#WomenandGirlsofInkululeko: Inkululeko’s Teaching Lead, Vuyokazi Twani Works to Ensure that No Learner is Left Behind

By Anny Lin

Growing up in Makhanda, South Africa, Vuyokazi Twani faced many barriers as a young student in the local education system. Twani vividly remembers being frustrated by the shortage of teachers, textbooks, and other learning resources at her high school. Fortunately, she gained support from a program that provided tutoring in math and science. Although Twani, an ambitious young student, participated in this program, she now recalls that many other students were deterred by the amount of time it took to walk to the tutoring sessions. 

“I had to walk from my house, go to town by foot, get to the tutoring session, and then walk home again. The walk would take me 30 minutes,” Twani said. “I think the majority of the people who took the classes stopped coming because the walk was really tiring. The experience was really frustrating because I really couldn't understand why we had to struggle this much to get the learning that we were supposed to be getting at school.” 

Inspired by her early experiences, Twani joined Inkululeko as the teaching lead, with the hopes of ensuring that current students would not have to face the struggles that she had during her education. As the teaching lead, Twani organizes tutoring sessions by connecting South African and international tutors with Inkululeko learners. She works closely with the learners to understand their needs and interests. From there, Twani helps tutors to create lesson plans and academic content that will fit the students’ educational needs. 

“It is a learning process that encourages the learners to participate in how tutoring is planned,” Twani said. “I think that it is very helpful to them as well because it gives them both the power to know that their education is in their own hands and to understand how they can acquire knowledge.”

For Inkululeko learners, tutoring sessions have become integral to their academic success. Twani’s proudest moments occur when she sees students, who were struggling academically at the beginning of the term, make tremendous progress with the help of their tutors. 

“We are able to watch them grow and see the marks they had at the beginning of the term and actually see improvement from that. I think that is the most rewarding,” Twani said. 

Beyond just providing academic support, the Inkululeko tutoring program also instills confidence in learners, particularly for young women and girls. As a young woman who lacked the confidence to ask questions and voice her opinion during her time in her university classrooms, Twani understands the importance of instilling confidence in her learners. During tutoring sessions, she has seen the way in which young girl learners have developed their confidence. When a learner is struggling with their assignment, many of the young girls will step in to support them. 

“They are adopting a peer to peer learning process. I’m watching them pick each other up. That comes from the confidence of knowing ‘I’ve been helped. I am willing to help and I can help.’ Our learners are so confident that they just ask freely, voicing their opinions freely, which actually makes me so proud. I really believe that the girls of Inkululeko are the future.  I am saying the future because they are exactly what we need for the future. A generation of hardworking women, a generation of fearless women, a generation of women that believe in themselves,” Twani said.

While there is no doubt that Twani experiences countless rewarding moments through her regular interactions with learners, she has also faced many challenges, particularly throughout the pandemic. When COVID-19 restrictions were implemented last year, all in-person Inkululeko tutoring sessions were suspended. Twani quickly noticed that learners who attended the local township schools were not provided with any virtual learning instructions from their teachers. Immediately, she and the Inkululeko team began conducting online tutoring through WhatsApp groups. Unfortunately, student attendance for tutoring decreased drastically, as many learners did not have access to smart devices and the internet. In response, Twani worked with her colleagues to distribute internet data and a limited number of laptops in rotation amongst the learners. If one learner signed out a laptop, they would need to return it in two days for another learner to use because there were not enough laptops for every student during the start of the pandemic. However since then, Inkululeko has been able to drastically increase the number of laptops that are available to learners through tremendous support and generosity from donors. 

Although Inkululeko has not resumed in-person tutoring, some learners have now returned to the Inkululeko office to continue accessing their virtual tutoring sessions. This allows Twani to help the learners resolve any ongoing technical problems, and it allows students to have an opportunity to see each other while still practicing social distancing. Since the start of these virtual tutoring initiatives, student attendance at the tutoring sessions has gradually increased. 

“It was a learning curve for me and my team. You really had to take everything into account. As much as you think you are helping, you really have to take into account the fact that we are working with learners who come from very disadvantaged backgrounds,” Twani explained. 

Moving forward, Twani’s main goal for the Inkululeko tutoring program is to ensure that no learner is left behind. Today, tutoring is more rigorous than ever before as learners work hard to catch up on any assignments that they may have missed throughout the past year. Although this period of time has been challenging, Twani remains committed to supporting Inkululeko learners through the tutoring program.

She has important advice for women who are interested in working in NGO and academic spaces: “In all that you do, apply your heart because when you feel strongly about a cause, nothing will stop you. You will feel tired but you will always have that drive to do more, to do better, to ensure that the learners you are working for get the most out of the program.”