Actuarial Society supports initiative to bring quality teachers into poor classrooms

The Actuarial Society of South Africa has joined forces with Paper Video, a new social enterprise with the potential to revolutionise the South African learning environment.

Mike McDougall, CEO of the Actuarial Society, says the collaboration of the Actuarial Society’s Educational Trust with Paper Video will make it possible to provide underprivileged schools and learners in all parts of the country with access to quality teaching resources and learning materials for Mathematics, Accounting, Life Sciences, and Physical Sciences across Grades 10, 11 and 12 at no cost to the learner.

“But what really gives Paper Video the edge in making a massive difference in the educational crisis facing South Africa is the innovative application of technology to provide learners with access to a real life tutors,” states McDougall.

He says learners are more likely to do well in a subject when they are supported by an enthusiastic and qualified teacher or tutor with the ability to simplify and explain complex concepts.

He adds that in South Africa a critical shortage of qualified teachers in subjects such as Maths and Science has resulted in a very high percentage of learners dropping these subjects at the end of Grade 9. Of the learners who persevere with these subjects to matric, very few emerge with sufficient understanding of and grounding in the subject to be able to cope with first year university mathematics at an Actuarial Society Accredited University*. This in turns results in a high drop out rate for first year university students.

According to McDougall it is not surprising then that the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2014–2015 ranks South Africa last out of 144 countries for quality of Maths and Science education and 140th for quality of the education system.

“Instead of each concerned organisation launching its own initiatives aimed at addressing South Africa’s education crisis, the Actuarial Society believes that more can be achieved through collaborative sponsorship of a solution like Paper Video, with the potential of making a massive impact,” says McDougall.

“The most meaningful thing we can do for the youth of this country is to provide them with sufficient grounding in key subjects that will ultimately help them achieve meaningful matric results required for careers that offer good job prospects.”

To achieve this the Actuarial Society has established the Actuarial Education Trust, which accepts contributions from individual and corporate donors with the aim of funding the supply of high quality resources to individual learners and maintaining the free Paper Video offering. As a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) Trust, all donations receive tax relief and the Trust provides BEE certificates for projects supported in accordance with legislation.

Founded last year by Chris Mills and Paul Maree, two Capetonians with a passion for making learning resources and tutoring more accessible to learners who cannot afford it, Paper Video provides learners with access to books of past exam papers. In addition, Paper Video links every question in the exam papers to a video solution where an experienced teacher talks the learner through the problem step-by-step as well as the underlying concepts.

According to Mills, this approach makes Paper Video unique. “There are currently 3 000 videos available online, with another 3 000 to be added by next month,” he explains.

The first four exam papers for every subject and their videos solutions can be accessed online free of charge. This ensures that no learners are excluded from the use of the Paper Video resources simply because they are unable to afford them.

Mills explains that the use of the complete set of exam papers and video solutions requires a nominal payment, which helps cover some of Paper Video’s expenses.

He says Paper Video is acutely aware of the fact that there are many learners who do not have access to the Internet. Paper Video therefore also provides the exam papers in print format and the videos in DVD format.

“With the help of the Actuarial Society’s Educational Trust we are able to provide printed exam books and DVDs to schools that do not have the funds to pay for these materials. We have already provided 15 underprivileged schools with full sets of materials and another 35 are due to receive their resources shortly.”

Mills says the Actuarial Society, through funding received from individual members, has also provided 30 learners from Masiphumelele High School with Maths books and DVDs.

Mills hopes that more sponsors will join the Paper Video collaborative initiative to bring quality teaching to every classroom in the country.

“With additional funding we will also be able to expand our offering to include more grades and subjects, as well as offering our solution videos in other languages. We would also like to add subtitles to our videos for deaf and hearing-impaired students.”

*UCT, Wits, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, North West and Free State