Bags of help for pupils with no desks

PUPILS from Isiseko Junior Secondary School in Centane’s Nontshinga village finally have desks thanks to Gauteng NGO DeskBags – and Mr SA 2016.

Last month a report on how the 260 pupils had to kneel on the floor and use chairs as desks shocked readers.

Mr South Africa 2016, Armand Du Plessis, was moved to raise funds through a social media call-to-action that provided 100 DeskBags.

DeskBags donated the additional 160 needed.

The hybrid satchels – which double as school bags and portable desks when unfolded onto a child’s lap – were handed over to the pupils at school last week.

The front flap of the bags is reinforced with ABS plastic, ensuring a hard and stable surface for children to write on while doing their school work.

DeskBags MD Shannon Roscher explained that giving underprivileged pupils access to a basic education tool such as a portable desk was aimed at allowing them to develop to their full potential.

“Lack of a writing surface puts underprivileged learners at an immediate disadvantage as it affects their handwriting, concentration, eyesight and, most noticeably, overall academic performance.”

Roscher said the bags were tough and durable.

“They are rugged enough to, when well-looked after, last a pupil many years.”

The principal at the school, Vusumzi Jaxa, said the desk bags would bring huge and much-needed relief to the pupils, especially younger pupils.

Jaxa said the school’s shortage of desks had worsened over the years.

“Our crisis is not new. The department of education is well aware of it,” said Jaxa.

“However, they were dragging their feet and kept telling us that we are on a list of schools to receive school furniture. We have been waiting for two years for that furniture to come.

“The school, parents and pupils are so grateful to DeskBags and Mr South Africa for coming to our rescue.”

Isiseko is one of 60 schools in the province that the education lobby group Equal Education found to be in such a poor condition that their norms and standards for infrastructure was in violation of the law.