February 2022.

The learners and teachers at Laastedrif NGK Primary School were thrilled to start the 2022 academic year in their newly renovated classrooms. The construction project, which was initiated by the school’s principal and commenced late last year, replaced asbestos class structures to make way for newly built brick classrooms. Overall learners and teachers at this Ceres school, are pleased to have returned to a better learning environment that is safer and more conducive to studying.

“Asbestos is not an ideal material for classrooms, not only because of the possible long-term health impact, but because the classrooms get very hot in summer, which severely restricts academic activities. We found that due to the lack of air conditioning, the classrooms became more humid than brick-built rooms, resulting in lethargy and general fatigue amongst our learners making it difficult to concentrate for extended periods of time,” said Mr September, School Principal, Laastedrif NGK Primary School.

Funded by Perdekraal East Wind Farm, in collaboration Laastedrif Boerdery and headed by the school’s principal, Mr September, the renovation of this primary school, with over 30 learners from the surrounding community, included plastering and painting of the classrooms, which was not previously possible with the asbestos walls.

“We as educators can now create a proper and inviting classroom atmosphere for our young learners. The brick classrooms aren’t as hot in the extreme summer heat and will be warmer during winter. It no longer rains into the classrooms and learners enjoy the new classrooms and school infrastructure improvements as much as the educators. We are very grateful and proud of this accomplishment,” added Mr September.

This project forms as part of the Wind Farm’s Asset Based Community Development programme, which has a keen focus on mobilising communities.

“We are very proud to have been involved in this project. Our goal has always been to help provide children with access to equitable education. Furthermore, we not only were able to support this school building project, but also a pro-active collaboration between the public and private sector. We believe working together leads to achieving results faster,” concluded Jo-Anne Brown, Economic Development Manager at Perdekraal East Wind Farm.