Prince Mredlana, from Thokoza, is a successful entrepreneur who has been running a bag business while completing his chemistry and maths BSc degree, at Wits.
He is committed to developing young minds in his community, especially in maths.
Tshepo Makgoba is a science honours student, from Brakpan, and has already been tutoring high school pupils in maths in his spare time.
He would like to expand this service and offer maths support to more children in his community, as he’s seen first-hand how important a strong maths foundation is for future career prospects.
Joseph Makuwa, from Rondebult, Germiston, is a third year electrical engineering student at Wits.
He believes everyone can excel at maths if you work hard enough.
These tutors are role models for their communities and have recently joined a growing organisation called Brighter Futures Tuition, with six maths centres — in Germiston, Kempton Park, Brakpan, Thokoza, Braamfontein and Orlando.
Brighter Futures Tuition offers affordable extra maths tutoring, using advanced, interactive technology on mobile phones.
Grade Eight to 12 pupils get to learn at their own pace, while still enjoying the advantage of individualised attention from a tutor.
“It is so crucial to give a solid maths foundation to our children, starting early – at Grade Eight level – so that, when they are choosing their subjects at the end of Grade Nine, they don’t feel overwhelmed by maths and feel forced to drop to maths literacy,” said Tshepo.
He has seen first-hand how the children from his community who confident to take pure maths at high school go on to promising degrees and careers and he wants to help more pupils achieve this.
“Since 2009, there has been a decline of 17 per cent in pupils choosing core maths, whereas 58 per cent of our children are choosing maths literacy.
“According to educationists Gail Campbell (Zenex) and Dr Martin Prew (Wits), the problem often starts in primary school, where many students fail to build the foundation maths skills.
“They move on to high school with large chunks of missing maths knowledge and then start failing, resulting in many of their teachers encouraging them to shift to maths literacy.
“Our poor maths has dire consequences for South Africa as a developing nation, resulting in shortages of skills in mining, energy, engineering, construction, IT and more.
“The recent, much-contested, World Economic Forum report places South Africa’s maths quality last of 148 countries, behind countries like Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Nigeria,” said Joanne Brink, from Brighter Futures Tuition.
Prince is especially excited about using Brighter Futures technology to help the pupils in his community to excel.
“Brighter Futures technology automatically pitches our maths questions at each pupil’s level of understanding, so we can ensure they don’t feel out of their depth.
“In maths, once you have the fundamentals, it’s all about practising and hard work.
“Our technology makes the practising fun, so students don’t feel like they’re doing hard work – which makes our job easier,” he said.
He believes all pupils can improve with the Brighter Futures ingredients of good tutors, interactive technology and motivating practice.
