Impact Report: In a country where much is said about problems in the education system it’s refreshing to hear about young people that are taking it upon themselves to deal with these issues. Two such students are Tsakane Ngoepe and Maja Morukhuladi of Dendron Senior Secondary School (situated about 60kms outside Polokwane). While attending the 2009 enke: Forumthese two learners (now in grade 12) developed an innovative community action project (CAP) that harnesses the resource most readily available to them: their peers. “We started the project because we realised there were some learners who were excellent but some who were extremely bad and we saw an opportunity to build a bridge between the two groups, to get them to help each other.”
Talking to Mr Moloko Matsapola, the Principal of Dendron, it’s clear that while the students are supported and celebrated they’re also the ones driving this initiative. Mr Matsapo comments on the big difference he’s seen in a short period of time. “These two students have revolutionised the whole school.”
Responding to an obvious need to improve the educational opportunities available to their peers, Tsakane and Maja developed a project which identified those students in each subject who were excelling, partnering them with those who were struggling to coach them during study periods in school hours, special evening and weekend sessions.
Tsakane believes that it’s the spirit of team work and unity which has been the most important thing to keep the project going and has strong hopes that the group will achieve their aim to see 100% of the grade 12s receive a bachelors pass in 2010 as opposed to the 70-80% that is the norm.
Having already reduced the number of grade 10s failing from 23% in 2008 to 8% at the end of 2009, and improving the grade 11 pass rate from 60% to 97.99% in the first two terms of running the project the students at Dendron Senior Secondary School seem on path to make a real difference, providing a model that can be implemented in any school where young people have the passion and determination to make their mark.
Case studies 2009
Name(s): Morukhuladi Maja and Tskane Ngoepe
School: Dendron Senior Secondary School
Province: Limpopo
Involvement: delegates at the 2009 enke: Forum
Impact Report: In a country where much is said about problems in the education system it’s refreshing to hear about young people that are taking it upon themselves to deal with these issues. Two such students are Tsakane Ngoepe and Maja Morukhuladi of Dendron Senior Secondary School (situated about 60kms outside Polokwane). While attending the 2009 enke: Forum these two learners (now in grade 12) developed an innovative community action project (CAP) that harnesses the resource most readily available to them: their peers. “We started the project because we realised there were some learners who were excellent but some who were extremely bad and we saw an opportunity to build a bridge between the two groups, to get them to help each other.”
Talking to Mr Moloko Matsapola, the Principal of Dendron, it’s clear that while the students are supported and celebrated they’re also the ones driving this initiative. Mr Matsapo comments on the big difference he’s seen in a short period of time. “These two students have revolutionised the whole school.”
Responding to an obvious need to improve the educational opportunities available to their peers, Tsakane and Maja developed a project which identified those students in each subject who were excelling, partnering them with those who were struggling to coach them during study periods in school hours, special evening and weekend sessions.
Tsakane believes that it’s the spirit of team work and unity which has been the most important thing to keep the project going and has strong hopes that the group will achieve their aim to see 100% of the grade 12s receive a bachelors pass in 2010 as opposed to the 70-80% that is the norm.
Having already reduced the number of grade 10s failing from 23% in 2008 to 8% at the end of 2009, and improving the grade 11 pass rate from 60% to 97.99% in the first two terms of running the project the students at Dendron Senior Secondary School seem on path to make a real difference, providing a model that can be implemented in any school where young people have the passion and determination to make their mark.