LEAP Science and Maths School
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Champions of Quality Education in Africa competition.
LEAP is a community-based intervention schooling model that has been specifically tailored to address the needs of children in South Africa’s township communities. LEAP aims to enable these learners to gain access to tertiary study opportunities, be successful in their chosen career path and develop as socially responsible citizens.The aim is to transform their lives and their communities.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Mupine Complex, 307 Forest Drive Extension
Project City
Pinelands (Cape Town)
Project Province/State
Western Cape
Project Postal/Zip Code
7405
Project Country
South Africa
Your idea
Country your work focuses on:
South Africa
Website URL
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
YouTube Upload
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
<$100
Name Your Project
LEAP Science and Maths School
Describe Your Idea
LEAP is a community-based intervention schooling model that has been specifically tailored to address the needs of children in South Africa’s township communities. LEAP aims to enable these learners to gain access to tertiary study opportunities, be successful in their chosen career path and develop as socially responsible citizens.The aim is to transform their lives and their communities.
Innovation
Describe your idea in fewer than 50 words.
LEAP is a community-based intervention schooling model that has been specifically tailored to address the needs of children in South Africa’s township communities. LEAP aims to enable these learners to gain access to tertiary study opportunities, be successful in their chosen career path and develop as socially responsible citizens.The aim is to transform their lives and their communities.
What makes your idea unique?
LEAP provides access to quality education that is specfically tailored to the needs of children living in South Africa's township communities.
LEAP is unique in that it selects children from a specific community who have not had access to schooling outside of township schools with the majority of learners significantly behind the academic standard prescribed by their Grade. These children are given an opportunity to progress with Maths, Science and English at the highest levels, thereby substantially increasing their chances of entering and succeeding at tertiary studies.
LEAP consists of:
- 3 schools serving Langa, Gugulethu (Cape Town) and Alexandra (Johannesburg)
- LEAP Teacher Training Programme
- The Learning Centre
- Community Outreach Programme
Since opening in January 2004, LEAP has achieved remarkable success with a 93% pass rate and 70% of our matriculants pursuing tertiary studies.
What is your area of work? (Please check as many as apply.)
Children & Youth , At risk youth , Behavioral issues , Boys' development , Education , Education reform , Girls' development , Mentorship , Youth development , Youth leadership .
What impact have you had?
In 2003 only 55 African language matriculants in the Western Cape achieved university exemption with Science and Maths. The first class of LEAP learners wrote matric in 2005 and in just a few years LEAP has made a significant difference to the Western Cape learner results.
- In the past 4 years, 115 of the 123 learners who wrote Grade 12 passed (93%)
- 80 learners passed with university exemption
- 100% pass rate in 2008
LEAP’s achievements are not only measured in terms of academic success but also through monitoring each learner’s personal journey. It is our hope that each LEAP learner discovers their true identity and achieves their dreams. After graduating from LEAP, our learners continue their journey to make their dreams reality.
- 30% are studying at university in science and business related courses
- 29% are studying at technology universities
- 10% enrolled in the LEAP Teacher Training Programme
- 6% chose to study courses at local colleges
Describe the primary problem(s) that your project is addressing.
LEAP started in 2004 to address the inequalities that remain from the apartheid education policies. In South Africa, only 30% of children with one parent who has attained less than Grade 10 gain their matric. In 2003, only 28% of black teenagers of matric age graduated from high school and only 5% of these learners gained marks that enabled them to apply for university.
LEAP aims to change these statistics by breaking down these barriers to education and success. It does this by providing learners with access to intensive, quality education that specifically addresses their educational needs as well as giving them the skills to deal with the often difficult reality of the lives. LEAP's aim is to develop whole, socially responsible young adults that have the courage and tools to pursue their dreams and realise their full potential.
Describe the steps that your organization is taking to make your project successful.
The LEAP model addresses the needs of the whole person - the academic approach is designed to address shortcomings in the teaching that they received prior to coming to LEAP, learners are given the tools to deal with their socio-economic circumstances and they are given the space to develop their own identity and discover their true voice.
Impact
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Success in Year 1:
To continue the success of the organisation we need to sustain our focus of transforming lives and communities. Staff stability is essential as it will enable the organisation to mature and grow and will also provide stability to our learners. Economic stability within the communities that we serve is necessary as it directly impacts the lives of our learners.
Success in Year 2:
We will need to develop leaders within our educator body and appointment appropriate personnel for key leadership positions within our schools. Increased funding to sustain our projected growth will also be necessary.
Success in Year 3:
The most crucial element is the achievement of targetted outcomes as this ensures that we are achieving our goal of providing opportunities to our learners that will enable them to break out of the poverty cycle.
To achieve our desired growth we need to strengthen relationships with existing partners, identify suitable partners in new geographic areas and grow the LEAP Endowment Fund to contribute to funding sustainability.
Do you have a business plan or strategic plan? (yes/no)
Yes
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 1:
Identification of new community frameworks and partners within these communities that we can work with in order to establish trust within the community.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 2:
Develop new leadership capacity to be able to share and implement growth in the new context.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 3:
Ensure an appropriate funding base to support growth.
Describe the expected results of these actions.
An increased number of teenagers will escape the cycle of poverty as they will be able to access tertiary study opportunities and gain employment in the skilled sector of the economy.
These opportunities will be extended to new geographic areas.
Communities will be transformed.
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
LEAP started in 2004 to address the inequalities that remain from the apartheid education policies. During apartheid, the education that received and the resources provided by the school was based on race. "White schools" had school school buildings and resources equal to the best in first world countries while black learners were provided with extremally limited resources. In 1989 John Gilmour organised a program, called Africa Week, which involved black students from townships close to Pinelands being invited to spend a week at the school. The success of Africa Week allowed John to take the initiative a step further in 1990 with the inception of the original LEAP Program. Despite its successes, John was dissatisfied with the LEAP Program. The statistics in 2003 indicated that the proportion of black matric students that were gaining university exemptions with science and maths had hardly budged since 1990, this notwithstanding the considerable efforts of the LEAP program, and other programs like it, in providing support tuition. The inescapable conclusion from was that tuition support was simply not delivering the desired results and that the only workable alternative was one involving “full immersion” tuition, i.e. where students are subjected to virtually double the normal classroom tuition time on a full-time basis.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
John Gilmour, the founder of LEAP Science and Maths School has been involved in community development and education for over 20 years. The LEAP schools were born out of his desire to provide quality educational support to youth living and studying in South Africa's township communities. John now serves as Executive Director of LEAP Science and Maths Schools. John is on the Advisory Committee to the Historic Schools Restoration Project and is an active participant in the Education Roadmap Project driven by the Development Bank of South Africa. He also continues to be personally involved in many community projects based in Langa, the township in which LEAP first began.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
I heard about Changemakers from Margie Schlenoff from Teach with Africa.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
What would prevent your project from being a success?
The following areas have been considered and addressed:
- The socio-economic reality that are children live in - the learners are given the skills and tools to address these issues through LEAP's Life Orientation programme and when necessary, through economic intervention.
- Community buy-in and support - LEAP's Community Outreach Programme ensures that our learners remain very involved in their communities and contribute to providing opportunities for others within their community.
- Lack of skilled educators - LEAP's teacher Training Programme has been developed to address the shortage of skilled teachers in South Africa.
- Lack of funding - LEAP's Endowment Fund and the LEAP Education Trust have been created to contribute to financial sustainability.
Financing source
If yes, provide organization name.
No
How long has this organization been operating? (i.e. less than a year; 1-5 years; more than 5 years)
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes, it has a 12 person board that meets at least 6 times a year.
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs? (yes/no)
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses? (yes/no)
Yes
The Story
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government? (yes/no)
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
LEAP actively seeks to share its innovation and entrepreneurial approach with other schools and contributes positively within the national education framework.
John Gilmour is the Director of the Innovation Team which looks to develop the areas of ICT, mother tongue tuition, early childhood development, teacher assessment and curriculum development in the South African education system which will feed directly into the government's framework for education.
How many people will your project serve annually?
approx 1000
What is the total number of employees and total number of volunteers at your organization?
73 full time and part time employees
What is your organization's business classification?
Non-profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Have you received funding from any of the following groups? (Please check as many as apply.)
None of the above.
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| LEAP Girls.jpg | 161.59 KB |
| Leap 2 061.jpg | 168.7 KB |
| LEAP grade 12 farewell 2008 030.jpg | 146.92 KB |
| IMG_7230.JPG | 100.4 KB |
| LEAP awards ceremony 2008 158.jpg | 140.85 KB |
| Science.png | 667.09 KB |
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Comments
Congratulations Kirstin upon being recognized and selected among the finalists of the Champions of Quality Education in Africa! The performance in science and math in most African schools is poor. I hope your idea will address this challenge on a wider scale.I pray that you network with potential partners like Science Education Video and BEUPA to make your innovation benefit more youth. Congs!
Dear Samuel, thank you for your comment about the work being done by LEAP Science and Maths School. It is indeed our desire to share our model in order to provide opportunities to as many children as possible to pursue their studies in maths and science. Already we have replicated our model across 3 sites and are planning for more LEAP schools to open in the near future. To find out more about LEAP, please also visit our website at www.leapschool.org.za. Thank you for the recommendation to connect with Science Education Video and BEUPA. Kirstin
I want to sincerely thank the organizers for this opportunity and for the few comments that I have read from colleagues even outside Nigeria, I feel so honored and I am humbled and will continue to do my best as a champion of quality education in Africa. I want to thank everyone for the very positive remarks that you have made and pledge to truly live up to your expectations and serve as a Champion of Quality Education in Africa. As a teacher leader and motivator, I will raise more champions in Africa and all over the world for quality education. I also want to congratulate my other colleagues who have been selected as finalists. I believe we are the ones that Africa has been waiting for and this is an opportunity to make a new determination and offer a new vision for quality education in Africa.
Also, I see this rather as a recognition that commissions you and I to a higher service to humanity and I pledge to live and work with other colleagues to bring the dream of qualitative and quantitative education for the millions of children in Africa and around the world to reality. Thank you Ashoka Changemakers for the recognition and thank you colleagues for your VOTE, which is not just for me, but for the 59 million teachers around the world who have never been recognized enough for the contributions they make and for the hundreds of millions of children who look up to us as teachers for their future. I hope that this will inspire many more to join the 14 of us who have been selected to work for quality education in Africa. I urge my colleagues who have emerged finalist to see this as a moment to truly give a new direction to education in Africa. Let us become the champions of champions for quality education in Africa. While governments in Africa and the UN are making effort to ensure education for all children (quantitative), let us use this recognition to serve as advocates and changemakers for quality education, so that the education of children in Africa will be both qualitative and quantitative.
For the 14 of us selected as finalists, instead of seeing each other as competitors, I will rather request that we work cooperatively as the people chosen at this time to promote quality education in Africa. Let us become the embodiments of quality education in Africa, and let us work to raise more champions of quality education and eventually produce qualitatively educated children who will address and overcome the many critical challenges (corruption, HIV/AIDS, poverty, etc) facing Africa even in the 21st century.
Dear Colleagues, this is a win-win situation for all of us. Let us work more collaboratively to ensure that quality education in Africa is realized. Whether we emerge as final winners or not, let us maintain this momentum and quickly forge a common ground for the sake of education in Africa. I propose that the organizers create a G14 group and a G300+ group for both the finalists and other colleagues who were not selected but passionately believe in quality education in Africa to work together as the new champions of quality education in Africa who will raise many more champions for quality education in Africa. In this way, we shall all be able to work transcending the borders of finalists and non-finalists to bring quality education to Africa. Thank you all for being a part of this and let us mobilize others to join this initiative.
On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“I think that this is a wonderful model. I’m impressed with the organizational linkages that have been forged in support of this idea and I think it’s seen as a leap forward. I actually see this as an opportunity to set up centers of excellence, where teachers can be trained from other schools, and where methodologies and curriculum can be boxed and shared with others for more of an impact. Great entry!”
“They’re working on an extremely important issue, and I would suggest that the leader’s of this initiative develop a plan of scalability and influencing national policy, as well as thinking of ways of easily replicating this model. Could they possibly expand the discussion of impact and the scale of this initiative?”
- Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” Judges: Escuela Nueva, Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, CARE (United States), African Leadership Academy, UNICEF
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