrushes;
• Lawnmowers for grass-cutting; and
• Materials to fix ceilings.