Model rural school in Stellenbosch gets top marks for changing lives

A multi-functional classroom in Calling Academy. Calling Academy, Stellenbosch. The building, designed by SALT Architects, has just won a prestigious international Architizer prize. Photo: Southland Photography

By Dennis Cruywagen

24 Jun 2024

Calling Academy is giving less-advantaged pupils the education all children deserve.

Thirty years after our country’s historic first democratic elections, South Africans, wizened by meaningless election-time talk, have learnt to ignore the noise, roll up their sleeves and take care of some things, such as filling potholes, themselves.

There are also other areas that need urgent attention. Education, the road that should lead to a better future, is one and it needs the government’s urgent attention.

South Africa is staggering owing to a lack of quality public education. Only those who can pay their way through expensive public or private schools that draw their pupils from super-earners escape the damnation of government schools that are not safe from gangsters, are endangered by pit latrines and are not bolstered by a teaching system that will equip young people to pursue a decent life. It is an understatement that state-funded education is failing this country.

Waiting for the government to improve the situation is futile. It’s up to South Africans to do something to save some of our children. This is exactly what a group of young teachers are doing in a very real way at Calling Education. Most of these teachers have enjoyed the privileges of being educated at very good, and sometimes highly prestigious, schools.

Calling Education was founded by Werner Cloete, an erstwhile head boy of Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, and Dr Phillip Geldenhuys, who saw the need for an alternative high school model to be established in Stellenbosch.

At the time, Cloete was a physical science teacher at Paul Roos before he resigned. From 2015 to 2017, in partnership with Willem Meyer (the founder of Campitor Agribusiness Investments), Cloete did the research needed for an effective model to provide top-quality education to pupils from low-income communities.

This vision led to Calling Academy, an all-boys high school with a Christian ethos, being established in 2018 outside Stellenbosch. There were three teachers and 60 Grade 8 pupils from townships around Stellenbosch. Its success led to the establishment of a co-ed Calling Academy in Kroonstad, Free State in January 2022.

Calling Acdemy A multifunctional classroom at Calling Academy. (Photo: Southland Photography)

The Stellenbosch Calling Academy is on the corner of the busy Polkadraai and Vlaeberg roads. Surrounded by vineyards and magnificent wine farms close to Stellenbosch, the location of the school comes as a surprise. It has modern facilities, a soccer field and cricket nets, and is in a rural setting, kilometres away from the temptations that could lure young minds to the Stellenbosch CBD.

Calling Academy is a fully fledged high school with classes up to Grade 12. It is the only international partner of the Oxford Day Academy, and in 2019 and 2022 some pupils were selected to attend an annual convention at Oxford University. Rolling out an independent school level of education in a rural environment and at highly subsidised fees – which even if they seem low might be very high for some township residents – places a responsibility on staff, pupils and supporters to raise funds creatively.

The person at the heart of this fundraising is Stellenbosch University law graduate Stephan May, who holds a senior position in a Stellenbosch blue chip company.

A product of Paul Roos, where the annual school fees are R57,330, his heartstrings were pulled when Cloete told him about the vision behind the Calling Academy.

Cloete spoke passionately about the stark reality of raising funds to make it possible to help educate the next generation of leaders.

“I had heard about Calling Academy. It was incredible what they were doing. I always wanted to help but never got around to doing something about it… That night I was tossing and turning and the idea came about how to help,” said May.

Fundraiser Stephan May, who came up with the challenge idea, on the trail run. (Photo: Supplied)

He remembered that a colleague had done a fundraiser for another organisation and had entered the London Marathon. Sponsors would reward the institution for which she was raising funds if she ran the marathon in under three hours.

“Her example planted the seed. Was there something I could do to galvanise people to support the school? That’s where the challenge idea came from.”

He conceived a 24-hour event: an 8km swim from Robben Island, completing the 109km Cape Town Cycle Tour and then running the 50km Three Peaks Challenge trail run, which takes runners to Cape Town’s Lion’s Head, Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak.

He got some friends to join him. “There were a few crazy guys who went along. We were eight or nine guys in the beginning.’’

More than R700,000 was raised in the event’s first year. This year, 43 entrants (assisted by about 30 others) took part. Dangerous sea conditions ruled out a swim from Robben Island and an alternative 8km route in Table Bay was devised.

“The magic lies in an individual doing all three events. It really does feel like a community and a team event. The event is creating a space for people to raise funds for the school so that the school does not have to go out looking for money.”

Calling Academy in Stellenbosch. The building, designed by SALT Architects, has just won a prestigious international architecture prize. (Photo: Southland Photography)

Calling Academy in Stellenbosch. (Photo: Southland Photography)

The entry rules for this year’s race were also amended. “We… said ‘come do the event for free but then you must become an ambassador and fundraiser for the school’. ’’

He added: “The purpose of the event was to create a platform to tell the school’s story, to talk about the lives they are changing.”

This year’s challenge was a success with corporate sponsors coming on board, and 617 unique donations totalling R1,344,000.

Over the past few years about R2-million has been raised in this way for Calling Academy. It has helped the school to keep fees at a minimum and still deliver a standard of education that is akin to South Africa’s top independent schools.

Annual school fees are about R7,320 per pupil. “The more funds we raise, the more schools they can open… These schools must be as accessible to as many learners as possible.”

Calling Academy’s success has been noted. Western Cape education MEC David Maynier said: “Calling Academy is doing excellent work… We are interested in exploring various types of partnerships with the private sector and donors, to expand the number of school places and provide quality education in the Western Cape.”

And that is what must be top of mind for the new government of national unity. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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