81% access to post-school opportunities for IkamvaYouth’s class of 2010 More than half return as tutors and mentors for the next generation
Above: Happy matrics from the Gauteng celebrate their registration
Less than 10% of all South African youth access tertiary education (SAIRR study, 2009), and 41.6% of 18-24 year olds are not in education/training or employment (CHET,2009). It is no doubt largely those children living in poverty and attending under-resourced schools, as opposed to middle class children, whose reality is largely reflected in these statistics.
Yet 81% of IkamvaYouth’s passing matriculants have accessed post-school placements in 2011. This is despite the fact that the far majority of IkamvaYouth’s learners’ caregivers are unemployed, disabled or deceased. They have not let poverty and challenging home environments prevent them from enrolling at institutions including UCT, Wits, UKZN, UNISA, DUT, UWC, CPUT, to study fields such as Environmental Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Business, Nursing, Computer Science, Social Science, Journalism and Physiotherapy.
68 learners from Khayelitsha, Ebony Park, Cato Manor and Molweni sat the examinations at the end of last year and 59 passed. Here are the matric results per province:
· 85% pass in Western Cape (of whom 48% achieved bachelor and 39% diploma)
· 85% in KZN (of whom 50% achieved bachelor and 45% diploma),
– 94% in Gauteng (of whom 63% bachelor and 25% diploma).
42% are now at university, 38% at colleges, 6% at technikons, and 6% have been awarded learnerships. These figures exclude the learners who failed and one learner who we are struggling to make contact with. Each of the 9 learners who failed will remain in the programme and retake their grade 12 exams, together with an additional 3 learners who have chosen to retake and improve their results.
IkamvaYouth instills a culture of learning which fuels the desire to achieve. It also encourages these learners to pay-it-forward and 51% will be volunteering at their branches to inspire the younger learners to emulate their successes. “IkamvaYouth has instilled a sense of determination and self-belief, and young people from township communities are truly being the change”, says Thobela Bixa, an ex-learner who is studying for his Masters in Chemistry at UCT. He pays-it-forward at the Makhaza branch and now sits on the organisation’s board of directors.
Ikamvanites all over the country are taking their future into their own hands. A person with a degree can earn almost five times more than someone without matric (CHET, 2009), and Mandela was spot on when he said “It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.”
IkamvaYouth is thrilled to report that this year its two newest branches – Nyanga and Masiphumelele – will have grade 12 cohorts for the first time, and is looking forward to achieving similarly excellent results with many more learners in 2011 and beyond.
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NATIONAL FIGURES
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Number of students
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Percentage
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Students who sat matric
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68
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Number of passes
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59
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86.76
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Number of fails
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9
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13.24
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Students that can’t be traced
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1
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1.47
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Students retaking at the end of the year
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13
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19.12
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No placement
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7
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10.29
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Placements
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47
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81.03
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Matrics excluding un-tracables and failed matrics
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58
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Post-school placements exc non-traceables and failed matrics
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81.03
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Of those students who have post-school placements
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University
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20
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42.55
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Technikon
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3
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6.38
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College/ institutes
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18
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38.30
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learnership
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6
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12.77
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Paying-it-Forward
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Students returning to volunteer
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35
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51.47
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Saturday 12 February was a day that learners in the KZN branch of Ikamva had been anticipating for more than four months – The Annual Prize Giving Ceremony. Unfortunately our ceremony had to be pushed back to early this year from late last year due to the prizes and certificates not being ready timeously. As was evidenced on Saturday, the event was worth the wait!
Engen sponsored drawstring goodie bags that consisted of 4 Quire note books, pens and diaries for learners whose attendance carried them over into this year. Learners with exemplary attendance also received these goodie bags and a R200 gift voucher from Adams. The learners who passed last year’s assessment tests during Winter School with +80% for various subjects received additional R200 book vouchers from CNA and scientific calculators. For giving so generously of their time, knowledge and skills, the tutors recieved the same gift bags with vouchers and 4gig memory sticks.
Professor David Day, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at DUT was present at the ceremony. Prof. Day inspired the learners in his speech to Ikamvanites.
“You should keep in mind what and who you want to be in the future. When you have this in mind, you will be able to work hard in order to achieve your dreams. We all don’t want to work all the time, and we get tired of school work, but when you have a dream to work towards, it becomes that much easier for you to push yourself on those days when you don’t feel like working”, said Prof. Day.
Photo: Learners who achieved +80% in assessment tests last year with guests. l-r:Prof. Day, Tania Khumalo, Smilesihle Mngomezulu, Fortunate Chinogureyi, Samkelisiwe Jali, Phelele Gwala, Bulelwa Xobiso, Caroline Ligwa from Engen and Khona Dlamini
IkamvaYouth KZN would like to thank Caroline Ligwa and the staff at Engen for sponsoring prizes. This is one of the ways that we can incentivise hard work for learners and better commitment from volunteers. Thank you very much.
Lokhu enikwenzele thina nikuphinde nakwabanye!
The contents of the goodie bags.
The IkmavaYouth Open Day was held on the 22nd of January and was a great chance for new Ikamvanites to meet, understand, and be inspired by IkamvaYouth. The staff were there to welcome them and older Ikamvanites were there to assist learners in their applications. Some of our tutors were also on hand to offer assistance and to get to know the new Ikamvanites. We also have some new tutors this year, so this served as an introduction for them; Alex and Jordan from California and Masibhumelele from Masi.
After the initial lamentations about the length and impossibility of the form, they settled down and it was clear that it became an enjoyable and rewarding process for many. The Ikamvanites then got to see the documentary about IkamvaYouth ‘Flying Colours’, which demonstrated the worth of working hard and highlighted IkamvaYouth’s core value of commitment. The learners came out of the cinema room with inspired smiles…and hopefully inspired minds!
This new motivation was also thanks to Simphiwe, our art genius who attained a place at Michaelis Art school, starting this week. He delivered a speech to the eager Ikamvanites explaining the importance of hardwork and following your dreams!
Many of the new, fresh faced applicants are the friends, siblings or cousins of current Ikamvanites which demonstrates the value of IkamvaYouth for these young people. We hope the new Ikamvanites will look up to the ‘oldies’ and in turn they will set a great example.
Interviews were held the following Saturday and ‘Last Chance Interviews’ took place on Monday 1st February. We have now selected all the Ikamvanites for this year, so our totals are; Grade 12 = 20; Grade 11 =17, Grade10 =14, Grade 9 = 8, Grade 8 =15. We are beginning 2011 with 74 learners. This includes a group of 6 students who will participate in a pilot English feeder programme, that will develop basic English skills so these learners can access the mainstream tutoring sessions by the end of the term.
We are excited to get going with some hardcore learning! We received many applications, and have even started a waiting list for next term. We hope that the Ikamvanites that we selected prove us right in their determination and commitment. Lets GO!
![Nyanganites taking 2011 by storm!]()
On the 22 January 2011 Nyanga Branch hosted its 2011 Open Day which was attended by more than 200 learners fom schools around Nyanga East
The Open Day was attended by tutors,learners and parents who participated during the day by sharing their experiences of last year so that the new leaners can know more about Ikamva youth, the Open Day was a day of learning more about Ikamva Youth and its programmes and also find out what the learners need
We are glad to announce that on the 29 January 2011 we registered 87 leraners and during the past week we had more coming in with their application forms and now we are looking at a total of 106 learners who have registered with Ikamva Youth (Nyanga)
We now looking at 14 Grade 9’s, 28 Grade 10’s,38 Grade 11’s and 26 Grade 12’s
From these numbers above we are proud to announce that we have a brand new Grade 9 class and the first ever Grade 12 class in the Nyanga Branch, and we look forward to seeing them all entering Tertiary next year
With this said, the Nyanga Branch will be starting officially its Saturday tutoring session tomorrow, 5 February 2011 at 9am until 12 we look forward to hosting this day
We also invite students and any Tertiary Institution that can assist us with tutoring to contact me or apply online, browse the GET INVOLVED page and enter your details and we will amke sure we get back to you as soon as possible
Let me extend a warm appreciation to all those who have assisted us during the Open Day and Registration Day, and lets keep it up guys the real work has begun!
Matthew Mhlaleki speaks to SABC 2 programme TalkSA about how IkamvaYouth helped him improve his marks and get into university.
When Matthew joined IkamvaYouth he had 45% for maths and 43% for physics and needed to jump at least three symbols to pursue his desire to study engineering in 2011. After two years with IkamvaYouth and countless hours of tutoring and midweek sessions, Matthew achieved Bs in both maths and physics in his final exams.
In recognition of his achievements, he has also been awarded a bursary from Schneider-Electric to study Electrical Engineering at Wits this year.
Watch the clip below for a brief insight into how Matthew and ikamvaYouth made it happen.
[youtube]m3CwUwjumEA[/youtube]
PS. Schneider-Electric also donated kit-bags to our new 2011 IkamvaYouth cohorts in the expectation that there will be many more Matthew-type-stories in the years to come. Once again a big thank you to Schneider-Electric for their continued support.
More than 350 learners accompanied by their parents, volunteers, NGO representatives and friends of IkamvaYouth from Ivory Park, Ebony Park, Rabie Ridge, Kaalfontein and surrounding areas filled the IkamvaYouth Centre hall to its capacity and listened attentively to increase their chances of being selected to become Ikamvanites in 2011.
The sad reality is that of the 300+ learners who have expressed an interest in joining the Ivory Park branch we only have the capacity to admit 120 learners in 2011.
Those who don’t make it are encouraged to join the Thandulwazi Academic Support programme hosted by the St Stithians Foundation on the St Stithians College school grounds. We will be happy to assist with additional information in this regard.
Of course, if government and corporates have keen ears and interest to impact where it matters the most, this is an opportunity to invest financial resources to IkamvaYouth to increase its capacity to take more learners and be part of this life-changing opportunity. IkamvaYouth literally changes the lives and future prospects of our learners but also of the as-yet-unnamed learners to come who will benefit from successful ikamvanites returning to pass on their knowledge gained.
Lloyd Lungu