Penguin Tutoring Blog

Penguins, lets LEAD South Africa and volunteer to help out at schools in crisis.

Just a few weeks ago, we watched with pride and excitement as we hosted the most successful sporting event in the World. We wore our Bafana shirts, waved our flags, and felt proud to be South Africans. On Saturday 94 000 (and thirteen) of us swarmed to the FNB stadium in Soweto to cheer on our rugby boys. We are a very special nation of amazing people. We have pride and commitment and belief that we can achieve the impossible.

But we are also strongly aware of a crisis that is currently unfolding in the hospitals and schools. South Africa’s education is in a state of crisis as members of one Teachers union, SADTU, embark on violent strikes and prevent learners and teachers from attending school. If Government has not responded to their demands, members of Naptosa will join their colleagues.

We sympathise with their cause and strongly believe that they should be well paid for work well done. After all, the future of our nation is in their hands. But, we can’t sit by and watch as learners miss out on essential teaching, not now, only weeks before their final exams.

We at Penguin Tutoring Co would like to assist these bewildered young people where we can and we appeal to you to come forward if you are able to volunteer your time. You had the benefit of a good education and are now able to follow your dream as a student at a tertiary institution. Thousands of Matrics may have to delay writing their exams until next year, because of the disruption to their education

We will be offering to help out at schools and in communities to prepare the Matrics for their final exams. Do the right thing - sign up with us and help LEAD SA.

Excitement is mounting as the famed Cape Argus Cycle Tour draws closer. A contingent of Penguins from Johannesburg will be tackling the gruelling race on Sunday March 14th, together with35 000 other cyclists tackling the 109km route around Cape Town.

Traditionally staged on the second Sunday of March, this is the biggest one day sporting event in the country and fast becoming a major international draw card – Lance Armstrong joins the starting line up this year.  Foreign entries topped 2 000,  and increase every year, a boon for business and tourism in the Western Cape.

Charities are also big winners at the Cycle Tour. Over R3-million was donated to the race’s two official charities, the Pedal Power Association and the Rotary Club of Claremont in Cape Town.

Last years’ windy conditions made the race the toughest in 20 years. This year conditions did not look too promising, with a feisty south-easter expected to blow at between 40km and 50km/h. Highs of about 25 C are expected in the city, dropping to about 22 C around Slangkop and 19 C at Cape Point.

Good luck to all the brave souls out there - have fun, wear yellow and support Lance’s Livestrong Campaign.

Penguin Tutoring is the leading provider of specialist academic tutors in the country. Our professional management and extensive tutor database will ensure that your children get everything they need and more out of their extra lessons.

After reading an article in the local Rosebank Gazette about the amazing success achieved by Mandla Nhlengthwa, a former street child, Penguin Tutoring Co was inspired to reach out and assist this impressive young man to realise his dreams of obtaining a BEd degree at Wits university.

Eight years ago, Mandla drifted onto the streets of Johannesburg from KwaZulu Natal. Life was difficult and dangerous, and after two years on the street,  he joined Twilight Children in Hillbrow. Here he met Father Laszlo Karpati , head of the Yithuba Lami Street Children ministry

Yithuba Lami means ” It is my chance“.  The programme  focuses on the rehabilitation of street children, unemployed youth on the street and sexually exploited children. The activities of the project are organized around the following modules:  Street Outreach, Drop-in Centre, Centre for the protection of Human Rights of the child, Bridging School and  the Dinaledi House  Shelter, which is home to the children and young adults  in Rossmore.

Yithuba Lami applies as a methodology the “pedagogy of presence”. They  are on the street, in squatter camps, in juvenile prisons and places of safety. They maintain strong contact with the children’s  families and if possible extend the rehabilitation program to the family too.

Mandla’s courage and determination are an inspiration to all around him. He was elected President in his Matric year and has been appointed  a House Father at the shelter, looking after the younger residents over the weekends. He believes “You can certainly turn things around. Many people use their bad backgrounds to run away from a better life. Show your courage, it is there inside you”

Penguin Tutoring Co believes strongly in giving back to the community, and has set up a fund for “Learners in Need” as part of their Corporate social responsibility project.  Unused lessons from clients are held in a trust for a worthy cause such as this.  We have appointed one of our Maths tutors and Mandla gets specialised one-on-one tuition every week. We look forward to hearing more of his success!

Penguin Tutoring is a well established tutoring company with branches all over South Africa. We provide high quality individual extra lessons in all subjects, to help our learners fulfil their academic dreams.

All of us at Penguin Tutoring were thrilled to hear President Jacob Zuma throwing his support behind the 1Goal - Education For All Campaign earlier this month, along with other political heavyweights such as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

1Goal aims at enabling governments to provide at least a primary level of education to the 75 million children worldwide who are forced to face life without access to teachers or classrooms.

The campaign was born out of an agreement in 2000 between 164 nations, which set out a number of aims called the Education For All Goals, promising to provide free quality education by 2015.

Recently though, 1Goal has been focussed on the FIFA 2010 World Cup, and has made it their prime purpose to ensure that the tournament leaves a lasting legacy of education here, across Africa and throughout the world. With the spotlight on South Africa as the first African nation ever to host the World Cup, and our country’s education system facing so many challenges, what better incentive to accelerate our progress?

“The South African government remains committed to ensuring that every child receives proper education which is one of the main priorities of the campaign…we need to see action at the world cup and beyond.” said Zuma on 6 October.

The FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, reiterated that the 2010 FIFA World Cup represents a unique opportunity to mobilise energies around the globe to provide education and thus a better future for every child on the planet.

“This campaign should become the rallying point to concrete commitments by government, investors and individuals to be true to our values of universality and to the values of football - an amazing school of life,” he said.

Penguin Tutoring has signed up to join the 1Goal campaign because we see first hand the multiple effects of quality educational support.

Many of our tutors have had to overcome significant obstacles in their academic careers, but with their hard work has come an exceptional knowledge of their specialist subjects, which means they are well placed to help others make similar strides.

A well tutored learner becomes a well educated citizen, who can then in turn, help to achieve quality EDUCATION FOR ALL!!!!

Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za to find out more. Sign up at www.join1goal.org.