It has been proven over the years
that a well-crafted and specialised learner intervention yields good return on investment. This has
been the case for most of the Osizweni interventions particularly Project A.
Project A enrolls well performing
Gr. 10-12 learners over a period of 3 years. Learners receive intensive and
continuous academic support from Gr. 10 in the first year through to
Gr.12. Learners take part in a range of
activities including workshops, hands-on science experiments, computer based
tutorials, computer literacy, life
skills and career guidance.

Realising
the impact that Project A has had in the community of eMbalenhle, producing
more than 100 Matriculants who are studying at
various universities in the country and have registered for Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics related careers. Osizweni together with
Sasol have decided to extend the Project A intervention to Dipaleseng with the
aim of increasing the percentage of quality Matriculants who can be sourced by
industry for tertiary as well as vocational training in the area The project
has been implemented in three schools
namely Isifisosethu, Sesheng as well as I.M Manchu Secondary Schools which all
fall under the Dipaleseng Municipality.
the intervention currently caters for approximately 30 Grade 10 learners
.These learners meet at Isifisosethu Secondary School in the afternoons where they receive aditional focused educational support.
Osizweni’s Toy
Library provides children at the early childhood developmental phase (age 3-7) with
opportunities to use a variety of educational toys that have been specifically
designed to cultivate their cognitive, social, psychological and physical
competencies in fun and interesting ways. The centre is not merely for the
purpose of keeping the children occupied outside the conventional classroom. It
is facilitated learning through a
wide array of educational equipment, guided by practitioners and the Toy
Library staff. As the children navigate through the different educational tasks,
they acquire skills and competencies (such as sustained concentration; adequate
grasp of chronology; resilience; social cohesion; self-confidence) that enhance
their school readiness levels, and allow their transition from preschool to
school to be less stressful.
On a weekly basis
over 30 Early Childhood learning Centres visit the Toy Library in an attempt to
benefit from the many educational resources made available to them. On an
annual basis, the Toy Library hosts a competition for the top 10 attending
Early Childhood Centre’s. These Centres compete against one another in an aim
to achieve the following:
- Give learners an opportunity to
express themselves by displaying the knowledge and skills they have
acquired at the Centre throughout the year
- Introduce learners to healthy
competition from a young age.
- To lay a good foundation enabling better
progression in life.
- To encourage and enhance the love for
numeracy and literacy.
- Encourage and motivate
Practitioners through the performance of their learners.
- Allows Practitioners
introspection of their work.
Learners
compete in teams by taking part in 15 different activities, these activities
included puzzles; numeracy worksheets; patterns; Maths lotto; Maths bingo;
visual tracking; threading and matching objects. These inter-active activities
are either done manually or are computer based.
ECD
centres rotate their group of learners between activities. Learners begin the
activity at the same time, the top three winners in each activity are selected
based on correctly completing the activity in the shortest amount of time. The
school with the highest amount of placings wins the overall competition.
This
year’s winners for the Grade R group of learners are Illuminate Day Care Centre
in first place followed by Bambanani Day care Centre in second place and
Isiqalo Day Care Centre in third place. The winners for the age 4-5 group of
learners are Ekujabuleni Day Care Center in first place followed by illuminate
Day Care Centre in second place and Isidingo Day Care Centre in third place.
”The
impact which the Toy Library has on learners is always seen during these competitions.
Most of the best performing Day Care Centres are those who are committed and consistent
in their weekly attendance to the Toy Library the learners did well and we are
very thankful to the Day Care Centres that participated in the competitions”
said Maker Masemola, Osizweni Toy Library Senior Practitioner.