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0 viewsOnly 24.3% of Matriculants achieved a university entrance pass in 2011. In the Eastern Cape, even fewer students were eligible, with only 58.1% of Grade 12 pupils passing Matric.
The Eastern Cape keeps topping the ‘worst of’ list. The five poorest performing districts are found here, and six more districts in the province feature in the 10 worst performing districts after that. Keep in mind, students only need 33% percent overall to pass Matric.
What happens to the other 41.9% of students who fail Grade 12? Or the 75.7% of students who don’t qualify for university? Students from eRhini have the Grahamstown Area District Relief Area Matric School (GADRA: GMS), the only civil society school in the province that gives students a second chance in only 10 months.
GADRA: GMS offers a one-year programme to students who have either failed Matric or want to re-write selected National Senior Certificate (NSC) subjects to gain access to higher education. Students attend intensive classes, and are prepared for the exam by writing several small tests and mock-exams continually. GADRA: GMS offer 11 subjects, including English Home Language, English, Mathematics, Math Literacy, Geography, History, Life Sciences, Accountancy, Business Studies, Physical Sciences and Religious Studies. Eleven teachers, one for each subject, are employed and paid R145 per lesson.
Students receive individual attention. Specific goals and timeframes for studying are set and after each test, their performance and time spent studying is evaluated against their plan and adjustments are made accordingly. Students are charged R2,500 for the year and it seems as though parents are willing to pay. GADRA: GMS is inundated with applications. More than 300 were received for the 2012 education year and only 130 students could be accommodated.
The school achieved a 95% subject pass rate in 2010 (amongst 82 students) and a 92% subject pass rate from 131 students in 2011. On entering GADRA: GMS in 2011, 71 students had failed their NSC. This number was brought down to 13 students at the end of the year. GADRA: GMS attained almost 50% of all Bachelor-level passes produced by Grahamstown state high schools in 2011.
GADRA: GMS has introduced an education advocacy campaign in Grahamstown to mobilise the community around issues of schooling. A Student Governing Body was introduced recently and the organisation oversees a public school Principals Forum in Grahamstown. The intention is to empower principals and parents to fulfil their roles in the local education system and hold teachers and students accountable for their performance.
Since 1994, over 1260 students graduated from GADRA: GMS and have gone on to further themselves in post-matric education. Innocent Yokwana is one such student. Innocent rewrote his Matric at GADRA: GMS in 2001. His marks went from 39% to 64% in English, from 28% to 51% in Biology, from 50% (SG) to 74% (HG) in History, and 90% in Biblical Studies! After GADRA: GMS, he obtained his Law Degree from Rhodes University in the regular timeframe. Innocent started his own legal practice in Grahamstown and now advocates for GADRA: GMS with young people at his old school in Fort Beaufort.
The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has planned to roll out their Senior Certificate Second Chance Project this year. Impumelelo urges the NYDA to take GADRA: GMS to scale in the province and build on existing expertise and networks.
GADRA: GMS was a Gold Award Winner at the Impumelelo Social Innovations Centre Awards Gala, receiving R40 000 donated towards the project.
To visit the GADRA: GMS website, click here