Kouga Wind Farm Community Development Trust is working with Rehoboth Training Solutions on a programme to assist adults who did not finish their matric, or who failed and need a few subjects to pass, to obtain an Amended Senior Certificate (ASC). Candidates are tutored mostly by retired teachers from the community and can write three subjects at a time, over a period of two years, to qualify.
Bulelwa Nondedwa is in the first year of the programme, and is writing English, Life Sciences and Religion Studies. As a working mother with a teenage son, she admits it has been difficult to balance her commitments and studies. She is full of praise for her tutors: “They really know what they are doing.” Next year, Bulelwa will write her final subjects. And then? She wants to go to seminary to become a minister in her church.
Manelisi Klaasen only has two subjects to write this year – Business Studies and Life Sciences – in order to get his ASC. He is grateful to the tutors who have helped him to prepare well and focus on his studies. His dreams? “I want to go into Hospitality Studies, so that I can open my own catering business.”
Nicole Goliath has had to balance working in Humansdorp with attending classes four mornings a week, but says it has been worthwhile.
“The classes have been amazing. It was just like being back at school, with the tutors helping us so much.”
Nicole has already written papers in Mathematical Literacy, Economics and Business Studies. Once she gets her ASC, she will work as an admin clerk, but her long-term plan is to study Tourism and become a flight attendant.
Project coordinator Michelle Dorfling is passionate about adult education and training, and believes in encouraging a culture of independent learning.
She says, “I have huge respect for adult learners who have taken ownership of their own learning.”
She recognises that it is an enormous challenge for those who have been out of school for a while to adjust to the academic discipline required.
Rehoboth training centre manager Angie Baartman says 2020 has been especially difficult because of Covid-19 but the students are determined to succeed. With the help of Humansdorp Secondary School, the students wrote interim exams using past papers. In October, a special awards ceremony honoured the top achievers in each subject.
Rehoboth started the project in 2019 with nine students, but, with a grant from the Trust, accommodated 30 learners this year.