The future governors will be women. These were the words of SA Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Lesetja Kganyago as an all-girls team won the 2024 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Schools Challenge.
Panorama Secondary School in Graskop, Mpumalanga, was announced as the winner of the challenge on Wednesday.
Panorama beat 11 other finalists, including top private schools, in the annual school challenge to take the top spot.
The announcement was made at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, in a function attended by finalists of the competition, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, the Department of Education, the Independent Examination Board (IEB), and Reserve Bank officials.
The girls from Panorama — Ruth Khoza, Siphesihle Nyundu, Gugulethu Malapane, and Molemo Mabele — were guided by their teacher, Mxolisi Phakathi.
They took home R18 000 and an iPad each, R37 000 for their school, and their teacher received a laptop.
All finalists won a prize, including 11th-placed Ntabezulu Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape and number 12 Isifisosethu Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal.
Both of these schools are quintile 1 schools. Ntabezulu and Isifisosethu pupils each received R3 000, and their schools received R6 000 each.
The teachers each received a laptop.
Corporate social investment programme
“Being a finalist in this competition is not an easy feat; it is an achievement on its own worth celebrating,” said Kganyago.
Now in its 12th year, the MPC Schools Challenge is the flagship corporate social investment programme of the SA Reserve Bank.
It provides grade 12 pupils who take math and economics a unique opportunity to understand the operation of the Reserve Bank.
It also gives them insights on the bank’s core mandate of price stability and how the economy works. They also get an opportunity to tackle real-life cases.
Teams of four pupils comprising a governor and three deputy governors participate in the competition, which takes months, starting with a pre-entry workshop outlining the application process, expectations from selected teams, and the shortlisting of finalists.
Finalists are expected to make a presentation in front of senior Reserve Bank officials and answer questions.
“This has been a journey filled with a lot of hard work. You should all be proud of yourselves for making it this far,” said Khoza, the governor of Team Panorama, in her speech.
“This competition has given us insights into how economic decisions are made. It has shown us how the MPC statement is written and presented.”
Support from economists
Kganyago said the competition, which started in Gauteng in 2012, was gradually extended to include other provinces by 2018.
In 2022, private or independent schools under the IEB were also invited to participate in the challenge.
He said to prepare for the entrance essays, teams from interested schools are provided with economic information, data, and reading material to help them prepare for their entry.
“They are also supported by economists and communicators who take them through a step-by-step process on what the competition is about, how to enter and what is expected of them,” said Kganyago.
“They are given an opportunity to prepare an essay in the same format as the Reserve Bank’s MPC statement, similar to the one delivered by the governor every two months when he announces the MPC’s decision on interest rates.”
According to Kganyago, a group of representatives from the central bank, the provincial department of education, and the IEB moderates the essays while the Reserve Bank’s economists mark them.
After the moderation process, the finalist schools are selected. In 2024, 12 finalists were selected.
Coaching sessions
“We have a large group of finalists this year due to the closer margins in the essay scores,” he said.
He said to support finalists, coaching sessions were provided to pupils to develop their presentations, refine their essays, and prepare for the final stage of the competition.
Finalists are required to present before a panel of judges consisting of senior Reserve Bank economists, with representatives of department of basic education and IEB present throughout the judging process as observers.
Second place went to Michaelhouse, represented by Luke Kaufmann, Matt Kennedy, Carlyle Hawkins and Dylan Hewlett. They won R14 000 each and R27 000 for their school.
Hoërskool Montana came in third with team members Atlegang Rakgatlha, Dunwan Brits, Jason Venter and Gerrit Venema.
Other finalists from numbers four to 10 are Hoërskool Garsfontein, Glenvista High School, Midrand High School, Paarl Girls’ High School, Parklands High School, Elsies River High School, and Daspoort Secondary School.
