Reaping the rewards of heartfelt support
Peer support and mentoring programmes are vital elements to the success of tertiary students
ALTHOUGH many young South Africans from poor rural areas successfully complete their schooling and receive financial backing for tertiary studies, many fall by the wayside and have their success hampered by social and psychological barriers.
This is according to Lorraine Gumede, regional manager of the Rural Education Access Programme (Reap), who has identified definite socio-cultural factors that may prevent students from being adequately prepared for and able to participate effectively in tertiary studies.
“The answer is to provide a more holistic solution for these students,” she explains. “There are many bright students out there, but if they don’t receive the appropriate guidance throughout their tertiary education experience, it becomes very difficult to learn.”
Reap assists students from poor rural areas across the country to access tertiary education and provides information, resources and referrals to grade 11 and 12 learners in rural schools.
It also provides students with a structured support and development programme to facilitate success in their studies.
Most of Reap’s bursary holders are first-generation students. So the transition to university is an enormous leap across economic, and social barriers, which their parents and guardians might not be able to assist them with.
All Reap students come from families earning less than R140 000 a year.
Gumede says that many disad- vantaged students experience feelings of social alienation and homesickness, especially at the beginning of their first year, when the culture of the campus environment and its people, and also the city, is still new and strange to them.
A big challenge for rural students is that they generally do not know anybody else on campus when they first arrive. Many also experience a degree of culture shock.
For example, people in their rural villages all know each other and greet one another, but at university, people are anonymous and isolated.
Students who belong to Reap attend a special orientation programme for first-year students, three weeks before the university opens. The programme gives these students time to get used to their new environment before the academic programme begins.
Each group of six or seven students is allocated a mentor: a second-year student who speaks the same language and who helps orientate them to the campus and campus life.
Furthermore, academic orientation includes an introduction to accounting and statistics, and second year students are appointed as tutors, to assist in tutorial sessions as well as assist more informally in the residence.
“Mentoring, in various forms, was found to be a valuable support for disadvantaged students in that it both reduced their feelings of alienation and assisted in their integration into the institution,” says Gumede.
“Peer mentoring was particularly effective in this regard, both as part of programmes in residences and during orientation and registration times.”
The Reap orientation programme is built on personalised attention designed to facilitate the transition from school to university, from rural to urban life and into early adulthood. The ultimate goal is to facilitate academic success and personal growth by developing students’ independence and capacity to take care of themselves.
“Reap, together with the FNB Fund understands the importance of integrated support systems that will provide a coherent support network and thus maximise students’ chances of success,” Gumede says.
During 2015, Reap supported 479 students from rural areas across South Africa, enrolled at 16 different higher education institutions in six different provinces.
There are currently 126 first years on the programme. Reap is an associate body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, but assists all young people regardless of faith or affiliation. Reap is a beneficiary of the FNB Fund .
Aurelia Rimmington is a communications consultant at FNB. For more information visit www.reap.org.za.