This month, MySchool and loot.co.za handed the 3 000 Tutudesks over to learners at select Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga schools that experience severe shortages of desks.
It is estimated that around 3 million South African school children do not have a desk to work at in their classrooms. The lack of classroom learning stations with proper writing surfaces hampers not only the learner’s handwriting development, but their concentration, and overall academic performance as well.
From the teacher’s perspective it presents additional classroom and learner management challenges that ultimately adversely impact on the quality of teaching and learning. Tutudesks are mobile classroom desks that immediately address this challenge, provide to learners by donors.
“When I grow up I want to be a doctor. I’m very glad that we got the Tutudesks because these desks can help us when we are writing our home work or other class work either at home or at school”, said 13-year old Grade 7 pupil Monjela Mabiso from Thulani Primary, when his school received their allocation of Tutudesks recently.
In June online retailer loot.co.za became the latest partner of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet fundraising programme that raises millions of Rands for schools and charities every year. In celebration of Youth Day in June this year, and as a symbol of the new partnership and shared focus on improving education, loot.co.za and MySchool announced that they would get another 3 000 Tutu desks to selected under-resourced schools in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.
“We believe that as South Africans we should all be playing an active role in improving the standard of education. Not having a desk is a serious setback”, says loot.co.za’s CEO Gary Hadfield. “We’ve come on board with MySchool, and participated in this latest Tutudesk drive so that we are playing our part in enhancing education in a clear and tangible way.”
To date the Tutudesk Campaign, a MySchool beneficiary with Archbishop Desmond Tutu as its patron, has provided Tutu desks to more than 1.5 million learners in 24 African countries. An independent research survey, involving 16 000 learners and 500 teachers, attests to multiple improvements in the classroom learning environment, classroom management and in actual learners’ performance.
Tutudesks are locally produced and made from a high-grade, child-safe, proprietary polymer that won’t shatter like other plastics if dropped. A Tutudesk weighs under a kilogram and rests comfortably and stably on a child’s lap, providing them with an even, steady surface to write on whether they are sitting on a chair or on the floor. The desks have a handle, so they can easily be carried by the learners and can be taken home and used for doing homework and projects.
“The Tutudesk Campaign is a great initiative that makes the difference,” says Pieter Twine MySchool’s General Manager, “We’re pleased that together with loot.co.za we are able to give Tutudesks to more learners in South Africa and excited about the long-term benefits of having one of the countries top E-commerce retailers in the MySchool fundraising partner network.”
Customers wanting to support the Tutudesk Campaign can sign up online at www.myschool.co.za and select this not for profit organization as their beneficiary. The free MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card can be swiped at a range of retailers including Woolworths, loot.co.za and Engen. With every swipe the retail partner makes a donation to your selected beneficiary, at no extra cost to you.
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