Makhanda’s example must inspire rest of SA

Universities should play a meaningful role in community efforts to transform the cities in which they are located, Rhodes University vice-chancellor Prof Sizwe Mabizela said.

He was speaking on the first day of the Makhanda Education Summit on Saturday, January 27.

In 2013, Makhanda was the 10th worst-performing education district in the country.

Recognising this crisis, the university immediately partnered with various stakeholders, introducing a range of interventions at primary and high schools in the city.

Some of the strongest indicators of the performance transformation following this collaboration, led by Prof Mabizela, include:

The literacy comprehension rates of the city’s Grade 4 pupils are more than double those of the SA average, as measured by the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy study. As of 2023, 40% of Grade 4 pupils in Makhanda could read for meaning, compared with 19% nationally.

The improving literacy rates have seen the dropout rate in Makhanda plummet by 20 percentage points over the past three years.

The city’s matric pass rate jumped from about 60% ten years ago to 80% today.

Record numbers of pupils are securing Bachelor’s passes, with the quality of these rising, resulting in a tenfold increase in the number of disadvantaged local youth gaining access to Rhodes as full-time students.

There is a sharp upturn in the number of locals successfully graduating from Rhodes.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Initiative, the Nine-Tenths mentoring programme, won the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship, which recognises exemplary university student civic engagement programmes around the world.

Rhodes is the only university on the African continent to have won this accolade.

Over the past decade, Makhanda has risen to being the leading educational city in the Eastern Cape. This has been possible with a wide-ranging collective effort involving public, civil society and private institutions, as well as donors.

“As the proverb goes, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” Mabizela said.

“Lighting a candle forces us to focus on the sphere in which our influence lies. Through a strategic and focused plan, we have illuminated every corner of the city, fostering a globally engaged, locally responsive approach to education. Makhanda has set a template for the entire educational landscape of South Africa.

“Our hope is that our journey will inspire a national movement where universities, stakeholders, and communities rally together for the collective upliftment of education.”