What better way to help Grade 11 and 12 students with Maths and Science than to host extra lessons at the local movie theatre?
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (17 March 2022) – Primestars is an organisation that uses movie theatres to provide students with extra support in the subjects of Mathematics and Science. Students that attend the extra lessons over weekends, have shown significant improvement in their final marks.
Thousands of disadvantaged matrics across the country agreed that a unique maths and science revision programme was a game-changer when it came to getting them through the exams. Now, the data has emerged to prove it.
According to a specially commissioned impact report, learners participating in the EduCate Matric Maths and Science Revision project showed a 10.1% improvement in Mathematics and a 10.6% improvement in Science from Grade 11 end-of-year exams to the final NSC examination in Grade 12.
This intervention is significant given the backdrop of two years of severely disrupted schooling because of the Covid-19 pandemic – with UNICEF reporting that many learners in South Africa are up to one year behind in their education.
“EduCate presents a practical, realistic and scalable model of how business can help to affect the rapid development of 4IR-linked skills by contributing to the education of its future leaders and workforce through technical innovation, exceptional teaching and dynamic interaction,” says Martin Sweet, Managing Director of Primestars, a leader in the field of high-school youth development programmes, including the annual EduCate Matric Maths and Science Revision project.
The project, nicknamed the “Private Tutor to Public Education”, has shown itself to be one of the most powerful interventions of its kind in South Africa. It uses a range of platforms – including WhatsApp, an interactive online website, and in-school (rural) interventions – to make quality revision content accessible to learners from 94 under-resourced public schools.
However, its most unique teaching platform is the use of cinemas throughout the country as “theatres of learning”. This initiative saw 24977 attendances across eight provinces being transported from their schools to cinemas. They received snacks, learning materials and pre-recorded Mathematics and Physical Science revision tutorials over eight weekends.
“It was so exciting and refreshing to attend classes in a cinema,” says 2021 matric learner and project participant Nelisiwe Ndlovu, who attended Kwa Dlangezwa High School in Richards Bay.
Ndlovu, who achieved 83% in Maths and 80% in Science in her final exams, said she was incredibly grateful to be part of the project.
“They provided us with books and documents that included past papers that we used to prepare, which was such an important thing for matric students. We needed to get an insight into what really happens in an exam room, and many of the lessons also focused on this. It made me fall in love with being in an exam room and helped me get the marks I did.”
She is now studying Pharmacy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Watching video classes also really helped me adapt very easily to the online learning that they are using at university.”
The academic data collected allows for an impact assessment, with the Grade 11 year-end results serving as a baseline against which the preliminary examination and final NSC examination results could be measured.
“Primestars is extremely passionate about this programme, and we are honoured to have sponsors on board that share the same passion for the programme and the potential it holds in offering young South Africans a better future. We look forward to reaching more Matriculants this year and challenge Corporate South Africa to join us and contribute funds to help learners in need. To the Class of 2022, we’re #InItWithYou,” said Sweet.
You can find out more about Primestars and the educational programmes they run via Facebook here. This year’s revision programme will kick off nationally at the end of July. For more information, please contact: projects@primestars.co.za
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