Accounting winter school has a record of success
NELSON Mandela Metropolitan University’s Accounting winter school programme, geared towards helping Grade 11 and 12 pupils improve their marks and their chances of attending university, boasts an impressive track record.
Almost a third of the 520 pupils who attended last year’s Grade 12 winter school successfully registered for degrees or diplomas at NMMU.
An analysis comparing their June matric results with their December results has revealed that many of them shot up by as much as 30%. Overall, more than half showed improved results from June to December.
Lyle Ressouw, one of the winter school’s top achievers last year, came third in the province overall in December.
This year’s week-long Accounting winter school for Grade 12s, sponsored by Deloitte, takes place from June 29 to July 3, while the three-day Grade 11 winter school, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), is from July 7 to 9.
Ansulene Prinsloo, Accounting 1 lecturer and coordinator of NMMU’s winter school programme, said: “The main aim of the Accounting winter schools is to help learners obtain higher admission points scores, which is their entrance ticket to higher education.”
NMMU first-year BCom Rat (Computer Science) student and Tegkor bursary holder Luthando Mbaza, 19, who attended the Grade 12 school last year, said the individual attention pupils received in the winter school’s tutorial groups had helped him change his approach to accounting, leading to a 10% improvement in his matric results. “The tutorials helped me realise I needed to understand accounting, not just memorise it.”
He said the winter school had also made for an “easier transition” into varsity life this year.
NMMU first-year BCom Rat (Economics) student Sumaiya Moses, 18, a recipient of NMMU’s Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship for top-performing matrics, said last year’s winter school helped her identify her weak areas – and her marks had also improved by about 10%.
The Grade 12 winter school covers the entire matric cur- riculum, while the Grade 11 school covers the four main topics of the Grade 11 Accounting curriculum. “These are all topics that pupils will continue studying in Grade 12,” Prinsloo said. “The foundation of Grade 11 is so important – if this foundation is not solid enough, they are going to battle in Grade 12.”
The winter school programme is taught using the School of Accounting’s teaching model, which includes a combination of lectures, tutorial classes and homework.
Tutors for the second year in a row include second-year BCom (Chartered Accounting) students and members of NMMU’s PinnAcle Leadership Programme, Roxanne Weiss and Jessica Chemaly, both of whom attended NMMU winter schools when they were at school.
As a tutor, Weiss, 20, said it was encouraging to see pupils trying to improve their marks in the tutorials. “Some come from schools where they don’t have teachers or textbooks.”
ý Attendance of the winter schools costs R60 per pupil. To book, contact Jolandri on (041) 504-4690 or by e-mail at jolandri.vanderwalt@nmmu.ac.za .