Moswane offers help to matrics
Graduate wants to assist learners in poor, rural areas
A master’s graduate who witnessed his high school classmate’s battle to gain entry to universities because of a lack of resources and knowledge has written a learner guide book that has assisted over 140 rural and township schools. Mafule Moswane, 26, from Ga-Masemola in Limpopo said many people who are privileged enough to have access to information on universities’ and career options are ignorant about the challenges pupils in township and rural schools have to further their education.
“It’s very easy for people to say ‘just Google’. You can’t Google something when you don’t even know what you are looking for. Most of them have never had anyone in their family or even community that went to university.” He said when he was in his first year at Wits University studying towards his undergraduate degree in geography and environmental studies, he was haunted by the school mates he had left behind. Moswane said he was also battling with moving from a school that taught in African languages to a university space where everything was taught in English. He said he would be judged in his classes for speaking English that was not fluent.
“You find that you have the questions in your mind but the English fails you. The system does not prepare you for this and I wanted to help those like me who would come to this environment,” he said.
“In my second year, I started going to different schools to give them information about universities. I travelled to Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West to spread the information,” he said. Moswane said these travels spurred him and his friend Clive Mosoane to start a non- profit organisation called Faculty of Best Advisory, which was started in 2013 to assist and advise underprivileged kids on how to find post-matric opportunities and to provide a support system in universities all around the world by other university students.
“I started writing in 2012, just my experiences and what I wanted to share with other people,” he said.
He said these writings became two books: A Learner’s Guide to Academic Success and a book of short stories named Katrina, and other untold stories that are published through the foundation’s club readership programme. Moswane said the challenges high school learners face are deeper than applying on time, but also knowledge on how admission point scores (aps) are counted to qualify for certain degrees and financing the application fee. He said he has seen a lot of disappointed school kids who did not know they needed certain averages and subjects for certain degrees. Moswane said he has been inspired and encouraged by the likes of the University of Cape Town’s Vice-Chancellor Mamokheti Phakeng.