Independent schools
THE growth in independent basic education is being driven by two powerful factors — the potential of a substantial profit and the demand created by the inadequacy of public schooling — and the resultant force is virtually irresistible.
“THE independent schooling sector in SA offers citizens educational choice,” says Tim Nuttall, rector of St Stithians College in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs. “The ability to choose is an important feature of a democratic society.”
St Stithians is unique among South African schools in its composition of five schools on its 102ha Randburg campus. Collectively, about 2,500 students attend these five schools, a co-educational junior preparatory and single-sex schools for girls and boys at preparatory and college levels. A sixth school is the Kamoka Bush School in southern Limpopo, providing an outdoor education centre for all age groups.
The college is in fact a village of schools. Each school is run separately, with its own head and its own particular character. The schools are connected through the personnel, resources, policies and systems of campus administration. Essential to the character of the college, the schools share a commitment to core values and a code of honour.
“They seek to live out a Christian witness through their affiliation to the Methodist Church of Southern Africa,” says Nuttall.
The rector represents and leads the college as a collective entity, promoting synergy and vision.
Noting the sharp increase in enrolments at independent schools over the past 30 years as a response to the poor quality of public schooling and a lack of provision to schooling, Nuttall says the main burden of improving education in SA remains with public schools.
“Independent schools can act as role models and as potential partners in advancing public schools. Aside from the former Model C public schools, there are many heartening stories of public schools shining in difficult circumstances, usually due to the exceptional commitment of the principal and dedicated teachers,” he says. “The single most important aspect to address in improving standards in public schools is (to focus) on the quality of the principals and of the teachers, specifically their subject knowledge.”
Nuttall is a proponent of the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) to which most of the leading independent schools in SA are affiliated. “(The) IEB offers an alternative assessment framework for the national curriculum. The IEB is a South African organisation, founded originally to provide an alternative paradigm for Grade 12 assessment during the apartheid era.”
The assessment standards and practices of the IEB are benchmarked internationally and provide what Nuttall describes as a welcome stretch to teachers and matriculants, with an emphasis on higher-order thinking skills.
“Given the crisis in our national education system, it is understandable that current assessment frameworks in public schools emphasise content more than analysis, but one of the challenging outcomes of this is that National Senior Certificate students are generally less well prepared than IEB students for tertiary study.”
Nuttall refers to research done at Cape Town University on the patterns of NSC and IEB students as they perform in the national benchmarking tests and in progression studies once admitted to university.
“The outcomes of this research indicate the positive performance of IEB matriculants in relation to the NSC cohort, strengthening the argument that IEB candidates should receive favourable consideration in university admission policies.”
The college follows a transformation policy, aiming to increase racial diversity among its students and teachers. This intent is underpinned by a bursary and scholarship programme for students, and a teacher intern programme.
It also maintains a number of community partnership initiatives, some of which involve other schools. The St Stithians College Foundation runs a highly successful Thandulwazi Academy of Maths and Science, which brings up to 1,100 students from 160 public schools across Gauteng to the St Stithians campus on a weekly basis for Saturday school.
Thandulwazi selects and trains intern teachers who work at St Stithians, and Thandulwazi offers a professional development teacher programme for public school educators and school leaders.