XL Education

So we launched XL Education at the end of 2015, and began knocking on doors, looking for opportunities to get involved and make a difference. Our first major engagement was running a week-long educational camp with a Maths & Science focus for 1,000 learners in Winter 2016 at TUT in Tshwane, on behalf of Anglo American Platinum. Later that year we r... an another series of camps reaching even more learners and stretching the reach from North-West into Limpopo. Since then we have been continuing to serve these needy communities and others with numerous other initiatives, exploring along the way how to bring the most effective support with the greatest efficiency. This has involved maximising the two key ingredients of " online" (the immense potential of all things digital) and "on-the-ground" (integrating digital into reality, and the empowering of the vital human connection). This has led our focus away from an 'extractional' model (such as camps or Saturday schools), where learners are taken out from their schools to learn; to rather an 'integrational' approach where we seek to bring upliftment, impact and transformation in the schools and classrooms, Monday to Friday, through the teachers themselves. In line with this approach, earlier this year, we launched our School Support Program (SSP) - where we provide tech for teachers (laptop, projector, speakers and screen) along with videos and other resources to help them enrich their lessons. This goes hand-in-hand with a training and mentorship support program where we do an initial hands-on training with the teachers, and then provide ongoing support both via virtual support (WhatsApp, Google groups etc) and in-person support from our Tech Support Assistants serving in the areas. Currently we are offering support to over 6,000 learners from 47 schools in Limpopo, North-West and Mphumalanga. This is specifically in Grade 11 & 12 Maths and Physical Science. Next year we aim to reach deeper, to include at least the Grade 10s as well in both subjects, and Grade 8s & ...Read More