3.1 FEMSSISA & Virtual School of Africa Learner Sponsorship Programme 2022
Year: 2022
Purpose: Typical issues which prevent learners from excelling at school education, which has been learned from our programmes are as follows:
- Number of learners in a class (The higher number of learners, the more difficult it is for teachers to provide attention to all learners equally)
- Incomplete Syllabus: Often the syllabus is not fully taught and/or taught too quickly.
- School Absenteeism
- Quality of Teaching
Our solution aims to address some of these problems and thus improve the education of these learners. Our solution is online in nature, which has the benefit of being able to reach a lot more learners at a potentially lower cost. The sponsorship programme allows underprivileged children to gain access to the Virtual School of Africa courses.
Detail:
- Schools are selected to be part of the program.
- The school will select its most deserving underprivileged learners for a package of courses.
- These students will be fully sponsored for these courses for the year.
- The school will have a co-ordinator who ensures these students go through these courses and checks in with the students at least once a month.
- Students will need to register on the platform where there is a process they will need to follow.
- All Students are required to sign terms and conditions, ensuring they adhere to the sponsorship programme by utilising the courses.
- A check in occurs with the school co-ordinator monthly. The school will provide the marks of these learners including their final mark for these subjects which they have courses for.
Impact:
- 3 Schools were selected namely Savannah Park Secondary, Riverdene Secondary and Stanger Manor Secondary
- 38 Students were a part of this programme of which 31 students were in Grade 12 and 7 students were in other Grades.
- Mathematics based courses, Physical Science and Business Studies were the courses utilised by the learners.
- Of the 31 students, 13 students used the course less than 5 times.
- The 18 students who used the course extensively provided the following results:
- 10 A symbols (4 in mathematics, 5 in physical science and 1 in business studies was achieved) was achieved from 26 subjects where the learners were sponsored the courses. No student achieved less than 40% in a subject.
- The average change in mark from the prior year was +5% in mathematics and +4% in physical science.
- The 13 students who did NOT use the course extensively provided the following results:
- No A nor B symbols were achieved with the highest mark being 61%.
- The average reduction in marks was 9% in mathematics and 5 subject marks was below 40%.
Some of the feedback received by the learners is detailed below:
“Thank you .. The online lessons were of great help ..We are more than grateful for the assistance” Nompilo from Riverdene Secondary (6A’s)
“Thank You for the support throughout the year & for the opportunity you’ll gave me. Forever Grateful. God Bless.” Wandile from Riverdene Secondary (3As)
“Thank you for sponsoring me; the knowledge I got from using this site was invaluable in helping me navigate my way through the Matric syllabus.” Azandizibusiso from Stanger Manor Secondary (7As, 1ST in his district with a 94% aggregate)
“It’s a great course thank you. Keep it up it is a great course to improve our studies.” Olwethu Khanyile from Riverdene Secondary (Grade 10 learner who achieved 70% in Mathematics)
“The course was very helpful in helping me to better my understanding in mathematics. The course also was one of the reasons my marks increased in mathematics.” Trevlin Moonsamy from Savannah Park Secondary (Grade 12 learner who improved his marks by more than 10% since the prior year)
More can be viewed on the website – www.virtualschoolofafrica.co.za