Information
Tuition was initially planned to take the face-to-face mode at the EY premises in Sandton. A few school holidays during July and October were also targeted for the programme implementation. The subjects offered on the project include Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting and English as per project concept and initial agreement. Due to the nature of the programme, the learners get all other forms of support which with a holistic intend to empower them and create a benign environment around them to enable excellence in everything they do.The programme is aimed mainly at enhancing the performance of girl learners on all subject offerings and increasing levels of confidence in learners thereof, as well as providing the learners with all forms of support from psychosocial to leadership skills development.
EY – NextGen
Executive Summary
Funda Afrika has been appointed by EY to roll out a learner support programme which is hereinafter to be referred to as NextGen. The programme was offered over to Funda Afrika in March 2018 and commenced operations on 12 March 2018 running through the year 2019 and 2020 into 2022. The project annually targets 30 girl learners which currently come from six secondary schools in the Gauteng province. These deserving girl-learners were selected and adopted into the programme as beneficiaries by the EY Corporate Social Responsibility (EY CSR) unit. The learners are supposedly top performers at schools they are emanating from and meeting the holistic requirements as stipulated in the EY CSR selection criteria.Learn More
The programme is aimed mainly at enhancing the performance of girl learners on all subject offerings and increasing levels of confidence in learners thereof, as well as providing the learners with all forms of support from psychosocial to leadership skills development.
It was unfortunate that with the outbreak of Covid-19 the country had to be locked down towards end of March 2020 leaving the programme organizers with no choice other than putting the programme on hold while planning on how to continue supporting the learners amid this worldwide pandemic. The programme funder funded the online mode of support by first procuring hardware and data for both the learners and the tutors. With those put in place, the programme resumed on 29 May 2020. The 29th and 30th May 2020 were mainly meant for programme pilot but some teaching took place still. The programme to date has done almost 24 months of successful curriculum implementation through virtual platforms.
It was unfortunate that with the outbreak of Covid-19 the country had to be locked down towards end of March 2020 leaving the programme organizers with no choice other than putting the programme on hold while planning on how to continue supporting the learners amid this worldwide pandemic. The programme funder funded the online mode of support by first procuring hardware and data for both the learners and the tutors. With those put in place, the programme resumed on 29 May 2020. The 29th and 30th May 2020 were mainly meant for programme pilot but some teaching took place still. The programme to date has done almost 24 months of successful curriculum implementation through virtual platforms.
| Beneficiary Stats Per Feeder School | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Name of School |
Grade |
Total Per School |
||
|
10 |
11 |
12 |
||
|
Ivory Park |
2 |
3 |
|
5 |
|
Sunrise Secondary School |
1 |
2 |
|
3 |
|
Eqinisweni Secondary School |
2 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
|
Tsakane Secondary School |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
Altmont Technical High School |
|
2 |
2 |
4 |
|
Zimisele Secondary School |
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
|
Total Per Grade |
8 |
10 |
10 |
28 |
By the end of 2021 it was evident that content was covered up to 100% for all the three grades and in accordance with the adjusted Annual Teaching Plans. It also proved to be the case that due to the national rotational schooling resolution as the country’s way to fight the spread of COVID19, the NextGen learners were at the most advantage when it came to curriculum coverage. Provision of lessons during the school holidays also came in handy and proven necessary for the success of the programme in 2021.
The positive gradients of the table below illustrate a general good performance throughout the year 2021, with Grade 12 (the Nextgen class of 2021) showing the best trajectory of performance as compared to the other two grades and as compared to all the previous grade 12 classes in the Johannesburg offering of the programme.
There is a pattern of good performance progression for Grades 10 and 12 across the subjects while Grade 11 shows a consistent trait of lesser performance between the baseline and final examinations on content subjects. EFAL’s performance for all grades is as expected and shows goo performance gains.
Learners by now have adjusted completely from the traditional face to face mode of teaching and learning to the fully virtual mode.
Since resumption of the programme (through the virtual approach), challenges which were experienced from the beginning have been dealt with. Learners have also familiarized themselves with the technology in the past year. Only a few issues such as poor or no internet coverage due to power outages are the examples of challenges experienced now. There is a perpetual non or poor attendance of classes among a few learners.
The programme promises to bear fruit at the end of the year. Although the approach is not face to face, continuing with the programme is assisting the learners so much since they attend school on rotational basis. Another issue to bear in mind is that although the annual teaching plans for grades 10 and 11 have been slightly trimmed, the learners will still need to have mastered both this year’s content and next year’s content at the end of 2021.
2021 Matric learners have so far been the best performing class historically since the start of the Nextgen programme. We look forward to their further success as they enter the higher education and training space to go further their studies
The programme promises to bear fruit at the end of the year. Although the approach is not face to face, continuing with the programme is assisting the learners so much since they attend school on rotational basis. Another issue to bear in mind is that although the annual teaching plans for grades 10 and 11 have been slightly trimmed, the learners will still need to have mastered both this year’s content and next year’s content at the end of 2021.
2021 Matric learners have so far been the best performing class historically since the start of the Nextgen programme. We look forward to their further success as they enter the higher education and training space to go further their studies