It gives us great pleasure to report on the 2010 matric results for the Ivory Park branch of IkamvaYouth. Our first ever matric group benefitted tremendously from the collective efforts of a great group of volunteers through the countless hours of tutoring, career guidance and mentoring. The end result is that these Ikamvanites achieved a remarkable 94% Matric Pass Rate and 82% of the class of 2010 are eligible to access tertiary education this year.
We’re celebrating these results for so many reasons not least of which is confirmation once more of the replicability and effectiveness of the IkamvaYouth model. But perhaps even more importantly, these results show what is possible when a group of dedicated individuals intent on making a positive difference get together with minimal resources but bucket-loads of commitment and enthusiasm. Hats off to all of you who contributed last year and especially to our regular volunteers as your contribution will be felt for many years to come.
There are also individual achievements to be celebrated, and we congratulate Brighton Dube for scoring an incredible 5 distinctions and being awarded the KPMG Bursary for his Accountancy studies this year. Equally impressive is Matthew Mlahleki who arrived at IkamvaYouth with 43% for Maths and 45% for Science but matriculated with 5 B’s (including Maths and Science). We expect Matthew to be studying electrical engineering at Wits this year (we are awaiting final confirmation from the university). Overall it is not just the pass-rate that pleases us but also the quality of the passes with 59% of our group attaining bachelor level passes and 23% diploma level passes.
Once again, thank you to all of you who played a part in this success (big or small) and we hope you feel proud of what you have helped to make a reality. We’re especially grateful for the contributions from our supporters: Datatec, Transnet, Hatch, Resolve, Nashua Mobile, Schneider-Electric and Calvary Methodist Church and we look forward to what 2011 has in store.
We will be holding an Open Day for interested learners and parents on 22 January with final applications due on 5 February. The first tutoring sessions are due to begin again on 12 Feb. Sign up here to receive weekly schedule updates from the Ebony/Ivory Park branch.
For the full results of our other branches, click here: https://ikamvayouth.org.www518.jnb1.host-h.net/blog/2011/01/07/wow-we-did-well-ikamvanites-achieve-excellent-results-yet-again
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Although the Careers Indaba happened *ages* ago, it was quite a crazy time for us and although we posted these pics and clips, we forgot to share the stories and news of what ended up being a really awesome day.
Collaborating with Equal Education was brilliant, and as a result, the day was bigger and better than the first Indaba we held in Khayelitsha in 2009. We leveraged contacts and lessons learned from the original two-week-long Indaba held at the Masiphumelele Library, to ensure that learners had a wide array of opportunities to interact with people from different institutions, career fields, organisations and companies. Have a look at the programme to see who was there. (careersindaba.program-2.pdf).
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Aziza Mdee from Equal Education and IkamvaYouth interns Chris Fan and Miriam Rodriquez worked hard to ensure that we were organised and ready. The response was fantastic, and learners from all over Khayelitsha and many other communities streamed through the doors. Ms Makhoba, a teacher, inspired the audience, and Amanda Van der Vyver took everyone through the “Careers Exploration for Dummies” (career_exploration_for_dummies-1.pdf) booklet she created to help learners get the most out of the day.
Volunteers from various fields (from law, to medicine, fashion, engineering, hospitality services and the police service) were available for learners to interact with one-on-one, and many great connections were made. Some of these even lead to work experience opportunities!
We’re very grateful to everyone who made this very special day happen, and are looking forward to doing it all again in 2011!
So Andrew’s matric result predictions were both spot on! While analysis and discussion on the second point will follow next week, today we’re celebrating the first: that ikamvanites will once again excel 🙂
Ikamvanites have shown, once again, that transformation is possible, despite the odds. The great news is that 78% of the class of 2010 is eligible to move from township schools to tertiary institutions next year!
It has been a difficult year for matrics across the country, with much of the school year lost to the World Cup and public sector strikes, and learners in township schools have been hit especially hard. Yet ikamvanites achieved an 87% pass rate, with 52% Bachelor passes and 38% diploma passes. 36 distinctions were awarded. We’re producing results comparable to the country’s top (and highly resourced) schools in our mission to redress inequality in South Africa: Well done to everyone who’s ensured that our matric pass rate has been between 87 and 100% since 2005!
Each branch has achieved excellent results:
- 85% pass in Western Cape (of whom 48% achieved bachelor and 39% diploma)
- 85% in KZN (of whom 50% achieved bachelor and 45% diploma), and
- 94% in Gauteng (of whom 63% bachelor and 25% diploma).
Of those learners that failed 70% are eligible to write supplementary exams, and we need all hands on deck to ensure they get the support they need.
While we are very proud of our learners and these achievements, the real measure of IkamvaYouth’s success is our ability to help learners access post-school opportunities. Achieving these results is a first big step, yet many obstacles need to be overcome in the next few weeks, including actually being accepted, finding money for registration fees and navigating the bureaucracy of institutions and financial aid. Some of our learners have already received confirmation of university placements and scholarships, but there is work to be done to meet our target of at least 60% enrolling at tertiary with the remainder securing learnerships or employment.
The young social entrepreneurs (i.e. the rockstars Khona, Joe & Andrew, Winile, Nombu, Nico& Zoe&Sue) that run IkamvaYouth’s branches have successfully leveraged the power of volunteerism and strategic partnerships (with local universities, public libraries, NGOs, companies and foundations) to replicate the IkamvaYouth model. Together with their awesome volunteers, they ensure that learners receive the information and support they need to succeed despite the challenges of township school education. These results are possible thanks to the learners’ and volunteers’ hard work and the rallied support of diverse stakeholders. The fully sponsored Answer Series Study Guides were no doubt a big boost in assisting our learners. IkamvaYouth garnered support from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) last year, and hopes to partner with other Education Departments in 2011.
Many learners jumped 2-3 symbols since joining the organisation, and there have been excellent individual results. Brighton Dube, a Gauteng ikamvanite, received five distinctions. Simphiwe Ndzube, a committed Ikamvanite at the Masiphumelele branch achieved 94% in visual art and has been accepted at UCT’s Michaelis Art School. He says “What made me focus; I had a dream, a goal to get into university, which motivated me to work hard, study every day, and I was aided by the supported from my family, friends, teachers and IkamvaYouth mentors. Wow, I did well! UCT here I come! I am proud of myself!” Thabisile Cele, an ikamvanite in KZN, had to overcome the challenge of her parents not understanding why she studied late into the night. Her parents were often unhappy with her “wasting electricity” while studying at night (her father is disabled and unemployed). Encouraged by her sister (a former ikamvanite) not to give up, Thabisile saved up some money and bought candles. Her family is celebrating her Bachelor’s pass and acceptance to study Environmental Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN).
Matthew Mlahleki celebrates his 5Bs and 3Cs with tutors Fulufelo Tshigomana and Clement Shai at IY Gauteng
“We are thrilled that the class of 2010 has achieved the results to make this change happen for themselves and for others”, says IkamvaYouth KZN director Khona Dlamini. Winile Mabhoko, the Khayelitsha branch coordinator, expects that most of these matriculants will return as volunteer tutors and mentors, as has happened in previous years. Class of 2010: Please pay-it-forward and register as IY tutors!
We’re welcoming new learners in grades 8-11 into its programmes. Interested learners, parents and volunteers should make their way to their nearest branch on 22 January for IkamvaYouth’s Open Day, to find out how to become an ikamvanite.
Right now there are many hundreds of thousands of ex-matriculants anxiously waiting for their Matric results to come out on Thursday 6 January 2011.
With this in mind, I’d like to stick my neck out a bit and make two predictions for the 2010 Matric results.
- My first prediction (and one I make with a reasonable degree of confidence) is that Ikamvanites will once again excel despite the incredible obstacles they encounter in their schooling careers. The MEC for Education in Gauteng, Barbara Creecy, recently indicated that our township schools cover an average of only 60% of the curriculum each year which has a devastating compounding effect each year a learner progresses. (click here for her talk). Despite this, the IkamvaYouth Matric group will once again be an inspiring example of a group of individuals taking their futures into their hands though hard work, collaboration, dedication and commitment. As a result, many more township school learners will access quality post-school opportunities and many more will return to IkamvaYouth as volunteers to help others do the same.
- The second prediction (and this is more a hunch) is that the overall matric pass-rates will stay the same or close to the same as 2009 – and may even improve by a couple percentage points. Now if you’ve been following the traumatic schooling year that was 2010 you’d probably think this would be a somewhat surprising (read: miraculous) result. If this is indeed correct, then it would seem that the schools have achieved phenomenally well despite the massive disruptions of a 5-week public servant’s strike and the extended holidays for the Soccer World Cup. Or at least thats one interpretation. The other interpretation (and I’ll leave it to you to decide which one is a truer reflection) is that we will now have conclusive proof that you can take teachers out of the classroom for 5 full weeks and add additional disruptions and not see any major negative impact on the end results. If this does not prove how dysfunctional our schooling system really is then nothing will. It is somewhat perverse to think that it would actually be more reassuring if there was a significant drop in 2010’s Matric results but I don’t think we’re going to see it.
We’ll know for sure next week whether any of these predictions are accurate and then we’ll no doubt be inundated by analysis from the experts who may agree or disagree with the above but the bottom line (in my opinion) is that we continue to shuffle deck-chairs why the titanic is sinking.
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As IkamvaYouth we’ll no doubt put together an official response to the Matric Results and try to identify areas where we – as a country – can begin to solve this problem. On the one hand we will wildly celebrate the SUCCESS of our amazing Ikamvanites while at the same time, on the other hand, we will continue to be moved by the annual loss of learners who leave school with limited future prospects.
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Andrew (in his own capacity)
Want to make a difference or help us expand? Then sponsor a learner or IkamvaYouth branch today? Or Volunteer.
Lloyd Lungu