On the weekend of 31 March and 1 April IYKZN hosted it’s 2nd SPW at the Chesterville branch. We had the priviledge of being joined by our National Coordinator Zamo Shongwe and our Director and Co-Founder Joy Olivier, who was also present at last years SPW. Excitement and enrgy filled the centre as we were joined by tutors from both our branches – Umlazi and Chesterville. Unlike last year where the SPW took place after one of our Saturday School sessions, we had a full 2 days to spend planning 2012 and going over 2011 with those that joined during the year as well as addressing ways of improvement that could be implemented.
A mixture of new and old tutors gave us a chance to discuss the growth of IYKZN over the years and all our achievements till now. New tutors and learner reps got a chance to contribute their thoughts and participate in an active conversation about IY’s plans for 2012 while learning from those who have been present over the years. This meant that most of day 1 was spent around understanding IY and our mission and values as well as recognising our achievements. New members also had the chance to contribute towards our budget, enforcing our open door policy to all those present.
Day 2 began with our previous Branch Comm going through each of their portfolios and the success of 2011 within each portfolio. Thereafter we had a chance to listen to motivations by group members who were present and interested in forming 2012’s new Branch Comm. Which was very heartwarming as a few learner reps also stood up and shared their interests. Though there are now 2 branches, seems like both Branch Comms are a passionate group of people who are committed to passing forward love and knowledge to all future Ikamvanites. Overall, our SPW was a great success filled with love and laughter as we used fun and games to bond and shared our thoughts in an inviting circle of acceptance filled with individuals with a common love and goal for Ikamva KZN. To LIFT AS YOU RISE!!
Follow the link to read the full report: strategic_planning_weekend_report_-_kzn.pdf
The first day of the Basic Education Conference was pretty exhausting. Ikamvanites were there at the crack of dawn to put up our poster in the rather sad corner we’d been allocated. Thankfully, for those who may have missed us (and the many who couldn’t make it to Durban or pay the huge registration fee), it’s available here for download. We’re really grateful to @ideainaforest for making it so beautiful, and are proud to see our great results represented visually.
Andy Hargreaves’ keynote was great. While he wasn’t as funny as he was at Quest (the Canadian conference which put IkamvaYouth on the main stage and not in the corner ;P) his talk was insightful and smart. He spoke about the challenges of a target-driven education model, and the fact that it takes capacity to build capacity. He pointed us to the three things on which we should focus: (i) building human capital and capacity; (ii) building our sociap capital (how well we work together as a community) and (iii) building our decisional capital (our capacity to make judgements).
Most of the presentations detailed, as usual, how badly we’re doing as an education system. Whether speakers were talking about the matric results, the drop-out rates, the lack of parental involvement, literacy and numeracy results for lower grades or the South African system as a whole, the general consensus is that things are really bad. However, while it’s always useful to have a richer understanding of the challenges before us, I’m hoping the conference will move on from detailing what we already know, and focus instead on the solutions we need.
In my search for solutions at the presentations, I was disappointed to hear various academics describing small pilot studies which, while interesting, are not yet anywhere near the stages of replication or scale. More disappointing were speakers who spoke about their successfully scaled projects in very general and vague terms, without explaining their indicators for success, never mind their results.Equal Education’s campaign provided a successful short-term solution to the problem whereby 20% of learning time is lost due to latecoming. We need to look at how to scale and continue this success over the long term.
I began to feel a glimmer of hope listening to Martin Prew describe the dramatic transformation of the Soshanguve district, which achieved phenomenal results at a relatively low cost. However, the depression returned when I realised that the first presentation with a smack of solution was a story that ended over ten years ago. Martin explained the three reasons for the implementation being canned: “politics, politics, politics”. The many ways in which various forms of “politics” are obfuscating efforts came up a lot. It’s no wonder that Equal Education has had enough and is taking the big step to sue the DoE.
I had more luck in my search for solutions at the posters: Axiom is making huge strides in rural education, and TEACH South Africa is contributing to quality education in township and rural schools by providing high-quality, motivated and inspirational young teachers. The Manong Youth Developers outlined their results over a few years, and SAEP’s poster detailed the phenomenal results of its bridging year programme: 88.5% matric pass, 96% improved results with an average of 26.4% per student over all their exams. And 83% access to tertiary or FET. The poster explained that SAEP is currently doing a study and will be sharing the results to help others design similar programmes. The poster presentations also included tools for helping children learn language through guided play (Geordie Muller) and for teaching different forms of writing by linking the process to the methodology of cooking (Ms Jacky Steytler Lamer from Ugie High School).
Perhaps I chose the wrong tracks at the wrong times. Or perhaps day one was focused on setting the scene for the great collaborative effort to “open the doors of quality education for all”. With all the leaders in education under one fancy convention centre roof for two more days, here’s hoping that we’ll make the most of this great opportunity to build our social capital and get moving with smart solutions.
Over 320 abstracts were submitted to the SA Basic Education Conference from teachers, principals, academics, government, non-government organisations, and the corporate sector, and IkamvaYouth’s submission has been selected as a poster presentation on 2 April. Zamo Shongwe and Joy Olivier will be representing the ikamvanites at this event, and are looking forward to learning, sharing and connecting with the conference delegates from all sectors. Professor Metcalfe, the conference chair, said that “it is very encouraging to see the creative and innovative ideas coming from teachers and principals at the coal-face of basic education”, and we’re looking forward to being a part of it.
IkamvaYouth’s poster presentation will be uploaded here in the coming days, together with background information, references and acknowledgements. We hope that readers will engage with it and send us your comments and questions via the facebook comment functionality below.
To download the report from the Afternoon Brain-Storming and Action Plan Click here.
Both the Ebony Park and Ivory Park branches in Gauteng came together on Saturday the 17th of March from 12:30pm to 3:30 pm. The reason for the afternoon Strategic Planning Session was to introduce IkamvaYouth to all new volunteers and also brainstorm on how we can improve the IkamvaYouth experience for the learners and the tutors.
We had over 50 volunteers attending, including the Branch Committee members for both branches, and the topics that were discussed that afternoon were:
- What can we do to make the tutoring experience better for both the learner and the tutor?
- What ideas do we have for the Matrics given that they cannot come regularly on Saturdays?
- In what ways can we show some tutor appreciation?
- How do we improve the career guidance programme?
- Do you have any ideas for side-projects (either: tutor or learner-driven)?
One of the volunteers Paul Khokololo said, “The planning session was such an informative session and would definitely help the tutors to become better at helping the learners. Participating and working together to make suggestions and additions to IkamvaYouth has been an awesome experience.”
We are moving forward!
For a report of the Afternoon and Action Plan Click here
IkamvaYouth is speedily setting about garnering the support and partnerships we need to establish more branches across the country. Our results come with the responsibility to replicate, and while our high impact model is also low cost, scale is nevertheless expensive.
IkamvaYouth is also very fortunate to be supported by visionary donors who’re providing the means we need to grow in the face of the overwhelming need for our services. However, in looking far forward into the future of our organisation, we’re planning to create an income stream that is directly related to our key assets: the wonderful ikamvanites. Our first step in this direction was a brainstorming workshop held in April last year, facilitated by Freda Gray.
Now, with generous support from the Bertha Foundation, IkamvaYouth is working with Mindstir, an innovation company, to develop a social enterprise who’s aims align with the organisation’s key mission of enabling ikamvanites to access post-school opportunities, which would also generate profits, to be donated to IY.
The current thinking is around linking BBBEE Skills development contributions to student loans, bursary programmes, learnerships and internships. Business struggles to find the right students to support: they mostly recruit students via campus exhibitions/ advertisements but receive loads of applications and it is costly to sift through them, get aptitude tests done and eventually when they select the students they will sponsor, they are not sure if the relationship will work. Businesses have to spend money on “institutional based theoretical instruction” as it contributes to the Skills Development points they can earn to make up their BBBEE score.
As IkamvaYouth works closely with committed learners who prove themselves over many years, the organisation can provide these businesses with an attitude indication and develop a way to match students with corporates.
One potential solution is to provide a service to corporates similar to that where foundations manage CSI spend for companies, but focused on bursaries and student loans. Corporates would pay us a small management fee and this enterprise takes the pain and cost of recruiting students as well as reduced risk that these learners will drop out of tertiary.
On 3rd February, Freda Gray and Anneke de Bod facilitated a scoping session where ikamvanites and key supporters collectively brainstormed the concept and set the scope for the pre-feasibiliy study. Ikamvanites were lucky to be joined by IY Chair and MD of TSiBA education, Leigh Meinert; Amrik Cooper from ikapadata; Prof Darren Lorton, Executive Dean of Applied Sciences at DUT; Charles Ainslee from the Learning Trust ; Lolita Barends from Capitec and Susan Godlonton (IY board member and PhD fellow at the University of Michigan); each of whom contribute significantly to supporting and growing IY.
The scope for the pre-feasibility was set, and interviews are currently underway. IkamvaYouth is grateful to all those who’re giving their time to participate, and we’re looking forward to finding out whether our ideas have wheels to hit the road towards self-sustainability.
702_radio.zipIt was not an ordinary Sunday morning for the Ebony Park Branch Coordinator and three eager Ikamvanites on the 11th of March 2012. This is because by 5:30am the four were at the Talk Radio 702 studios ready to tell South Africa on live radio, how being Ikamvanites has changed their lives drammatically.
The talk show host, Quereshini Naidoo, was so excited to see all these bright faces surrounding her and immediately began to ask a series of questions concerning what IkamvaYouth does and how they achieve their goals.The learners were asked why they joined IkamvaYouth, what they struggled with at school and how they have are giving back to society after being given such an opportunity.
Some of the listeners called in and sent messages asking the Coordinator and the Ikamvanites questions and it became very apparent that there is so much more work to be done to help the South African township youths to get good education and ultimately access into tertiary. The conclusion of the interview was a profound message from the Ikamvanites, “If you want change, it begins with you. Change is up to you, you can be whatever you want to be”
Lloyd Lungu