Learners who want lasting and relevant skills at school are opting for accounting and, thanks to educational software, they are mastering the subject with greater ease.
Dinwiddie High School in Germiston, Johannesburg, is one of the schools that use software to teach the subject. Learners and teachers rate the resource highly. They use Pastel Accounting, deveÂloped by Softline Pastel. It explains the abstract concepts of accounting to learners and teachers.
The Pastel Certified Programme aims to make accounting more accessible and practical and prepares learners for the job market.
The programme uses the computer as its key tool but still taps into manual and traditional teaching methods. Some of its interesting features include, among others, animation and full-colour illustration.
It also helps teachers cut down on their planning time, does self-marking and monitors learner progress. Anele Masoka, an 18-year-old grade 12 learner at Dinwiddie High, said he started using the programme in grade 10.
“Before I came across this programme I used to battle a lot with accounting, but now I understand it better. I am now able to study on my own to such an extent that I have already finished the syllabus.”
Masoka said he landed casual jobs at two big-name retail stores during the school holidays.
Relebohile Khanye, another grade 12 learner, agreed: “Last year accounting frustrated me, especially concepts like supporting documents, analysis and interpretation and classification of transactions.
“But after I started using this programme earlier this year, my understanding improved.
“Today I know how to operate a computer and this will open a lot of job opportunities for me when I finish school,” said Khanye.
Accounting teachers are also positive. Dephni Makaleng, an accounting teacher, said learners’ accounting performance has improved.
“Another major positive outcome is that it empowers learners with relevant and marketable skills when they finish school.
“In fact most of them are now employed at various big retail stores,” she said.
Nomsa Dhlame, another accounting teacher at Dinwiddie High, said that it is useful, helpful and practical. She said the practical part of it is crucial as it deepens learners’ understanding.
More importantly for Dhlame: “It reduces teachers’ administrative workload as it has in-built features like learner self-assessment.”