A donation of eight mobile classrooms and furniture valued at R900 000 has transformed education
at a Forest Hill, Gqeberha, Special Needs School. The School desperately needed extra classrooms to
accommodate the learners with conduct disorder.
Placement demand at Protea Primary School, situated on the grounds of Protea Child and Youth
Care Centre – a place of safety – has long outstripped the educational institution’s infrastructural
capabilities. This has led to combined classes, the simultaneous teaching of two different language
groups by two teachers in a single classroom, the use of a Wendy structure and dilapidated prefabs
as classrooms, and the need to convert a garage and kitchen into temporary classrooms.
That all changed with a recent donation of eight new mobile classrooms and school furniture by the
South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT). Reflecting on the sponsorship gesture, SAMCT
representative, Mr. Gaff Osman, said: “Through necessity, the school has had to expand over the
years, but it proved financially impossible to ensure that appropriate infrastructure development
kept up with increased placement requirements, making it almost impossible to give effect to the fit
and proper education of attending learners.”
Learners from the Care Centre are placed here via the Children’s Court by the Department of
Education and have, primarily, conduct disorders.
“This is a vitally necessary school and its dedicated members of staff are doing amazing work with
troubled young people under the most trying of conditions. However, class conditions had clearly
become untenable, requiring a meaningful intervention to ensure learners were afforded the
education they deserved.”
Learning of the school’s plight, the SAMCT stepped in to assist, alleviating the school’s daily space
challenge.
“The growth of the school resulted in an enormous challenge, given its space constraints and the
further partitioning of existing classrooms did little to ease the situation or enable the
accommodation of learners desperately awaiting placement at the school. Something had to change
and the SAMCT was pleased to be in a position to be the catalyst which has transformed the school,”
said Mr Osman.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al
Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing, and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. This has
ensured that the SAMCT is the beneficiary of this Shariah suite of funds, enabling it to provide
funding, services, and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the vulnerable, deprived,
and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in delivering sizeable assistance solutions
throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work to support needy
organizations in the fields of social development, poverty alleviation, education, and healthcare.
Mr. Osman concluded: “Protea School is an educational institution in the unique situation of having
learners from diverse backgrounds to teach them in Afrikaans, English and Xhosa. It values quality
teaching and is intent on creating an environment in each class that is conducive to effective
learning, with spaces where learners feel safe. The SAMCT is privileged to have been a part of
effecting the change the school craved, but was unable to achieve alone.”