STEVEN George, a passionate accounting teacher from John Walton Secondary School created a learning programme for grade eight pupils to help them cope with the intensity of schoolwork once they started high school.
The Steven Alie George intervention programme (SAG) was designed to help grade eight learners bridge the gap between primary school and high school.
“When grade eight learners start high school we realized that they really struggle with their schoolwork, so we decided to give them extra classes on Saturdays,” said George.
With help from other teachers George focused on subjects which pupils struggled with such as Afrikaans and Mathematics. They later included English.
George started the programme when he was still teaching at Gamble Street High School, but when he left to teach at John Walton, the school did not continue with the programme. The learning programme stems from his passion for teaching and dedication towards his pupils.
When George started teaching accounting at Gamble Street in 1996, he was determined to go the extra mile to help his learners not only pass the subject but to do well.
During his time at the school before moving to Johannesburg in 2004, his accounting class received 100% pass rates each year from 1999 to 2003 and in the year 2000 two learners received an A symbol.
Once George returned to Gamble Street in 2008, he started giving extra lessons to grade 11 and 12 learners from his home on Sundays.
The ‘accounting king’ as he was labelled by his pupils said learners are given only 40 to 50 minutes of accounting lessons during class time.
He further mentioned that Wednesdays were for sports and Friday was a short day which meant that the learners received only approximately three to four lessons a week which he believed was not enough.
“Each Sunday from 08:30 to 12:30 the first group came in and from 14:00 to 17:00 the next group arrived.
There was so much more schoolwork that we could work on during the three hours on Sunday,” said George.
“The students that came to the extra classes did really well in their accounting exams. They were very dedicated and never missed a lesson,” said George
