12 Jul 2022

 

The recent learning landscapes such as sky rocketing school fees and poor academic results has influenced an upsurge of tutorial centres to bridge educational gaps.

With the mention of tutorial centres, one can not help but immdiately think of Crack It Tuition, which has over 53 centres in Botswana and has spread its wings to South Africa and Namibia.

Apart from giving students a second chance in their academic life through customized learning, tutoring has also generated employment for graduates.

Crack It’s journey dates back to 2017 when it opened six centres in Gaborone, Palapye,  Selebi Phikwe, Letlhakane, Francistown and Maun. The centres started with over 600 students a number that has now soared to 4 422.

Crack It director, Mr Moemedi Senwelo, said they had not only relieved parents from hefty school fees, but also created employment for young people, adding they had employed more that 400 with minimum tertiary qualifications.

Mr Senwelo said apart from creating employment for young graduates, they had created employers as 47 out of 53 centres were franchises.

He said they offered affordable education, which was half of some people were paying for in private schools.

Mr Senwelo said home schooling had also helped struggling parents who could never afford taxing school fees to give their children a desirable education.

“We offer full time, and after school classes. Gaborone has pre-school too.

We are proud to say we have given parents a relief to get good service for less.”

The director said as part of their home schooling activities, they had introduced Chinese, computer lessons, personal development, educational games and often go on educational tours.

He said Crack It had helped many children to go to high school and tertiary institutions.  

Mr Senwelo said tutoring was more rewarding provided it was run professionally.

He said because of the result oriented kind of learning, they had a programme where they offered study skills to students in governemt schools at no cost.

Among the 53 centres, there is Serowe branch that opened its doors in March 2018, manned by Ms Goitsemodimo Pholoa, who holds Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from University of Botswana.

She said Crack It had saved many graduates such as her.

After her graduation in 2019, Ms Pholoa joined internship programme completed last year.

After job hunting for sometime, she secured one with Crack it in January this year, later to be transferred to Serowe in May.

Serowe Branch has 113 students of which 67 are part time whilst 46 are on full time basis.

The centre has 10 employees mostly diploma and degree holders.

Ms Pholoa said they recruited students through social media, outreaches and outdoor marketing.

“We have students registered on full time basis but because of family arrangements they end up not coming because they are bound by family engagements such as babysitting their younger siblings and can only find time on evenings when their parents are back from work.”

 Ms Pholoa highlighted that it was crucial for students to use any free time they might have to consult and for revision purposes, adding they had revision books which they had simplified thus making it easy for the students to use on their own.

Moreover the students were equipped with entrepreneurial skills to help them not limit their focus on getting a certificate only but on having something to fall back on.

Concerning those who failed to pay, to several factors such as parents losing their jobs, Ms Pholoa said they hade arrangements in place to assist those who find themselves in those situations.

“Crack It is open to everyone.We have nursing mothers here and married people who want to re-write,” she added.

She said they had simplified things for their learners by introducing online classes.

Ms Segomotso Mothibi who did not do well in her Botswana General Certificate in Secondary Education (BGCSE) in 2014 said she was happy to have enrolled with Crack It.

She chose Crack It because of the good results they had been garnering since inception.

Ms Mothibi said she used proceeds from her hustle to pay for her tuition because her parents could not afford to.

“I have always wanted to be a nurse and I am confident now that this opportunity is going to resuscitate my dreams,” she added.

For her part, Ms Ogone Matheatau said she only learnt of Crack It centres recently and she did not hesitate to enroll.

“Back then I was naive, I did not think of writing again to better my life, now I saw an opportunity and I thought why not?”

Ms Matheatau pointed out that since 2014, she did a short course on Real Estate unfortunately she did not benefit much from it since it was not marketable at the time.

Although things had been hectic for her, Ms Matheatau said her mother had given her immerse support in pursuit of academic excellence.

“It is never too late to achieve your goals, do not let anything derive you from achieving those goals” she advised.

A 38-year-old Ms Kamogelo Otsile intends to re-writes her Junior Certificate (JC) exams which she failed in 2003.

She said her husband identified Crack It and encouraged her to enroll.

Ms Otsile said her biggest challenge was balancing school and family, but said she had since devised a plan of balancing the two.

She said despite being older, younger learners were always willing to help her. BOPA