One of the greatest obstacles to successful student performance in matric is the poor quality of teaching at high school. It is clear that students with a natural aptitude for Maths and Science need access to schools that have the capacity to teach these subjects well so that they can go on to study at a tertiary level.
3% of South African high schools create more Mathematics or Physical Science distinctions than the remaining 97% put together.[1]
Our aim is to identify and work with this 5% of schools in the state sector and not pay inflated costs for private school scholarships. This allows SAILI to offer more scholarships from a cost perspective and also ensures the students are placed in schools that are socioeconomically familiar. Alignment with social and cultural norms is important and ensures the connection with family and community remain strong; something which has been shown to contribute to ongoing educational success.
SAILI has active relationships with the following Cape Town high schools. Pinelands, Milnerton, Bergvliet, The Settlers, Rylands, South Peninsula, Claremont, Spine Rd, Worcester Gimnasium and De Kuilen (updated July 2021).
[1] van Broekhuizen, H. and Spaull, N., 2017, August. The ‘martha effect’: the compounding female advantage in South Africa. In Biennial Conference of the Economic Society of South Africa. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
