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One of the education system's biggest challenges is to improve the performance of learners who are far below par, specifically in mathematics and English. The project was devised to establish whether the performance of a group of grade 8 learners would increase after exposing them for six months in a year to extra tuition. The aim was to step up participant's performance with 10 percentage points. And better performance in English and mathematics, researchers believe, would eventually spill over into other areas of learning. Learners from eight schools in the Metropole-South Education Management Development Centre (EMDC), a district stretching from the Cape Flats to the small coastal towns on the Peninsula, participated in the study. Four schools were in a control group, while the other four received 20 hours of extra teaching after school. In analysing the results the finding showed a larger increase over time in the performance of learners who more regularly attended mathematics tuition sessions compared to those who did not attend as regularly. In terms of English tuition, the improvement in project-school learners' performance generally exceeded those of control-school learners. But the findings of the study were not consistent across learning areas and school pairs, and the effects were not as significant as hoped for. The main conclusion was that for most grade 8 learners, it is probably too late for meaningful interventions and that mastering basic content of these subjects should be accomplished at the Foundation Phase of schooling (grades 1-3). 
Who benefits most? Contextual, background and other factors appeared to play a role in whether pupils benefited from extra classes or not. As showed by other research, the knowledge, practices and teaching methods of teachers, time spent on tasks and classroom sizes played a role in learning. In this study, learners did better in schools where the overall management and discipline were good and the management of learning areas and departments were sound. 
Parent-learner dynamics also played a role, for example, learners who were exposed to reading and writing at home and who were supported by their parents, showed more improvement. Language ability also clearly has an effect on performance improvement in mathematics, as in some other areas of learning. The picture becomes more complex with further analyses of those factors that may assist the ability to learn. These include: motivation level, which is associated with: - commitment to volunteer for, and undergo further tuition, with girl students having an edge over boys;
- not being too young or too old for the grade (turning 14 in grade 8);
- books at home (of one's own or in general); • exposure to opportunities to write;
- good access to mathematics text books;
- not being expected to do excessive home chores;
- a sense of responsibility, punctuality and discipline;
- watching appropriate television content within measure; and
- benefiting from using a personal computer.
Other factors contributing to better performance The study points to the fact that interventions should address the specific needs and contributions of various participants in teaching and learning, and these interventions should be aligned to other teaching priorities. 
The school environment plays an important role in learners' motivation, such as facilities, infrastructure, workloads, remuneration, capacity, learning support material, technology, assistance/assistants, and discipline, to name a few. For provincial and district offices such interventions pertain to policies and programmes, security, resource provisioning, large-scale logistics, and overall management.
Would it help if extra classes were taught by outside tutors? This is open for debate, as the school's own teachers may be in a rut concerning learner needs and own work rates, or they may become slack on day-time work because of a second opportunity in the afternoon. On the other hand, a learner's day-time teachers know their own learners' needs and have good information on the areas of work not mastered well, and at what pace to move. Tutors from outside the school may lack knowledge about the workings of a given school and would be more expensive, but could also bring new enthusiasm, novelty and skills. The study recommends that tuition should be linked to performance; those teachers who do well should be rewarded, for example, teachers who achieve certain levels of performance among learners should receive a bonus. The study proposes that there should be a balance between flexibility and standardisation of tutorial material. Standardisation is required for the productive and efficient provision and distribution of a large core component to boost tutor preparation. Equally, the needs of individual schools and learners, depending on the extent of backlogs or remedial attention required, would demand some modular options. Pairing secondary with primary schools An important recommendation is to do a follow-up pilot study on how best to twin secondary schools with their primary feeder schools; and to identify, address and prevent the kinds of knowledge gaps that seem to hamper learner performance at a later stage. Such a pilot study should evolve within a peer-support model, where primary school teachers are assisted by secondary school teachers to prepare learners for secondary school learning. Reading and writing crucial to passing Crucial is that teaching time, teacher capacity, and learning materials should in no ways be compromised in the Foundation Phase. No learner should be allowed to come through the Foundation Phase if they are not able to read and write fluently. The one bar that also needs to be raised, is the volume of opportunity and exposure learners get to practicing reading, writing, speaking and numeracy skills. A consistent finding across related research is that learners do not produce enough extended work of their own from early on and throughout their school careers. Additional practical, integrative and other support aspects are discussed in more detail in the main report. 
Dr Cas Prinsloo is a chief research specialist in Education, Science and Skills Development at the HSRC. The full report Extra classes, extra marks?: report on the Plus Time Project can be downloaded from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Research_Publication-7299.phtml
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