Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has allocated R1.6 billion in funds for the year 2023 to focus on improving the quality of education for special schools in the province.
This was according to Education MEC Mbali Frazer. She was speaking at the official launch of the School Connectivity and Digital Skills Training Centre that was donated by the MTN Foundation at VN Naik School for the Deaf in Newlands West on Thursday.
Frazer said the funds would be divided into different sectors to ensure that the provision of quality and accessible public special school education remained one of the top priorities for the department.
She said job opportunities would be created in the process.
“We have also allocated some of the funds for purchasing new buses that will be transporting special schools pupils to their respective schools. In the process, we will also build new schools and perform renovations to some of the schools.
“This year we have also set aside a R10 million grant that will help recruit more new employees such as drivers, support staff, hostel mothers and cleaners,” said Frazer.
She said the department would complete this project by April next year.
Frazer added that those who would benefit from the new training centre included learners with severe intellectual ability and autism, those with hearing impairment and those with intellectual disability.
“Educators and community members need to come together and look after the multimedia centres that were given to them today. As a department, we also have a big role in assisting the schools and ensuring that there are no criminal activities ... We, therefore, commit that we are going to assist schools with fencing to prevent these criminal activities and to make sure that the pupils are in a conducive environment.”
MTN SA Foundation general manager Arthur Mukhuvha said the programme included the installation of customised multimedia centres and digitised content, data and connectivity provisioning, maintenance and support, as well as educator and learners ICT training.
“It is a 30 seater multimedia centre consisting of different types of keyboards because all that we do in our schools, we ensure that it is customised and we provide internet connectivity.
“All of this goes to aiding and supporting our communities, our pupils, educators, whereby we are saying that everybody deserves the benefits of a modern, connected life because as MTN, we believe in digital inclusion,” said Mukhuvha.
He said MTN contributed R6m to this development.
Other schools that received a similar donation from the MTN Foundation are the DayDawn Training Centre and S Dass Training Centre.
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