Submitted by Naison Goremusandu
Well, I used to think that the Eskom motto ‘Powering the world’ was just one of those clichés which is limited to just power in the sense of electricity. I was wrong. So wrong that after experiencing first-hand what Eskom can do to empower the nation, I felt so guilty of making uninformed judgements.
September 13 saw an influx of buses, taxis and private cars into the small and beautiful town of Estcourt and the beginning of a three-phase teaching and learning camp. These vehicles were carrying the future captains of industry and leaders in the form just under 400 of the class of 2019 matriculants from around the district.
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Estcourt High School was at the centre of this initiative and Mr BP Ngozo (Department of Education representative) and principal Mr D Diedrick stood with open arms with the school team, led by Mrs B Vilakazi from Estcourt High.
The aim was to help empower the learners and equip them with skills to tackle the forthcoming examinations, especially in critical subjects such as Mathematics, English, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Accounting and Business Studies.
I have to give a thumbs-up to the principal of Estcourt High and the support from the district office and our local CMC that made it possible to partner with Eskom to make this camp a great story to tell.
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Mr Ndlovu from the Department of Education thanked the selfless lead educators for their commitment and spoke at length on the nature of the curriculum, stressing that it is assessment-based, thus performance on the part of educators and learners alike is based on results. Therefore, as soon as the learners had settled in on the first day, on a Sunday afternoon, they were ambushed with diagnostic pre-tests for all the subjects on offer.
Eskom representative Mr Mlungisi Shongwe gave an emotional speech to encourage the learners and it was so touching that most had to reach out for the tissue box. In the end, he received a standing ovation and for him, he admitted that it was so humbling.
The camp went on until the next Sunday, when the learners headed back home.
The learners had to come again for the second phase that was from October 4 to 6.
Again, it was an awesome experience for both learners and teachers, and at the centre of it all, Mr Diedrick (a natural born disciplinarian), Mr BP Ngozo and Mrs B Vilakazi were watching the learners at all times with eagle eyes.
Surely nothing beats the joy of a teacher with disciplined learners. It made the task much easier and exciting, over and above that they were all well fed, protected and offered very comfortable accommodation.
Learners and educators all enjoyed each other’s company and the spiritual growth that was part of the package. Learners too had a chance to bond with one another through various sporting activities led by Mr Meck.
The final phase of the camp was from October 11 to 13.
Keeping in mind that performance is based on results, we had to administer post-tests to measure the effectiveness of the camp. Without any doubt, there was a remarkable improvement in all subjects. Most notably in Mathematics, which seem to be a problematic area – for this camp, it was a success story.
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Ward manager Mr B Smith also graced the closing ceremony, where he thanked the educators and learners, as well as the entire staff that was working behind the scenes. Head Office Eskom representative Ms Millicent Potgieter was also present at the closing ceremony and to show how much Eskom cares for the future, she brought with her yet another gift from Eskom and everyone present took home some goodies.
She rounded off the camp with a practical mathematics lesson on one of the most challenging topics, namely ‘Probability’, where numbers were selected at random and learners with those numbers were given some goodie bags. There was no better way of ending the camp than this!
Once again, we wish the class of 2019 all the best in their exams and encourage them to work hard, because this is just the beginning of a very exciting journey.
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