Cape Town - A new project aims to educate teachers on how to better relate to pupils in the classroom and foster a better teaching environment, as well as uplift youth from disadvantaged communities.
MOT South Africa, an organisation empowering the youth, launched its Courage to Care project on Tuesday at Fairmount High. They will also allocate MOT SA life-skill teachers to Lotus High and Zeekoevlei High in Grassy Park.
The project will focus on Grade 8 pupils and will take place over three years, which will be a compulsory course at school beginning in February.
MOT SA director Julia Duminy said: “We are reviving this existing project by launching it again and getting the whole community involved with it. The goal of the project is to empower learners and promote peace within the area.
"The teachers are the leaders in the classroom who spend most of the time with the learners therefore this relationship needs to be enhanced, particularly to help with behavioural challenges in the classroom.”
MOT SA mentors will train the teachers at the three schools which will run the life-skills programme.
Duminy said many teachers have to deal with behavioural challenges in the classrooms and need to adapt to the thought process of a pupil coming from any type of background which includes homes with single parents, alcohol and drug abuse.
“Background understanding of a learner is always focused on in the programme to avoid judgment of a learner and rather help them develop holistically,” she said.
Teachers, parents and community members will be coached from next year to all play a role with the youths' development.
Fairmount Secondary School principal Terence Klassen said: “We aim to help every Grade 8 learner through the project, which will allow them to become successful learners.
"One could say 40% of Grade 8 learners get to Grade 12 while the rest drops out. It therefore takes a community to raise a child, which is why all members in society will become a role player in this project.”
MOT SA has partnered with The Rotary Club of Wynberg, Haugaland Upper Secondary School in Norway, Karmøy Rotary Club in Norway, Rotary Foundation and other local Rotary districts to officially launch this project.
Cape Argus