The University of Cape Town (UCT) has launched an online high school and become the first university on the African continent to extend its expertise and impact to the secondary schooling market through an innovative online modality.
The UCT Online High School is an ecosystem that has been designed to enable an entirely new generation of quality, affordable online and blended learning opportunities for learners from all socioeconomic backgrounds across the country. Learners are afforded the opportunity to choose an aspirational school regardless of where they live.
The UCT Online High School redefines what it means to be a school by placing every learner front and center, right where they should be. By using the latest data-driven technology UCT Online High School is able to offer a state-of-the-art personalized learning experience for every learner.
This dynamic ecosystem includes:
- a fully supported online high school from R2 095 per month, offering a personalized education for every learner with support from expert teachers and mentors
- an entirely free online, high-quality and interactive school curriculum for any teacher and learner to use for a broad range of South African CAPS subjects (from January 2022 onwards)
- a series of blended learning micro-schools for learners who need the safety of a physical space, as well as access to reliable hardware and an internet connection to complete their studies
- a range of bridging courses, matric rewrite programs and alternative university credit programs to provide South Africans with affordable pathways to access tertiary opportunities (still to be implemented).
The UCT Online High School commences in January 2022 and includes:
- Grade 8 to 12. Grade 12 will be offered for the first time in 2023
- South African CAPS curriculum
- a personalized timetable for every learner
- expert teacher and mentor support
- a broad range of clubs and societies
- dedicated career guidance and support.
Staff discounts:
UCT will offer the benefit of discounted tuition rates to a broad spectrum of staff employed by the university. This provides the opportunity for eligible direct dependents of staff members to benefit from quality affordable secondary school education.
Each eligible staff member qualifies for staff tuition rates for their child(ren), and/or if the child(ren) is/are financially dependent on the staff member. The staff tuition rate varies from 70% to 80% of the normal fee, and more information on the staff tuition rates and eligibility is included in the UCT Online High School Staff Tuition Rates policy.
The following categories of staff will qualify for an additional 10% reduction in fees when they submit an application for January 2022:
- permanent team members who fall into pay classes two to six (PC2–6)
- pensioners who served as permanent UCT/joint/tripartite staff members
- widows and widowers of deceased staff members and pensioners who served as permanent UCT/joint/tripartite staff members.
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Learners will also have the opportunity to graduate on UCT’s campus, enjoy access to UCT facilities for scheduled events, and participate in the virtual fireside chat series with UCT faculty, and more.
UCT has had the opportunity to reimagine the learning process from the ground up. Together with its partner, the Valenture Institute, a South African education technology company specializing in high school education. This partnership ensures an ecosystem that can deliver quality education at scale.
UCT’s Vision 2030 is not just about making UCT sustainable in our changing world. It is also about giving South Africans the tools to unleash their own potential to help create a fair and just society. And the most important tool every South African needs is affordable, quality education that will qualify them for employment or a university degree. This is one important way through which we can close the inequality gap in South Africa.
As Vision 2030 affirms, we are a community that is committed to solving the key problems of the continent, in this case by unleashing the creative, academic and professional potential of Africa’s children.
