MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Not only did the educators, learners and parent community of Ridgeview Primary School have reason to dance for joy on Friday, 8 June at the official opening of their school hall, but so did service providers, former educators and learners from as far as Cape Town, who attended the celebrations.
The school opened its doors in 1978, which makes the opening of the school hall this year a wonderful way to celebrate 40 years of education.
Now, along with nearly 100 schools in the Western Cape, Ridgeview Primary has a brand-new R6.5 million Archway Foundation hall, where the 1 004 children can finally do all the things that are part of a rounded primary education. Since its opening 40 years ago, the school was among the more than 600 in the Western Cape that did not have a hall.
Circuit manager for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), Rozelle Smith-Neethling, in her address, mentioned that she was headgirl at Ridgeview and, along with thousands of educators today, part of a generation that went to school without it begin deemed necessary for them to have school halls.
She said that uplifting communities, necessitated the provision of appropriate facilities. This sentiment was echoed throughout the rest of the programme, as various speakers addressed the audience.
Chief executive officer of Garden Cities, John Matthewes, who through their Archway Foundation has erected 87 school halls to date, said that the provision of facilities like school halls help restore the dignity to communities who had to make do with "gutter education" in the past.
The cutting of the ribbon, officially opening the school hall at Ridgeview Primary, was done by Garden Cities CEO John Matthews, Ridgeview principal Francois Visagie, general manager of the Garden Route Casino Ryan Nicholas and WCED circuit manager Rozelle Smith-Neethling. Photos: Cornelle Carstens
Ridgview's School Hall is the 63rd built in partnership with the WCED. Funding for Ridgeview Primary's hall was also provided by the Garden Route Casino, which donated the school's obligatory financial contribution to the building.
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