ORT visits Alex High
Alexandra High School hosted one of its partners which also supports other schools in the province and in the Western Cape.
Ort, a 134-year-old Jewish charity organisation which supports education in more than 100 countries, visited the school to assess the impact of its contribution and to draw lessons for application elsewhere.
Ort officials and its London-based chief operating officer, John Benjamin also visited Iphuteng Primary accompanied by a representative from the department of education.
The organisation’s support of primary schools started in 1994 through a vocational programme, and followed with science and maths programmes since 2004 and 2006 respectively. The organisation’s visit was also part of their quality control and to explore new areas for support.
School principal, Zoleka Lebelo spoke of the benefits derived from their support, as well as the challenges they still faced in improving the quality of learning and teaching at the school. She said the computers Ort donated enabled students to conduct research, improved teaching content and also enhanced teachers’ passions for their jobs as they contributed to their own self development and IT skills. But there were not enough computers as more than1 000 students and teachers needed to use them.
She added that Ort’s staff helped to resuscitate the team spirit among teachers and the school governing body through mentorship and coaching.
“This has assisted to build a holistic educational environment which also enabled other stakeholders to contribute meaningfully to improving the school’s performance to the benefit of the African child,” she said.
Lebelo explained to Ort officials that the school’s main challenge was pupils’ poor grasp of English.
“Children come from primary level without key basics of the English language, and bridging programmes come in very late resulting in them performing poorly in school,” she said. Almost 50 percent of the pupils struggled in their lessons.
Benjamin thanked the school for alerting Ort to their challenges, adding that they would consider other strategies such as IT-based personalised learning to make learning and teaching a continuous process.
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