The 2023 Chronicle

than of younger ones if finances are an issue. This results in a high dropout rate or a late start to schooling, with obvious disadvantages for the children. In an effort to mitigate this challenge the MCPT runs a transport subsidy programme for children in grades 1 to 3 at Shea O’Connor and Esiphethwini Sendezi. After Grade 3 the foundation is set, and the parents are able to continue and manage their own transport fees. The risk of dropping out at this stage decreases significantly as the value of education has been realized. 10. ECD: Evaluate existing centres in our communities and provide necessary support. Early childhood development (ECD) centres exist in many different forms in our communities. Some are just care centres run by people with no formal training; others function as ECD centres staffed by teachers with the appropriate qualifications. The Grow ECD team visited us to assist with an evaluation of the eight centres in our footprint and provide suggestions. The centres that lie in our footprint each require different levels of support and intervention. Our focus this year was on converting the hospice at Zenzani into a fully-functional centre for 50 toddlers, which will enable us to move the existing unsatisfactory, overcrowded centre out of the primary school at Asithuthuke and the Lion’s River community centre, which has no water and consists of two run- down Wendy houses. So far our progress has been a follow-up meeting with the committee running the Lion’s River ECD centre, with the aim to understand how we can improve the centre and find out about their vision as well as fill in some information gaps. That was followed by a drop-in at the Zenzani village to see how much work needed to be done to convert the St Raphael’s building into an ECD centre and move Mrs Mshengu and the children to that structure. We were accompanied by Jennifer Hindle (Midlands ECD supporter), Sarah Johnson (Simcelisile ECD supporter) and Zaphesheya Ntuli (Sappi). We are very excited about the strides being taken by this programme. EDUVELOPMENT Very few of the Grade 12s in our footprint schools have had career guidance or help choosing tertiary studies. Those who were fortunate enough to have access to information have been able to continue and enrol in institutions of higher learning, but a large majority remain in the dark. The introduction of the Eduvelopment app and platform, through Honorary Old Boy Andrew Cook, has added great value by addressing this significant need. We have hosted a total of 159 matrics on the platform from five of our six high schools. During our interactions with the schools after the training provided by the Eduvelopment team, we were able to identify a keen individual from Jabula Combined School, Anele Didi, for an administration learnership coordinated by the MCPT office and sponsored by Trafalgar Properties. Project Champion: Busi Tshili Project Champion: Jon Bates

that a cooperative and collaborative relationship will develop, which will encourage the Education Department to assist where it can in improving our footprint schools as functional places of learning. Funding has been raised for much of this work, but the need is considerable.

Project Champion: Steuart Pennington, MCPT Team

8. PARTNERS FOR POSSIBILITY: Leadership development through Partners For Possibility; networking and engagement.

Partners for Possibility is an NGO operating in 1,740 schools in all nine provinces. Its primary objective is to engage under- resourced school principals in a co-action and co-learning partnership with business leaders, who share their knowledge and skills with the leadership of the schools. Learning circles of eight principals and eight business leaders are formed to enable this. Over the past three years PfP has established three circles, engaging with 24 schools in the KZN Midlands with considerable support from the MCPT. The programme is a year long, with three key interventions: Time to Think (Nancy Kline), where role players engage in conversations with partners as equals; Flawless Consulting, where listening, collaborating and charting a way forward are emphasized; and Community Engagement, where reaching out to communities, and engaging and understanding them, is emphasized. Diverse thinking is encouraged as a means of grappling with serious issues and challenges in education and the socio- economic system in South Africa. Most importantly, there is an uncompromising commitment to excellent academic results (despite no Wi-Fi, functional IT lab and library, and few extramural activities and limited sanitation). It is hoped that during the year, the partnership between the business leader and the school principal will result in leadership development and provide significant benefits to both parties in terms of understanding the South African education landscape and improving our schools as functional places of learning. The third quarter of 2023 coincided with the last phase of the PfP leadership one-year journey, the implementation phase. Meetings were convened where stories were shared in community. Conversations were structured around hearing all voices and giving space to emerging gifts. In our rural schooling, the quality of the teaching is indeed a real issue. 9. TRANSPORT SUBSIDY: Transport subsidy for children in Grade 2-3 to assist struggling parents and combat dropout at the foundation phase of learning. Each community that the MCPT works with is different. For this reason we carefully design our interventions and involvement with our footprint schools around their particular needs. In respect of transport this is particularly true. For example, the Shea O’Connor and Esiphethwini Sendezi principals have challenges with uptake in the lower grades in their schools because parents are more likely to support the schooling journey (and the transport costs) of older children Project Champion: Karen McKenzie

By way of example, and this applies to our six secondary

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