Twenty-two grade 12 learners of Dimension Data`s Saturday School celebrated their graduation last week.
The event took place at The Campus, in Bryanston, on Friday last week, honouring the grade 11 and 12 students who had successfully passed the year.
Several students received accolades. The best learner in each year, Marcus Bhengu in grade 11, and Siphiwe Lebese in grade 12, each received a prize from DiData. Lebese also received a special gift from Allan Cawood, CEO of DiData, for achieving the highest marks in science.
Cawood said the purpose of the Saturday School "has been about preparing young minds to be future leaders".
The Saturday School programme selects grade 11 learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and offers them extra lessons in most school subjects. The programme provides the learners with taxi fare and food every Saturday. It was started in Midrand in 1995 and has seen a 100% pass rate since then.
After the students pass matric, some are chosen for full scholarships to university, which include accommodation, food and money for books. Some of these students are then offered learnerships at DiData.
Originally, the programme selected 20 to 25 pupils from seven Tembisa-based schools, to help them during their matric year. This has expanded to include more schools, and DiData aims to help a total of 40 000 students by 2015, with the aid of an e-learning system called VIKO.
The VIKO (Video In, Knowledge Out) e-learning system involves PCs at schools being connected to a server, providing a Wikipedia-like online encyclopaedia, access to interactive lessons, an online library and other learning material, such as typing tutorials.
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