Dear fellow alumni

 

It was with great excitement that I read the article about the Ikateleng project in the previous edition of the NWU & U that was sent to me.

 

I, Prof Sakkie Steyn, started the project that preceded Ikateleng 30 years ago at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. It was then known as the Saturday School.

 

In 1996 we already had 800 learners from the Vaal Triangle area, as well as a headmaster and 23 teachers. Prof Tienie Theron was a co-coordinator of this project. On Saturdays, 15 buses transported children from across the Vaal Triangle to the Saturday School and took them back again.

 

I still have newspaper clippings with photos of the establishment of the Saturday School, and also on the progress of the project. In fact, I have a scrapbook with all the newspaper articles about the role of the Faculty of Education in the Vaal Triangle area to support disadvantaged learners. These articles appeared in the Vaalweekblad between 1988 and 1996.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Prof Sakkie Steyn

Dwarskersbos, West Coast

 

*In 1991 the Saturday School was also started on the Potchefstroom Campus, where the late Martiens Masiea named the programme Ikateleng, which means to empower yourself.