Getting on top of troublesome subjects

KwaThema – A positive initiative to help improve grades in mathematics, science and accounting has touched the lives of over 1 200 learners since it was founded seven years ago.

The Ntsane School Enrichment Programme was founded by Ntsane Maskiloane, who saw an urgent need to help learners change their attitudes towards these difficult but crucial subjects.

Ntsane says he was concerned that a lot of young people were struggling because they had lost interest in the subjects.

“I decided to respond positively to the call by the Department of Education about the need for more learners to take up the subjects. I was worried that many choose to drop the subjects, and felt a need to share my skills and expertise, because I am an accounting technician, to help make an improvement.”

The programme started with 30 learners in KwaThema, all of whom showed good progress.

“We were able to identify the problem areas, and were able to plan better for the next groups,” Ntsane says. “We decided to enroll learners from Grade 10 to help prepare them for matric. Through the years we have seen our learners improving from level 1 to level 6 in their performances.”

Ntsane says they have decided to start enrolling learners from Grade Eight next year.

“We have identified that the problem area is the foundation phase, and it is better to start the learners at a lower foundation.

“The teacher ratio to the number of learners is also a problem, because for these subjects the teacher needs to have individual attention for each learner. The teachers are also overwhelmed by administration, therefore the department has to consider hiring people to help with the workload, for them to focus only on teaching.”

“They should also invest in tutorial classes and after-school initiatives.”

Ntsane says he is encouraging parents to enrol their children into the programme earlier.

“Registration is open, and we are calling on parents to register their children who are going into Grade Eight.”