Since its establishment in 2010 the Alumni Relations Office conducted workshops for schools in Nelson Mandela Bay in collaboration with the local Dept of Education. These workshops led to a number of schools setting up Past Pupil Associations. In some cases individual workshops were conducted at specific schools and a number of schools established their own associations. Funded by the Office of the Premier the Northern Areas People’s Development Initiative (NAPDI) entered into an MoU with the NMMU Alumni Association to help manage a school website project for targeted schools to ensure that the schools can share their history, activities and vision for the future and use the platform to also call on the support of past pupils and friends. More than thirty high schools and primary schools are now part of this project.
Another initiative resulted from this project and this involved past pupil associations forming a forum to share best practice and work on collaborative projects with mutual benefits. The first workshop of the AlumniNetwork was held on Saturday 12 November 2016 with close to fourty participants’ represents primary and high schools. The workshop was funded by NAPDI and facilitated by the NMMU Alumni Relations Director. It is hoped that the forum will to include more metro schools and hopefully also be replicated in other parts of the country. Ultimately, volunteers involved in past pupil associations want their alma maters to offer good quality education and allow learners to dream big and have a chance to become productive citizens of South Africa and the world. Collaborative planned projects of the initiative include bringing school stakeholders together to discuss a shared vision; events to motivate educators and bringing professionals on board to share their skills and expertise with struggling public schools.