Inner-city School in Durban Given a R248 000 Media Centre, Turning a Technology Dream into a Reality
For Immediate Release:
26 May 2022
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A Durban inner-city school’s dream of creating a new-age media centre to enable its disadvantaged learners access to the technological age has become the beginning of a new reality, the result of a R248 000 donation.
The new facility at Anjuman Islam Primary School was made possible by the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT) recently.
Speaking at an event to mark the official hand-over of the media centre, equipped with furniture and equipment, computers and books, SAMCT representative, Mr Gaf Osman said: “Having access to and embracing technology at an early age is now of paramount importance, given the speed of technological advancements around the world and South Africa’s learners of today and tomorrow must be part of that journey.”
He added: “It goes without saying, therefore, that educating learners about technology is imperative, if they are not to be left floundering in the backwaters of an increasingly technologically aware society. Regrettably, though very few schools in this country have the wherewithal to deliver against this critical need. The tragedy is that they lack the necessary tools and funding to effect a step-change is simply not forthcoming, a fact which further disadvantages learners from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. This has the unfortunate effect of relegating many to growing up in a technological age ignorant of the ways of this new digitally-driven world.
Anjuman Islam Primary School, an urban and CBD-based educational institution, recognised this threat and whilst being intent on exposing its city learners to technology was too financially constrained to do so.
Mr Osman indicated: “The financial challenges the school faces on a daily basis has precluded its ability to offer technology-based learning to those it serves… until now. The school’s dream of creating a new-age media centre, equipped with the latest technological equipment, has become the beginning of a new reality, here at Anjuman Islam Primary School.
Hearing that the school’s digitalisation ambition was being thwarted by severe funding constraints, the SAMCT moved to intervene, making available R248 000 to equip the new media centre.
The SAMCT, created in 2008, was specifically established to provide funding, services and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. In this regard, it has successfully delivered significant solutions throughout the country, irrespective of race or religion and works to support needy organisations in the fields of health, social development, poverty alleviation and education.
“Turning the media centre dream into reality enables the school to now indeed embrace the technological age and to expose its learners to a dedicated facility which will go a long way towards ensuring that they do not lag behind their counterparts attending private and more affluent public schools. The playing field has, to some large degree, been levelled, affording learners here equal opportunities in terms of their future schooling and tertiary studies, as well as in the competitive employment market of the future,” said Mr Osman.
Anjuman Islam Primary School’s educational programmes are designed to help ensure the independence and success of its learners, in spite of their largely difficult and dysfunctional backgrounds, and is dedicated to the best interests of its learners, regardless of their circumstances.
Mr Osman added: “It is most pleasing that we have been in a position to extend such assistance to this most deserving inner-city school, affording learners here the ability to become an active part of the digital age and to develop along with the technological advances which have become integral to our world. I wish the school, its management, Principal, staff and – of course – its learners well in utilising the new media centre and the new world or learning that it offers.”
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For more information about SAMCT or its Anjuman Islam Primary School media centre donation,
please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer
Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za