From humble beginnings to a school of international standing
CHILDREN at a school in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, are getting an internationally accredited education that some pay hundreds of thousands of rand to have, for only a fraction of the price.
The African School for Excellence (ASE) offers the Cambridge International Examinations, which is based on the UK curriculum.
After opening its doors two years ago pupils have outperformed their UK counterparts and their South African peers who are grades ahead.
ASE offers Grades 8 and 9. Pupils are required to pay R200 a month for school fees, which are subsidised through bursaries and sponsorships, but the cost of educating them is R8 000 each a year.
The school is the brainchild of co-founder Nonhlanhla Masina, who is studying for a Master’s degree in pharmaceutics at Wits University.
Masina matriculated top of her class at Buhlebemfundo Secondary School in Tsakane in 2006, then got a rude awakening when she enrolled at Wits and realised she wasn’t the “cream of the crop” she thought she was.
Her peer, Malusi Radebe, the deputy principal at ASE, matriculated as the best male pupil at Buhlebemfundo and experienced the same thing when he went to university.
“When I was at Wits with Nonhlanhla I remember asking (myself) why I couldn’t learn at the same level as somebody from St John’s (College) because it was pretty clear that I lacked those basic skills of problem-solving and comprehension,” said Radebe.
“I found it hard in my first year, to the point where I failed my first year.”
The pair decided to set up a programme to help other pupils from their former school. In 2007 they began offering extra lessons in maths, English and life-skills during holidays.
It proved so popular that today the lessons have turned into a fully fledged school.
“What was very frustrating for me was that we would work sometimes with kids during the June vacation and then work with them during the September break as well,” said Masina. “You’d find that during the June vacation, because we have three weeks with them, we’d actually get to cover a lot and see a lot of improvement.”
But returning in September was like starting again.
Masina provided the extra tuition to high school pupils until 2009. Then she met Jay Kloppenberg, who is chief
“My background is in business and I looked at it and said: ‘Well, impossible changes like that have happened in health care, in computing, in telecomm, in auto manufacturing… in all kinds of places.’
“These changes are what was once a luxury good for a few people is now available to everyone because of technology and business-model improvements and innovative thinking.”
Kloppenberg got input on a programme model from his peers at Insead Business School in France and Singapore, and asked his former teachers for advice.
“We were designing for Tsakane and places like Tsakane around the country,” he said.
They designed a peer-based learning model that went beyond developing and improving pupils’ academic performance.
“By encouraging peers to tackle problems together, they develop organising and planning skills, work collaboratively with others, give and receive feedback and evaluate their own learning,” Kloppenberg said.
When the school’s first cohort enrolled at the beginning of last year, the Grade 7 children ASE received from the surrounding primary schools were reading at Grade 3 level.
The intensive intervention at ASE helped them catch up – and even outperform pupils in higher grades.
ASE’s first Grade 12 class will matriculate in 2018 and they’ll have five subjects: maths, English, history, science and Zulu.
Kloppenberg said that contrary to the perception that taking many subjects in matric was the best option, research suggested it was better to focus in depth on a few key subjects that enabled pupils to pursue any course of their choice at university.