Building a solid foundation in mathematics in learners at an early stage of their mathematics schooling careers is one of the major problems facing our education system. The Education Without Borders program (EwB) was piloted in Nyanga this year helps tackle this problem in a well-structured series of basic mathematics books, written by Dr. Rahael Jalan, to a class of 14 learners.
Impact
The program was implimented during winter school and for the final two terms of the year. In this short time, as per the comparison below, the results in March (indicated in blue) show a poor level of understanding, the majority of learners scoring 40% and below for grade level mathematics. June results after tutoring three days a week shows a slight increase, but after implimenting the program in the final two terms the results have increased dramatically.
Whie the increase in results is a significant improvement and achievement, it is evident from the results at Makhaza that for the program to have results above 50-60% the program needs to run for the full duration of the year.
Each set of three lines (blue, red, green) represents one learner:
The most notable achivement was an increase in results by 43% from term 2 to term 4.
*Note – these results were from independant tests administed at the branch, the schools we work with had administative difficulties in releasing quartely reports and as such the results are independant tests.
Tutor’s Experience
It has been a wonderful experience of teaching and learning. Some of our learners have shown great interest and a major boost in confidence after they had easily grasped the topics with proper guidance from a tutor. I have had a few minor problems with some of the leaners, which we managed to resolve and carry on with the program. Overall I have enjoyed working with the learners and seeing them develop in their learning abilities.
IkamvaYouth is very thankful to Education Without Borders for enabling us to implement the Math Yes We Can books for our Grade 8’s. Special thanks to: Cecil and Ruth Hershler-funding provided through Education Without Borders, ‘Yes We Can’ mathematics books writen by Dr Rahael Jalan.
Lloyd Lungu