The M2 Coffee Shop’s Grade 10 Autumn Academy this year unpacked the global skills shortage by highlighting some frightening worldwide statistics that had the learners reeling.
“We looked at the various reasons for the problem of skills shortages and how companies and governments are trying to address the challenges,” says M2 Coffee Shop project manager Anne Maclean.
“We also did some exercises aimed at engendering a sense of leadership and responsibility in the children. We split them into groups and each group had to represent a company or government department and investigate what is really being done about the skills crisis.
“They then had to report to the group at large — pretending to be the CEOs or MECs. It was an amazing experience and the exercise provided the stage for future leaders to shine, although the children were very shocked by the stats we gave them.”
One of the stats that had the learners so shocked was Oxfam UK’s finding that one in four adults in the developing world of 872-million people is illiterate. Others included ActionAid’s claims that 46% of girls in the world’s poorest countries have no access to primary education and that to provide universal primary education would cost $10-billion a year — a figure which represents half of what Americans spend on ice cream each year.
“Another shock came when the learners found out that, each year, more than 10-million children die of hunger and preventable diseases — that’s more than 30 000 per day and one every three seconds, according to Bread for the World, Unicef and the World Health Organisation. They were also stunned to learn that women do approximately 66% of the world’s work in return for less than 5% of its income,” says Maclean.
Another valuable workshop session took place with Grade 9 learners when the Northern Cape department of social services reported to the learners on the progress being made in the Northern Cape with regard to reaching some of the province’s goals, highlighting which targets have not been reached.
“A challenge was set for the Grade 9s, who had to work in groups and come up with their own plan of action for meeting the province’s goals. Their plans had to include naming the service providers, method of quality assurance, a budget and a pie chart to illustrate the budget. The challenge was huge but the kids rose to the occasion — the report-backs from the groups were incredible!” says Maclean.
Another of the project’s successful workshops took place on August 8 this year. The 080808 Maths Extravaganza took place in a community hall in Galeshewe and featured 60 learners teaching 360 children from the community.
“We organised a DJ on the stage with hip music and stage smoke, delicious food, stationery and each kid was able to have their own Casio calculator for the day,” says Maclean. “It was an awesome event. The teachers present were also excited to see so many kids doing maths for the whole day — and loving it!”
The 2008 Grade 10 Kimberley Maths Programme is also focusing on getting “kids to teach kids”, explains Maclean. “During SET Week, our 60 Grade 10s ran 10 workshops for 560 Grade 9s from schools in Kimberley. The content of the workshops included language (global skills shortage), maths, science and music — playing the djembe drums — what we call the Maths by Music [M2] Coffee Shop.”
“We received R20 000 from the Maid Foundation this year and this was used to invest in purchasing the djembe drums. We identified local unemployed youth from Galeshewe and they are now our drumming facilitators. Now the kids in our programmes can really celebrate the ‘rhythm of mathematics’ and in the process we are helping to create employment.”