Bridging Education - Our approach to learning

Amasango Career School offers accelerated bridging education for street children. Most children on arrival are grossly age-inappropriate for their grades and have very low self-esteem. Many are drug dependent, tend to resolve conflict with violence and do not trust or respect adults.

When children first come to Amasango they are assessed using a baseline tool which allows us to place a child in the correct class for his/her current academic level. This is important as many have forgotten a lot of what they have learnt or are too ashamed to admit how little education they have had. Our initial curriculum is limited to basic literacy and numeracy in the form of English, Xhosa, maths, art, life orientation, educational games and pre-school activities to give them the foundation they have never had.

Art is often the medium through which abused children are able to “tell” what has happened to them, it is also a non-threatening medium where every attempt is “right”. Working with clay is a recognised form of therapy and lots of our children seem to have a natural ability and have produced wonderful work.

Educational games such as jigsaw puzzles and board games help lay the foundations. For example, “Snakes and ladders” teaches, counting, sequencing, waiting for your turn, a setback doesn’t mean automatic failure and it’s OK for your friends to laugh at you – a very important life skill!

When they have reached grade 5 level in literacy and numeracy we “crash course” the children into a full school curriculum. This can be a very difficult time for the slower learners and they often revert to aggressive behaviour. After grade 7 our pupils progress into mainstream township high schools, facilitating re-integration into society. This works very well for many pupils but for those who are very old (e.g. age 20 in grade 5), who struggle academically or are not emotionally stable enough to cope with the big classes at a mainstream school, a more skills based curriculum which prepares them for the world of work is more appropriate. Unfortunately at this stage, our limited facilities mean we aren’t able to offer this to them.