News

The newest branch of IkamvaYouth in Ivory Park – supported by African Bank – officially opened its doors to 90 local learners in Grades 10 and 11 on Saturday 11 February 2012 and the tutoring sessions were quickly in full swing. The brand-new Ikamvanites were selected from over 700 applicants and it was an incredibly difficult job trying to work out who we think are going to be the most committed learners this year.

A number of our longest serving volunteers have moved across from the established Ebony Park branch to the new Ivory Park branch to help us get started and ensure we do things the unique IkamvaYouth way. The energy and dedication evident in our new group of learners is infectious to say the least and it’s impossible to attend a session and not feel like something special is happening in Ivory Park.

We have been massively privileged to welcome a number of volunteers from the University of Johannesburg and even though many of these volunteers are themselves brand-new Ikamvanites, they have fitted in seamlessly and their contribution is hugely valued and important. We have to express a big thank you to all the new and returning volunteers at the all the IkamvaYouth branches but we especially want to thank the new cohort at Ivory Park as it is this group that will help us begin a journey that will continue to benefit learners from the Ivory Park community even long after these volunteers have moved on to other things themselves.

Finally, we have to say a massive thank you to African Bank for sponsoring the new branch and we look forward to reporting on significant improvement in the grades and results of the first group of Ivory Park IkamvaYouth learners who will graduate in 2013.

To volunteer at either of our Gauteng branches, sign up to our weekly volunteer emailing list here. Free transport is available every Saturday from both Wits and UJ.

As we continue to collect all the individual results from the IkamvaYouth Gauteng learners, three stories in particular stand out so far:

Shelton Chadya – 5 Distinctions

Shelton first joined IkamvaYouth during 2010’s protracted Public Servants strike as he sought out a place to continue studying while his teachers weren’t teaching. His determination and commitment to his school work has paid off handsomely in that he has jumped more than two symbols in 3 of the subjects he ultimately received distinctions for. Earlier this year Shelton also won his region’s Accounting Olympiad and with these skills he intends to study a BCOM at either WITS or UJ this year. Shelton has already been working with younger learners helping them improve their understanding of their school subjects and he is now looking forward to officially joining the IkamvaYouth volunteer team this year to help others follow in his footsteps.

Nombuso Ndala – 4 Distinctions

Nombuso has been part of the furniture at IkamvaYouth this year as she has used every opportunity to work on improving her understanding of her school subjects. Often Nombuso (sometimes with fellow Ikamvanites) could be found working in the matric room trying to solve difficult problems. Nombuso has made ample use of the tutoring sessions, the learning channel and the Answers Series booklets. On discovering how she had fared on the matric exams she had this to say, “I was so over the moon to receive my results and so happy. I immediately told my mom and she started crying. I worked so hard and practiced and practiced and practiced to get these results. I am so happy.” During her time with IkamvaYouth, in addition to her 4 distinctions, Nombuso also lifted her maths mark from 32% to 62% and intends to study a BCOM at Wits this year, her mother is unemployed.

Tshepo Lesejane – 1 Distinction

When Tshepo first joined IkamvaYouth he had 39% for Maths Literacy but after two years of intensive hard work and tutoring he managed to score a distinction (over 80%) in his matric exam. This means that Tshepo has more than doubled his Maths Literacy result in the two years that he has been with IkamvaYouth –  a notable achievement indeed. Tshepo hopes to work in the media industry and to study media and journalism in 2012.

There are also further notable achievements from the individual results we have collected so far:

Masabatha Rambuwani scored a distinction in Life Orientation, 73% for English (second language) and went from 30% in Accounting to 72%. Thabang Simelane also scored a distinction in Life Orientation and went from 31% in Accounting to 56%. He also went from 14% in Pure Maths to 49% (which will be submitted for a remark in search of that elusive 1%).

IkamvaYouth Gauteng learners celebrate with Joe and Zamo on receiving their results.

With Wednesday 4 January 2012 fast approaching, hundreds of thousands of 2011 matriculants are anxiously waiting for their final results to be revealed. Last year we predicted we’d see an increase in the overall matric pass-rate despite the disruptive public servant strike and it is therefore too much of a temptation to resist the urge to stick our neck out once more and see if we can call it right again this year. So, although part of this is fun, we must warn you if you’re still in holiday mode that most of this still makes for thoroughly depressing reading (except for the IkamvaYouth results of course which will make you smile).

We’ll start again then with two predictions for the 2011 matric results:

1. The first prediction (and one we make with a reasonable degree of confidence based on 5 years of consistently good results) is that Ikamvanites will once again excel despite the incredible obstacles they encounter in their schooling careers. The IkamvaYouth Matric group will once again be an inspiring example of a group of township-based individuals taking their futures into their hands though hard work, collaboration, dedication and commitment. As a result, many more township school learners will access quality post-school opportunities and many more will return to IkamvaYouth as volunteers to help others do the same.
2. The second prediction (and this is once again mostly a hunch) is that, at worst, the overall matric pass-rate will stay roughly the same but is likely to improve by a percentage point or two or more. There are a number of reasons for this, not least of which is that the department is getting better at teaching matriculants to write exams (the merits of which is highly debatable) but perhaps most significantly there are very  nearly 50 000 fewer fulltime learners writing matric this year than last year. Yes, thats right, FIFTY THOUSAND!!! The mind boggles and it seems the best answer to the question of where these learners have disappeared to is, “Goodness knows”. Straight into thin air it would appear.

There is, however, one possible answer (albeit somewhat cynical) in that this is really a bit of a pattern. There is more than enough evidence in the township schools that IkamvaYouth works with to suggest that these schools routinely inflate their matric results by excluding learners from matric if it appears they are unlikely to pass their final exams. As a case in point: at School A, nearby our Gauteng IkamvaYouth branch, 400 learners are accepted into Grade 8 to begin their high school careers but only 134 learners make it to write their matric exams (and of these just over 50% pass each year). Or, worse, at School B, also very near our Gauteng branch, 350 learners start Grade 8 but only 90 learners make it to matric and of these only 62% pass each year.

Nationally, the situation is even worse. Approximately 1 million learners start Grade 1 around the country each year but only 512 000 full-time learners registered to write matric in 2011. So, even though the class of 2011 is likely to achieve close to a 70% matric pass rate, the real matric pass-rate is actually 38%. Now if that doesn’t spoil your holiday mood then nothing will. Or wait, we could also go further to consider the stupendous tertiary level drop-out rate (roughly 2 out of every 3 students fail to complete their degree) or the FET pass rate (between 10-12%) but the true magnitude of this would probably cause our brains to melt or explode. All of which is fuel for Jay Naidoo’s prediction of an SA “Egyptian moment“.

The bottom line is that in 2011 we have continued to shuffle deck-chairs while the titanic is sinking – no wait, SUNK – the SA schooling titanic has never ever actually been sea worthy and we’re doing ourselves a massive disservice to assume that it has (outside of former model-C or private schools of course). We really have to stop asking the salvage question that goes, “How do we fix education in South Africa?” and instead take a step further backwards and ask the desperately more urgent question “How do we make it fixable?” because right now it isn’t fixable and it isn’t working for 73% of South Africa’s youth.

Let’s be frank, Black Tuesday came and went for the majority of IkamvaYouth without much fanfare as the secrecy bill passed through parliament. A few Ikamvanites wore black, tweeted or re-tweeted on a selection of the events of the day but – by in large – the day was much like any other with immediate concerns such as passing exams and more mundane everyday issues taking priority.

We can safely assume that this scene was repeated throughout township and rural communities across the country and perhaps Steven Friedman has identified one of the key reasons here. Unfortunately, this lack of interest does not mean there will be no serious repercussions for township and rural communities and therefore Ikamvanites (as Friedman points out). There are also major areas of concern in Pierre De Vos’s account of the technical aspects of the Bill and the powers it gives to government to guard and classify information. Given too that Desmond Tutu refers to the Bill as an “insult to all South Africans” and Jay Naidoo issues warnings against “a dangerous and paranoid direction for our country” it is only wise to reflect on the issues ourselves and how they relate to our own positions.

We’ve said it often that IkamvaYouth strives not only to achieve great impact in what we do, but also strives to be very deliberate in the way we do it. As you know, IkamvaYouth operates as a grassroots organisational democracy underpinned by a set of core IkamvaYouth values that seek inclusive decision-making, collective ownership and consensus wherever possible. IkamvaYouth flips the traditional hierarchical top-down approach on its head with branch representatives (including beneficiaries) hiring/firing branch coordinators and branch coordinators hiring/firing regional coordinators (effectively their bosses in both instances). The IkamvaYouth board, in addition to its legal and fiduciary duties, acts primarily as custodian of the IkamvaYouth values (much like a constitutional court) and at all levels, stakeholders are invited to offer input to meetings when decisions will impact directly on their circumstances.

The upshot of working in this way means that a branch of IkamvaYouth does not just work within a particular community but, more accurately, the branch ends up creating a community and it’s a community anchored in and centred around IkamvaYouth’s organisational values. For this to work though, and for any democratic community to work, we have to have access to as much information as possible or we will make poor decisions and/or disengage from the process. What’s more, as Parker Palmer helpfully points out, democracy is fundamentally a matter of the human heart and the great democratic journey is a continual alignment and re-alignment of our individual and collective hearts with the core democratic values. This is the only way we’re able to find the “courage to create a politics worthy of the human spirit”.

In the IkamvaYouth context, ready access to relevant information for informed and engaged decision-making means a transparency on budgetary issues and sensitive topics like salaries. Everyone at IkamvaYouth knows what everyone else is earning and conflicts are discussed openly and honestly trusting the process that collective wisdom guided by the IkamvaYouth values will continue to move us in the direction we wish to go. Like any good democracy, IkamvaYouth is invariably a little messy on occasion and sometimes meetings can be tense. We are also often less efficient than the authoritarian alternative (except with regards to social impact) but the upside in terms of collective buy-in, pride and ownership is significant and the gains are immeasurable in helping to create community.

The problem with the Information Bill (or at least one of the problems) is that it introduces a new barrier to creating the kind of community we long for in South Africa (and we’ve got more than enough barriers already). It makes it harder for us to be engaged active citizens even assuming that there may be some highly-specific pieces of information justifiably held by the state. The members of parliament who voted for the Bill showed little sign that they held every aspect of the Bill up against the light of the values enshrined in the constitution or gave serious thought to the constitutional principal of transparent governance. They also showed little appreciation of the life-lesson that we can’t be in real community when we keep too many secrets regardless of how honourable our intentions at the outset. In short, it feels like our democratic hearts are unaligned and it is instructive that both Pierre De Vos and Jay Naidoo (above) invoke the issue of “trust” as core to what’s at stake.

Experience has taught us that a necessary condition for each of us to remain active, responsible, democratic IkamvaYouth Citizens is for us to have access to as much information as possible in making properly informed and constructive decisions. It is a vital component of our desire to remain rooted in our values and in authentic community with each other. Similarly then, for us to be active, responsible, democratic citizens sharing our lives together in this country the same must surely apply. We need access to as much information as possible to remain an engaged citizenry and to check how the country’s democratic heart aligns with our treasured democratic values. Democracy is not a passive past-time and we’re going to have to work continuously and exceptionally hard to keep it but since it’s a matter of the heart it will bring us great meaning, sometimes pain and often life.

As Ikamvanites, we have an opportunity to be an example to the rest of the country of a functioning democratic grassroots community in our own small way. We can’t work on healing our hearts and aligning our values without also working on healing the social and economic injustices of the past which is why the ‘what’ we do and social impact remains so important but it is ultimately also the ‘way’ that we do things that will determine whether we remain active and engaged and in authentic community with each other and our country.

Highly Recommended Reading: Healing the Heart of Democracy: Creating a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit by Parker Palmer. Good democratic soul-food.