/ 2 November 2010

Helping pupils help themselves

Helping Pupils Help Themselves

Winner — Drivers of Change Civil Society category: Ikamva Youth

For the past seven years high school pupils at under-resourced township schools have accessed supplementary lessons at the non-profit Ikamva Youth project to ease their journey through an overwhelmed public education system.

Joy Olivier, one of Ikamva Youth’s founder members, says the project started when she was involved in researching “how science and technology drive the economy”. A visit to schools in Khayelitsha township in Cape Town revealed an “education crisis”, she says.

“Learners needed extra help, so we contacted our friends and started tutoring them on Saturdays. We didn’t really have a plan, but wanted to go there and see where they needed help. “That’s still our approach. Learners identify the areas where they need help,” says Olivier.

A lack of funding meant Olivier could join the organisation full-time only this year. She’s had to hold down other jobs while running the project with volunteers. Funding breakthroughs helped Ikamva Youth secure a R2.5-million budget in 2010.

It now has eight full-time staffers who manage after-school classes for 410 learners spread across three Western Cape townships, a township in KwaZulu-Natal and another in Gauteng.

Technology has ensured that Ikamva Youth’s curriculum notes, including its computer literacy syllabus, is able to be shared between centres and with other organisations. Volunteers are able to share lessons and implementation know-how through the network.

“Partnerships are key to our model and low-cost efficiency. We’re based at municipal libraries, schools and youth centres and hold our holiday programmes on university campuses. “Partners enable us to have a quality, high-impact reach in spite of minimal financial input,” says Olivier.

The big picture is that education “enables disadvantaged youth to pull themselves out of poverty and into university”. Student volunteers from nearby universities and local professionals offer their time to assist high school learners from grade eight to 12 to navigate all their school subjects.

Olivier says Ikamva Youth’s foundation rests on “peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, volunteerism and cross-sector partnerships to redress inequality and transform South African education”. “The model draws from a large and growing pool of volunteers. Ex-learners who gain entrance to tertiary institutions return to tutor the following set of learners,” she says.

More than half the volunteers at the Khayelitsha branches comprise former pupils. ‘Learners become agents of change, which is a real and sustainable example of grassroots empowerment in which the community becomes both beneficiary and benefactor,” she says.

The results show in the pass rate of Ikamva Youth matric students. Since inception, it has ranged between 89% and 100%. The only requirement from pupils is that they maintain attendance at class and work hard for results.

It’s a long-term intervention that leads youngsters to understand that success does not come through quick-fix shortcuts. Olivier says the lazy students soon find their way out of the classroom.

“The results prove consistently that the learners who work hardest achieve highest. “To keep their place in the programme, learners must maintain a minimum 75% attendance for all sessions. We have ‘kick-outs’ three times a year to ensure that only committed learners remain and work consistently throughout the period,” she says.

Ikamva Youth does not limit its focus to getting pupils through high school. Life skills form part of its winter schools programme, which offers career guidance and exposure to post-school opportunities so that the youth can “realise their dreams”.

After high school the pupils will, ideally, move on to tertiary education and Olivier’s team also assists by building their “skills sets, experience, confidence and networks”. “We pay their university application and registration fees and we also help them source bursaries. It’s a struggle to get university fees for a family whose entire monthly income is equal to the university registration fee,” she says.

Statistics show that less than 10% of pupils at township schools access tertiary education. By contrast, Ikamva Youth has been able to assist more than 70% of its past two grade 12 groups to gain access to tertiary education.

The university graduates from its matric classes of 2005 and 2006 are accessing postgraduate study, scholarships to study abroad and great jobs, she says. It’s a development approach that works to end a poverty cycle, Olivier says.

“It not only alleviates poverty for the individuals, their families and the wider community, but the development of young black professionals contributes to economic development and transformation at higher levels too.”

The Drivers of Change judges praised Ikamva Youth’s achievement in breaking the cycle of poverty through education and for helping pupils to take responsibility for their own education and future. “These learners are the true drivers of change as they are also setting a good example for younger learners to become agents of change for their own success,” the judges said.