South Africa has 11 official languages. Constitutionally, each is equal.

English is only spoken by less than 10% of the population, yet is taught as a 2nd language at 80% of schools, meaning most learners are not competent in the language.

So imagine their understanding of maths & science, which are taught in English.

And how will they cope later on, as 16 of our 21 universities teach in English? Could the 50% university dropout rate have something to do with this?

Could the solution be teaching English as a 1st language?

One School at a Time, a registered NGO, decided to perform an experiment. What difference could one week’s English 1st language tutoring make?

We decided to do this experiment for the public on national radio.

We took 1 learner. 1 tutor. 1 week.

Each morning, our learner was recorded reading, and then spent the afternoon with her tutor.

The creative idea dictated the use of radio, as it was the ideal medium for people to be able to follow our learner's progress each day as she read out a script.

Our media team selected SAfm, a public national station with an interest in social affairs and a more mature listenership.

As a result of the experiment, our learner's reading improved from 108 words a minute to 152 words a minute. Her confidence also improved dramatically.

Because her reading improved each morning, our goal of raising awareness of how tutoring could help was proven a success.

Furthermore, the experiment provoked intense debate on SAfm, with listeners calling in either for or against children being taught English as a first language. They were also encouraged to donate on our website, which is still ongoing as we want to hire a full-time 1st language English teacher for our adopted school.