Hope School
History
Hope School is the first privately-owned English medium village school to be established in Limpopo Province. It is located at The Oaks Village near Hoedspruit in the Limpopo Province, almost 12km North-East of the Strijdom Tunnel and 85km South-East of Tzaneen.
The school was founded as a response to requests from parents who were sending their children to schools far away from home, with some undertaking round-trips of up to 200km every day. Surveys and meetings involving parents from the villages of The Oaks, The Willows, Mabins A and B, Sedawa, Metz, Butswana, and Turkey exposed a feeling that standards in public schools had plummeted.
Key indicators were the high failure rate in Matric (presently called Grade 12), and the fact that it was commonplace to find learners in grades as high as six, seven or eight not being able to communicate in the language (English) prominently used as a medium of learning in the schools.
The school’s income comes from fees paid by the parents. It is an independent school with no subsidy from the government. The management attempts to make the fees as affordable as possible to ensure that they are affordable by the vast majority of people in recognition of the poverty and unemployment that is prevalent in the area. The average rate is R300 per month.
 |
For the sake of quality, control and transparency, the provincial Department of Education supervises the school. Hope's vision is to become one of the highest performing schools with the best Matric results both in the province and the country using the best qualified and most dedicated teachers offering quality teaching comparable to none currently existing in the public schools.
The school aims to inculcate in the learners the culture of learning, and create an environment conducive for the development of the learners for a future wherein they will be able to take their rightful leading positions in all sectors across a wide spectrum of society.
In the next seven years, Hope aims to develop into one of the best schools in the Province in terms of quality tuition and infrastructure such as libraries, laboratories, computer rooms, hostels, teachers and accommodation. In the next 12 years, the community hopes to be boasting of the number of professionals it will have contributed to society.
Progress to date
Hope School has been allocated more or less eight hectares of land. It was finally registered with the Department of Education in January 2004. At the moment it is operating from a site adjacent to the Directors’ residence. The structure is a four-room house with a small balcony and a passage. Two other classes are accommodated in a makeshift structure of two classrooms. The founders of the school, Morgan and Magdeline Lewele have built the house for the purpose of the school until funds permit building on the site allocated by tribal leaders in conjunction with the local government.
Challenges
The biggest challenge facing the school is funding for infrastructure and the payment of teachers. Classrooms, laboratories, a computer room, library, school hall, ablution facilities, hostels, staff houses and sports fields need to be erected.
To sustain the current curriculum and student numbers on a permanent basis, the school needs to build at least eight classrooms. The going rate for a four-classroom block in the Limpopo Province is R400,000. This is a complete building with electricity, ceiling and chalkboards. Furniture (chairs and desks) is not included. Thus our school needs at least R800,000 for infrastructure in the first phase. Furniture for eight classrooms will cost around R58,000. At least two laboratories will be needed, along with a computer room and a library. Total financing of two million rand is now being sought for the first phase. Hope School welcomes any assistance, be it financially or in kind.
