SANParks' R1.5m Mpumalanga school’s science lab to improve pupils’ results

The chair of the school governing body at Bunny Khosa High School in Mpumalanga, Absalom Mabunda, said the new science laboratory donated by Kruger National Park would help improve the school’s pass rate.

SANParks unveiled the R1.5m science lab on Wednesday at Kildare village in Bushbuckridge on the border with the park.

Mabunda said the initiative would help pupils improve their science and maths results. 

“The initiative will assist in ensuring these learners are receiving a better and resource-driven education. That will make a difference in their lives,” he said.

He said since the school had been changed to offer only science stream subjects in 2014 by the department of education, there had been a decline in the pass rate. There were also insufficient resources.

He hopes the laboratory will help improve pupils’ results.

“We are in a village of poor people and this initiative will make our learners better in terms of the results, because we didn't have enough resources. At least our learners will not only learn theoretically,” he said.

He described the village as an impoverished community with limited resources.   

“We needed the department to assist us in ensuring that the resources are here,” he said. 

Acting principal Jennifer Mnisi said the school started as a community endeavour and was adopted by the department in 1992 and was later declared a maths, science and technology academy.

“Performance started to decline. The results declined and from 2020 it got worse, but we will improve. Today we have a laboratory and you will see wonders. The laboratory is important and we hope and believe that learners will not just have the theory but will start to do practicals,” she said. 

Managing executive at KNP Oscar Mthimkhulu said the initiative was part of SANParks' social legacy programme to give back to communities.

He said it was part of sustaining the relationship with communities around its parks.

Through the programme, the focus would be on education and community development.

“This is just one aspect where we engage at school level. At a community level, we meet different structures. We engage with stakeholders, and this is one of the initiatives. We are also the biggest employer in this area,” he said.

He said the money to fund the projects was generated through eco-tourism activities and SaNParks has invested in various communities in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. 

“About 1% of the funds that we generate nationally and 5% from our wildlife sales are earmarked for community projects. We always try to improve relations,” he said.

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