‘Leg up’ for accountancy pupils in EC

Holiday lessons ‘deepen grasp’

ASPIRING black accountants from underprivileged schools have been given a fighting chance to follow their dreams.

The provincial department of education, University of Fort Hare (UFH) and office of the Auditor General have teamed up to introduce Saturday classes to matriculants and teachers.

Advisor for commercial subjects Sydney Swazi said the department had been approached by UFH last year with the idea. Classes began late last year, and have since snowballed. This year a total of 80 schools are involved, with several top matric candidates attending.

“Our focus is on accounting as this is the area where schools have been underperforming,” Swazi said.

“Because we couldn’t accommodate all learners from all 80 schools, we decided to take the top performers, and asked the teachers to nominate the learners themselves. We ended up having 180 learners with even more attending on the day.”

The Saturday classes also take place during the school holidays.

Swazi said teachers were offered separate sessions to assist them with changes in the curriculum.

“In the previous curriculum there was higher grade and standard grade, with learners switching to the lower grade if they were struggling, but now there’s none of that.

“Teachers and pupils have problems in some of the content because the standard of the work is very high so these classes are trying to address that,” Swazi explained.

According to UFH accounting lecturer Linda Mtshwelo, the idea began as a community outreach project.

Noting the shortage of black chartered accountants and the challenges faced by accounting pupils from township schools, the department was soon brought on board.

“Our intention is to increase the number of black chartered accountants in the industry and these classes are one way to ensure that,” Mtshwelo said.

“Things are going very well so far. We are planning more classes in the second semester closer to their final exams so the information remains fresh in their minds.”

A BDLive report earlier this month stated that the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (Saica) Thuthuka development model had helped grow the number of qualified black accountants from 322 in 2002 to 3 000 today. Saica spokesperson Chantyl Mulder said a key to success was nurturing the talent in the pipeline. Pupils are enthusiastic. Asemahle Gebegana, from JS Mati in Mdantsane’s NU 9, said he now stood a good chance of achieving a high pass rate. “These classes are interesting and all the lecturers are knowledgeable,” he said.

Xola Bukati from Byletts High School said she understood better.

“The lessons act as revision and give us a deeper understanding of the work taught in class.

“And since only three of us attend we are making sure that we share the information with our classmates so they can benefit as well.” —