A no-fee public “collaboration school” that was approved and constructed in four years in the Western Cape has us excited about what we can achieve when our communities come together. We first read about this inspiring story in the Financial Mail. 🙌
SA’s schooling statistics are frightening: only 45% of those who begin Grade 1, will write their matric exams in 12 years time. This is how we’ve found ourselves in a situation where 63,9% of people aged 15-24 are unemployed, while this is true for 42,1% of those aged 25-34 years.
In 2016, concerned citizens in Bonnievale, a small town in the Cape winelands, decided to make a change. Their vision was to equip learners with high-demand skills to ensure they would be ready to enter the job market.
The government agreed to pay for 40% of the construction costs if the group could raise the other 60%, plus fund running costs. The community body also had to identify a parcel of land to use for the development. It took a massive drive, with donations and help from all sectors of society, but they raised R100 million for a school that could accommodate 1,000 students!
“Youth unemployment is so high in SA because our youth are unemployable,” said one of the school’s trustees, Augusta Brandt. By offering a career-based curriculum that teaches high-demand skills aligned to local employer needs, Jakes Gerwel Technical School graduates stand a good chance of employment once they leave the school. Industry excursions are important, and in their final two years of study pupils in the “school of skills” stream have several weeks of practical job shadowing.
The school day has been extended – from 7am to 5pm! All pupils get breakfast and lunch, can take part in all main sporting codes, have supervised homework and mentoring sessions and…. there is even a subsidised driving programme so every pupil graduates with a driving licence.
Thanks to the Bonnievale community’s extraordinary efforts, JGT’s first cohort of matriculants achieved an 81% pass rate, with 94% of the final-year class graduating with certificates in their respective skills. Many of them have gone on to tertiary studies, learnerships, entrepreneurs or employment, and assistance is ongoing.
It’s not our responsibility to improve our education system – that’s the government’s job. But that doesn’t mean we can’t push for accountability and achieve great things like Bonnievale has if we come together to tackle the issues we face in our communities.
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
