College responds to student concerns

A number of students at Damelin Boksburg are anxious about their future and feel like their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Students who spoke to the Advertiser said they raised their concerns about Damelin on numerous occasions to no avail. A second year student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said their biggest issue is that the institution is not effectively communicating with them during the pandemic.

She alleged that Damelin Boksburg is not keeping them informed about the way forward. According to her, many students are unable to access the student portal (where students can obtain study material). The student highlighted issues such as a shortage of lecturers and wrong timetables.

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“We feel lost and don’t know what do anymore. Damelin is just not communicating with us. Students received an email regarding virtual classes but many students like myself don’t have access to it. Damelin is not assisting us. Several students are also struggling with data. Some issues started before the lockdown. We received the wrong timetables when classes started at the end of February so then we didn’t work for two weeks and wasted our time.

“I just think they had enough time to prepare. We also don’t have lecturers for certain modules and then we have to submit assignments that we don’t know how to complete. I sent emails to the general manager and visited the office with my parents with no success. They make us believe that things are going to improve. We pay a lot of money and don’t want it to be wasted,” the student pointed out.

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, added: “We feel it is unfair that we have to pay while we didn’t receive any work.”

A bursary student said: “Our parents are anxious about our studies, and we’re frustrated because we’re regularly wasting petrol and taxi money because the college can’t inform us in time that our class is cancelled.

Michael Thurley, chief operating officer of Edcor Holdings (an education group of which Damelin is one of their brands), claimed the institution has listened and continues to listen to the suggestions of students.

“We therefore will make changes as needed to materials or virtual classes as we fully implement our online learning system. The focus remains the personal and professional success of Damelin students,” said Thurley.

“Damelin, which has a proud history of more the 79/80 years of providing education to South Africans and which is passionate about the interests of its students and the quality of education it delivers, has acted with great urgency to ensure students are able to complete the academic year and be successful in their studies.

“Damelin has had regular weekly communications sent to students since the national lockdown started at the end of March. In addition, and as part of the communication strategy to keep parents and sponsors informed, formal letters were sent out to all interested parties on March 16, May 8 and May 17, which kept all abreast of the progress and the state of affairs in the education sector.”

Online learning system

Thurley said in April, Damelin placed a huge range of educational materials onto the online learning platform for students to access and support their learning.

“In addition, the college has commenced and currently offers virtual classes for its students. Records show 125 630 student logins for the month of May. This means students are accessing the online learning system materials (module content, videos, think points, study quizzes) and engaging with each other and their lecturers.

“There is an increase in engagement as students are becoming more familiar with the online platform until a return to classes is permitted by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande,” Thurley said.

He highlighted that it must be understood that Damelin does not receive any grant from the government or from any other sources and relies solely on the fees it collects from students for its sustainability.

“Despite that shutdown having resulted in a zero income situation for Damelin overall, we have taken steps in the interests of our students and the institution. Protecting lives of our students and staff remains a priority in the context of not diminishing the desires and dreams of students and their families for them to study.

“We have made the best use of SMS communication, emails and phone calls to ensure that students kept their cellphone numbers and email addresses updated to enable us to facilitate their learning journey. We have assisted many students to get online access and continues to actively provide students with advice and support to either initially access the online platform or how to study online.

“The college has also lobbied and negotiated with cellular companies and data providers to reduce their costs to allow students to cost-effectively use data for study purposes. We have also identified which academics would be available to support students in the online learning space and to allow students interact, ask questions and discuss the learning materials.

“Attention has been given to, and will continue to be given and to manage, the training and monitoring of its academics for this unprecedented learning situation and will address any reasonable concerns raised by students in relation to their learning experience.

“One must understand that the entire methodology of the learning process had to be adapted to a digital format, and the presentation of virtual classes also involved the training of the lecturers in this new way of learning. We are proud to say that we believe that we are the class leaders in this field.

“To make best use of the semester time, we have been actively making the study materials, online discussions and live virtual class interactions with our academics available in myClass. Until students are permitted to fully return to campus, we encourage our students to commit time each day in self-directed study and online learning through the student portal, myClass, where we continue to support all students with an enriched online learning experience.

Given all the uncertainties of the Covid-19’s potential impact, Damelin has complied with directives received from the government. As of today, there is still no date as to when higher education institutions will be allowed to fully recommence with their operations.

“We are keenly aware that families and students have experienced under Covid-19 an increase in financial, emotional and other stresses,” he continued.

He said parents or Damelin Boksburg students who have any queries or questions may contact Marietjie Pienaar at Marietjie.pienaar@educor.co.za for assistance.

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