Special Commendation — Education Award: PEP Student Prince Academy
The key challenge facing the South African education system is to improve the core performance of learners, particularly in the critical areas of literacy and numeracy.
At the same time schools are being challenged to extend the school day and to deliver after-school activities that are conducive to learning and the development of the child, according to PEP’s managing director, George Steyn.
His company’s flagship corporate social investment (CSI) programme aims to give learners an academic leg-up during an important stage of their academic development. Called the PEP Student Prince Academy programme, it is shaped by CSI development agency Social Innovations.
Kimon Phitidis of Social Innovations says the academy programme improves basic literacy and numeracy performance by offering regular and sustained formal tuition in the foundation concepts of these learning areas.
Academies support learners during the grade four year, which is seen as the transition year from tuition in the vernacular to tuition in English and the transition from the junior to the senior primary school syllabus. ‘This is one of the most challenging years in the life of a primary school child and one of the years in which they require the most support,” says Phitidis.
‘Our academies operate within schools and draw learners from the host school and surrounding schools.” Up to 165 learners are registered at each of the six PEP Student Prince Academy sites. The programme includes two hours of tuition three times a week, covering literacy, numeracy, life orientation and related activities.
Each academy employs a manager, six teachers, a caterer and a cleaner. The training provided through the programme builds the skills base of the host school to the benefit of a broader audience of learners.
The teachers employed by the programme are given extensive training in each of the learning areas. This takes place during school holidays to avoid disruption of the normal tuition programme.
Each registered learner is given a school satchel filled with stationery and other supplies at the
beginning of the term. They also get a meal at the end of every day. Their attendance is tracked and they are given ‘loyalty awards” twice a year based on attendance. Parent evenings are hosted to inform parents about the academy and to encourage attendance.
Phitidis says average point improvement in literacy across the academies is 29% and the average improvement in numeracy is 20%. ‘Based on their school results, learners enrolled in the academies have performed better in language and mathematics than those grade four learners not enrolled, by an average of 18% and 34% respectively.”
He says the academies are seen to have a positive effect by learners, schools and their communities. ‘Parents are supportive and appreciative because they provide a safe environment, meals, supplementary learning and many activities that the learners would not enjoy otherwise.”
Based on these results, the programme was expanded from four schools during 2008 to an additional two schools in 2009. By June this year there were about 1 000 learners enrolled in the programme and enrolment is more or less equally split between boys and girls.
The programme manager identifies schools situated in impoverished areas where a large number of learners are from unemployed families.
‘Typically, many of the learners have been affected by HIV/Aids and live alone or with extended families. Three of the six academies draw a large percentage of their learners from nearby informal settlements,” says Steyn.
‘We have targeted communities where most parents and guardians would not be able to afford any form of supplementary education. Learners are also not assisted with school work at home as many parents have few numeracy skills and are either illiterate or semi-literate.”
Steyn says the programme operates as a partnership between PEP, the department of education and the host schools. Governing bodies and school management teams have been consulted extensively on the design and operations of the programme.
Four NGOs provide content and training services to the programme. Other learning institutions have asked to share the learning methodologies.
‘Teachers from our Tygersig academy were asked to share their methodologies with 400 schools in the Western Cape and our academy manager from Tembisa was invited to present academy learning methodologies to 41 schools in Ekurhuleni,” says Steyn. ‘Our programme is offered to other companies as a tried-andtested CSI programme that works.”
The Investing in the Future judges commended the intervention at a crucial time in the educational life of learners. ‘It is changing lives by thinking out of the box,” they said.