Growsmart Educational Programme kick-starts in Steelpoort

The introduction session was held at the Steelpoort Academy’s hall and was attended by representatives from 27 local schools in the Ngwaabe Circuit.

The programme is aimed at improving the standard of education in Tubatse. Dwarsrivier Chrome Mine (DCM) is supporting the Growsmart Educational Programme. The competition’s programme was presented to teachers, mentors, principals and senior members of the Limpopo Department of Education.

All participating schools received the Growsmart curriculum-based education newspapers together with story-writing kits, dictionaries and a manual explaining the mechanics of the competition. Growsmart also partnered with School in a Box, another non-profit organisation. They handed out 10 Tablets per school. The educators also enjoyed lessons on how to operate and run the programmes on these Tablets.

This programme is an initiative by Growthpoint Properties in collaboration with the Limpopo Department of Education, proudly supported by DCM and sponsored by Boleng Trust. According to Mark Jonker of Growsmart, this is an educational programme that will support the Limpopo Education Department in helping to improve literacy, mathematics, science, writing and debating levels in primary schools in the local circuits. More than seven sessions will be held at the Steelpoort Academy. On the final round of the Growsmart competition, the winners will be rewarded with substantial prizes worth more than R500 000.

Only grades four, five and six pupils will compete. “Our aim has always been to enhance learning and provide quality education for every learner in every classroom, and we could not be more excited to start the journey in Limpopo. “There are many inspiring, heart-warming stories that have come out of Growsmart, as well as heaps of positive feedback from parents, teachers and learners,” added Jonker.

The initiative started 11 years ago in the Western Cape, where it has established a strong, successful track record, and further expanded to the Eastern Cape in 2018. To date, the programme has impacted over 69 000 primary school learners from the Western and Eastern Cape, and further develops educators through teacher workshops and a programme based on the current curriculum, fully aligned with the provincial educational departments.

As a measure of its success, its story-writing initiative has already produced 140 published authors under the age of 13 whose books are now being used in the school system. DCM’s Social Economic Development superintendent, Pius Monyela indicated that they will continue to support this programme. “We supported this programme from the first day of its launch in 2020 and we will continue doing so till the final round. We aim to see improvement in education in our nearby schools.” Growsmart’s next session will be on May 25 and will involve 125 learners.