The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) online private high school is currently among the first of its kind in the online learning market. For those looking to familiarize themselves with its costs and daily operations, the principal has shared how much parents can expect to spend.
The idea and adoption of online learning and teaching gained a lot of popularity as a viable alternative means of providing education during the Covid-19 pandemic. This holds true for both the basic and higher education sector.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that one of South Africa’s high-ranking universities opted to introduce its online high school. The University of Cape Town (UCT) launched its first-ever online high school on Wednesday, 21 July 2021.
However, not much is widely known about how the university’s online private high school operates or its costs. In response to this, the newly established online school’s principal and director, Yandiswa Xhakaz, stated that one of their main aims is to enable access to affordable quality education remotely from any location.
The idea behind UCT Online High School was to create an affordable online school to help give children access to school wherever they are.
The school will provide both the CAPS and Cambridge curricula to help students earn their National Senior Certificate (NSC) or equivalent qualification. At approximately R3,300 per month, online education is poised to be far less expensive than traditional brick-and-mortar schools.
Xhakaz further stated that the online school also incorporates extra-curricular elements as a means of additional support, such as virtual clubs, and support coaches tasked with daily check-ins with students to ensure they remain on pace.
“Learners can book ‘ask me anything sessions from teachers if there’s a concept they don’t understand specifically. We have virtual clubs which are non-academic gatherings of different students; according to their interests. There is a virtual community that we create because we know that it does get lonely working alone from home” she explains.
The school is intended to pave the path for more equitable access to education even though there are still issues with the digital divide and young people without access to stable electricity or the internet.