Matric pupils go wild for revision lessons
● Huddled around a campfire at night, a group of 38 matrics from Barnato Park High in Berea, Johannesburg, listened attentively to an audio narration of excerpts from the English literature setwork Life of Pi.
They were attending a recent six-day matric revision programme organised annually by St John’s College Academy and Roedean at the Maretlwane Wilderness School in the Magaliesberg, north of Johannesburg.
The academy offers six hours of extra tuition a week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons to 72 boys from Barnato Park High and Highlands North Boys’ High at St John’s College.
The girls from Barnato receive extra tuition from Roedean.
Barnato Park pupils in Grades 10 to 12 and Highlands North pupils in Grades 10 and 11 are benefiting from the programme offered by the academy this year.
Extra lessons are provided in maths, physical science, English and life skills.
Atang Mngomeni, 17, from Yeoville, who attended the matric revision programme, said listening to the audiobook of Life of Pi had helped him gain better insight into the novel.
“We were able to understand the book better because we heard it live from the author. We never had that experience at school.”
Mngomeni sang the praises of the academy, saying the extra lessons had helped him improve his performance in English and maths.
“With these extra lessons I feel I will be able to gain admission to university because my marks have improved.”
Freddy Kaniki, 25, who was part of the first group of matrics of Barnato Park High to receive extra tuition from the academy from 2008 to 2010, said it had played a pivotal role in his studies.
“It transformed me from a 50% to 60% student in Grade 9 to a distinction student.”
Kaniki graduated with a BSc honours degree in mining engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2014.
“I was born in Congo and obtaining funding for university seemed a big challenge. The academy, along with Mrs Nugent [Agnes Nugent, the director of the academy], provided connections which funded my first year of study at university.”
Commenting on the pupils who participated in the matric revision programme, Chrissy Heald, a maths and science intern, said they were very smart and had lots of potential.
“I found with the outreach programmes that students are more willing to learn. They are just so grateful for it. They don’t sit there like the normal students through a lesson, wishing it would end.”
Heald gave up her full-time job as a civil engineer to start teaching at St John’s College from the beginning of the year because “my passion for teaching outweighed my passion for designing structures”.
Nugent, a former principal of Barnato Park High, said boys from both schools who showed potential in English and maths were chosen by teachers to participate in the extra classes.
Nugent said that over the past 10 years about 220 boys had benefited from the extra classes and that none of them had failed matric.
They had gone on to qualify as economists, teachers, geologists, quantity surveyors and mining engineers.