ORT South Africa celebrates success
SAVOY - Non-profit organisation ORT South Africa and financial services company Bidvest celebrated a milestone in their Teacher Empowerment Programme at the Capri Hotel.
“We need to examine our perspective… and believe that every school, every teacher and every child has the opportunity to excel,” said ORT CEO, Ariellah Rosenberg, issuing a welcome address at the celebration of the Teacher Empowerment Programme, which provides resources, teacher training and support for the teaching of maths and science in Alexandra schools.
The year-end celebration, attended by teachers from beneficiary schools, as well as representatives of ORT, corporate sponsor, Bidvest, and partner, the Gauteng Department of Education, celebrated a special milestone for the programme. Its first beneficiaries, in Grade 1 when the project started in 2008, graduated from primary school in 2014. Their progress has been both obvious and extraordinary, and ORT and Bidvest intend not only to support these pupils’ progress into high school, but to widen the project’s reach, with preliminary stages already launched in Ivory Park.
“We can’t wait for 2020 when our first matriculants have written their maths,” said Alma Berger of Bidvest, adding that the company is committed to this initiative for the long haul.
Pat Ntsobi, the department of education’s chief director for social support, stressed that the government relied on help from the private sector and non-profit organisations to achieve its goal of a 90 percent matric pass rate for Gauteng’s 1.9 million government pupils.
“We understand that this has been a remarkable success and we remain indebted to these initiatives,” he said.
An atmosphere of celebration prevailed as guests were treated to traditional dances, a demonstration of mathematical prowess, and a poetry performance by Grade 7 pupils.
During a panel discussion, meanwhile, teachers from participating schools shared their experiences of the programme, emphasising that the partnership with ORT and Bidvest had improved their confidence in teaching maths and science, and removed the fear of having teaching weaknesses exposed.
According to one panellist, Kate Makola, head of department at Skeen Primary, “One key to success is self-confidence, and one important key to self-confidence is preparation. And that is what ORT did.”
