SCTE SCHOOL COMMUNITY PROJECT

Often Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are blamed for losing track with what is happening at grass roots level. The School of Continuing Teacher Education (SCTE), started their community school project in conjunction with the North-West Department of Education (NWDoE) at four local schools on 17 March 2011. When NWDoE approached the SCTE requesting to apply the expertise of the higher institution in the areas of teaching, learning and management in the schools, SCTE did not hesitate. This direct collaboration between schools and lecturers ensures that academics remain in contact with the real issues at grass roots level in school practices,
and especially the challenges experienced in the classroom which provide excellent research opportunities for the university. While the collaboration seeks to provide educators with enhanced teaching, learning and management skills and strategies as well as improved access to information and training in order to ensure a better quality of life for the teachers and learners of the respective schools, research findings will in turn be applied to enrich and contextualize the curriculum of the SCTE which will benefit the students.

Aims
The project is subjected to the following aims:
•   To reach out to the school community;
•   To implement expertise by extending the production, dissemination, integration and application of knowledge and technology;
•   To build teaching, learning and leadership capacity within the four identified schools;
•   To have an impact on whole school development;
•   To create good relationships between the NWU as higher education institution and basic education providers;
•   To conduct action research and embark on other research possibilities and publications thereof;
•   To put structures in place for the sustainability of effective processes.

Methodology
We are maintaining a mentoring system where teacher and academic work together and both are enhanced through this collaborative effort in order to make a difference to, and a sustainable impact on the standards of teaching, management and especially the Senior Certificate Examination results. Needs analysis was done prior to engagement whereby the various educational needs of the schools were identified. Accordingly academic staff members were allocated to a specific school.

The aim of the engagement was communicated during preliminary meetings together with the staff of the various schools. Regular consultation between lecturers, teachers and principals of the schools ensured a participative approach. In this approach the NWU does not only address its obligation towards community involvement and service, but also ensures benefits and advantages to all participating schools.

Nature of partnerships involved
The biggest partner in this project is the North West Department of Education. South African Breweries (SAB) became a partner by sponsoring the financial needs of the project. Kekkel en Kraai Pre-primary School is also on board, assisting in providing physical resources.

On Monday, 12 September, Mr Koos Taljaard from SAB presented the sponsorship to the Dean of Faculty and the Director of the School.

Prof Manie Spamer, Director SCTE, Prof Robert Balfour, Dean: Faculty of Education Sciences and Mr Koos Taljaard from SAB.

South African Research Association for Early Childhood Education

South African Research Association for Early Childhood Education

The Early Childhood Education (ECE) field is currently disempowered by its fragmentation into smaller interest groups without a unified voice or vision. An inclusive association with a strong research base and focus was identified as a need to represent the field in a purposeful manner.

The first international Early Childhood Development conference took place from 1-3 February 2011, and was hosted by the subject group Foundation Phase, Faculty Education Sciences, North West University, Potchefstroom Campus.  The intention of the conference was to bring people in the field of ECE together and to establish an association for research training and development.  A session was attended by Dr Green and Dr Parker of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).  There was a general support for the establishment of such an association, and it was proposed that DHET call a workshop meeting to which a representative from each of the universities involved in teacher training would be invited.  A meeting was called by the DHET for 20 universities and 16 representatives from Education Faculties in South Africa attended the meeting on 11 May 2011 in Johannesburg. The idea to establish a research association for the ECE sector was again unanimously and strongly supported.

A proposal by a task team recommended the establishment of the South African Research Association for Early Childhood Education (SARAECE) for young children (0-9) in South Africa, of which our own Dr Ona Janse van Rensburg was appointed president. The association seeks to be a leading voice for ECE invested in improving the well-being, early education and developmental potential for all children birth through grade three. The association would serve as a catalyst for research, programme and materials development. The association intends to provide a platform that supports knowledge creation in ECE and is committed to becoming an inclusive, collective and critical voice for the ECE field.

The key activities of the Association will include the following:
1.    Research in the ECE field.
2.    Collaboration between members and with both local and international bodies and individuals involved in SARAECE.
3.    Advocacy of the specific intent and projects of the Association.
4.    Informing practice through support and involvement of both pre- and in-service educators as well as staff of colleges and universities involved in the training and education of ECE practitioners and teachers.
5.    Being responsible for implementing directives from its constituency such as the hosting of conferences and/ or initiating projects to advance its causes.
6.    Supporting the SA Journal of Childhood Education with the specific intent of promoting research in both the Academic and Professional fields of SARAECE.
7.    Encourage and initiate the design and distribution of publications with parent information pieces.
8.    Encourage cascading of the association to provinces.

Membership of the association will be opened to any institution and/or person who has an interest and agency to promote ECE through research and subscribing to the aims of the association as described above.
The members of the steering committee are:
Dr Ona Janse van Rensburg (President, NWU)
Prof Hasina Ebrahim (Vice President, UFS)
Dr Ursula Hoadley (CPUT)
Prof Jean Baxen (Rhodes)
Ms Lorayne Excell (Wits)
Ms Nici Rousseau (CPUT)
Ms Robin Notshulwana (Secretary, NMMU)
Dr Mamosebatho Ramabenyane (UFS)
Dr Mamsi Khuzwayo (UZ)
Dr Seenie Naidu (UNISA)
Dr T Mbatha (KZN)
Prof Elizabeth Henning (UJ: Editor SA Journal of Childhood Education)

Contact details:  ECDassociation@gmail.com

South Africa needs skilled teachers

According to a report released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) on Wednesday, South Africa is in dire need of good, skilled teachers.

The report paints a bleak picture of teaching in government schools, illustrating severe issues in the education, experience and management of “education professionals”.

Findings show that South Africa needs to increase its output of trained teachers by 15 000 annually to meet the requirement of 25 000 new teachers per year, the report says.

Research dating back to 2005 demonstrates that 16 581 mathematics teachers were present in the Eastern Cape but only 7 090 were teaching the subject.

But 5 032 were teaching mathematics who were not qualified to do so.

Uninterested and underpaid
Of those who are pursuing a career in the classroom, only two-thirds spend 46% of their time actively teaching and of those hardly any teach on a Friday.

Additionally, the education system must also contend with the fact that over 25% of newly qualified teachers immediately pursue other professions, or emigrate.

“This is a systematic problem. If we don’t act now we are condemning a generation of children to poor education standards,” Bernstein said.

CDE’s research identifies the poor societal perceptions of teaching to be another major stumbling block to attracting quality skills to the sector.

“We need to make teaching a more attractive profession with better incentives for good performance. Teaching is not respected enough in South Africa and society needs to change its views and attribute greater status to teachers,” Bernstein said.

Along with the notion of rewarding teachers who perform well, the report also calls for measures to be taken against those who fail to fulfill their duties.

“There is nothing worse than a teacher operating in trying circumstances in a badly managed school where nothing happens to those that shirk their responsibilities,” Bernstein said.

Private sector involvement
Besides bettering the quality of teacher training at public institutions, the report further suggests that private institutions be included in improving education training.

“The issue is not only whether public tertiary institutions will be able to train more teachers, but whether they will be able to train them well. The challenge of providing good teachers to meet South Africa’s current and future needs will not be resolved simply by bringing political will to bear on public institutions,” the report reads.

The department of basic education was unavailable for comment on Wednesday, but other stakeholders in the sector largely agreed with the report’s findings when posed questions by the Mail & Guardian.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), the largest teachers’ union, said teacher’s salaries, along with training and development, needed to be addressed immediately.

“The starting salary in the teaching profession is low compared to other professions, even though the teachers have completed a four-year degree. This prevents people joining the profession. Teacher development and training is also key to improving the current situation,” said Sadtu spokesperson Nomusa Cembi.

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) education spokesperson Dr Wilmot James echoed this sentiment.

“The DA welcomes the report, particularly that special performance-related incentives should be provided to the better teachers; [and] that the training of teachers — especially in mathematics and science — should be ramped up as an emergency through accelerated training at public institutions,” he said.

But James also said attitudes towards teaching should change within the sector.

“In the past teaching was seen as a vocation and not a job. There has been a decline in the way teachers are viewed and the overall ethos of the profession has also waned. This will only be improved if teachers rise to the occasion,” he said.

Read the whole report here.

Article from the Mail&Guardian.

Cedar College

Some of our Faculty Members recently visited Cedar College.  Cedar College is located in the Natal highlands and is one of the distance campuses of the NWU.  Lecturers were able to familiarize themselves regarding the quality of learning in this remote area.  The lecturers soon realized that the area is blessed with devoted and hardworking workers and staff.  Many experts, family and friends who live at the mission station also contribute to the successful infrastructure and agriculture of the centre.  The faculty members had a chance to exchange new ideas with the lecturers across the various disciplines and to discuss gaps and opportunities regarding the curriculum.

Rev. Erlo Stegen talking with staff of the NWU.

Rev. Erlo Stegen, founder and director of the Kwasizabantu mission in KwaZulu-Natal, had a vision of what he described as “rivers of living water that flows from my heart” when he founded the missionary camp.  A young girl had apparently predicted that the mission camp was located on a treasure. Drilling for gold and diamonds proved fruitless, but some of the best mineral water in the world was discovered.  Today the famous Aquelle mineral water is bottled and distributed nationwide.  The mission furthermore produces yoghurt, soft drinks and cultivates sweet peppers, avocado, fruit and honey.

The choir sings before a service. The church can accommodate 10,000 people.

The auditorium hall can accommodate 10,000 people and it was built in only ten months after the previous one burnt down. Cedar College is not only a service center where students can go to school and training.  Their outreach program goes much further: a radio station with three different languages that reaches approximately 130,000 people in KwaZulu-Natal, HIV patients find a safe haven to recover and people who yearn for inner peace are also accommodated there. Three meals are prepared for 1,500 people each day.

Masibumbane, “let us build each other” got a whole new meaning after visiting Cedar College and it was truly a life changing experience.

Postgraduate Qualification

Dr. Richard Letsholo

The School of Continuing Teacher Education congratulates Dr. Richard Letsholo who obtained his PhD.  Dr. Richard Letsholo is the fifth lecturer at the School of Continuing Teacher Education to obtain a PhD in 2011.

Attended conferences, seminars and workshops (June-July)

Prof Manie Spamer delivered a presentation during the 16th Annual Congress of the European College of Sports Science in Liverpool, England.  It is titled, “Survey of the Opinions of Life Orientation Subject Advisors on the Re-Implementation of Physical Education in South African Schools”. The content of the presentation comes from the PhD study by Dr Niekie van der Merwe.  More than 1500 people attended the conference.

Prof. Spamer also visited Hope University to investigate the management model of the university, as they also have a contact model in conjunction with a smaller distance education model. Data collected will be used for a postgraduate study of Ms Marinda van Zyl on a management model for Open Distance Learning at the North West University.

Prof. Seugnet Blignaut and Dr Charlene du Toit-Brits attended the 3rd ACDE Conference and General Assembly in Dar es Salaam from 12 to 15 July.  Both of them delivered presentations.  The title of Professor Blignaut’s presentation was “Teachers-students’ affective experiences of computer literacy for ODL at North-West University” and Dr. du Toit-Brits presentation was “Distance education as a “we-ness”: a Case for Ubuntu as a theoretical framework.”  The theme of the ACDE Conference and General Assembly was “Bridging the development gap in Africa through Open and Distance Learning”.

Dr. Janette Kruger attended a workshop, “Thinking Qualitatively”, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton Canada from July 21 to 26.  This, the 11th Qualitative Thinking Workshop series was presented by the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology. The workshop created the opportunity to work with experts in the field of qualitative research.  The academic program consisted out of five days of interactive workshops with topics such as qualitative interviews, participatory research, arts-based methods, grounded theory, multi-method procedures and meta-analysis exists.

Me Dikiledi Mamiala gave a presentation at the 2011 SAASTA (South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement) National Conference in Mafikeng.  The title of her presentation was, “Manifestation of mathematics concepts in science-integrated approach.”

Dr. John van der Merwe delivered a paper titled, “Leading with a Culture of Integrity – HR’s role in rebuilding and improving the integrity of organisation” during the “SABPP : HR Governance and Business Ethics Seminar Morning” in Bakubung.  He was also elected to the SABPP ethics committee.

Me Catrien Mulder, delivered a paper during the fifth SASRIM (South African Society for Research in Music) conference, from 23 to 25 June, in Grahamstown.  The conference took place at the department of music and musicology from Rhodes University. The theme of her paper was “A reassessment of the debate about Johannes Brahms as a progressive composer“.

Environmental Education

The Department of Geography Education held a successful Environmental Education Workshop during the previous recess for the Department of Environmental Affairs at the Hotel Elgro in Potchefstroom.  The event, which stretched over three days, was attended by 42 teachers from all provinces.

Photo from left to right: Ms Jennifer Sithole (Department of Environmental Affairs), Ms Brenda Malan (Geography Education), Ms Luiza de Sousa (Geography Education), Dr Schalk Raath (Coordinator, Geography Education), Prof. Barry Richter (Director - School of Curriculum-based Studies) and Mr. Schadrack Moreni (Department of Environmental Affairs).

Minister launches NEEDU

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has hailed the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU) as a critical milestone in the journey towards quality education in South Africa as she launched the initiative in Friday the 1st of April.

NEEDU will be tasked with providing the Minister with an independent account of the state of schools and the development needs of the school education system through a monitoring and evaluation system.

The unit will also be responsible for identifying the factors that inhibit or advance school improvement; make recommendations for redressing the problem areas that undermine school improvement and to propose appropriate solutions to ensure that schools offer effective education for all learners.

Motshekga highlighted the fact that NEEDU will have the authority to conduct monitoring and evaluation of “schools, districts, provinces and the national department”.

“The entire system has to be monitored and evaluated in terms of how it is able or unable to support schools, learners, teachers, school managers, workers and parents,” Motshekga said.

“However, we emphasise schools because it is schools that are at the heart of our delivery. It is in schools where our main purpose for existence is. They are the most important unit in our work and the success of our sector should be judged by their performance and all our activities should be targeted at supporting schools and making them work.”

This view was echoed by Professor John Volmink, CEO of NEEDU. Volmink told the audience that schools are the central building blocks of the education system and that means meaningful change could only come from within schools.

“No matter how we define quality education, it’s the responsibility of every South African to help us achieve this. It’s not just teachers in schools, but district officials, circuit officials and department officials. They all have a key role to realise quality education,” said Volmink.

Volmink added that in the long run he would like to see NEEDU’s role reduced to the point where all the unit had to do was audit the education system’s self-evaluation processes.

“I envisage that NEEDU’s role in evaluation of the school system will decrease over time, as the self evaluation starts taking over,” he explained.

Volmink said that the ideal situation would be for the Whole School Evaluation and the Quality, Learning and Teaching Campaign to fall in line with the work of NEEDU.

While most respondents were in agreement for the need of a credible and thorough evaluation system, some, particularly the teachers’ unions, raised concerns about the exact nature of NEEDU.

Representatives from the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa and the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union suggested that if the evaluation looked at just the school system without consideration to the context of South African education, it could lead to future problems.

Article can be found at the Department of Basic Education webpage.

New education plan to ensure quality teachers

Basic Education and Training Minister Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday the country’s education system and its pupils deserve quality teachers who can tackle the challenges of the 21st century,

“We need to proceed with speed in this critical area of giving the system and our children quality teachers,” Motshekga said at the launch of a new planning framework for teacher education and development in the next 15 years.

The strategic planning framework, which places teachers at the centre of education and development activities, was welcomed by, among others, the South African National Teachers’ Union and the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa.

However, they called for the re-opening of teacher colleges.

Further Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said this was addressed in the framework through the expansion of education sites and a new university in Mpumalanga which would incorporate the former Ndebele College.

The framework follows the launch of the education sector’s “Action Plan 2014: Towards the realisation of schooling 2025″.

It provides direction on goals and expected outcomes around teacher development.

Motshekga said the document would help the department and stakeholders, including unions, make teacher development more coherent, better coordinated and collaborative.

Planning framework
“The challenge should not be underestimated. We must ensure that the collaboration that characterised the development of the planning framework continues in its implementation,” said Nzimande.

“Fingers cannot be pointed if we fail to implement [it] successfully, as [this] relies on the extent to which we all contribute — not least teachers themselves,” he said.

The higher education system intends producing 12 000 new teachers a year by 2014, failing which it will be answerable to President Jacob Zuma.

Nzimande said it was on track with 5 942 teacher graduations in 2008 increasing by 1 000 in 2009.

“We are certain that these gains will be sustained once the audited 2010 figures become available,” he said.

The development of higher education lecturers was also taking place.

In basic education and training, there had been a 40% increase in the recruitment of teachers.

This was partly due to the provision of funding through the Funza Lushaka bursary programme, which had produced 6 000 teachers in four years.

“We are working on diversifying our recruitment drive to ensure that even the most remote areas are targeted,” said Motshekga.

She urged teachers, as “knowledge workers”, to have at least a personal computer at home and for principals to have an e-mail address.

“You’ve got to be connected: your learners are. You are trailing behind and need to catch up with your learners,” she said. — Sapa

Matric Results 2010

On the 6th of January 2001, the Basic Education Ministry announced that 67,8% of matrics passed last year’s exams, up from 60,7% in 2009.  Chief director of exams, Nkosinathi Sishi said of the 537 543 learners that wrote all seven subjects, 364 513 pupils passed their exams.  23,5% Pupils obtained university entrance.

President Jacob Zuma, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the education unions were pleased with the exceptional pass rate.  Soon, however education experts questioned whether such an improvement is plausible and reliable.  Questions also remain about the performance of children in rural and township schools, in particular whether these learners recorded similar improvements.  This also have to be compared to the matriculants who wrote their 2010 final exams under the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) achieving an overall 98,38% pass rate, up by 1% from 2009.  According to researcher Marius Roodt, parents are losing faith in the public school system and attributed this to the growth at private schools.

Provincial results:

• Gauteng: 78.6% (71.8% in 2009)
• Western Cape: 76.8% (75.7% in 2009)
• North West: 75.7% (67.5% in 2009)
• Northern Cape: 72.3% (61% in 2009)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 70.7% (61.1% in 2009)
• Free State: 70.7% (69.4% in 2009)
• Eastern Cape: 58.3% (51% in 2009)
• Limpopo: 57.9% (48.9% in 2009)
• Mpumalanga: 56.8% (47.9% in 2009)

You can read about the results and debates in the following articles:

South Africa Department of Education results report.

Matric pass welcomed and questioned by David MacFarlane and Kamogelo Seekoei.

Zuma, unions laud matric results.

Private school enrolments increase, survey shows.

Model C pupils doing better by Deon de Lange.

IEB matric results improve by 1% in 2010 by Sameerah Karolia.

Matric maths, science candidates fall by Samantha Enslin-Payne.

Behind the first-year flood by Ryan Hoffman.