Inspired by the Dinokeng Scenario: Walk Together, Symphonia for South Africa (SSA), a national nonprofit organisation and public benefit organisation (PBO) based in Bellville, Cape Town, functions with a vision to mobilise business, government and civil society to work collaboratively towards meeting the educational challenges facing South Africa. Their audacious goal is to ensure quality education for all learners in South Africa by 2022 (that is, significantly improved education outcomes by 2022) through their Partners for Possibility Programme.
Knowing that inadequate education is at the heart of all social problems in South Africa, Louise van Rhyn (director and founder of SSA) became the first business leader to partner with a principal in a Partnership for Possibility in 2010. Louise’s partnership with Ridwan Samodien, principal of Kannemeyer Primary School in Grassy Park, Cape Town, led to positive change in the school, those directly involved and the community at large.
The Partners for Possibility (PfP) initiative speaks to the idea that enhancing the quality of education, improving the school environment and encouraging engagement between parents and teachers are meaningful and attainable goals that would provide an upward spiral of real change in society.
Partners for Possibility Programme
The PfP Programme is built on the simple idea of partnering business leaders with school principals in a ‘Partnership for Possibility’. This innovative leadership development programme, the first of its kind in the world and a ‘Proudly South African’ initiative, engages business leaders and school principals and develops their leadership skills in a co-learning and co-action partnership.
The duration of the programme is one year. A participating business leader is requested to give ten days of the year to a local school – less than a day a month. The partnership with the business leader together with the PfP training provides the principal with fresh leadership insights to transform their school and, in turn, the entire community. In return, the business leader develops their leadership ability through hands-on experience in an environment different from their day-to-day life.
In February 2011, a pilot Leadership Circle of nine partnerships was launched in Cape Town. Since then, Leadership Circles have been set up across the country in Bloemfontein, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria. The PfP Programme currently has 133 partnerships nationally.
Community of Learning Principals (CoLP)
CoLP is a community upliftment initiative, founded by SSA and the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the University of the Western Cape. Together with the South African Principals Association (SAPA), CoLP brings together Western Cape-based principals, leaders of their schools, and mobilises them to influence positive change in their communities.
Since its establishment in 2011, Western Cape school principals have been receiving critical guidance in the field of effective leadership through the CoLP initiative, at workshops held at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
In 2010 Isaacson Primary School in Soweto, Johannesburg was vandalised almost to the point of being burnt to the ground. The school’s electricity cables were stolen. Despite no electricity, Isaacson Primary School continued classes.
Restoring Electricity, Restoring Hope
When Principal Thulare Bopape formed a Partnership for Possibility with Pitso Mokoena, of Nedbank, in 2012, the school’s electricity problem was foremost on their to-do list.
Taking the PfP philosophy to heart, the partners engaged the community, the school governing body (SGB) and parents to find ways of solving their electricity crisis.
Pitso explains: “We engaged the SGB, the community and the parents about the need to get the electricity supply back at the school. Once we got their buy-in and approval, we purchased the material needed and approached a vendor to come fix the electricity.”
“…but, before our electrician could commence with the repairs, the Department of Education sent their team to fix the electricity,” he says.
For Pitso, the training provided by SSA buoyed his faith in himself and in his ability to address the situation at hand: “I feel I have grown in terms of being resilient as a leader as well as persevering in tasks and objectives despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and barriers.”
“Attending the Flawless Consulting Workshop with Principal Bopape afforded me the opportunity to discuss ideas and options with him,” he says.
Bopape echoes this sentiment: ‘My PfP assisted us in believing in ourselves and our desire to restore electricity to our school.’
“I learned so much being exposed to the various workshops, especially Time To Think. I learned to think, listen and not to jump to conclusions.” He goes on to say, “It also taught me to be objective and how to engage the community to solve our electricity problem.”
Driving sustainable change in the education sector
The purpose of the PfP Programme is to drive long-term, sustainable change in the education sector. Business leaders contribute meaningfully to this transformation by sharing their personal knowledge and skills, rather than making a purely financial contribution.
Business leaders from more than fifty organisations currently contribute to education through this programme, including African Bank, Nedbank, Hollard, FNB, Investec and Sanlam.
SSA aims to mobilise business, government and civil society to work together to meet the challenges facing education in South Africa. With a bold and audacious vision of significantly improved education outcomes by 2022, SSA Africa calls on all Active Citizens to join hands and to walk together towards a collective goal: quality education for every South African learner. Together, we can orchestrate an upward spiral of real change in our society.
To view Symphonia for South Africa in the Prodder NGO Directory, click here.
