Success on a shoestring
Down-town Port Elizabeth is neither prosperous nor glamorous. Buildings are bedraggled and many have been abandoned. Businesses look precariously shoe-string. So it would not perhaps seem that a private school, with more than two thousand pupils in immaculate blue uniforms, a full brass band, and a routine 100% pass rate, would find a home here.
But Edu-College, a private school which runs out of several old office blocks under the N2 highway in central Port Elizabeth, has done exactly that.
In 1994, Lilian Niemann was looking for an opportunity to further some research for a Masters degree and earn some money at the same time. The market for private schooling at the upper income level was saturated.
So she began what started as a few Saturday enrichment classes for school children, as part of an already existing franchise.
After eight years of hard work, this little side-line business has grown enormously; it now includes, as well as the enrichment classes, a pre-primary, primary and high school, as well as a post-school college offering hotel management, information technology and tourism training.
Three years ago the High School achieved a 100% pass rate for the first time. It has done so every year since then. But in addition to the core curriculum, Edu-college provides the kind of rounded education that is hard to find, at any price, in South Africa’s poorest province. There are no Astroturf sports fields, but just about everything that is important to the development of self-motivated and confident young adults is available.
The brass band is run by a former member of the Cape Town symphony Orchestra. As part of the Soccer School of Excellence programme run by the University of Port Elizabeth, there are 16 junior international soccer players amongst the pupils on full bursaries. There is a wide range of other sports available, and a computer laboratory, and several students participate in Junior City Council.
The school gets a whiff of subsidy funding from the provincial government, amounting to around R400 000 a year, less than half of which comes from private sponsorship.
By far the biggest source of income is from school fees, although these are low by independent school standards. For the primary and high schools, fees range from R450 to R490 per month.
The importance of fee income means that much time and energy is devoted to ensuring a reliable flow of money. Marketing is an intensive and highly planned operation. The results are now starting to be seen, with a growing waiting list for the High School programme in particular. Prompt payment is ensured by a bar-coded entry system that bars those without a good reason for non-payment.
Edu-College has made a place for itself in a market characterized more by fly-by-night scams than quality education. There are few examples to follow, so its growth has been the result of much floundering in the dark and single-minded dedication. But its survival so far is a happy indication that good private education in South Africa need not be about privilege and exclusivity.