STAFF REPORTER |

FOUR teachers, one School Governing Body (SGB) member, one cleaner of Sekoko Primary School in Free State were killed in a tragic accident on Friday night. They were driving back home after attending a workshop in Tweeling when the accident occurred.

Free State Department of Education spokesperson, Howard Ndaba said a minibus taxi overturned on the N5 road about six kilometres from Bethlehem.

“On 25 Friday 2022 at about 21:00 a white 22 seater Mercedes Benz Sprinter minibus taxi overturned on the N5 road about six kilometres from Bethlehem. The passengers were teachers and SGB members of Sekoko Primary school in Paul Roux,” said Ndaba.

The spokesperson said five people died at the scene – four females and one male. The other one died in a hospital on Saturday.
He further added that those who sustained serious injuries were rushed to hospital.

“Seven sustained serious injuries and were transported to Dihlabeng regional hospital, Phekolong hospital and at Medi-Clinic hospital,” Ndaba said.

Free State Education Mec, Dr Tate Makgoe has expressed shock and sadness following the death of Sekoko primary school officials.

“Free State Education Mec, Dr Tate Makgoe has expressed shock and sadness after four teachers, 1 SGB member, 1 cleaner of Sekoko Primary School in Paul Roux, Thabo Mofutsanyane District were killed in a tragic accident on Friday night.”

Makgoe sent his sincere condolences to the affected families and the school.

“We wish to convey our sincere condolences to the family and the entire school population. We are with them in our prayers during this difficult period of grief,” said MEC Makgoe.

The MEC is set to visit the school and grieving families on Tuesday.

The police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Ndaba said that teachers, parents and pupils will be offered counselling.

Meanwhile, in a separate accident, 20 learners were admitted to a hospital for observation in QwaQwa
after a bus they were traveling overturned.

– Inside Education

VIJAY REDDY |

THE South African education system is big (13 million learners), unequal and socially graded. Although improving, the achievement outcomes are still low, fragile and susceptible to shocks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt the education system a major blow, especially for poor and vulnerable learners.

In March 2020 South Africa, like most of the world, went into total lockdown, including school closures. The education system was unprepared for this. Schools, teachers and administrators were forced to build emergency remote-learning systems almost immediately. This threw the spotlight on access to digital devices, connectivity, having a quiet place to work in, and the problem of stubborn inequality.

Better resourced homes and schools were able to move to digital forms of learning and proceed with curriculum coverage. For the majority of learners, despite the best intentions, there was very little structured learning.

From June 2020, schools were reopened. Most schools followed a rotational timetable where learners attended school every second or third day. This rotational timetable continued in 2021.

Education scholars estimate that there was a loss of 60% of school contact time in 2020 and 50% in 2021. There were higher losses of school contact time in the less-resourced schools.

It’s uncertain exactly how much learning (knowledge and skills) has been lost and how wide the gaps may be for disadvantaged children. The global literature reports that:

learners from poorer countries and households experienced higher learning losses,earlier grades were more susceptible to learning losses than secondary learners,learning losses were higher for mathematics than for reading andgirls were more affected.

Learning losses in South Africa

For South Africa we estimated that the loss of school learning time in 2020 moved the education system backwards to the achievement levels as they were in 2015 – a regression by five years. The learning loss for learners from less resourced schools was 4.2%, higher than learners in more affluent schools at 3.4%. COVID-19 worsened already wide achievement gaps.

Studies measuring reading proficiencies in under-resourced South African primary schools in 2020 reported that grade 2 (8-year-olds) and grade 4 learners lost between 60% to 80% of a year of learning when compared to their pre-pandemic peers.

South African researchers compared pre-COVID grade 3 reading scores to grade 4 reading scores during the pandemic. They found that grade 4 home language learners were more than 1.25 years behind and English first additional language learners were half a year behind. The also found that learners were writing much less.

The World Bank cautions against underestimating the extent of the learning losses, saying that “the global education crisis is worse than we thought”.

Close the gap

Children from poorer households have missed substantially more classroom instruction time than children from higher-income households. Education researchers caution about the effectiveness of digital technology and e-learning to support learners who are out of school. The consequences of lost contact classroom will be felt for years.

In January 2022, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education gazetted that all learners would fully return to school and fully return to school and introduced measures to catch up on teaching and learning that was lost during school closures.

We don’t have a playbook of how learning recovery should happen. Drawing on past experiences and experiences in other countries, South Africa should consider implementing the following four components for education and learning recovery:

consolidation and trimming the content of the curriculum,increasing the efficiency of instruction,supporting out-of-school education programmes andnurturing the well-being of all actors involved in education.

While it’s unclear whether the schooling system can recover the two years of disrupted schooling and learning time, the education system should use this moment to reduce content in the National Curriculum Statement. Countries like the Philippines, Guyana and Tanzania have revised the primary school curricula to focus on practical learning and literacy and numeracy skills.

South Africa reduced the content of the curriculum just for 2020. This reduced curriculum should form the basis of a new curriculum, especially for primary schools which should focus on building foundational knowledge and skills.

To enhance learning, younger children must be in stimulating environments which focus on first language development and reading with meaning, basic computational skills and writing simple sentences. Learners must demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and computation before progressing to the next grades.

For most learners from vulnerable homes and who, pre-COVID, had low learning outcomes, in-person schooling is the only place for meaningful learning opportunities. To increase the efficiency of instruction, the first step is to keep schools open and try to avoid future school disruptions.

Educators and learners must be at school every day. Pre-COVID, South Africa experienced high levels of learner and educator absenteeism and late coming. No more learning time should be lost in schools and school time must be used efficiently and effectively with high quality engagements. National, provincial and district officials must monitor and mitigate the levels of absenteeism of educators and learners.

Learning recovery requires both in-school and out-of-school programmes. Small group out-of-school tutoring programmes should be expanded, especially for high school learners. Primary school learners must be supported by parents with reading activities and cognitively stimulating educational television and radio programmes.

The last two years of learning under COVID-19 conditions have placed tremendous strain on everyone in the education system  (learners, educators, administrators, departmental officials). We must recognise how tired the system is and move forward gently, avoiding too many ambitious changes to an already fragile education system.

– The Conversation

STAFF REPORTER |

THE University of Cape Town (UCT) has announced on Tuesday that students with outstanding debt can register for the 2022 academic year.

This is after the university’s council decided to lift the fee blocks for all students who are eligible to re-register on academic grounds.

“Following the UCT Council meeting on Monday,21 February, Council called on the leadership of UCT to put in place a working group, to coordinate and facilitate the process of registering students who are able to continue their studies due to Council’s decision to lift fee blocks,” said the UCT council chairperson Babalwa Ngonyama.

Earlier this month, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande reported that R16.5 billion was owed by students to public universities in South Africa.

The cumulative fee debt at the UCT currently stands at R317.8 million.

“At the same time, we provide financial support every year to about 50% of our undergraduate students and about 35% of our postgraduate students. For the 2021 academic year, this financial support amounted to approximately R1.7 billion,” said Ngonyama.

Ngonyama said that some student’s council agreed to suspend the block on students re-registering for the 2021 academic year.
She further added that the suspension was for one year only and, for the 2022 academic year, students with fee arrears of more than R10 000 have so far not been permitted to register, subject to appeal.

“We also know that there are students with fee debt higher than R10 000 who have the potential to complete their courses of study. The special meeting of Council was called to consider the plight of these students,” she said.

The outcomes of Council’s deliberations resulted in the following decision:

1. The current fee block on student registrations should be removed for the 2022 academic year for all students who are eligible to re-register on academic grounds. This concession will apply to students who are South African citizens, South African Permanent Residents, from SADC countries and from other countries in Africa. It will not apply to students registered for courses at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), or who are international students from continents other than Africa. 
2. The university executive will review current financial aid and fees policies, to develop proposals for reform that will align with Vision 2030 with the objective of ensuring that allocation of financial assistance is aligned with demonstrable financial need.
Proposals will be brought to Council for consideration in time for implementation for the 2023 academic year.
3. The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) will be invited to take part in a joint working group with university management, to ensure that students who will benefit from the additional fee block concessions for 2022 can complete their registrations as rapidly as possible, so that their academic progress is not compromised.

-Inside Education

STAFF REPORTER |

A school in Mpumalanga was gutted by fire on Wednesday, according to the Mpumalanga Department of Education.

“The Mpumalanga Department of Education has learnt that one of the classrooms of Sekemisa Primary School in Verena at Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Nkangala District caught fire,” the department said.

The fire extinguishers were called to put down the flames.

“Members of the community tried their best to extinguish the fire until the fire extinguishers arrived and helped to put down the flames.”

The police were at the scene and a case of arson will be investigated.

At the moment, the department said the circumstances that caused the fire is still unknown.

More updates will be provided as more information comes to light.

Last week, the community of Luka Village near Rustenburg in North West woke up to shocking news that their school called Ramotse Primary School has burnt down.
The Department’s spokesperson, Elias Malindi said the cause of the fire is still unknown, however, they suspect that it was a criminal activity.

The fire destroyed a computer lab, National School Nutrition Programme storage and a block of toilets for the girls and boys.

“The cause of the fire is still unknown but the school community suspects that it was criminal activities. The fire destroyed a computer lab with 40 computers, photocopiers, printers, Mathematics lab (1 projector, one screen, manipulative cupboard, interactive board and 18 tables), National School Nutrition Programme storage (food for learners) and Learner Teaching Supply Material (Stationery and textbooks) and a block of toilets for the girls and boys,” said Malindi.
The MEC for Education, Mmaphefo Matsemela condemned in ‘strongest terms the alleged burning of the school. “I take this moment to condemn in its strongest terms the alleged burning of Ramotse Primary school. Such incidents are clearly targeted at delaying the
provisioning of education to an African child, “she said.

– Inside Education

EVEN from 50 feet away, students can hear Thandi Dube’s voice. “Sit down!” she shouts. “Take out your coloring books.”

It’s the beginning of the school day, and Dube is trying to control her classroom of about 30 rowdy preschoolers at Tshaka Centre, in Bulawayo’s suburb of Makokoba. “We teach children communication skills and emotional development skills, which help them transition into the next grade,” she says.

In Zimbabwe, early childhood development preschools like Tshaka Centre have grown since 2012, when the government rolled out a nationwide effort. But repeated classroom shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic threaten to derail the program, which was intended to prepare children from the country’s low-income households for school.

The idea of sending children to school before they are 6 years old is fairly new in Zimbabwe. For decades after 1980, the year of Zimbabwe’s independence, most children were introduced to the group-learning environment when they began first grade. Children from poor families spent the first three years of primary school learning skills their peers from well-to-do households knew already because they had access to nursery schools.

By the turn of the century, it had become clear that Zimbabwe’s schools were failing millions of children. Government experts examining the education system concluded that it wasn’t designed for all students to benefit. The system was a carryover from the colonial era, when white rulers believed that Africans needed only enough education to serve as low-level civil servants. While white children went to nursery schools to learn social skills and even reading and writing in preparation for primary school, most black children spent their early years at home playing.

Children learn at an early childhood development classroom at Tshaka Centre in Bulawayo. In 2020, millions of Zimbabwe’s preschoolers missed months of learning due to pandemic-related school closures.

In 2004, the government introduced early childhood development centers, known in Zimbabwe as ECDs, which require two years of pre-primary education. Children at these centers spend 5.5 hours every day developing language skills, playing with peers and learning social skills like respect, sharing and self-control.

“The expectation is that once a child gets to grade three, they have covered the basics and they can read and write,” says Obert Masaraure, the national president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.

Now Masaraure and other advocates worry that sporadic school closures to avert the spread of the coronavirus could irreversibly harm the program — which is still in its infancy because a lack of funds to hire and train teachers delayed its launch until 2012.

When schools closed in March 2020, Zimbabwe switched to online learning. That worked relatively well for grade-level children because they were old enough to sit down and follow the instructions of parents and guardians. But parents found it impossible to guide preschoolers through lessons.

Dube, the preschool teacher, says that even trained early childhood educators like her have difficulty getting preschoolers to sit still and follow instructions. She can’t imagine a parent at home being successful.

“What they are learning here is practically impossible to teach outside the classroom setting,” she says. “It needs a lot of experience and patience.”

Saneliso Ndlovu, a tailor in Makokoba, says she had neither the experience, nor the patience when she unwillingly became her children’s home teacher during the 2020 lockdown.

“There was nothing I could do to teach my 4-year-old son,” she says. “I taught him to count from zero to 10, but that’s all.”

So, Ndlovu gave up on him and focused on her daughter, who was in seventh grade, because it was easier. Her son spent most of the year playing. Now she wonders if he’ll ever catch up, because when classes resumed in 2021 — after eight months without learning — her son and other children continued to the next stage.

Masaraure, the teachers’ union president, says primary school teachers will bear the burden of helping children who have fallen behind because of missed classes.

“The Zimbabwean curriculum is a spiral, so missing the basics leads to lack of comprehension going forward, which reduces literacy rates,” he says.

Early childhood education is important because it lays the foundation for children to succeed in school and beyond, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. But a 2019 report by the agency found that half of the children eligible for preschool worldwide — about 175 million — weren’t enrolled. In low-income countries, as many as 78% of children don’t have access to preschool education.

Kasirayi Hweta, vice chairperson of the Bulawayo chapter of the Zimbabwe Network of Early Childhood Development Actors, a coalition of organizations advocating for access to early childhood education, says inadequate funding makes the early childhood program more vulnerable.

“The Zimbabwean curriculum is a spiral, so missing the basics leads to lack of comprehension going forward, which reduces literacy rates.”

“In Zimbabwe, more emphasis and funding is placed on higher and tertiary education than in early childhood development,” says Hweta. “That needs to change.”

Although the early childhood program has been in operation for years, the government doesn’t seem to explicitly consider it when creating annual budgets. In 2019, for example, the government allocated $28.6 million to “support further improvement in junior education.” There was no mention of early childhood development in the 2020 budget.

“We need a specific budget that clearly outlines how much is allocated to ECD,” Hweta says. “We do not want to be bundled with other stages.”

But Taungana Ndoro, the director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, says the government focused specifically on younger children when drafting the 2021 budget, which earmarked 194.2 million Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL) ($1.7 million) for early childhood development. “This shows that we are making strides towards prioritizing ECD learning,” he says.

The 2022 budget released by the Ministry of Finance made no specific mention of early childhood development funding. The ministry didn’t respond to repeated questions about the inconsistency.

Ndoro says his ministry is working to help children recover what they have lost due to lockdowns. But the omicron variant, which forced the government to postpone reopening schools after the holiday season, has complicated that effort.

THE National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) has developed an online, interactive, virtual landscape aimed at stimulating learners’ curiosity in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. 

The STEMulator portal provides a highly interactive knowledge and exploration environment, crammed with animated and visual educational content, which entices audience through curiosity and fun.

The STEM

ulator landscape includes the built world, such as buildings, structures and machines; living organisms, including humans, animals and plants and complex systems like the natural cycle of water or the workings of a wind turbine.

Each layer of the STEMulator allows the user to delve deeper into the object or intricate system being explored, deconstructing it visually and providing learners with a detailed view of the hidden parts of the subject being explored.

The explorer enters the STEMulator world through a master landscape, which displays a variety of clickable areas, representing fields of interest.

The user clicks on one of the areas to see it deconstruct to reveal an overview of the elements.

For example, clicking on the STEMulator car allows it to expand into its various parts, and clicking specifically on the engine of the car gives the user a view of its inner workings.

NSTF has introduced the platform to potential contributors and users all over South Africa and the STEMulator team welcomes any contributors in the STEM environment, to help expand the content available on the platform.

Contributors can add to a number of  STEM-related topics, such as:

The natural worldPlants, insects, agricultureHuman beings, doctorsWeather, sun, water, scientistsThe earth, land, geologistsThe built worldTransport, cars, planes, trains,The home, household appliancesCommunication, cellphones, TVs, satellites

The STEMulator includes curriculum-related content, with the objective of encouraging maths and science education and learning, while also creating awareness of fields of study and career options.

The playful exploration design of the platform aims to make it engaging and fun for learners. The organisation affirms that its initial tests have revealed huge demand for interactive learning products.

The STEMulator is a free tool requiring only access to data or WiFi and it can be operated across various platforms and devices, enabling mass distribution to all areas.

An offline version is also available for schools or institutions that do not have access to the internet. The STEMulator portal can be accessed at www.stemulator.org 

Engineering News

WENDY MOTHATA |

GAUTENG Premier David Makhura said on Monday his administration would be introducing dedicated funding for the introduction of Coding and Robotics at primary schools in a bid to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or 4IR.

Makhura was speaking during the State of the Province Address held at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s chambers in Johannesburg.

“We introducing dedicated funding for the introduction of Coding and Robotics to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). We have identified 33 primary schools Grades R to 3 and 90 Grade 7 schools to participate in the pilot Coding and Robotics Programme,” said Makhura.

Since 2009, about R2.2 billion has been invested towards bursaries from which 30 000 students have benefited through the GCR financial assistance.

For the academic year 2021, Makhura said the GCR has set aside R420 million for Gauteng students who have done exceptionally well in matric results.

“We have harnessed ICT to provide smart schools and classrooms of the future.”

“This is across all schooling levels from Grade R to Grade 12. This includes supplying and delivering tablets and robotics coding kits to 62 primary schools. Grade 1-3 learners in 62 Primary schools have received mathematics manipulatives, including the abacus,” he said.

Makhura said since 1994, the democratic government has invested in the building of new houses, schools, clinics, hospitalisation, roads and streets, electricity and water connection.

 “Since 1994 Educational outcomes have been a key area of pride. In 2014 we will continue to invest in the modernisation and quality delivery of education especially improving educational outcomes in township schools,” he said.

The Premier said: “Our 2014 decision to invest in the modernisation of our education system has proven fruitful over the last eight years. This progress has been the result of incremental interventions, which included ICT, investment in infrastructure, and inputs in teacher training, adequate provision of classroom resources.”

Makhura added that his administration is working with TVET colleges to provide ICT training. Through the partnership with Tshimologong and Wits.

Early Childhood Development provides a critical stage in the cognitive development of a child with last implications for their future learning capabilities. Makhura said the work included investing in producing practitioners who would make an impact on the early stage of a child’s development.

“We are pleased to report that 2 467 ECD Practitioners have achieved a qualification at NQF Level 6. We were also able to increase the percentage of public schools offering grade R to 95,1% in 2021. This is an increase of 24 new Grade R sites, from the 1 386 sites that offered grade R in 2020,” he said.

 Between the years 2014 and 2019, the national senior certificate results have improved by an average of 85%. For the class of 2021 forty-four percent (50%) of bachelor passes in South Africa were in Gauteng.

“We have moved from 79% to 84% in terms of throughput rate largely because the focus was put on township schools to make learning conditions conducive.”

Makhura said: “We have ensured that the performance gap between learners from fee-paying and no-fee paying schools is narrowed. Despite being one of the areas severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, education has continued to record some great achievements.”

In the 2021 matric results, Gauteng was the second-best performing province with an 82.8% pass rate, which was a slight drop of 1% from 2020. A total of 130 schools in the province achieved a 100% pass rate, while 462 had a pass rate that was above 90%.

 “Four of the top 10 districts in the country were from Gauteng. Since the year 2020, we have seen unprecedented disruptions to the schooling system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this negative impact, our education system has shown resilience as evidenced by remarkable progress, especially the matric results,” the premier said.

–Inside Education.

AFTER Juliet Daniel delivered her first lecture as a professor at McMaster University back in 1999, a few Black students enthusiastically dashed up to speak with her.

However, what they said surprised the biologist and cancer researcher.  

“They were excited because they had never in their entire life had a single Black teacher,” Daniel, who is based in Hamilton, Ont., recalled. “[They] had grown up in the GTA and they were in second-year university and I was the first Black teacher they had ever had.”

That experience helped drive the research scientist’s decision to mentor and support young Black students, especially those studying in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) like hers.
 
Black students and faculty have long seen fewer Black youth pursue and continue in STEM than other racial groups. Only in recent years has there been more support for a concerted, national effort to figuring out why. In the meantime, Black researchers, students and community groups are tackling the disparity on multiple fronts. 

Daniel has seen the effect negative narratives and portrayals of Black Canadians have on the confidence, self-esteem and academic potential of Black students.

She was born and raised in Barbados before moving to Canada for her undergraduate and graduate studies. “I never doubted that I could be anything I wanted to be because Barbados is predominantly Black. We have Black lawyers, Black doctors, Black politicians, Black prime ministers,” she said.  

But in Canada, she said, many Black youth are turned off of STEM disciplines in high school or even elementary school.

“There’s just this weight that is on their shoulders from how they’re portrayed in the media or how their teachers talk to them, that they don’t think they can do science. Even if they’re interested, they have no one to help guide them and steer them as to how they should pursue that passion.”

Gathering and analyzing data key to identifying gaps

A 2020 Statistics Canada report examining a cohort of Black Canadian youth, based on the 2006 and 2016 censuses  , found that Black students graduate high school at a similar rate to other racial groups. However, the cohort of Black teens from 2006 were less likely than their counterparts to have a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree 10 years later. 

Individual researchers have looked at racial disparities in education regionally, but Canada hasn’t made it a national practice to collect and analyze education data through the lens of race.That information is key to identifying disparities, gaps, systemic barriers and other issues blocking fuller participation of Black and other racialized people in STEM disciplines, says Jennifer D. Adams, an associate professor in the faculties of science and education at the University of Calgary.

In the United States, there’s more data exploring educational patterns and trends among Black students , a response to the country’s “long history of in-your-face racism, for lack of a better term,” noted the researcher, who was born and raised in New York.

Canada puts forth “a strong rhetoric” of the country being a cultural mosaic and upholding “an ideology of not seeing colour,” she said, but that typically means students from different races and ethnicities see their experiences boiled down into one “visible minorities” bucket.

University of Calgary professor Jennifer D. Adams, a Canada Research Chair in Creativity and STEM, is studying the experiences of BIPOC STEM students in Western Canada. (Submitted by Jennifer D. Adams)

A willingness to acknowledge and address racial discrimination within education has increased in recent years, following the murder of George Floyd , the resurgence of Black Lives Matters protests and the establishment of groups like the Canadian Black Scientists Network, in which both Daniel and Adams are involved.

Scientists with the network are working with Statistics Canada, for instance, to compile and analyze data on the proportion of Black students in STEM from high school onwards.

Adams, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Creativity and STEM, is currently studying the experiences of BIPOC post-secondary STEM students in Western Canada. Black students have shared heartbreaking stories, she said, about their contributions being dismissed and feeling alienated at school. 

“There are Black students that noted that they didn’t feel comfortable wearing their hair in an afro or wearing … regular clothes that they would wear on the street, [to avoid] being ‘perceived as being ghetto’ and not belonging to these science spaces,” she said.

“They have to feel and be and talk and act and do things in a certain way in order to fit in or … have to overcompensate to prove that they belong.”

Early support needed

Looking around her classrooms in Vancouver, biology graduate student Kywana Bonaparte sees some diversity, but says “someone who looks exactly like me or something more similar to me, I would say that still needs to be improved.” 

The University of British Columbia student grew up with supportive parents who encouraged her interests early on by enrolling her into science camps and fairs, as well as teachers who recommended paths to continue learning STEM subjects.

Watching a family friend study medicine and become a doctor also modelled academic success. 

Biology graduate student Kywana Bonaparte, seen at her undergraduate commencement, says early on, her parents supported and encouraged her interest in science and math. She’s hoping to create that same support for younger students in her hometown of Calgary. (Submitted by Kywana Bonaparte)

She’s now working to improve the situation for younger students in her hometown of Calgary, in her role as youth advisory lead for Realize Your Potential (RYP), an education and mentorship program supporting Black youth. The organization is adding more STEM learning and introducing students to careers in those fields. 

That might look like hands-on experiences for younger kids, showing them science in their everyday lives, Bonaparte says, along with mentorships for and giving advice to high schoolers about opportunities in STEM and the pathway to those careers.

Lack of information and opportunities

“I don’t think there’s a lack of interest,” said Desiree Henry, a co-founder of the Realize Your Potential program, who is now based in Toronto. “It’s mostly a lack of information being provided to Black youth, as well as opportunities.”

Henry, who recalled being the only Black student at her elementary school until she reached Grade 7, said support from clubs and her community helped her push through racial bullying and mistreatment she faced at school. With the RYP program, she wants to help a new generation prevail against education system barriers. 

Desiree Henry is one of the co-founders of Realize Your Potential, an education and mentorship program in Alberta supporting Black youth. 

Javonte Blake and Jahzara Atkins, siblings currently enrolled in the RYP program, say the learning environment is different than in their regular schools, where discussions about race or Black history aren’t present or make others uncomfortable.

Sitting amongst Black students and teachers at RYP, as well as being encouraged to ask questions and share her thoughts make the program “fun,” said Atkins, 11. “We get to speak our opinions about the subject … I like that part because I get to speak my mind.”

Blake, 15, said he appreciates the different approach used, from engaging resources such as TED talks to slowing down to explore subjects more completely. The teen admits that some of his friends “think it’s just extra work for no reason” to spend Saturdays in an additional class, “but I know why I’m doing it. I’m doing it so that I can get a better education and better myself.”

Calgary students Javonte Blake, second from left, and his sister Jahzara Atkins, second from right, said their extracurricular classes with Realize Your Potential are different than regular school.

Bonaparte wants young Black students to see a world of opportunity. “I want them to see possibility … I want them to see that people that look like them are succeeding in the fields of STEM and that’s also attainable for them to do so as well,” she said. 

“I also want to provide them opportunities to explore the possibilities that exist in STEM earlier on in life … so that they can really understand what it means to be a part of this.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Daniel, who along with running a lab and conducting cancer research, is busy with multiple initiatives — working with Black academics across the country to study the issue and pushing forward the Canadian Black Scientists Network — in hopes of moving the dial.  

“If we’re saying … ‘Nothing for us without us,’ then as a Black community we need to realize that we have to be flooding every single profession with as many Black youth as possible so that they can achieve their potential in all these professions.” 

CBC.ca

THE inaugural Africa Schools Champions Cup has kicked off in style in Kinshasa with the joy of football being celebrated by participating teams representing six African member associations and an estimated crowd of 12,000 schoolchildren at the historic Stade des Martyrs.

The festival atmosphere reached a crescendo towards the end of the morning session of matches in the group stage, when Congo DR sent the bustling gathering of youngsters wild by coming from behind to defeat Benin 4-1 in the boys’ competition.

“First, I want to thank my team-mates,” said Congo DR youngster Chance Kasindi. “The game went well despite losing the first half, but we put in the effort and went on to win the second. It [the tournament] is a great opportunity for us. I’ve been aiming to play this type of competition for a while and we are going to do our best.”

Meanwhile, Radia Laghni was able to shine for the Moroccan girls’ team and was beaming at the experience of representing her country. “Our team played well against such a strong team in Congo DR,” she said in celebration after a resounding group stage win. “I’m very happy with this game today.”

The opening day of competition featured an energetic opening ceremony, kicked off by a performance of drummers and including speeches from FIFA Secretary General, Fatma Samoura, and Minister of Sports of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Serge Nkondé. The Under-16 sides were able to spend time together around the pitch throughout the day, breaking down cultural barriers and making new friendships.

“I’m feeling happy because it’s my first time experiencing playing against other countries,” added South Africa boys’ captain Goitseone Legobye.

“We really fought and even though our result was poor, we enjoyed the game. I hope we will come back with a stronger team in the next tournament that comes up.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino attended a stunning final day of the African School Champions Cup in Kinshasa, lauding “the beauty of football” and previewing a strong future for a tournament prioritising education and social development through football.

 Infantino was joined at the Stade des Martyrs by several distinguished guests, including CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, member association representatives and a group of FIFA Legends.

“I am a happy man tonight,” said the FIFA President.

“Seeing those children smile, boys and girls, with joy in their eyes is wonderful. This is the beauty of football. DR Congo did a great job organising this event, which is the first edition of a fantastic competition that is going to become one of the biggest not only in Africa, but around the world too.”

“The importance of involving schools is precisely to go beyond the game beyond only playing football and to include education too,” Mr Infantino continued. “FIFA has a program called Football 4 Schools, which helps all schools in the world through education and football. The game remains something magical, the unity, the fact that it’s girls and boys from all over Africa: it’s so beautiful. “Everyone is very happy: we didn’t think it would be so successful. The Member Associations present here, all those who want to join us next year in this wonderful county, in this beautiful city of Kinshasa, the [Congolese] government, president [Félix] Tshishekedi, who I closely worked with to make this dream come true, the United Nations, AFD [French Development Agency], everyone is going to work even harder to make sure the party is even more beautiful next year.”