Postgrad tutors' 'inreach' programme

Putting their heads together: Disa Setlogelo and Rethabile Melamu from the EBE postgraduate student council initiated a tutoring project for first-year students.

Usually, Rethabile Melamu and Disa Setlogelo would look for volunteers to tutor learners at neighbouring schools.

But as holders of the outreach portfolio on the postgraduate student council in the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, they recently found a community much closer and also in need of help. Shifting from '˜outreach' to '˜inreach', the two have started a tutoring project for first-year engineering students at UCT. Every Saturday first-year students can bring their problems to a tutor.

With the blessing of faculty dean, Professor Cyril O'Connor, the project got into gear recently. Over a six-week pilot run, 100 students turned to some 18 tutors for assistance on some core subjects, like maths and physics.

Feedback from the first-year students was good. 'I think the lessons were very helpful,' one student remarked. 'I improved my first test mark from 23% to 65% in my second test. I hope that they continue next semester.'

'It is a great initiative,' said O'Connor, 'and if the Saturday tutorials help two or three students graduate, the project would be hugely successful.'