High school students who have been on the programme are recording great improvements in their maths marks of up to 15% in just two months.
“The programme is run from a school, church or community centre and uses a cellphone app and a tutor and this combination seems to work very well, judging by the results we’ve seen in pilot areas,” says Joanne Brink, CEO of the company responsible for the roll out.
“SA really needs ways to improve our maths education, we were ranked last worldwide last year,” she says.
Springs’ tutor, Mmatsatsi Phadime, resides in KwaThema and has a passion for education.
“I want more young learners to take pure maths at matric level and I have always tried to get involved in numeracy and literacy projects in my community because the inclusion of pure maths on your matric certificate translates into greater opportunities,” she explains.
Mmatsatsi holds a BComm in mathematics and economics.
The cellphone technology was developed by Siyavula based on the textbooks which it produced in partnership with the Department of Education.
Siyavula has distributed millions of Caps-aligned textbooks across the country in partnership with the department.
The application is in line with the current Caps curriculum and allows students access to the whole year’s curriculum and can be accessed on any device.
“I feel the app relates to students as the technology is interactive and learners today are mostly on their cellphones,” Mmatsatsi says.
She adds that there are also additional exercises available to students who feel they need more practice before a test.
The tutor communicates with the parents, who decides how much time they think their child needs to spend a week with Phadime.
“I see the students about twice a week for tutoring, depending on how much tutoring they need.”
A company developed this innovative mobile platform to help learners improve their maths marks within a matter of months.
Although the service is not free, there is no cost to download the app onto a mobile device, which is available for both Apple and Android devices.
Parents can decide how many hours of tutoring they think their child needs and book accordingly.
The cost of tutoring is R50 per hour if paid three months in advance, R55 per hour if paid monthly and R60 per hour if paid weekly.
Phadime says is quite affordable as this covers the technology and the tutor.
For more information contact Phadime on 083 883 2844.
