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Sithengile Secondary School: “Understanding Shipping” Bursary Class of 2009
A year has passed since Jo Tankers decided to partner with the South African Branch of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) to offer 10 bursaries to the final year students of Sithengile Secondary School. Sithengile is a secondary school situated inland about 20km from Durban in an impoverished area.
The sponsored course, ‘Understanding Shipping’, is a 9 month part time course which is in fact intended as an adult learning course and the students are generally already working in a shipping environment when they enroll for the course. At the beginning of 2009 the 10 students were selected for the course and in addition to the preparation for the final matric year were required to independently submit and pass 9 assignments on various aspects of shipping. The culmination of the course would be the oral examination held after successful submission of all 9 assignments.
Apart from the academic side of the course and to give the students some idea of a ‘real’ ship a visit was arranged onboard one of the Jo Tanker vessels on 12 October 2009 with the aid of our port agents King and Sons. King and Sons had earlier in the year extended us the use of their boardroom as part of another excursion for the students for a presentation aimed at introducing the 10 bursary students to the wide world of shipping and the various jobs that are available. It was interesting to see that for many students their dream was to work onboard a vessel.
Back to the excursion and in anticipation thereof, the students were very excited to visit a real ship not to mention the opportunity to simply visit the port of Durban, something which they had never experienced despite living in relative proximity of the port. The 10 bursary students together with their teacher, Ms Masuku and Megan Harris from the ICS were welcomed aboard the mt Jo Acer. The visit was planned for 2 hours - however as the students became more relaxed, the questions started flowing and the tour lasted nearly 4 hours. Many thanks to the Captain, officers and crew of the mt Jo Acer for fielding these questions and for the visit in general. The students and their teacher were extremely thrilled to have had this experience which they all firmly agreed added to their theory work and which placed certain aspects of the course into perspective. In addition, they could now go back to their other classmates and impart some useful information to them.
Shortly after the visit to the mt Jo Acer, the students who had successfully completed the required assignments would undergo the oral examination. The purpose of the oral exam is to confirm that the students who completed the 9 required assignments do in fact ‘understand shipping’. In a remarkable achievement 5 students who were selected for the oral exam also obtained their certificates whilst the remaining 5 were awarded letters of commendation by the ICS. This is the first time such letters were handed out to deserving learners and they can all be proud of this achievement, obtained under harsh conditions.
The students are: Ayanda Majozi
Qaphelani Jali
Lungisani Mgabisa
Simphiwe Mncwabe
Gugu Mungwe
On paper this may not appear to be a great achievement - however when looked at in context of these students’ lives and at who the course is aimed at, then it becomes extremely clear that this is actually quite an achievement of which not only the students can be justifiably proud but also their school teacher (Ms Masuku) and headmaster. Mr Thusi. The headmaster advises that the students from Sithengile all come from impoverished backgrounds and many of the students are in fact also breadwinners and in some cases sole breadwinners for their younger siblings at home. In context of all of the above, the achievements are truly outstanding. Mr Thusi is justifiably proud of these students but certainly some of the accolades should also go to the school and how he runs is it. Discipline and respect are two of the most important pillars that are imparted to the students. The students are courteous and greet one when walking through the school. When visiting a class, the students will without fail stand and greet the visitor. It is also interesting to note that there is no litter whatsoever on the school grounds.
Sithengile is also only one of three schools in the whole of South Africa which offers a ‘Maritime Economics’ course as part of the matric curriculum and their teacher Ms Masuku is now thrilled to have their own brand new ‘Maritime Classroom’ and computer centre. The classroom has recently been built with funds generously donated by the Grindrod Group. Jo Tankers, along with other sponsors, have also stepped forward to provide funds to equip the new facilities which will be operational for the new school year in 2010.
Once again for 2010 Jo Tankers is pleased to announce that we will continue to support the school and students by offering the same ICS bursary program to 10 or more matric students as well as providing some ad-hoc lectures to the matric class on various aspects of shipping throughout the 2010 school year. We are really looking forward to 2010’s students who are already showing great enthusiasm and motivation in their current maritime studies and we feel that those selected for the bursary course in 2010 will not disappoint. As sponsors of the course in 2009 for the first time, we have also learnt from the students and the school and together with the ICS hope to ensure it will be even more successful in 2010.
As a closing note, a big thank you must go the ICS, in particular; Megan Harris, Sean Minogue and Fiona de Goede who have worked tirelessly with the school and students to provide the essential support to the program which has without doubt served in large part to make this course a success in its first year. We are all looking forward to 2010 and will advise in the next issue who the selected students are for the 2010 bursary.
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