2013 was a big year for IY, and it is with great pride (and relief!) that we can report, once again, our matrics’ excellent achievements. It is thanks to the superheroes who work or volunteer at IY, and those who support and enable this amazing team of people, that IY continues to deliver while growing significantly.
Overall, we achieved an 89% matric pass, and incredibly, 94% of these passes are diploma (30%) or bachelor passes (64%). With sixty more matrics than last year; two brand new branches established; a comprehensive survey of our alumni completed and all that went into our big ten year bash; the ikamvanites really pushed ourselves in our tenth year. And while having our work recognised by many accolades (including the STARS Impact award) is a great affirmation of all we put in, nothing makes it feel more worthwhile than sharing the excitement and joy with our learners as they celebrate the beginning of their shining bright futures.
But (as always at IY), there’s more to come. We still have two big hurdles to clear: the supplementary exams in march (all learners who failed and many of those who fell just short of the diploma or bachelor passes they were aiming for will be spending the coming weeks back with their books), and the all-important post-school placements. The next few weeks involve a lot of time on the phones and in queues at tertiary institutions, as we aim to ensure that all our learners enroll in the post-school opportunities that will set them on their career paths.
Our results by branch and province are as follows:
Gauteng
Ivory Park (first matric cohort!): 100% pass; 17% diploma & 83% bachelor
Ebony Park: 94% pass; 34% diploma & 62% bachelor
KZN
Chesterville: 82% pass; 48% diploma & 44% bachelor
Umlazi (first matric cohort): 83% pass; 47% diploma & 40% bachelor
Western Cape
Makhaza: 83% pass; 28% diploma & 64% bachelor
Nyanga: 93% pass; 15% diploma & 85% bachelor
Masi: 89% pass; 88% bachelor
Well done to everyone who made this happen!
60 tutors from both Ivory Park and Ebony Park branches came together on Saturday the 16th of November to be appreciated by IkamvaYouth. The day started off with normal tutoring from 9am to 12pm, thereafter , all the tutors were transported to the tutor appreciation venue called Wild Waters in Boksburg.
The day was filled with loads of fun, laughter, conversation, eating and drinking. Many tutors mentioned that they had never seen such a beautiful place and they had no idea that a place like this existed in Johannesburg. This venue was full of different types of water fun activities and the tutors could not pull themselves out of the refreshing water. Patrick Mashanda, the District Coordinator, also addressed all the tutors expressing how important they were to IkamvaYouth, reiterating that the work they put in has made a huge difference to many lives. It was a memorable day with many tutors saying that they felt very appreciated for the hard work they put into tutoring the learners.
Eventually we marked the end of the day by handing out certificates of appreciation to all the tutors. We appreciate all our tutors and we are already looking forward to starting 2014 with an even bigger bang!
As the hectic exam season went underway, our funders and good friends from ABI decided to throw a good luck braai and cake day for all the grade 12 learners in Gauteng. It was a much needed break from the current pressure our learners are facing in preparing years of hard work and achievements into one busy month. Our learners have been hard at work, studying at home and attending workshops both at school and those organised by IY to make sure that all this work culminates in good results for their futures.
From all the Ikamvanites around South Africa here’s to wishing all our grade 12s the best of luck.
Keep soaring superheroes !
The Gauteng team was out in full force at the Midrand Graduate Institutes Career Fair in early October. As an opportunity to, not only advertise the most democratic organisation to work in, we also got the very talented and driven students to sign up as volunteers at the nearby branches in the area.
MGI, like many of the higher learning institutions IkamvaYouth continues to grow partnerships with, jumped at the opportunity to get involved with us and came out in large numbers to support our drive. Many had never heard of IY before, but were very interested to find out how they can volunteer their time and become part of such a winning superhero team.
IY relies on the many committed tutors from all over South Africa’s Higher Learning institutions and if you are looking to become part of this amazing opportunity visit our website and sign up online or wait for a tutor drive coming to your varsity soon!
Saturday the 21st of September 2013 was a very exciting day for the Ikamvanites. Despite waking up to very cold weather, Ikamvanites from both the Ebony Park and Ivory Park branches came together at the Ebony Park branch to receive special gifts from the Tzu Chi Foundation.
Dean Teng, a Tzu Chi Foundation representative said that the young Ikamvanites have always helped and supported The Tzu Chi Foundation when they were conducting their Winter Relief Community Outreach Programmes over previous months. Dean said it was now the Ikamvanites’ turn to receive from Tzu Chi. A truck full of bags of 5kg rice as well as stationery packs parked on the IkamvaYouth premises and each Ikamvanite was handed the gifts from Tzu Chi. The learners were so thankful and appreciated having such support from people coming from very far away. The young ladies, especially, had to grow some muscles to carry everything they had been given back to their homes because it was really heavy.
The Tzu Chi Foundation has been working together with IkamvaYouth for 3 years. They bring fruits to the learners every Saturday morning and have also given some of our Grade 12s bursaries to continue with their tertiary education.
Thank you Tzu Chi for your continued support to all the Ikamvanites!!!
Five years ago, I found IkamvaYouth by chance and had the opportunity to work with amazing people at the Western Cape’s Winter School. This year, I came back to Ikamva on purpose. I am PhD student from the US, researching democracy and citizenship education in South Africa. I knew I had to do so some preliminary research in SA, so I made sure to schedule my visit during the Winter School. This time, I came to Gauteng, but once again I was welcomed warmly and put straight to work, developing lessons, tutoring and recruiting learners for an afternoon stream, the Peacebuilders’ Club.
Before I arrived, I prepared several English fundamentals lessons and was nervous that they would be too easy, too hard or just too American. With the help of the Ikamva staff and feedback from tutors, I was able to adjust and witness some moments of real learning. No matter where you are, introducing a little controversy and debate can help to engage learners. Between family relations, the death penalty and President Obama’s meeting with President Zuma, there was plenty to talk about. Tutoring at this year’s Gauteng Winter School was a rewarding and eye opening experience. From Romeo & Juliet and human anatomy to the French Revolution and layers of the atmosphere, I was constantly trying to keep up with the brilliant learners of Ebony and Ivory Park. More than once I had to double check my facts and ask more in-depth questions to challenge the motivated learners. I had to avoid the maths’ lessons altogether because they were over my head!
I was also able to help a fantastic group of learners form a Peacebuilders’ Club. I have worked with the US Institute of Peace for several years and they have developed a great serious of activities and lessons on peacebuilding and conflict resolution for secondary school students. All I had to do was bring these activities along and the learners quickly took over and became real peacebuilders and leaders. They did skits, created art and made goals for the future of the club. I want to say a huge thank you to the Peacebuilders’ Club for being so open-minded and motivated! On my last day with Ikamva, the whole group went to Freedom Park in Pretoria. This was an incredible experience for me, both as a visitor, and as a student of history and citizenship. It was moving to see the memorial to those who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom, and it was equally moving to see the tutors and learners participate in a dialog about the struggle and what it means to them.
This demonstration of active citizenship shows how IkamvaYouth not only helps learners to achieve in school, but also to participate in their communities and nation. I have been back in the US a week now, and I can only say a big thank you to the Gauteng staff, tutors and learners for an amazing time at the 2013 Winter School!
Lloyd Lungu