Social Innovation

James facilitates the installation of solar panels at Masibambane College, producing 55KW per hour to ensure that the entire school is unaffected by power outages that are commonplace in South Africa.

As an ongoing commitment for Education Africa to be at the leading edge of digital innovation, James arranges the installation of an in-house, state of the art studio with multiple cameras and microphones which enable the Education Africa team to teach and train remotely, mentor students and offer support wherever they may be.

A 7-month music online teaching research project shows overwhelmingly that Education Africa’s approach of using Samsung tablets supported with data to allow marimba educators to attend weekly ‘Google Meets’ classes, download training videos and to submit homework tasks, is successful. While developed for teaching purposes during the lockdown period of the COVID-pandemic, its application can also be used to train marimba educators based in remote locations or any ‘out-of-town’ educators.

Education Africa’s annual Sounds of Celebration Concert which is traditionally held as a ‘live’ in-theatre event, is launched as a virtual, online event due to COVID. James enlists experts whose approach is to create a visually exciting, dynamic and bold broadcast for viewers spanning 25 countries. The event is streamed online, and features collaborations which enables performers from different parts of the world to participate in collaborative performances. In a first for the Sounds of Celebration Concert, the event is hosted by two people, based in different countries. Viewers agree that it is a world-class event, and a decision is taken to run it as a virtual event again in 2022 given the uncertainty around the pandemic.

To ensure continued training for the ECD Teach the Teacher programme during lockdown, James and the Education Africa ECD team quickly put in place the Zoom conferencing platform to allow for uninterrupted office day-to-day management liaison. Trainers actively continue to engage with their students. Changes are made to the implementation calendar and students are taught through the interactive WhatsApp platform. Trainers send short videos and pictures to demonstrate activities. Data is provided to students so they can reach the trainers and complete their tasks and activities. Training materials are restructured to allow the course to be taught online, using blended training and learning platforms such as Google Classroom and Google Meet.

As a result of the COVID-pandemic, a virtual Education Africa International Marimba & Steelpan Festival is conceptualised, proposed, discussed and debated with various stakeholders who had supported the live Festival in the past. The Festival is marketed to marimba and steelpan bands throughout the world, extending the entries to participants who logistically could not travel to South Africa. Competition categories are also increased. In total, 150 entries in video format are received from 7 countries. Once entries are received in video format and forwarded to the judges, James and the Education Africa team produce 13 episodes which are flighted on Facebook and YouTube between 1 and 13 December. Technology is used to produce a multi-screened massed item featuring many of the participants in the Festival. The Virtual Festival enables Education Africa to create a virtual platform where social cohesion can take place in a meaningful way on a global scale while creating a world-wide awareness of the diversity of the marimbas found in South Africa. The event will be held online again in 2021 due to the uncertainty around the pandemic.

Lockdown as a result of the COVID-pandemic means Education Africa can no longer do in-person training at Education Africa’s Marimba Hubs. Since the only feasible platform is to give lessons/tutorials via WhatsApp utilising data, James and the Education Africa Marimba team produce tutorial videos to teach new music to marimba educators via this platform. On the Monday the bass part is taught; on the Wednesday, the middle part; and on the Friday, the melody followed by all of the parts put together via the “Acapella” platform. Many new pieces are taught in this way during the course of the lockdown. Revision theory tutorials with worksheets are also presented this way. Through this approach Education Africa’s Marimba Educators were well prepared and ready to resume teaching as soon as government regulatory restrictions were lifted. All tutorials are stored in a virtual library for easy access. Interesting Fact: this programme was at risk of being decimated by the pandemic. However, participation numbers actually increased by 10% when schools reopened.

James facilitates the fogging and deep cleaning of Masibambane College – an Education Africa school in Orange Farm, South Africa. This ensures that disruptions to teaching and learning at the school are reduced to a minimum during lockdown.

In keeping with the times, James initiates the upgrade of the Education Africa UNISA programmes and a pilot project is launched which uses technology to teach the programmes. New teaching support technologies are also introduced which has improved the programme’s success. This move away from paper based teaching easily and successfully allows students to use technology and submit assignments directly from their homes, giving easy access to tertiary education in townships and rural areas.

With the support of the Deputy Minister of Education, Enver Surty, James and the Robben Island Museum team conceptualise and host the first Education Africa Executive Experience 'A Day in the Life of a Prisoner'. This is a unique and exclusive overnight stay on Robben Island.

James is instrumental in evolving the Education Africa ECD programme, which today is a NQF (National Qualification Framework) level 4 Teach the Teacher programme.

In partnership with Sydenham Shul, James conceptualised a social cohesion concert that brings between 150 and 200 children on stage in the “Sounds of Celebration Concert” - a music extravaganza directed by Joan Lithgow.

James and Education Africa introduced the Marimba (African Xylophone) to Masibambane College and started International Arts & Culture Tours to Vienna in 2009. This programme grew when James met Joan Lithgow, Education Africa’s Marimba specialist and today, Education Africa has its own set of Marimba’s in New York, London and Vienna to enable many international tours to take place for disadvantaged children. Joan was instrumental in growing this Education Africa project which today runs a number of Marimba Hubs in disadvantaged communities. In addition, she started an annual Education Africa International Marimba & Steelpan Festival which today has over 2 000 musicians participating in a two-day event.

James with the Robben Island Museum conceptualised the first ever student overnight stay on Robben Island linked to Education Africa’s Model UN project.

Realising the need to empower the women who run day-care centres in disadvantaged communities, James and Education Africa started the Education Africa ECD Project to teach and mentor caregivers and enable them to turn their day-care centres into learning centres which are able to ensure that the children in their care are ready for formal schooling by the time they are 7 years old.

James and Education Africa teamed up with an Austrian NGO on a project to build sustainable facilities in a disadvantaged community. This later developed into Education Africa’s Social Architecture project whereby international universities get the opportunity to design a preschool using sustainable materials and come to South Africa to physically build the school in disadvantaged communities.

James was devastated after the passing of his mentor and wanted to celebrate his life, so he produced a unique legacy pack on the late Walter Sisulu, which was supported by Albertina Sisulu and Nelson Mandela.

James and Education Africa produced a comic book on the history of South Africa, which would bring a balanced history of South Africa to many schools both locally and abroad.

Following on the success of the Edu-bike Africa workbooks, James and Education Africa created a workbook aimed at educating learners about the United Nations, as well as debating skills. This workbook has been updated over the years and is still used for the Education Africa SAMUN project today.

Edu-bike Africa is launched with funding from the Japanese Government. James and Education Africa facilitated the production of cross-curricular education workbooks that brought fun learning support to the classroom. Over the years, more than 167 000 learners received their own workbooks and approximately 1 000 educators received teaching aids.

When James heard about discarded bicycles in the City of Osaka in Japan he approached the Osaka Prefecture and arranged for the shipping of these bicycles to South Africa. The Cycle Aid for Africa project distributed over 11 000 bicycles to disadvantaged school children over the years, significantly cutting back on time spent getting to school and back and allowing the learners to focus on their school work instead. Over the years, this project evolved and focused on sourcing funding for more durable mountain bikes with solid tyres.

Together with UNISA (University of South Africa), James and Education Africa developed two certificate programmes after Walter Sisulu said that disadvantaged learners needed access to tertiary education.

James saw the need to start a discussion about education in the country and put together an Editorial team that went on to publish 6 Editions of Education Africa Forum - an annual publication that gave expert input from key role-players in education.

James and Education Africa were asked by Minister of Education Prof Sibusiso Bengu to assist with the co-ordination of a high school Model UN Debating competition which formed part of the UN’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. 12 learners were chosen to accompany President Nelson Mandela to New York, and in 1997 Education Africa developed the concept of this competition further to launch the SAMUN (South African Model UN) project – a unique concept that drives social cohesion by twinning a disadvantaged school with an advantaged school to form a combined team, thus ensuring equal access and sharing of resources, team-work and co-operation. Run in partnership with UNIC – Pretoria, it is the only truly national Model UN in the world. Over 500 schools participate annually.

The Education Africa Presidential and Premier Education Awards were launched. This innovative initiative brought government and civil society together to put education at the forefront and enjoyed the support of the Office of the President, Raymond Mhlaba and Terror Lekota, the Minister of Education and the 9 Provincial Premiers.

Masibambane College became the first quality educational institution in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. It was built with funding sourced by James and Education Africa, initially as a primary school which would over the years be expanded to incorporate a high school as well. James brought St Johns’ College on board as a partner in this initiative to provide teacher training, management and administrative assistance to the school to ensure its sustainability.

The Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Presidential Medallions are struck by the South African Mint and supported by Nelson Mandela (1995) and Walter Sisulu (1997). Proceeds from the sale of the medallions went to Education Africa.

“No Easy Walk to Freedom”. James was able to bring together different political parties to support the lifting of sanctions. The ANC with support from Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Thabo Mbeki amongst others; the DP (Democratic Party) with Helen Suzman and Dr Zach De Beer; the PAC (Pan African Congress) with Benny Alexandra; and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) with Mangosuthu Buthelezi. James earned the trust of all these key players which would over the years be beneficial to Education Africa under James’ leadership.