Chapter one · 1926
Five churches. One vision.
In a town where higher education was closed to them, five Paarl congregations decided to build the door themselves.
In 1926 the coloured community of Paarl was served by five churches: St Stephen's Anglican, Holy Trinity Anglican, Immanuel Uniting Reformed, Zion Uniting Reformed and Bethel Congregational. Between them they resolved to establish an institute that would give their children a schooling and a teaching qualification that the state would not provide.
The Athlone Institute was the result. It went on to establish the first school and teacher-training college for non-white learners and students in Paarl. Ninety-eight years later, at the Trust's 2024 annual general meeting, all five congregations were still represented around the table.
The Trust's own account holds that roughly forty parishioners pledged their homes and properties as security for the loan that made the purchase possible. That detail comes from the Institute's oral and institutional memory rather than from a published record, and the Trust is asked to confirm it against the founding minute books.
“They refused to let their educational heritage be erased.”
Sources for this chapter
- Athlone Institute celebrated founding in 1926 at AGM, Paarl Post, 29 November 2024 Read the source
- Partnerships and potential: Building Athlone Institute Paarl's second century, Sunday World, 15 August 2026 Read the source
- KYK: Met meesterlike musiek vier die Athlone Instituut Trust hul eeufees, eNCA, 2 August 2026 Read the source
- aibprof — Who We Are, athlonebursaries.yolasite.com Read the source· to be verified by the Trust