Great news! 1,518 schools complete training to transform their schools into centres of excellence
In July 2022 the last in a series of workshops which began in January 2022 to empower the school management teams of 1,518 schools in the Limpopo Province of South Africa to reinvent their schools to become centres of excellence was completed.
These schools which are attended by over 570,000 students are situated in the Capricorn North, Vhembe East and Vhembe West education districts which are situated adjacent to the Zimbabwe border.
The District Directors of the three districts have reported to the provincial Head of the Limpopo Department of Education that they expect improved academic results at the end of the 2023 academic year mainly due to significant improvements in the effectiveness of School Leadership Teams and transformation of the habits of teachers, students and the SLT itself.
The Programme is driven by the Ms Onica Dederen, Head of the Limpopo Department of Education and the three District Directors but is implemented from bottom up by each school management team, teachers, learners, parents and the community. A winning combination!!
This Programme offers the world the first sustainable, transferable and scalable programme able to empower Ministries of Education of every country to transform every government school into a centre of excellence within 3-5 years.
De Beers and Worley Ltd who commissioned BCF to conduct this Programme to leave a meaningful legacy in the footprint of the mine are delighted with the progress made.

Training of principals in Lesotho to transform their schools into centres of excellence
UNICEF funded the training of school inspectors in Lesotho to train principals to transform their schools into centres of excellence.
In a report to UNICEF the Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training reported that 61% more learners were graduating from previously under-performing primary schools.

Training parents and principals in Botswana
BCF will launch the Botswana National Parenting Skills Programme and the Botswana Schools Centre of Excellence Programme as soon as Covid regulations permit.
Transforming education at under-performing schools in South Africa
Over 73% of students at previously under-performing rural and township schools in South Africa whose principals had attended the SA Schools Centre of Excellence Programme obtained a university entrance or technical university matriculation pass in 2020.

Training of principals and teachers of Early Year Development Centres (kindergartens) in Diepsloot South Africa to facilitate the SA National Parenting Skills Programme
For four years prior to Covid Investec funded the training of principals and teachers of ECDs in the dangerous Diepsloot township on the outskirts of Johannesburg to train parents of children who attend their ECDs.

Discussions with Ministries of Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
BCF is currently in discussions with the ministries of education in the DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia to train officials at their national head offices to train district officials to transform every school in their countries into centres of excellence and to train parents in practical parenting skills.

Training of pastors in the dangerous Langa township in Cape Town
SAGA (UK) funded the training of pastors to train congregants and other members of the community in parenting skills in 2018 and 2019. Pastors trained over 2,000 parents.

International Award: EduWeek 2018 NGO of the Year
BCF was awarded the above award at the 2018 EduWeek Conference in Johannesburg which was the biggest edutech conference in Africa that year attracting over 4,000 delegates
