Matric pupils at Alexandra’s three high schools received a timely boost in their preparation for the final examinations when volunteer tutors from the United Kingdom descended on the school to lend a hand.
The volunteers from the University of Warwick in Warwickshire, in the midlands of Great Britain, used their summer vacation to visit schools in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana to teach English and maths to final year students in those countries.
South Africa had its own share of 40 volunteers in three provinces – Gauteng, Limpopo and the Western Cape. In Gauteng, the tutors visited schools in Alex and Soweto.
In Alexandra, the tutors have already spent five of their six weeks at Minerva, Alex and Eastbank high schools as guest tutors to help pupils prepare well for their examinations which are due in two months’ time.
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All the tutors supplement the work already being done by the normal teachers at the various institutions in the formerly disadvantaged schools.
Warwick in Africa project manager, Sarah Walker said after about four weeks of teaching, the volunteers usually test the pupils to gauge the success of their lessons and check that the pupils really understand and comprehend their work.
“From those tests, we have witnessed a 57 percent improvement on student marks in both subjects,” said Walker, who indicated that the tutors have come to Africa every year during their summer vacation since the inception of the programme in 2006.
Robyn Jacobsen of Experian South Africa, which is a data analytics company, said they had partnered with the university to sponsor the tutors for their volunteer work in South African schools. “We feel honoured in being partners for the betterment of education in our country and for these children who form the future business leaders of our country.”
Jacobsen said it was good business practice to see for oneself where the money was being spent and be able to gauge the results of what she termed, the ‘wonderful work of the volunteer tutors’.
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