42 The academic support takes place during the week after school and for a few hours on Saturday over the weekend. It is the crucial activity that leads to the academic improvement outcome indicated in theme one. Below are quotes to illustrate the perceptions of academic support and its benefit.
“The after-school and Saturday classes really helped me. This resulted in me spending most of my time with activities within the Qhubeka programme. Almost every day I would be at Just Grace, that took me away from the streets. Everything I needed to improve my academic and personal life was at Just Grace – [Learner 7]
“Academic support is one of the most important activities, this is where they get to learn ways in which to learn and apply knowledge they already have. You will realise it’s not that these kids don’t know their work they just needed a different way or perspective and then they get it”
– [Facilitator 1]
“Tutoring is the programme that stands out for me, it helped me improve my academic performance. People always say Grade 12 is hard but I did not experience that because the Qhubeka programme supported me” – [Learner 4]
It can be surmised that the above activities are therefore all the things that the participants regard as going right in the programme and therefore produced desired changes.
However, it is just as important to outline the things that programme participants viewed as inhibitors of change or issues with the programme that impact the short-term desired outcomes.
43 the academic support by some learners which results in the inference that the academic support offered by Just Grace is comparable to other traditional tutoring programmes.
Just Grace as an organisation is has 11 full-time staff members in the employ, 2 part- time staff and 8 contractors. It is standard practice that facilitators facilitate across programmes this can include and is not limited to the Youth Development Programme. Programme documents indicate that Just Grace has about 32 volunteers – however it is unclear the extent to which volunteers support the programmes. However, it is worthy to note that the organisation and its programmes has and occasionally receives expert advise from teachers and lecturers who support the programme with design and review.
Due to the multifaceted nature of the academic component it is unclear what the learners understand to be tutoring versus the academic support provided by the Qhubeka! programme.
It is evident that for the participants, academic support translates to tutoring instruction as the participants do not mention another kind of support. The academic support or tutoring component is not clearly defined in the Qhubeka! programme documents. Participants refer to an inadequate number of available tutors to facilitate the after-school and Saturday classes for academic support, even though the facilitator ratio is 3 facilitators per class. Also, the methodology of the Just Grace programmes is learner cantered, in that learners need to do work themselves and learn to learn on their own which possibly leads to some feelings of inadequate support of lack of tutors although a majority of the learners interviewed feel they have improved academically.
It is not clear the extent to which the programme facilitators lead this academic component of the programme, however – two of the interviewed programme facilitators are involved in the implementation for the academic component of the programme, where one facilitator leads the life skills and book club components.
Learners felt that there is a limited or inadequate number of tutors available to assist with tutoring. Tutors, otherwise referred to as volunteers in Just Grace programme documents, should assist learners with technical questions and guidance in learning specific subjects.
According to Just Grace, when required, facilitators guide learners through a practice assessment, whereby their own experimentation helps them form a deeper understanding of the content. See below quotes to illustrate.
“Sometimes tutors are not available because there are not enough tutors here, then you have to do your own thing till a tutor is available” – [Learner 3]
44
“For example, the physics tutor, you’d find that there is one tutor and when he is not there you won’t get help that day because the other tutors only know maths and, on that day, you will struggle because others don’t know physics” – [Learner 1]
“I would just say they must add more tutors because the programmes are fine they just need more tutors our subjects” – [Learner 6]
“The problem is that there is limited tutors and you find that others have limited knowledge so they can’t help in every subject cause then there will be a tutor but they will tell you they don’t remember certain concepts” – [Learner 2]
“There is a problem with tutors, there are few tutors, when some of us need help with subjects like history you’ll find that the tutors can’t help, they only know the popular subjects like maths, physics and life sciences” – [Learner 9]
One of the learners went as far as indicating that in their view Just Grace is understaffed.
See below quote to illustrate.
“I’d like them to employ more staff because I get the sense that the few people here take on a lot of responsibility” – [Learner 8]
“I would like them to increase the number of tutors for major subjects like Physical Sciences”
– [Learner 10]
It is evident that there is a perceived gap when it comes to the sufficiency of tutors in the academic support part of the programme for some learners. It is evident that this perceived gap lies within the lack of understanding of Just Grace’s methodology by the learners. There is a clear expectation of what the academic support should do by learners and even though they clearly experience positive outcomes resulting from the academic support as indicated in theme one. Also, more than having insufficient number of tutors, some learners feel that tutors the available do not attend sessions regularly.
Just Grace makes a reference to 32 volunteers who volunteer across Just Grace programmes, it is unclear in which components these volunteers have the most impact.
“Sometimes because some of the tutors are students you’d find that you’re used to one tutor and you like the tutors’ style of tutoring and then you find that you want to be assisted by that tutor most of the time but you find that they are not consistent and sometimes not available – [Learner 1]
45 Limited time in sessions
Both learners and facilitators expressed the feeling that the duration time they desire during the academic sessions is limited.
As per the academic support component, programme documents indicate that this is a weekly activity, in which four hours is covered after school and three hours is the time spent on this activity on the weekend.
“Well due to corona there’s not much I can say but I would say we need longer sessions, for some learners there’s not a lot they can grasp within the three-hour sessions that we have, maybe if they could extend the programme by one hour” – [Learner 3]
“I can’t say it’s something that needs to be improved but I do feel that the time we have with the learners, for me it’s not enough. I would like for us to have more time with them. I think the more time we would have with the learners the more significant the changes they experience would be” – [Facilitator 1]
Lastly, limited number of textbooks was another one learner encountered.
“The problem is that there will be a textbook for maths and physics, those subjects but other subjects, textbooks aren’t available like for history, even for the languages there aren’t textbooks available” – [Learner 4]
Identified gaps within the academic support of the Qhubeka programme seem to be located within the lack of understanding of Just Grace’s methodology, especially in relation to academic support. However, the learners were also able to recommend what it is that the programme can do to improve. This tied in with the next theme, which aimed to explore whether the programme was tailored to the beneficiary’s expectations.