Businesses sponsor maths tutoring top-up
You don’t have to be a whiz at maths to work out that paying for private tutoring could put a strain on some family budgets.
So Waikato business owners are putting their hands in their pockets to give struggling students a boost.
The sponsorship programme was dubbed Circle of Success by the woman who developed it, mathZwise Te Awamutu branch owner-operator Jean McKenzie.
Businesses can do anything from making a one-off donation to paying for a full year of tutoring.
The money is then shared between two students, meaning they effectively get half-price lessons.
When Rochelle and Colin Old’s teenage son went from struggling at maths to passing with merit, they decided to chip in for someone else.
‘‘[Our son has] come a long, long way,’’ Rochelle Old said.
‘‘I just wanted to be able to help somebody else’s children.’’
The Olds’ small business, TA Livestock Ltd, is sponsoring a full year of tutoring.
Sponsors can have conditions – such as wanting to support a student from their area or at a certain school – but the Olds let McKenzie pick who their money helped.
‘‘I just needed to know from her who she felt needed it the most,’’ Rochelle Old said.
She hasn’t met the people her business is sponsoring, but did get a thank-you email from a parent.
McKenzie said the $45-an-hour tutoring sessions are not within everyone’s reach and she’s seen families struggle to afford them.
A recent example is a solo mum who put her two daughters through two terms of tutoring but couldn’t continue. She rang McKenzie to say she would have to cut it down to one tutoring spot and her daughters would attend alternate weeks.
Those types of stories are what pushed the former teacher to create the sponsorship programme, which currently supports 13 students.
‘‘It’s working with students who couldn’t have it any other way,’’ McKenzie said.
And maths skills are just as important as literacy, she said.
‘‘One of the things that I say [to parents] is there’s enormous pressure on teachers. The curriculum is chokka-block.’’
McKenzie’s mathZwise branch also sponsors lessons through the programme.