Everyone has a fundamental right to education. Education is able to arrest and reverse cycles of generational poverty and has proven to be a successful tool to uproot poverty.

As a leading black empowered and diversified mining and energy solutions company, Exxaro Resources states that it has always recognised the importance of education and ensuring tangible change happens in improvised communities.

Exxaro has undertaken a comprehensive assistance programme over the past 12 months to support the local education system, from renovating school buildings and supplying equipment, to hosting academic camps and sponsoring school shoes to children in need.

“The right to quality education is fundamental if we are to reduce poverty and inequality. Unfortunately, most of our learners don’t have access to quality education and infrastructure. We have committed to work hand in hand with our host communities, local municipalities and the Department of Education to make sustainable changes and break the cycle of generational poverty,” explains Exxaro community development manager Tebogo Leepile.

The company’s edu-support highlight in 2021 was hosting a career expo for Grade 12 learners from Lephalale in collaboration with the Lephalale municipality. About 1 000 learners from Lephalale schools participated.

The company further collaborated with three education circuits in Lephalale and identified 70 learners who undertook a psychometric assessment. The intention was for the leaners to be able to identify their strengths so that they could choose careers aligned to their strengths and interests. To supplement decisions around good career choices, Exxaro further distributed 1 000 books about opportunities after matriculation to selected schools across its host communities.

Another great success is the company’s flagship programmes in its digital transformation initiative which aims to connect schools to WiFi. Two of the seven selected schools in Lephalale, namely Nelsonskop Primary School and Phegelelo High School, have been connected to a high-speed wireless Internet.

Seventy-two schools in Lephalale were identified. Of those, 25 schools with high reception points will be connected to the Internet between the second and third quarters of 2022. The remaining 47 schools will be connected thereafter. The total budget for all 72 schools is about R22.2-million.

For Nkangala, 16 schools were identified for connection with a budget of about R5.89-million. Connection to all the schools will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022. The project, which is being implemented in partnership with development expert The Impact Catalyst, has an allocated budget of roughly R28.16-million for the entire project, which will benefit 88 schools.

“It’s these kinds of interventions that we believe will help us contribute to an environment in which we can develop the next generation of South Africans who will move our country in a new era of hope and prosperity,” said Leepile.

He adds that, “we believe that as a responsible company we must make a positive impact”, stressing that through its focus on education it knows that it is giving the youth “a chance at a better future”.

One of the other education-related successes recorded by Exxaro includes the collection and donation of more than 600 pairs of shoes to needy learners from its business units; Grootegeluk,outside Lephalale in the Limpopo province, and Matla, Belfast and the Coal Central Complex, all located in Mpumalanga.

Another success highlighted by Exxaro is the undertaking to build four classrooms, two toilet facilities each for girls and boys, as well as a hall in Nelsonskop Primary School, as well as the completion of two classroom blocks containing three classrooms and four storerooms at the Arnot School in Mpumalanga.

Project support programmes for the Sedibeng Special School in Lephalale have been implemented and 15 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) female students from second year of study in the engineering field have been supported in their studies.

Food gardens were established at three schools – the Cosmo Haven, Bonginhlanhla and Bonani schools in Mpumalanga – in collaboration with World Vision, while ten learners from across Exxaro’s areas of operation were selected to improve their mathematics and science performance through the EduMap bridging programme.

Moreover, the company made numerous donations to historically disadvantaged schools to assist in improving the standard of education in their communities.