I know what you’re thinking, what does one of South Africa’s biggest football clubs have to do with helping more girls study maths and ICT? Two years ago the Orlando Pirates Learning Centre was set up to help children in the Orlando, Soweto area with their maths and literacy skills. The learning centre is set up at the Orlando Stadium and operates 6 times a week. It caters for pupils between the ages of 8 and 16. The Orlando Pirates Learning Centre is also supported by Acer.
At Tech Girl we’re constantly trying to promote ways to see more South African girls enter the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths fields. We want more South African Women in Tech. To do this, the basic maths education currently available in the country needs to improve. Initiatives like the Orlando Pirates Learning Centre make this possible. Don’t believe us? Check out these impressive stats:
- This term the centre has had 102 female students plus 4 female volunteers.
- Since opening the centre has worked with over 900 female students and volunteers.
- The Learning Centre has worked extensively with Lofentse Girls High School since 2012 who last year received the highest matric pass rate in Orlando with 94.7% passed. The principal attributes this success partially to the Orlando Pirates Learning Centre’s work with the all-girl school
- 23% is the average improvement made by Primary School Learners in Maths
- 15% is the average improvement made by High School Learners in Math
- +15k games played on the Acer ICT educational software – Educationcity.com
- 5624% improvement on Math’s and English educational games
- 568 hours spent improving Maths and English skills using ICT
- 420 hours of education programs delivered throughout each year
- +600 Microsoft Office documents created by learners
Acer and Orlando Pirates help more girls study maths and ICT, what are you doing to decrease the gender gap in these sectors?
