1 March 2021
Students in South Africa received their matriculation results last week.
Because schools were closed for weeks due to Covid and had to adapt to distance learning, many without internet or computers, the Minister of Education said she was expecting “a bloodbath”.
Despite Covid, at schools whose head teachers had attended the BCF International Schools Centre of Excellence Programme the percentage of students gaining a university (A Level) or technical university matriculation pass increased by 3% in 2020 compared to 2019. This is a massive achievement as these schools are situated in poverty-stricken rural villages, in the semi-desert Kalahari and the sprawling townships on the outskirts of cities.
A hugely impressive 73% of students at these schools obtained a university (A Levels) or technical university pass.
Sadly, tens of thousands of students who attend 1,020 schools in the rural Limpopo Province on the Zimbabwe border would also have been awarded a university or technical university matriculation pass had Covid not stopped the training of head teachers of their schools on 23 March 2020. Hopefully this programme will restart later this year.
This legacy programme is funded by Worley Ltd who are developing the biggest diamond mine in the world for De Beers in the Limpopo Province.
Worley’s investment is only £93.38 per school or 21p per student. Surely there is no other social investment which provides such an excellent return to transform lives.