Old Mutual : Education Flagship Legacy Report

OLD MUTUAL

EDUCATION FLAGSHIP LEGACY

2013 -2019

DO GREAT THINGS EVERY DAY

CONTENTS

03	04	06	10
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE		FOREWORD		EXECUTIVE SUMMARY		OBJECTIVES
By Maserame Mouyeme		By Crispin Sonn		Summary of achievements		Africa's young people will
				against objectives		no longer be held back by
						low expectations.

16	22	26	28
OVERVIEW	PROGRAMME AT A	COLLABORATION &	EXPENDITURE
The report also looks	GLANCE	PARTNERSHIPS	OMEFP Expenditure
at the service provider	Programme	Old Mutual is the anchor of	2013 -2019
assessments	implementation	the NECT

36		44	48
OUTCOMES	EXIT STRATEGY		WHAT'S NEXT?
Buildingstronggovernance	Flagship legacy		Improving the quality of
and leadership			education

MESSAGE FROM MASERAME MOUYEME

We work across the educational value chain, specifically thinking about how the resources we plough into the sector can have a much broader impact. For example, it's a good idea to invest in learner education through bursaries and the like. However, if you are not also thinking about things like infrastructure and leadership development in the space, the impact will be limited.

Over the last seven years, the Group has ploughed over R300 million into leadership development programmes for teachers and principals at schools across South Africa alongside learner support, in order to raise the bar significantly around the delivery of quality education that changes lives. Old Mutual's commitment and work continues!

FOREWORD

Former Old Mutual Foundation Chairman Crispin Sonn: An executive at Old Mutual for 11 years, and chairman of the Old Mutual Foundation during the period of the

OMEFP.

runningtheseprogrammeswereinnovativebut we struggled to assess or justify the cost versus the potential value of the outcome. Fortunately, when we stopped rushing towards the 'noise', and focussed on where we assessed the need to be, it led us to partnerships with NGOs that really made a difference and understood the underlying challenges.

Doingourownassessmentandhardworkatthe outset,understandingtherootcauseproblems, identifying partners with the appropriate skill and fit, contracting for outcomes as opposed to inputs only, were some valuable lessons learnt.

We also learnt that assumption is the mother of most disasters. We thought we understood the system, but when we dug a little deeper, wediscoveredourassumptionswerefrequently wrong or there was a level of complexity we had missed.

We worked with good NGO's who are subject matter experts and were committed to exceptional outcomes. We learnt that despite the criticism that the Department of Basic Educationenduresit haspocketsofexcellence, sprinkledwithpeopleforwhomeducationand human development is still a calling and not just a job.

We learnt that where trade unions approach there mandate with commitment and professionalism they improve situations and become invaluable allies. We learnt that universities are a critical part in the chain of continuous research, development and improvement. Without access to academics, committedtoresearchandempiricalevidence, the journey to a world class educational system will be much longer and riskier.

It is my hope that these lessons will be preserved and serve the Old Mutual

The seven-year Old Mutual Education Flagship Programme (OMEFP) has been a journey of learning, adjustingandconstantlyseekingwheretheneedisas opposed to where the noise is. Although the OMEFP got off to a rocky start", Old Mutual Foundation was able to adjust quickly to ensure that the programme has had a meaningful and measurable impact after seven years.

The Old Mutual Foundation decided to launch the seven-year OMEFP as one of our four focus areas, viz. Education, skills development, enterprise development, and staff volunteerism.

It takes a minimum of three to four years to affect any kind of social change, so we wanted the OMEFP to run for at least seven years to create a measurable and meaningful outcome. We wanted a sustainable, stay-throughprogrammethatcouldbeevaluatedon an annual basis to determine if we were reaching the desired outcomes.

We focus on education as enlightened self-interest. Old Mutual is dependent on well-educated employees with strong Maths skills; thus when we invest in education, we're also investing in our future employees.OurapproachattheFoundationisthatof venture capitalist with the distinct difference that we measure returns in terms of social outcomes."

Maths and Science are also crucial in any competitive economy. We compared South Africa's Maths and Science outcomes to peer countries, and South

Africa didn't do very well. If we don't do something to improve our Maths and Science outcomes, the economic growth required to secure full employment will be unattainable.

When we kicked off the programme, we were led to believe that the missing ingredient was funding as thekeytoimproveMathsandScienceoutcomes.We soon realised that it wasn't only a matter of funding for interventions at teaching, content and resource level, but that the education management system itself was dysfunctional. We then shifted our focus to teacher and leadership development at schools.

Wevisited twoschoolsinthesamestreetinLimpopo Province. The one school was under resourced, lacked the proper support and appeared quite dysfunctional, while the other school was a model school. Our observation was that it had a lot to do with the quality of the school management and the competency of the school principal. Mentoring principals and equipping them with sound leadership skills consequently became a top priority for the Foundation.

We endeavoured to support a range of projects, so at first we brought in experts to help form the policy and funding framework internally, which the Foundation then undertook to execute externally.

In the beginning, we also invested in programmes which seemed innovative and ground-breaking at facevalue,however,wesoonfoundthatmanyNGOs

In hindsight, we should have done a baseline study before we launched the programme to gain a better understanding of the education system and create a platform against which we could measure our impact and success.

Once we understood the system, we were able to adapt quickly and identify good partners and align with them in pursuit of worthwhile goals.

Foundation well when it undertakes similar programmes in future.

Former Old Mutual Foundation Chairman Crispin Sonn:

Pinpointing education challenges to improve Maths and Science outcomes

07

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Without education your children can never really meet the challenges they face..." Nelson Mandela

0808

09

SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS AGAINST OBJECTIVES

which R224 million went directly to beneficiaries related to the project school, R61 million went towards adhoc education-related donations and R30 million to operational costs. The

R224 million, paid for three types of initiatives: School level-R189 million, NECT-R27.2 million and scholarships-R7.2 million.

The rationale for intervening in the three levels was to ensure that OMEFP is contributing to education development from several angles, using complementary and mutually reinforcing interventions. Within school level education, the OMEFP has intervened in three areas: leadership development, educator development in the teaching of Mathematics and Physical Sciences and learner development in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. The bulk of the investment paid for leadership development of school management teams (SMTs).

In practice, Old Mutual's approach has been to support several different projects, implemented by multiple partners, spread across many schools

and learners in four provinces. Old Mutual set a target to reach ten districts, 250 schools and 250 000 learners over the seven years. The project achieved and exceeded the targets.

This report unpacks the project delivery, challenges, learnings, and outcomes of the different programmes. We cannot fully attribute the evident success in some of the schools directly to the project because of the complexity of the schooling and education environment.

However, while the monitoring and evaluation methodology and strategy employed in the programme was inconsistent, that does not suggest that there are no positive gains to report. While there is no direct attribution to the success of individual schools and beneficiaries to the OMEFP programme, the value collected in lessons is undeniable. There is vital importance of growth and progress made by individuals and some of the schools Old Mutual has supported over the years.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The strategic intent of the Old Mutual Education Flagship programme (OMEFP) was to create a programme with coordinated activities and partnerships for positive impact in the education sector. The plan was launched in 2013 as a seven- year programme and was in its seventh and last year in 2019.

In the seven years from 2013 to the end of 2019, we spent over R316 million on the project. The breakdown comprises over R224 million in direct expenditure on three types of education initiatives: at school level across four provinces, tertiary scholarships (R7.2 million), and national interventions aimed at the education system as a whole, the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT). Old Mutual spent over R316 million, of

250

The 2013 mandate was to reach 250 schools in ten circuits over the seven-year period, with the intention of positively influencing the lives of 250 000 learners over that period. The project has exceeded the targets, having worked with 327 schools, and 253 000 learners have benefitted.

The primary goal of the project was to increase the number of learners in the supported schools who pass Matric with Mathematics and Physical Sciences.

By 2019, 330 learners achieved distinctions in Mathematics and 406 in Physical Sciences.

OBJECTIVES
OUTCOME	250

10

7

327

11

7

DISTRICTS

YEARS

SCHOOLS