The school is open to the children of employees as well as children from selected disadvantaged schools around Soweto, south of Johannesburg. Parents pay a minimal annual fee of R500 per child. This contribution not only demonstrates commitment of the family to be involved in the process but it also enables the school to conduct other activities that require financial resources, such as field trips, maths camps, open days, etc. The school received funding from our De Beers Fund to the value of R600 000.
Since its inception, more than 80 volunteers, both our De Beers’ employees and other individuals have offered their services to the programme. De Beers Social Specialist, Mphoya Thobela, is one such De Beers employee who heads up the school and who tirelessly gives up his free time every Saturday to tutor these young learners in Maths and Life Sciences and to ensure that the school runs as smoothly as it does, since 2008. These volunteers have made a tremendous difference to the lives of more than 1,600 learners who have benefited from the programme over the years. In addition the school also teaches and provides tutorials using ex-learners from the programme who are currently studying at Wits and UJ.
The school runs in partnership with UJ and in 2009 we negotiated with the university to relocate the school from the De Beers campus to the their campus in Soweto, a better option with regards to infrastructure, proximity as well as resources. In 2011, the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) requested to the school to establish a similar programme to UJ at their van der Bijlpark Campus.
This partnership has ensured that, over and above extra tuition, participating learners will have access to resource centre, science laboratories and computer facilities including internet. UJ and VUT have made available tutors (post graduate students), experienced lecturers who are providing support to both the learners and educators in the programme, safety officers, security and cleaning staff to support the programme and are absorbing this cost.
KWS is associated with leading schools in the country that achieve 100% pass rate year after year For three successive years KWS has achieved 100% pass rate since relocating to UJ and VUT. In 2009, the average pass mark in mathematics was 62% whilst one student achieved a 93%. Generally Physical Science was poorly done throughout the country, but the programme managed an average of 63%. In 2010, the Programme managed to secure its 100% pass rate and one student received 100% pass in Mathematics. The quality of results was improved. The number of learners achieving higher grades increased. Two of the students that received level 7 in Maths and Physics achieved 100% passes in each of the subjects respectively
