School principal Gary Natali says times were tough for parents of the school as some have been retrenched and struggling to pay school fees. Picture: Timothy Bernard
Johannesburg - A Joburg specialised arts school has turned to crowdfunding to help stay afloat amid cash flow problems, which were made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The National School of Arts (NSA) in Braamfontein, whose alumni include award-winning actress Charlize Theron, radio personality Anele Mdoda and singer Zoë Modiga, has turned to crowdfunding website BackABuddy in an effort to raise about R554400.
NSA principal Gary Natali told The Star this week that times were tough for parents of the school.
“Some parents have been retrenched, some haven’t been at work since March so they are struggling to pay school fees,” he said.
NSA artistic director Brenda Sakellarides, who is also in charge of fund-raising, added that admissions were purely based on the learner’s talent and ability.
“There are no socio-economic barriers if you are gifted when you stand in that light and the school sees your promise, you will be a learner in this school as a result we have a lot of need and a lot of under-resourced families,” she said.
Natali said the school usually raised funds through performance showcases during the year but the lockdown derailed those plans.
Sakellarides added that the pandemic escalated and highlighted the school’s financial problems which were already evident.
“This year was never going to be an easy year financially but we were confident that with being able to have our performance showcases and things happening that we could get a very constructive fund-raising programme up and running. Covid-19 derailed all the plans to generate income,” she said.
Through the BackABuddy campaign, the school is trying to raise enough money to pay for 21 bursaries for 2021 learners. The annual fees are about R26640 and NSA is particularly appealing to alumni from its legacy of 50 years to assist in their crowdfunding initiative.
By Wednesday, R93000 had poured in.
The principal said that as a specialised school for arts, NSA needed a lot of money for learners to perform and learn.
“Learners should come here and choose any instrument they want to play and we need to find the money to buy that instrument if it’s an obscure instrument and we don’t want to change that,” he said.
Natali emphasised that the school would not close down despite some confusion on social media and it was experiencing a cash-flow issue.
Sakellarides added that the challenge was real for the school because it needed money to come in to stay afloat until the end of the year.
Gauteng Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said that the NSA was one of the department’s schools of specialisation and that the school would continue to receive financial support from the department.
This financial support included an additional R3million to the financial support that the school already received from the department.
“In addition, we would like to encourage parents, who can afford to pay their fees to do likewise,” he said.
@Chulu_M
The Star
