By Jonk wa Mashamba
news@alexreporter.co.za
Few weeks ago ActionSA PR Councillor, Shadrack Mkhonto had a productive meeting with the founder of Iwhiz, Dr Tholsia Naidoo, former Wits University Professor Andrew Joubert and COJ Youth Secretary Kemishetjo Kamela Matsimela.
Mkhonto said the intention of the meeting was to propose from Dr Naidoo to infiltrate Alexandra with her e-learning innovation app to improve the results of Alexandra’s school learners.
“As I am part of Bantu Education, I relied more on the Regional Youth Secretary to advice about the fundamentals of the project to Alex leaners.
“The young man was way too impressed about the innovation and as a matter of such, we had to hit the ground running and approached Skeen Primary School headmaster to highlight to him about the project and requested him to co-ordinate with other headmasters.
“We further reached out to other headmasters by ourselves with an assistance from the Skeen Primary School headmaster Mr Setshedi,” said Mkhonto.
The Alex Mayor as Mkhonto is called, indicated that the Skeen Principal loved the innovation as well “more especially that they were already in the planning phase of e-learning”.
“As the Alex Mascot, I am excited about this project, since it will make teaching easy and fun for the leaners to understand.
“The formal presentation pertaining this e-learning innovation was then organised by the director of Iwhiz Dr Naidoo. We issued out invitations to all the headmasters of Alex Schools both primary and secondary schools,” he said.
The formal presentation took place last week Friday the 12th of May 2023, whereby 11 out of 19 headmasters attended the breakfast presentation. “And they too were impressed.”
He said the only way to improve Alexandra at this point was to invest into the education of Alex learners, “with the hope that it will payback in the near future by hopefully changing the living conditions of Alexandra Township”.
The app is integrated with CAPS curriculum from the entry Grade(R) until the exit Grade(12) and the teaching is delivered in the format of animations and videos for all the subjects.
“This is what we call evolving with times and embracing technology in this 4IR era. Most countries around the globe are currently reforming their education system.
“As much as their reasons vary, the fact of the matter is that the impacts of technology is shaping how all industries operate, so much so that one third of businesses worry their organizations won’t be able to keep up with the technology.
“I call upon on more sponsorships to come forward and contribute towards the improvements of Alex leaners education through their Corporate Social Investment and Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.
“If more sponsors can come forward, then every leaner would have a smart phone to access the Iwhiz application, and by so doing, the leaners would then be having a teacher in their pockets to utilize at anytime wherever they are.
“I call upon on all the digital devices companies to come on board to assist the Alex leaners and fulfil the Iwhiz’s mission of making learning fun through innovative digital strategies that stimulate both teaching and learning resulting in increased leaner performance,” said Mkhonto.