Tutoring Programme

Introduction

Student Community Engagement (SCE) based at Centre for Social Development (CSD) was approached by SRC/NYS at Rhodes University to facilitate the implementation of tutoring programme in seven high schools in East Grahamstown. The reason for selecting the seven high schools was that the university Community Engagement (CE) Office had already formed a partnership with the schools, Department of Education (District Office) and SADTU. In a meeting that brought together the DVC’s office, Dean of Student’s office, the CE’s office, the CSD, the office of NYS and the SRC, it was decided to integrate the tutoring programme funded by NYS, into the existing Student Volunteer’s Programme. It was also decided to integrate the tutoring programme with career guidance.

Dr Nduna (Director of Community Engagement) introduced the Student Community Engagement Manager to the school’s principals, the District Office of the Department of Education and the Steering Committee of the Rhodes –Schools’ Partnership from 21 to 23 July 2008. Then the tutoring programme was introduced to all seven high schools with full support of the Department of Education, organised labour and CE office.

Why tutoring?

Tutoring in our context is a support programme to assist learners. Tutoring strategies will be planned and discussed with educators of the learning areas. The role of the tutoring programme is to support the educators and not to take over the learning and teaching processes. As SCE we do not want our tutoring programme to create any form of dependency hence we support teacher professional development. Therefore tutoring and teacher professional development should work hand in hand.

Targets

District Department of Education, seven High Schools in East Grahamstown
a) Mary Waters High
b) Mahlasela High
c) N.Nyaluza High
d) K. Daniels High
e) Ntsika High
f) Nombulelo High
g) Mrwetyana High

Major targeted Learning Areas for the NYS were identified as Maths, Science, Economic, English and Management studies. These learning areas have been discussed with targeted schools and District office of Department of Education. From the 21st – 24th July 2008, SCE and CE visited the District Office and seven schools to assess the situation and their needs. Below are the findings:

LEARNING AREA :PROBLEM AREA
GRADES

Geography GIS and Map projections 10 and 11

Life Sciences Evolution 10 - 11

English Grammar, Poetry and its analysis 10 and 11

Maths Lesson Plan, Rubrics, Linear programming , compound angles and projects
10 and 11
Accounting VAT, cash flow statements, and ratios 10 and 11

Economics
Multiplier 10 and 11
IsiXhosa Lesson plan and rubric 10, 11 and 12

History
Analysis of resources, rubrics, projects and globalisation 10, 11 and 12

History
Analysis of resources, rubrics, projects and globalisation 10, 11 and 12

Tourism Lesson plan, rubrics, LO3 i.e. Geography / Time zones 12

Languages Reading and writing skills 10 and 11

Not all learning areas will be covered by the tutor’s at all seven schools, but selection of learning areas depending on what subject expertise is available amongst tutors and in negotiation with the individual schools.

The aim is to involve 420 learners during this first stage of the project (2008) and they will be drawn from grade 10 to 11. Depart of Education (District Office) is having upgrading programme for all Grade 12’s every Saturday at Nombulelo High School therefore our tutoring programme will involve only grade 10 and 11.

Capacity Building Programme

One major gap of the existing Student Volunteer Programme is lack of a capacity building programme for the students involved in voluntary work. The new strategy is to organise capacity building programmes before students are engaged in any community work.

Realising the need to involve postgraduate students in tutoring and the need to educate the tutors about the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and how it is linked to the learning areas. The SRC Liaison Officer, organised a meeting with
Dr Wilmot, the PGCE and the Deputy Head of the Faculty of Education. Both SCE Manager and CE Director were invited. The first meeting with Dr Wilmot on the 24th July did not take place. The second meeting was attended by SCE Manager, SRC Liaison Officer, SRC President, Dr Wilmot and Ms Westaway on 30 July. As participants we agreed on the following:

• A National Curriculum Orientation workshop will be run by Dr Wilmot and Ms Westaway for 64 Rhodes undergraduate volunteer tutors on Wednesday 6 August (18h00 – 20h00 in the MLT of the Education Department.

• Workshop on topics identified as areas needing support by the schools will be run by staff in the Department of Education on Wednesday 13 August, 18h00 – 20h00 in the MLT.

• Further collaboration between PGCE students and lecturers and undergrad student tutors next year (2009), with a view to establish a more structured and sustainable partnership between the SRC, SCE, CE Office and PGCE programme.

On the 6 August (18h00 – 20h00), 30 student tutors attended the National Curriculum Orientation Workshop. The content of the workshop was an eye opener to the student tutors. Although the expectation was 64 students, other events on the campus on that day like student forum have impacted on the attendance of the workshop.

The second workshop on 13 August was attended by 25 student tutors. The workshop focuses on the following learning areas:

Accounting, English, Economics, Geography, History, Life Sciences and Maths

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms enable one to assess the quality and impact of the programme. Monitoring and evaluation of the tutoring programme will be done as follow:-

• SCE Manager will get feed backs from Educators of the Learning Areas about the quality and impact of the programme.

• Learners participating in the tutoring programme will be interviewed on individual bases and assess how the programme is assisting them in their various learning areas.

• Student Tutors will have Team Leaders. The role of the Team Leaders is to submit feed back reports to the SCE Manager.

• SCE Manager will also give feed back to the schools and Rhodes – Schools’ Partnership.

• SCE Manager will compile an evaluation report (which will be attached to the general progress report) based on:-

i) Efficiency – inputs into the work are appropriate in terms of outputs (i.e. staff, finances, equipment etc)
ii) Effectiveness – how the project is achieving its objectives.
iii) Impact – does it make a difference to the problem?