Student Prince Academy wins award

The project, described by the judging panel as “changing lives by thinking out of the box”, is a free supplementary education initiative for Grade 4 learners, held within existing schools that give over a thousand Grade 4 learners after-school core competence tuition in numeracy, literacy and life skills - the necessary building blocks of education.

Tests show that learners enrolled in the programme have improved numeracy scores by an average of 20% and literacy scores by an average of 29% points. The monitoring study also showed that children enrolled in the programme performed better than those that were not enrolled by as much as 45% at the end of Grade 4.

The first four academies were opened in 2008 a further two in 2009 and two more are planned for 2010.

PEP MD, George Steyn says, “We're proud to have developed such a workable and successful model. Most of the academy learners are children of people who cannot afford school fees at all or any additional education, we're proud to be able to give them this tuition, an afternoon snack and a reason to stay at school longer in the afternoons.”

Kimon Phitidis MD of Social Innovations says that the academies are also helping to drive positive change in teaching and learning methodologies in the hosting schools. Teachers and managers from host schools provide extensive training and learning support methodologies. Social Innovations is a specialist agency that develops social investment programmes and campaigns that are aligned with corporate strategy, while aiming for measurable social outcomes.