The Capitec Foundation was established in June 2015 as Capitec’s main vehicle for its social investment initiatives. The Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation with a multipronged approach focusing on maths tutoring, teacher development, school management development, and financial life skills.
The Foundation aims to give young South Africans a brighter future by upskilling them with the necessary numeracy and financial life skills to manage their financial lives. This enables them to get access to tertiary studies and employment, to bring change to their respective communities and the country as a whole. The Capitec Foundation is governed by a board of trustees and follows the Capitec risk management process. There are approved policies that guide us on how to choose and fund programmes. The Capitec social and ethics committee also receives reports on the activities of the Foundation.
Teachers are key to improving quality education in South Africa. The Capitec Foundation supports teachers.
Maths tutor programme
The Capitec Foundation launched a maths tutor programme that incorporates a blended learning approach. The programme is aimed at grade 8 to 12 learners and is currently being piloted at Palmridge EXT 6 Secondary School in Katlehong. The programme is an adaptation of the current maths tutor programme, which has been running since 2018 in the Western Cape.
Since the start of the maths tutor programme, more than 200 teaching students have been trained and most of them have gone on to become teachers. The Foundation believes in making a sustainable impact in the education system.
The model has a learning management system that enables learners to access top-quality content, videos, webinars, and face-to-face and remote tutorials.
To date, the programme has trained more than 200 university teaching students (BEd and PGCE).
More than 3 500 high-school learners have benefitted.
School management development programme
This programme by the University of Cape Town and the Graduate School of Business aims to upskill individuals in leadership roles at schools to help schools perform better. Altogether 23 school principals in the Western Cape and 21 in Gauteng participated. This year, we expanded the leadership programme to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in partnership with Partners for Possibilities. Ten principals in Umlazi district will participate. The programme offers a co-learning partnership between school principals and business leaders, enabling social cohesion and empowering principals to become change leaders in their schools and communities.
A further benefit is the cross-sectoral reciprocal partnerships that are created between business, government and the social sector.
To date, the school management development programme has reached more than 160 school principals, indirectly impacting 256 000 learners.
Teacher development programme
The teacher development programme is aimed at empowering in-service maths teachers with skills to teach better and also to enable them to keep up with trends and best practices in their field. Professional development makes teachers better. This year, more than 240 teachers in Gauteng, KZN and the Eastern Cape were trained. We measure success by improved maths performance by learners linked to these teachers and an increased number of learners passing matric with maths.
This article is from the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2021.
