The Department of Education and public broadcaster SABC have joined forces to provide matric students – the Class of 2009 – with additional support in the form of televised extra lessons straight after school each day. Study Mate is an extension of the award-winning Study Mate education supplements distributed by the Department of Education via South Africa’s major newspapers over the past three years.
Launched on SABC1 at 2pm on 1 June, Study Mate will be broadcast for an hour every weekday afternoon, with repeats from 5 to 6am the following morning.
With daily lessons presented by some of South Africa’s best teachers and the Department of Education’s curriculum specialists, Study Mate will focus on taking grade 11s and 12s through last year’s matric papers.
Penny Vinjevold, Deputy Director General for FET at the Department of Education says “The Department encourages all grade 11 and 12 learners, all 1.5-million of them, to use this opportunity of extra lessons with expert teachers.”
Simon Molaudzi, General Manager at SABC Education adds “As SABC Education, we appreciate the continued partnership with the Department of Education to ensure an improved matric pass rate.”
“Study Mate is especially designed to help this year’s grade 12s ace their exams” says Lisa Blakeway, executive producer of the show. “As educators we’ve always encouraged learners to work through past papers in preparation for their final examinations. Now, with Study Mate matric exam revision series, learners will get the added benefit of having expert educators talk them through last year’s November and supplementary exam papers.
“We show them how to approach each exam, avoid common mistakes and structure their exam time. Exam papers are worked through systematically, question by question, so that learners not only understand the concepts, knowledge and skills underlying the questions, but are also able to apply them in the examination situation.”
