By Kabelo Mollo
I have been remarkably fortunate in my life to attend some of the best schools money can buy. I have enjoyed the privilege of being surrounded by wealth of all kinds. The children of corporate South Africans as well as ground breaking entrepreneurs who shaped whole societies. The best thing about the so called legacy schools is the sense of community they provide. I follow the Old Stithian page and noticed the committee recently visited Europe and America for their constituency tour and there were really great turn outs in both parts of the world. All of those different people with one common thing. They attended St Stithians.
Saints as it is affectionately known is a campus of 7 schools. You can go your whole scholastic life on that one campus from Reception to matric. It’s a brilliant place with all the amenities you could ever ask for. It’s worth every penny and more. This is not meant as an advertisement for my alma mater., though I must also admit I have every intention of sending my boy there in 12 years when it’s time for high school. Here is the point of this column though.
Eagles Peak is where my father and many other luminaries went to school. The former Prime Minister, the current arch bishop of the Catholic church, countless senior civil servants and even the current representative at the court of St. James. All alumni of Eagles Peak in Qacha’s Nek. I used to fight my old man all the time about the state of the school now. There is absolutely no good reason that school shouldn’t still be a doyen for higher education in the country. In fact, parents should be saving up to send their kids there, the same way many parents in South Africa prepare themselves to send their kids to the Midlands.
It’s not just poor Eagles Peak though. We are told tales of the schools in Roma and their former glory too. Christ the King, St Marys and the others have all seen better days. It’s easy to blame the government and the church for their part in allowing the schools to degenerate. It’s harder to train the focus on the self. I used to say to my old man, the Old Stithian association built itself a bar & conferencing facility without debt. Just members’ contributions. And that’s not a unique a case, in fact if we’re asked to fund anything again, we’ll be up to the task. The question is why? The only answer I can summon is the amount of pride we have in the institution and the continued sense of community we derive from it. Why is that not a thing Here? Why aren’t “Makoleche” ensuring CK remains at the high standards of yesteryear?
You will excuse me for talking out of turn but that same laissez-faire attitude towards alma maters is the same attitude that allows other areas of the country to simply degenerate right before our very eyes. If we don’t have a sense of pride in things that are ours then we should fully expect that they will simply become symbols of past excellence and nothing more. I don’t mean to preach, and I’ll climb down from my high horse but I have been keen to make this point for some time. It’s close to my heart.
I always thought the day I made serious money I would invest big money in to Eagles Peak (with the help of the Catholic church of course) and go about turning it into a high performance academy of sorts. I’ve since abandoned those musings because why should I care if the alumni don’t? It’s a microcosm of the macrocosm, if we don’t take care of our schools, our schools won’t take care of us. If we don’t take care of our country, our country won’t take care of us…
