Performance of Grade 12 rural origin health science students supported by the Umthombo Youth Development Foundation

Abstract

Background. It has been advocated that to address healthcare worker shortages in rural areas, rural students should be recruited to study health sciences as they are more likely to live and work in rural areas. This poses a challenge, as rural areas in South Africa (SA) are dominated by non-fee-paying quintile 1 - 3 schools that are under-resourced in terms of physical and human resources. Entry requirements for health science disciplines are academically demanding, with good marks required in mathematics, physical sciences and life sciences, while limited spaces are available at universities. National secondary school-leaving examination results are generally poor and are affected negatively by quintile level, with quintile 1 schools performing worse than quintile 5 schools. The Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (UYDF) seeks to address staff shortages at rural hospitals by investing in rural youth.

Objective. To investigate how rural origin learners supported by the UYDF, the majority of whom attended quintile 1 - 3 rural schools, achieved school- leaving results that enabled them to be accepted to study for a health science qualification.

Methods. This was a cross-sectional, retrospective study using a survey developed from UYDF student narratives. The survey was compiled in Google Forms and emailed to 211 UYDF students of the class of 2024, of whom 89% responded. The results were supplemented with extracts from stories submitted by two recent graduates.

Results. There were 81% of participants (n=167) who completed their secondary schooling at a quintile 1 - 3 school, while 13% (n=25) completed their schooling at a fee-paying quintile 4 school, and 2% (n=3) at a quintile 5 school. There were 56% of the respondents who reported having a sufficient number of teachers, whereas 70% reported having sufficient classrooms. More than 90% reported that they had a mathematics and life sciences teacher in Grades 11 and 12, while 89% reported having a physical science teacher in Grades 11 and 12. Sixty percent of students achieved between 76% and 85% in Grade 12 for English, with only 10% achieving ≤70%. Fifty-seven percent of students achieved 81 - 90% for isiZulu, with only two students achieving ≤70%. Seventy-two percent of students achieved between 76% and 100% for mathematics in Grade 12, 77% achieved between 76% and 100% for physical science, and 90% achieved between 76% and 100% for life sciences. There were 96% of students who attributed their good results to their hard work and dedication, 90% to working through past examination papers and 78% to having good teachers.

Conclusion. Motivated by their poor family circumstances, students, through their hard work and dedication, good teachers and extra lessons, achieved secondary school results allowing them to meet and even exceed the entry requirements for medical and allied health science study programmes at SA universities. Using past examination papers could be a strategy promoted more widely to help students in quintile 1 - 3 schools to better prepare for assessments, thereby improving their examination results and post-school options.