Metropolitan Raucall, a school for previously disadvantaged learners, has been awarded a prestigious Stevie Award, the only global award that honours outstanding performance in business.
Metropolitan Raucall won the International Business Award, nicknamed the Stevie, in the category for best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project in the Middle East and Africa.
Metropolitan Raucall won the award because of the impact it has made on the lives of young South Africans since its inception in 1992. The school received their ‘Stevie’ in a gala ceremony held in Ireland in September 2008.
The Johannesburg school, which is sponsored by Metropolitan Holdings, gives previously disadvantaged children with academic potential access to quality education, with an emphasis placed on accounting, mathematics and science.
“Metropolitan realised that there were many children out there with potential who weren’t getting the education they needed because they couldn’t afford it. So we partnered with the University of Johannesburg and the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), and started Raucall,” said Sitshengisiwe Mthembu, Project Manager at Group Empowerment and Corporate Affairs for Metropolitan.
The school has achieved great success in its short history, achieving a 100% matriculation pass rate for the last 16 years.
“It’s great winning this award,” said a proud Carel Freysen, principal of the school. “I think we’ve done well because we have a very dedicated staff compliment, eager learners and sponsors who have made sure that we get all the support we need and that we have good facilities to work in.
“The Department of Education and the Sunday Times have acknowledged several times that we are one of the country’s top schools. The fact that 85% of our learners have achieved university exemptions speak for itself,” said Freysen, who has been the principal since 1997.
This is not Metropolitan’s only corporate social responsibility project that provides assistance to underprivileged learners. Its ‘Actuaries on the Move’ project made it to the finals of the Stevie awards in the same category as Metropolitan Raucall.
This project identifies learners in township schools with mathematical ability and enrols them in a two year part-time course to build those skills and encourage them to pursue a career in the Actuarial profession.
‘We became involved because we believe that, together with other role players and the community, we can make a difference to South Africa. The results show that this is true,” adds Mthembu.