Every child is an individual, with certain strengths and weaknesses, something that is becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate within the schooling system of South Africa. Too many students, no matter their competence, struggle in the currently crowded classroom environment, yet under resourced and understaffed schools are unable to provide the attention they require to shine. Even for those that excel, schools simply don’t have the time to nurture their strengths, to the detriment of their futures.
The truth is, there are too many students and too few educators. On average, for every 32 students, there is just a single educator. Private schools, by comparison, provide an educator for every 16 students, and the positive effect is enormous. In fact, more personalised one-on-one time with educators is one of the single most important reasons that private schools regularly outperform their public counterparts. But even this improved student-teacher ratio cannot guarantee that a shy or struggling student will be given the attention and personalised learning environment they deserve.
But what can parents do about it?
There is no substitute for educators
Online learning is a great tool for students, to not only receive additional support, but learn at their own pace, either complementing the traditional schooling structure, to accelerate learning, or aiding those who struggle in an often-intimidating classroom environment. And because of the economy of numbers and its ability to cut expenditure across the board, online education is much more affordable than other traditional learning options.
Even online, however, the problem comes in when students are presented with new and/or challenging information. It’s at that point that students so often need guidance from an educator, who can facilitate information interpretation and assimilation. Without that tutelage, students, with no recourse but to give up, drop out of online learning programmes – their confidence negatively affected.
Each student to an educator
Top Dog Education changes that, by turning each child into the star of the smallest classroom of them all, providing one-on-one time with trained educators online, with the convenience of learning in their own time. Top Dog Education is affordable, something the alternative – tutors – cannot promise, and a personalised experience caters to each students’ strengths and bolsters their weaknesses, in a way that is engaging and best suits their learning style.
It’s a fantastic tool that not only complements the traditional schooling curriculum, but improves overall performance at school by raising a child’s self-confidence, so they can strive even when things get tough.
Because with Top Dog Education, each student is the teacher’s favourite pupil, and Top Dog becomes their favourite teacher.
