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| Guest blogger Roslyn Baatjies |
For many learners school’s out, but
for those who intend improving their marks and getting into university next
year, there is no rest.
Driving into work this morning, we saw
a number of young people entering the campuses and someone asked when lectures
are ending. I responded that lectures have ended and that those young people
were learners attending either the accounting or engineering winter schools or
the Science Discovery Week at NMMU.
This week close to 900 Grade 11 and 12 learners will be exposed
to the fascinating worlds of accounting, science and engineering over the
June/July school holidays at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
The Science Discovery Week – that will
be attended by 300 learners from 56 schools in the Eastern Cape - promises to
open the eyes of Grade 11 and 12 learners to the intriguing fields of Science
in a fun and informal setting. Daily activities will include visits to various
Science Faculty departments where learners will participate in subject-specific
experiments.
Offered for the past eight years, the
event started off with 60 learners and has now grown to 300 participants. With
topics like ‘’Game Changers - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Science”, “Light
Fantastic” and ‘’Chemistry Unplugged‘’ learners will not only be educated, but
also entertained.
NMMU’s Accounting winter school
programme, geared towards helping Grade 11 and 12 pupils improve their marks
and their chances of attending university, boasts an impressive track record.
Almost a third of the 520 pupils who
attended last year’s Grade 12 winter school successfully registered for degrees
or diplomas at NMMU. An analysis comparing their June matric results with their
December results has revealed that many of them shot up by as much as 30%.
This year’s week-long Accounting
winter school for Grade 12s, sponsored by Deloitte, takes place from June 29 to
July 3, while the three-day Grade 11 winter school, sponsored by
PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC), takes place from July 7 to 9.
The
annual engineering winter school has been offered for the past 10 years and
will take place from 12 to 17 July. The programme for 30 learners from 14 high
schools will include, among others, visits to VWSA and Continental Tyre.
In addition, a winter school project
with a difference will be held off-campus by the NMMU Department of Social
Development Professions and driven by social work lecturer Dr Veonna Goliath.
Dr Goliath says the winter school is
truly interdisciplinary in nature and has a longer term community development
focus.
The project,
located in the Northern Areas at Bethvale Primary School, was initiated by the
Uniting Reformed church in Chatty and part of Dr Goliath’s post-doctoral work. From Monday 29 June to
Thursday 2 July 2015 tutors from mainly the Faculty of Education’s postgraduate
programme will tutor Grade 10 and 11 learners in specific subjects.
And in rural
Eastern Cape, our SRC is making information accessible in a bid to assist high
school learners in raising their awareness of matters relating to access to
higher education.
At NMMU there
definitely is no lack of opportunities to share or gain knowledge.
