Bay organisation tackles school dropout rate head on

The Gem Project received R75 000 as a beneficiary of the SPAR Eastern Cape golf day held recently at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club.

A Nelson Mandela Bay organisation is taking the fight to South Africa’s school dropout rate.

The Gem Project, which began life in 2015 primarily as a soup kitchen, is now fronting up to the reality that 30 to 40 per cent of learners who register for high school do not make it to matric.

The Department of Basic Education corroborates this figure in its 2025 National Senior Certificate Examination Report, stating that around a third of youths do not successfully complete 12 years of education.

Even more damning is that only 49 per cent of 2023’s Grade 10 pupils reached Grade 12 in 2025.

“You see these kids standing at traffic lights and you think, ‘Why aren’t they in school?’,” Gem Project programme coordinator Keith Brandt said.

“They are 12, 13, 14 years old. Our aim as an organisation is to change that.”

The Project’s vehicle for doing so is its Finding Your Feet programme, which mentally prepares Grade 7 learners for high school and what will be expected of them.

More than 20 Bay primary schools in areas such as Walmer, Seaview, Gelvandale, Jacksonville and Zwide are currently participating in the initiative.

Brandt, colleague Ellen Khumula and members of the NGO’s community development team visit these institutions every May and August, reaching a combined 2 400 learners.

The former teacher and his colleagues are also focusing on older teens who might have already dropped out of school.

They are committed to putting this cohort through skills development programmes preparing them for the working world, including how to draw up CVs and be effective in interviews.

The Project partners with companies that consider these candidates for opportunities when these arise. Furthermore, learnerships and internships are offered by several service providers the organisation works with.

Brandt feels even those who have passed Grade 12 would benefit from these sessions.

“You see all these matriculants rejoicing when they pass but the next year they’re sitting at home because they have no idea what to do next,” he said.

“They don’t even have the skills to apply for university. This is where we are lacking in our current education system.”

The non-profit’s commitment to the development of young people doesn’t stop there.

Mentoring programmes and holiday camps run in tandem with tertiary institutions like Varsity College seek to improve performance in subjects like maths while also teaching the children life skills.

As a mark of the success of these initiatives, four members of the community team are mentees of the Project.

Six years ago, the organisation started its Gem Soccer League to enable youngsters from several children’s homes to play the Beautiful Game.

Its seven soup kitchens across the metro continue and these are supplemented with food-garden projects.

The GEM Project recently received a much-needed shot in the arm in the form of a R75 000 donation from SPAR Eastern Cape as a beneficiary of its annual golf day at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club.

“An amount like this goes a long way in helping us to continue the work that we’re doing,” Brandt said.