On February 24th Partners for Possibility will be celebrating
their 600th partnership at a function in Cape Town.
Who are they, and what partnerships am I talking about, I
hear you ask? I’ll tell you, and this time it’s worth more than just two cents.
Think of the biggest, hairiest and ugliest monster standing
between us and a brighter future and it has to be the dismal state of basic
education in the country.
According to a number of international rankings, South
Africa lies close to - if not at the very bottom - of the ladder when it comes to
the quality of maths and science teaching, and those are just the subjects that
they like to rank.
A shocking statistic you keep on hearing is that, of the 25
000-odd schools in the country, only 5 000 are functional. That includes the
private and former model C schools, and the bar for functionality is not set
very high.
All manner of evil flows from there – unemployment,
unemployability due to inappropriate skills, poverty and crime. It’s a
perpetuation of the inequalities engendered by the evils of the past. And the
dire state of education persists despite basic education being the biggest line
item in the national budget and despite the millions spent by well-meaning
corporations on educational aid and developmental programmes.
Faced with all of this, Dr Louise van Rhyn decided six years
ago, that she should do something about it and, being a leadership development
expert, that’s where she began. She wondered if empowering the principals of
those struggling schools to become effective leaders wouldn’t galvanise the
teachers, and encourage communities to become involved in the education of
their children. And couldn’t we, one school at a time, begin to solve the
problem?
The idea she came up with was to tap into the expertise of
business leaders, and the willingness of businesses to make a contribution.
Let’s partner a business leader with a school principal, she thought. Together
they could tackle the problems facing the school, using the one’s business
acumen and the other’s passion for teaching children. The school would benefit
and both would learn a hell of a lot from the experience – even more if the
process was structured to ensure meaningful engagement, between the partners
themselves, and other partnerships in a similar position.
So, she tried it out, using herself as the pilot project.
She began working with the principal of a primary school in Grassy Park Cape
Town, and they are still together six years on.
That was Partners for Possibility partnership number one.
Last week in Joburg they announced number 500 and in fortnight’s time in Cape
Town they will be celebrating number 600. There have been some hiccups, of
course, but the success stories coming out of those liaisons are staggering.
Giving the principals of schools that could be counted among
the 20 000 dysfunctional institutions the opportunity to show that they can be
every bit as effective as leaders as those on the other side of the divide has
been the greatest achievement of the programme.
And it’s being done by giving them a thinking partner who
will listen to them; offer, and ask for, advice; and walk beside them on their
journey.
That there are now 600 of those partnerships out there now,
and the number is growing, is cause for celebration. The hairy monster’s still
there, but people are beginning to stand up to him.
To find out more visit http://www.pfp4sa.org
