Johannesburg, 25 Sep 2009
The winner of the annual Pastel Thuthuka Accountancy Olympiad has achieved the highest score ever recorded in the competition.
Teboho Nkabinde, from Clubview Secondary School, near Harrismith in the Free State, achieved a distinction in the competition. In fact, for the first time ever, all top three learners scored distinctions, with the second and third placed learners both from Welkom High.
Teboho is now eligible to win a bursary to study at university and become a chartered accountant. That bursary will cover his tuition, residential fees and textbooks.
This is the fourth year that the Pastel Thuthuka Accountancy Olympiad has been held, and saw close to 1 000 learners from 60 schools in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal participate. In 2006, when the competition was launched, only 300 learners took part and only four of those passed.
Steven Cohen, managing director of Softline Pastel, the competition sponsor, comments on this year's results: “At Softline Pastel, we support the advancement of accounting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, so I am really pleased to see an increase in interest in this exam, but also the overall improvement in the scores. Hearty congratulations must go to Teboho and his educators.”
By taking part in the Olympiad, learners don't only stand to win great prizes, but they also improve their accounting skills and marks and gain experience in exam-preparedness. In addition, participants place themselves in the face of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) to be identified for inclusion in its Thuthuka education initiative to study accounting further.
“We find that the fun competitiveness of the competition wakes the learners' interest in accounting and inspires them to follow a career in accounting or accounting-related work. This is encouraging for SAICA, because accountants are a scarce resource in South Africa,” says Tonia Jackson, SAICA's project director for transformation.
Participating schools also benefit because they each receive a copy of the Pastel Certified School Program; a computer-driven accounting learning program aligned to the National Curriculum Statement for Accounting in Grades 10, 11 and 12. The program offers exposure to computerised accounting while explaining and reinforcing accounting principles.
The Olympiad is open to the top 10 Grade 11 and 12 accountancy learners from selected schools. Schools are selected by the Provincial Departments of Education, in conjunction with SAICA, and the learners are selected by their educators. The Olympiad covers the Grade 12 syllabus, but Grade 11 learners are encouraged to take part in the challenge. Each year, the reach of the competition grows.
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