Learners show off skills
FOURWAYS – Learners showcase their projects to former president Kgalema Motlanthe.
Young learners who are a part of the Lesedi Outreach programme proudly showed off the projects they’ve been working on to former president Kgalema Motlanthe on 9 November.
The expo, which was hosted at HeronBridge College, gave the learners the opportunity to showcase the projects they have been working on.
The Lesedi Outreach is a Saturday school programme which brings children from under-resourced schools around the Fourways area to HeronBridge. Through project-based learning, the project aims to develop high-level thinking, working memory, cognitive diversity and problem solving, among other skills.
Learners from grades 4 to 11 participate in the programme. They are divided in to groups based on their age where they begin working on their projects.
Ingo van der Merwe, the chairperson of the programme said, “What they’ve produced is about 90 hours’ worth of work which is about two weeks’ worth of schooling… Ninety hours of this schooling has an average symbol increase in their schoolwork, if not two symbols.”
Van der Merwe said that through these projects, the learners are having fun, solving problems and collaborating but it also translates to real learning.
Motlanthe and his wife Gugu took the opportunity to interact with the learners and encourage them to continue working hard at school. Learners proudly demonstrated how their projects work to the former president as well as parents and other young learners.
Learners from grades 10 and 11 created a robot which follows a black line or light, while learners from Grade 9 created a small stove using recycled materials.
Motlanthe said, “I’ve been blown out of the water with what I’ve witnessed because the Lesedi approach to education is something that should really be embraced and replicated nationally by government.”
He added the programme helps shine a light on the way forward for young learners. He commended all the learners and volunteers for their hard work to complete the projects and encouraged them to continue that work.
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