Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) presented three laboratories to Akademia High School in Brandfort on the 5th of March. The fully-fledged laborites are worth R1,5 million and are envisioned to take learning and teaching to greater heights at the chosen school.
ATNS initiated their five-year Back to School community project in 2015 and since then, they have sponsored information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and science laboratories for 15 rural schools in the country. The facilities include an ICT computer laboratory, a Life Sciences laboratory and a Physical Sciences laboratory. The unveiling of the labs was done in partnership with the Free State Department of Education.
The labs are functionally equipped with apparatus to suit their functions. They boast 34 laptops, a projector and two printers; a microscope, models of the human torso, the ear, the eye and petri dishes; track trolleys, a power supply, titration stand and glassware, respectively. Percy Morokane, ATNS spokesperson, added that the company also supplied internet access for the ICT laboratory.
Maj. Gen. Job Ngema, ATNS chairman of the board’s social and ethics committee, shared an anecdote history with learners. “I am from Marikana in Rustenburg.“We lived in a village where we had to pass through a forest where an aircraft had false landed. This was when looking at an aircraft was a crime. Every day to and from school, I kept on looking at the aircraft. Now we are fortunate. Through exposure to resources of various subjects, we can all be absorbed in career pathways we desire,” she said.
