The 2023 Chronicle

Partnership Trust provided ongoing IT workshops to support technology in education

child the opportunity to reach their full potential and become an asset to their communities, nations and continent.

Project Champion: Andrew Schaefer

African Spelling Bee continental competitions have been held in South Africa (2016 and 2017), Kenya (2018) and Uganda (2019). Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, activities were disrupted in the 2020/21 period but the fifth bee took place in Blantyre, Malawi, in December 2022. The sixth ASB Championship was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in November. Through a partnership with a private university, MSA IIE (previously known as Monash South Africa), A Better Africa has been able to put up tuition scholarships for the winners of the competitions in South Africa (since 2010) and the African Spelling Bee (since 2016). Seventeen winners have been awarded these scholarships, with a few already having completed their degrees at MSA IIE. A Better Africa Foundation is, however, more than spelling bees. Its extensive literacy enhancement programme involves: • Teacher training. • The promotion of multilingualism. • Job opportunities for young people as teacher assistants. These assistants provide a structured remedial literacy intervention called the spell2read2write programme. The aim of e-learning is to improve learners’ computer skills while giving access to outstanding learning content. Two educational software programmes are used, the Ligbron e- Learning System and CAMI. The Ligbron system has been in place at Shea O’Connor for a number of years. Jabula was recently added on to the programme and is seeing more interest in mathematics and science. Some of our footprint schools were equipped with computers for the purpose of developing computer skills, but few of the classes are properly equipped with whiteboards, laptops, data projectors and the necessary security for ed-tech to take place. Many of the teachers are not equipped to use ed-tech and require training to move away from chalk and board. Funding is needed for this project. We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to our UK supporters, who enabled a significant donation of 91 HP800 desktops to our rural under-resourced KZN schools. What a team effort it took! Ross Cockburn from Reusing IT directed the devices to us through the Scottish installation team from Computers for Africa, Terry, Ken and Keith. Paul Tomlinson from Rotary and Jon Bates, Michaelhouse community stalwart, gathered the partnerships. The Midlands Community College provided storage and a distribution hub, Dynalogica supported the installation/uptake needs at the schools, Partners for Possibility selected schools with active leadership in education and the Michaelhouse Community We are excited to get going in our 10 primary schools in 2024. Project Champion: Andrew Schaefer 5. ED-TECH: Equipping classrooms with Wi-Fi, teaching aids and data projectors.

6. ST RAPHAEL’S: ECD Centres; community health awareness.

St Raphael’s project is the longest running project, providing basic health care to the greater Michaelhouse community. The team is made up of one medical doctor and 3 caregivers who refer clients directly to the doctor at Balgowan Clinic if necessary. Our home visits and community involvement have highlighted several scenarios which WE have been able to work into in a variety of ways. These include but are not limited to; counselling sessions, transporting patients to the clinic, assisting families get legal documents, etc. In 2023 the St Raphaels team put more focus on working in schools, measuring the weight and height of learners in our CPT footprint schools. The WHO defines the double burden of malnutrition as, “the coexistence of undernutrition along with overweight, obesity or diet-related non-communicable diseases, within individuals, households and populations, and across the life-course”. Bearing this in mind, learners are screened and referred to the Balgowan clinic. Those who are stunted/underweight, as well as those who are overweight receive care.. So far, the team have screened over 600 primary school learners. The team are very excited to be adding basic optometry screening to their services. The aim is to screen learners on the same day as their weight and height. We want to voice a huge “Thank you!” to Spec-Savers Maritzburg Arch for training us, as well as donating the charts, lenses and other resources. This has an especially valuable service for St Raphael’s to offer, as many rural learners will never get screened for vision problems during their school career. Spec-Savers is also supporting the learners who need full evaluation and glasses as part of their existing social responsibility programme, where children 6-12 years old get an eye test and glasses for free. 7. IMPROVING SCHOOL FUNCTIONALITY: Improved instructional competence; improved dignity through i nfrastructure enhancement; leadership development. During 2022 the MCPT signed a memorandum of understanding with the MEC for Education in KZN. The document provides that on an annual basis the MCPT will evaluate its 16 footprint schools with a key focus on three areas: Project Champion: Dr Sam Lindsay

• Instructional functionality • Infrastructural functionality • Leadership functionality • Learning outcomes

In an annual report to the department, MCPT will reflect on what the needs are in these three areas and in particular what remedial action has been taken and will be taken. It is hoped

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