In 2022 teacher Nontobeko Zakwe approached Edify with a new idea: add isiZulu to the school subjects the company teaches.
Teaching in isiZulu, in any grade, is offered at all three Johannesburg branches, in Houghton, Bryanston and Bedfordview.
Zakwe has been teaching isiZulu in schools since 2017, and privately since 2014. After arriving in Johannesburg from KwaZulu-Natal in 2007 she was surprised to find that an odd version of her home language was being taught in the city’s schools.
“I saw that the isiZulu that children were learning in Johannesburg was not the isiZulu that I know at home in KwaZulu-Natal. I started tutoring learners in isiZulu and I enjoyed it so much I decided to change my career and teach,” she says.
Zakwe has a degree in marketing from Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of South Africa.
A pilot isiZulu programme was started at Edify in September 2022 and went so well that the subject is now part of Edify’s general offering. Classes at Edify are never larger than six learners.
Teaching at Edify is “very, very different” from teaching in a school, says Zakwe. At Edify her class preparation is tailored to the needs of individual learners and, because she doesn’t have to deal with the administrative duties that teachers in schools have to contend with, she has more time to expend on each child’s progression.