'A South African first': New Afrikaans-speaking virtual campus to launch in SA soon
Koa Academy, an online school, has announced that it is opening Koa Akademie in January 2025. According to Koa Academy, the new Afrikaans home language virtual campus will be a first for South Africa.
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Koa Akademie is said to be rooted in the same principles and structure that have made Koa Academy an award-winning online school.
Learners will be part of an eight-person pod with their dedicated pod teacher ensuring regular engagement with their peers and teachers in their home language.
Koa is accredited by the IEB (Independent Examinations Board), and the new Afrikaans campus will be launched offering Grades 6 to 8, with more Grades added as the school develops.
Koa Academy said only 5% of government schools in South Africa use Afrikaans as the single medium of instruction.
“Being educated in your home language has significant advantages for learners that include improved academic performance and cognitive development, as well as a stronger sense of cultural identity," it said.
Koa Academy’s principal and co-founder, Mark Anderson said, “With its greater flexibility and adaptability, online schooling has an extraordinary potential to deliver high-quality individualised learning.
“With the opening of Koa Akademie, we are leveraging this advantage of online education over traditional schooling. It’s not just that learners do better when they are educated in their home language, teachers also relish teaching in theirs. This makes for a vibrant and stimulating environment for teaching and learning.
“The South African educational system has long grappled with the complexities involved in offering quality education to families across a diverse range of home languages.
“We know that children learn better when they are taught in their home language, and by launching Koa Akademie, we are giving Afrikaans-speaking families a fresh, relevant choice in the country’s modern educational space where individualised learning is becoming more and more of a priority.”
Parents are encouraged to discover more and register for the open day here.
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