Introduction
South Africa is a country that has schools serving the wealthiest and those that are meant to serve the other sector of population. Researchers refer to the system as a bimodal education system or a ‘tale of two systems’ (SAQMEC, 2007; Spaull, 2012). These ‘two systems are private schools and state schools which are often referred to as public schools. Schools that are functional serve about 25% of the country’s population whereas those that are dysfunctional public schools provide a service to approximately 85% of the country. A few public schools which are among those that serve 25% of the population are regarded as well managed and are practically inaccessible as many parents would want to get their children enrolled at those. This is the issue of demand versus capacity(supply or supply of service).
While SIOC-CDT and the department of education are continuing with the collaboration to strengthen the public-school education system by embarking on sustainable long-term initiatives to strengthen the education system in the communities it serves, it was deemed necessary to also focus on short-term initiatives which serve to give exposure to deserving learners. Because the 25% of the schools are by legislation, practically inaccessible to children who do not live or whose parents do not work in the vicinity of these schools, in order to provide an opportunity for learners to get access to good education currently, the SIOC-CDT team is venturing into a process of exploring access to the private schooling system through this prestigious scholarship programme on academic excellence.
The SIOC-CDT scholarship policy was approved in November 2023 by the Board of Trustees to cater for the following categories of learners:
- Category 1: Learners with academic excellence potential
- Category 2: Learners with special educational needs
- Category 3: Learners with special talent related to extracurricular or recreational activities (e.g. sports, arts, etc.)
It is against this approval that the Education, Training and Skills Development unit at SIOC-CDT proposed and got approval for a program targeting category 1 of beneficiaries (i.e. the learners with special talent in academic excellence). With time, more proposals will follow to cover directly the other two categories.
Programme Structure
The SIOC-CDT Basic education Scholarship programme was identified as another project to complement the bursary programme. Both the bursary and scholarship programmes are fundamental in driving success of the Education, Training and Skills Development strategy of SIOC-CDT as it contributes to youth readiness for higher education and for the job market.
For category 1 of the SIOC-CDT Scholarship programme, the learners are being recruited from the year they are in grade 7, with the aim of granting them a scholarship from grade 8 to 12 in a private school, or a good public school where there is access. The recruitment process involves the following three stages:
Stage 1: From schools’ learners performance schedules, the School Management Teams identifies top girl learners and top boy learners from quintiles 1 to 3 schools and send the names to the circuit and district offices, which in turn compile the lists and send them to SIOC-CDT. These are schools serving the lowest socio-economic sector of the country, hence the National Department of Basic Education declared them as no-fee schools.
Stage 2: SIOC-CDT in partnership with the Northern Cape and Limpopo Departments of Education conducts an aptitude assessment on Literacy and Numeracy to identify top 10 boys and top 10 girls. For the 2024 round of the selection process, a total of 12 girls and 10 boys were selected to proceed to stage 3 due to the girls tying at position 10. The graph below shows the number of learners per community from the pool of top learners assessed at the 2nd stage of the selection process.
The graph also shows a somewhat natural proportion of learners per local municipality relative to the sizes of the communities (in terms of the number of schools)
Stage 3: This is the stage conducted independently by the host private schools which the learners are to be admitted at for their entire high school duration (i.e. from Grades8 to 12). For this 2025 cohort, SIOC-CDT Board of Trustees opted to go for two of the top private schools in the country, St Johns College for the successful boy-learners and Roedean School for Girls, both in Houghton, Johannesburg.
Scholarship value
The SIOC-CDT Scholarship Programme provides for a full value scholarship to be paid directly to the school(s) where learners are placed on behalf of the scholarship beneficiaries and consists of an amount as determined by the Trust in its sole discretion to enable learners to:
- Afford school fees for the number of years required to complete secondary schooling. This amount includes the cost of textbooks, learning resources and compulsory excursions,
- Afford suitable and appropriate accommodation and meals in a school residence, where applicable,
- Afford school uniform and sports/recreational attire as prescribed by the school,
- Afford assistive devices (for learners with disabilities) to enable learning and mobility, for a maximum value to be determined by management taking school recommendations and industry practices into account,
- Provide transport to and from school at beginning and closing of term as guided by the target school. This includes transportation contributions to school excursions as determined and defined by the target school, and
- Provide a small monetary allowance for emergency needs while the beneficiary is at school and as recommended by the targeted school.
Scholarship qualifying criteria (Academic Excellence category)
- A learner should successfully go through the three stages of the selection process (i.e. must demonstrate excellence in academic potential),
South African citizen, - Resident of the SIOC-CDT beneficiary communities attending a low quintile school (i.e. Q1 to Q3),
- The learner or candidate should be in Grade 7 in the year of application, preparing to enter Grade 8,
- Clearly demonstrates financial need
- Candidates need to be of good character, have positive personalities and the ability to become role models for their peers, and
- Candidates need to meet the entry requirements of identified host schools and should be eligible for admission.
Despite the likely high demand for the scholarship programme, and due to its nature being a high-cost support programme, SIOC-CDT is using the first intake as a pilot project that should run for five years. The pilot is meant to commence in January 2025, with the selection process being undertaken during the second half of 2024.