Our survey has revealed that what parents believe the essence and importance of High School is contrasts with what our education system ultimately provides. It is our company ethos to inspire learners to succeed in their high school careers such that they create a stable platform from which to prosper in later life. The survey was aimed to highlight to parents that the road to academic success should start in early high school.
Summary
As the need for skills in the South African workforce increases, learners should be seeking to prepare themselves adequately for their tertiary education. In a global economy, we should strive to deliver value through our school system so that our nation can continue to remain competitive and attract trade and investment through the value we create.
We constructed a survey that we hoped would highlight the importance of our schooling system, and the level of preparation it would provide learners. The survey was kindly facilitated through Careers for Moms, so as to provide an unbiased opinion on the results.
An audience of just over 12 000 parents in South Africa was involved, with the survey taking place over a period of 4 weeks during mid 2010.
The results uncovered a number of interesting insights. Of these, the two that really stood head and shoulders above the rest were the fact that only 20,1% of parents felt that high school provided adequate preparation of learners for tertiary education. The other was that only 23,4% of parents were very confident that high school had imparted the necessary knowledge required for a university/college education.
A unanimous 91,7% of parents felt it important for their children to attend a tertiary institution. In light of the doubt that parents have of our schooling system, this highlights the need for parents to be closely involved in their children’s educational development, and schools to closely examine their value proposition.
Our View on Education
The education of a child is a multifaceted and multidimensional challenge. We do not believe in any combination of approaches resulting in a silver bullet solution. Each child, in light of their abilities, culture, upbringing and current circumstances, will require a very special and very tailored approach to obtaining academic success.
As a company, we fully support the role of the government and private sector in providing an education to our nation. Teachers are crucial to the outcomes required by these stakeholders and we endorse their value proposition.
It is, however, a reality that not every child can receive dedicated attention and stimulation from their parents or teachers. Each child becomes familiar with new concepts at varying rates, and thus some children will still require a personalised approach.
We provide a tutoring service in the form of one-on-one extra lessons at your home. The tutors we use are typically university students who are top of their class and passionate about the course they are studying. A tutor is in no way supposed to replace the purpose of a teacher, but rather be a point of reference to build confidence, reiterate fundamentals, and inspire the learner to push through their challenges and circumstances to one day be in the same position as their tutor.
Our company has been in passionately inspiring learners for the last five years, and we’ve come to understand that although some may view having a tutor as a luxury, other parents realise the opportunity cost of their child missing out on a place in university. We will continue to deliver exceptional service and seek to promote school academic success, for the ultimate benefit of our nation and the people in it.
You can download the full report in PDF format here.
Have your Say
We are interested in hearing about your view on this research, so that we can include future questions to further support our findings. Feel free to comment below.
