WINNER of the 2022 clean schools competition, Pumula High School has vowed to continue practicing the recycling mantra to keep the environment clean and safe for all learners, the school’s chief patron of the Health and Environmental Club, Sehlile Thebe has said.
The Environmental Club was first launched in the school in 2010 after assessing the environment in the school and felt the need to change and improve it.
“When we started the club we had our theme, A clean mind and a clean environment. Initially, it was supposed to be a Mental Health Club. In other words we were saying to the children that if you are said to be smart, it has to go hand in hand with your environment. From then, we started working on our classroom and toilet environment and ensured that they always stay clean,” said Thebe.
She said the reception from the students to the responsibility towards themselves and the environment was exciting as students seemed to take up the idea with enthusiasm.
“We have done clean up campaigns here at Pumula North shops and we invited the schools around us, the Amaswazi, Babambeni and St Bernards schools. We came together as schools to conscientise the on the importance of a clean environment,” she said
Thebe said a plan was devised that sought to involve every learner in the school in matters to do with keeping the environment clean.
“We now have what we call industrial duty where each class is allocated a day in a term where they do work around the school environment. It can be watering, weeding and so forth and that makes them own their own their space and become part and parcel of it and as a result it’s easy to instill the principles of cleanliness in them,” she said
Thebe also said that the school is working on adopting the 3R principle, which is reduce, reuse and recycle.
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“We are working on waste management, how we can best manage waste around us. We have heard of projects whereby we make bins using empty plastic soft drink bottles. We also have been reusing paper waster to make teaching models in subjects like geography and science subjects,” she said
“We have also observed the Tree planting day, last year we managed to plant 50 trees around the school. We are also working on establishing our own nursery so we will able to plant and sell trees.”
