Cape Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology

The Cape Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology, often abbreviated to "Cape Academy", is a co-educational public boarding school, situated in the Constantia Valley of Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Academy was founded in 2004 by the Western Cape Education Department to offer quality instruction in the sciences to students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds,^[1] as part of the government's strategy to fill the skills gap present in South Africa.

Establishment

The Cape Academy was established in 2004 at the site of an old reformatory, the Constantia School for Boys, as initiative by the local education department to improve the results of previously disadvantaged learners in the National Senior Certificate examinations.^[2] It officially opened its doors on 19 January 2004, with an address by the then Western Cape Premier, Marthinus van Schalkwyk.^[3] The establishment of the school initially cost the Western Cape Department of Education more than R5 million.^[2]

Academics

The Cape Academy enrolls students into the Further Education and Training educational phase, educating students from grades 10 to 12. Both English and Afrikaans are offered as languages of instruction. It's grade 12 students write the Western Cape Education Department matric examinations in November each year.

Subjects offered include:^[4]

• Mathematics
• Physical Science
• Life Sciences
• Information technology (IT)
• Computer applications technology (CAT)
• Accounting
• Life Orientation
• English
• isiXhosa
• Afrikaans
• Mandarin

Of these subjects, Mathematics, Physical Science and either IT or CAT are compulsory for all students. In accordance with South African educational policy students all take at least one language as their home language and another as an additional language. The Cape Academy is a parallel medium school, offering all courses in both English and Afrikaans.

Mandarin was introduced as a subject in 2010, through the Confucius Institute, the first of its kind in a South African school.^[5] The new classroom was opened in March 2010 by the Chinese Consul General, Hao Guangwei.^[5]

Rankings

In a 2009 report a South African newspaper, the Sunday Times, listed the Cape Academy as one of the top 100 public schools in the country, based on the previous year's maths and science results in the National Senior Certificate examinations.^[6] The Cape Academy was also noted as one of only five schools on the list which were not formerly model C schools. The Cape Academy was also ranked second in Physical Science and fourth in Mathematics in South Africa,^[6] despite having only registered its first matrics in 2006. The rankings were based on the percentage of learners in each school who attained a grade of 50% or more in the NSC examinations, in the subjects of mathematics and physical science.

References