Ivory Park school repays City’s generosity with win

28 October 2016

 

Five months ago, Mikateka Primary School, a no-fee school in one of the most impoverished parts of Ivory Park, near Midrand, in Region A, was in the news when the City of Johannesburg in partnership with leading car rental company Avis delivered over 2 100 pairs of school shoes worth R230 000.

 

Fast forward to Thursday October 27. The school repaid the City and Avis for their generosity when it won the City’s Battle of the Books Competition at Riverlea Recreation Centre in the City’s Region B.

Most of the school’s learners are orphans, come from child-headed homes or their parents are unemployed.

The school won the competition, initiated by the City’s Library and Information Services in 1998 to inculcate a culture of reading in Johannesburg primary schools, with 118 points, narrowly beating Randburg’s Blairgowrie Primary School into second place (116 points).

Hillbrow’s Asteri Primary School took third place with 115 points, while Ferreira Primary School from the Johannesburg CBD came fourth with 42 points.

More than 230 primary schools had registered for this year’s competition.

Mikateka was presented with a trophy and each learner received three new books donated by Qualibooks. Prizes included Pick n Pay vouchers and certificates from the City of Johannesburg. Gift vouchers were sponsored by the Johannesburg Friends of the Library.

Books used in the competition were purchased from grant funding from the Gauteng Provincial Library Archival Services. The four schools reached the final after three rigorous rounds of reading. Members of the reading teams – consisting of six to eight learners each – had to read a total of 12 books from which they were quizzed during the final.

The City’s Library and Information Services Director Nobuntu Mpendulo said the competition was designed to develop lifelong reading skills among learners.

“One of our biggest roles as the Library and Information Services, under the City’s Community Development Department, is to support education. Our ultimate goal is to help learners succeed by widening their imagination. With reading, they can become very creative,” Mpendulo said.

For Mothisi Cristinah Matjatsi, Mikateka’s Grades 6-7 English and Life Orientation teacher, winning the competition was a reward for hard work and determination.

“For the very first time in the Battle of the Books we have taken the No 1 spot. After losing in the 2013 and 2014 finals, we did not give up. This is a good year for us, especially looking at where we come from. I personally went the extra mile and made sure my learners took reading to heart.

“After winning the first round of this year’s competition, they showed more interest and commitment. They said they wanted to take the trophy this year. And they did,” she said.