Cape Town - More than 1 000 primary school learners in Langa will now have access to advanced online literacy programmes.
This after Vusa Rugby and Learning Academy, which runs an after-school programme offering rugby and academic support in Langa, received an Atlas Digibus, a mobile classroom from the Atlas Foundation.
The mobile classroom is equipped with 40 laptops and two teaching stations that will provide literacy programmes to five primary schools, focusing on the transition to English learning at Grade 4 level.
Bishops principal and chairperson of the Vusa Academy, Antony Reeler, said this was a wonderful addition to their existing programme which would help them to extend the much-needed impact in the Langa community, especially after the past 20 months of Covid-19 lockdowns.
“Vusa’s primary goal is to create opportunities for children who live in this poverty stricken community and deal daily with the stress factors associated with this.
“Global evidence shows investment in quality early education programmes for young children has a significant effect on reducing school drop-out rates and inequality across society,” said Reeler.
Vusa Rugby Academy founder and director Brendan Fogarty said the bus would be parked at Bishops and in the mornings would be stationed at a particular school until afternoon.
“The Atlas Digibus will offer children access to excellent academic support, utilising the expertise and materials of leading school Bishops Diocesan College. We have identified that children in Grade 3 are taught in Xhosa while in Grade 4 they are taught in English.
“We will have teachers on board and the bus will visit various schools in Langa. Our primary focus in the morning will be from mother tongue to English tuition and the afternoon programme for Vusa children where we will teach maths and English, including coding, and also introducing parent information programmes, staff training and high school revision programmes – the possibilities are endless,” he said.
Wendy Bergsteedt from Coronation Fund Managers said with education being at the heart of how they worked to uplift communities, supporting the mobile classroom was an innovative way to give the learners the boost they needed in reaching their full potential.
One of the teachers, Nosipho Poswa, said the programme would assist in facilitating learning and teaching in the schools and learners were already excited to begin attending.
mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za