Good day Colleagues. Firstly thanks for a great high school visit to our IshSaqua Centre for Conservation of Thursday 25 August 2022. Your learners are exemplary and left us encouraged, confident in the future of our country and youth. This achievement- of strong young leaders- speaks volumes of your roles as educators, disciplinarians, counselors, life coaches, social workers and a friend in this era of “teachers of a special-type”.
So first and foremost thank you teachers, assistant teachers, administrators, principal and deputy principal of Trafalgar Senior Secondary. You are a credit to the profession and invaluable to our country’s future well-being.
Colleagues many learnings came from your school visit, and a way forward as well. These I sketch below:
1. Learner transport – subsequently I came to learn that this short 8km round trip cost Trafalgar Secondary R1400-00; so on Friday I leaned on a few bus companies and going forward we will provide a subsidised transport of learners to the Centre. This is crucial as the majority of learners of colour are disadvantaged and participating schools have very limited resources. The subsidized rate of transport has immediate applicability, meaning the next few groups from Trafalgar we hope to host, the school will enjoy a subsidised cost.
2. Science (or Math) Continuity – all the learners expressed interest in careers requiring Mathematics (Pure) for entry into tertiary or making entry easier; in addition the scholarships (full) the TETA offers require or favor mathematics. We kindly request the school inform us should any of the learners indicate a change in mind from Maths (Pure); we can be an additional resource to retain the current stream.
3. Conservation Club- we request the school start a Conservation Club, where we emphasise all things conservation, environmental care and sustainability. This can have an emphasis on practical actvities such as beach & river cleanups, saving water programmes, planting and growing of indigenous trees, promoting and distributing plastic replacements and similar. Young people can also be linked to hiking clubs, the scouts movement and conservation clubs operating in their areas. In a short survey, we found learners reporting little or no conservation activities in their neighborhoods. This can be changed. To help kickstart all of this, future groups to our career guidance sessions will recive a short skills training in ‘tree planting’, do some basics in planting, and leave with an actual plant (for planting at home or a public space).
Please liaise with scribe for future visits which we hope we will have more of.
We attach some images of the Trafalgar School visit.
More detailed career guidance we can facilitate at your school as well.
Again thank you for the really great work you all do as teachers.
Sincerely,
Head of Projects- Sulaiman Appoles
Fisheries & Aquaculture Development Institute (NPO Trust)
c/o IshSaqua Centre for Conservation, Environment & Livelihoods
M: 082 4733 872 |T: 021 486 9226
|E: projects@fadi.org.za| Web: www.fadi.org.za
Address:
IshSaqua Centre for Conservation,
