THE Department of Science and Technology Education within the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), has introduced a virtual and augmented reality (AR) research hub to accelerate innovation in the education field.

The new VARSTEME hub seeks to play a key role in educating the next generation of researchers and practitioners, by creating one of Africa’s primary academic centres dedicated to virtual reality (VR) and AR in science, technology, engineering and mathematic (STEM) learning, according to UJ.

Located at Auckland Park Kingsway campus in Johannesburg, the hub will support research and education initiatives with a potential to deliver game-changing breakthroughs in the STEM field, says UJ.

It will bring together an interdisciplinary team of UJ faculty, graduate students and postgraduates taking up studies in VR and AR.

“We have great expectations for the hub and believe this can be a significant feature of the faculty and the university for research and teacher education,” says UJ professor Umesh Ramnarain, HOD of science and technology education.

“In December 2020, UJ was invited to do a presentation on the activities of the VARSTEME hub at the fifth Europe-Asia Symposium on Simulation & Serious Games for Education. It was the first invited presentation from an African country.”

The hub will be officially launched this week during a virtual opening ceremony.

The recognition of technology-enabled learning that has been forced due to the pandemic is opening doors to learning opportunities that are unprecedented in human history, and the development of VAR technologies is a marker for the future of basic and higher education delivery in the country, notes UJ.

In SA and other emerging markets, AR and VR applications remain niche tools for scientific research. The goal of the VARSTEME hub is to equip pre-service and in-service teachers with knowledge and skills in the use of advanced learning technologies, it adds.

Associated to this goal, is the research agenda to pursue studies on the efficacy and pedagogy of the two technologies.

“UJ’s VARSTEME hub is well-placed to assume a key leadership role in exploiting the affordances of VR and AR, not only in South Africa but on the African continent as a whole,” says professor Yiyu Cai, professor from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, programme director of the Strategic Research Programme of VR and Soft Computing, and professor in charge of the Computer-aided Engineering Labs at NTU.

“Through VARSTEME, international collaboration can be developed for next-generation education research.”

The UJ VARSTEME hub builds on the Virtual Campus Tour, which uses VR with AR to help people navigate the campus maps online. UJ also has the Virtual Graduation ceremony and online systems for graduates, which include digital certificates, electronic academic records and the graduation selfie picture feature.

ITWEB

ERIK van Rooyen won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, finishing with 50 points under the modified Stableford scoring system.

“Obviously, this was, in my mind, kind of the next step for what I wanted to achieve,” van Rooyen said. “I’ve got big dreams and aspirations, and winning on the PGA Tour was certainly part of that. I’m really, really happy.”

The 31-year-old former University of Minnesota player from South Africa eagled the par-4 No. 8 and closed with a birdie on the par-4 No. 18 — after a good bounce off a tree — for a five-point victory over Andrew Putnam at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course.

Players receive eight points for an albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par. A point is subtracted for a bogey, and three points are taken away for a double bogey or worse.

Van Rooyen had a 16-point final round, making the eagle, six birdies and a bogey.

“I just stayed so patient,” van Rooyen said. “I saw that Andrew Putnam got off to a really, really quick start. He was 45 points pretty early on. And there’s really nothing I could do about that. I’ve got to put one foot in front of the next. And I did that. And then the eagle on eight was just a massive boost.”

Van Rooyen jumped from 139th to 78th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 after the Wyndham Championship next week earning spots in the playoff opener at Liberty National.

He earned a spot in the 2022 PGA Championship but not the Masters because the event is being played opposite a World Golf Championship — the FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, Tenn.

“It’s massive. It’s massive,” van Rooyen said. “It’s been a difficult sort of 18 months for me golf-wise. I haven’t been playing well. There’s been glimpses of it the last six months. But I haven’t been able to put four good rounds together. So I was well aware of the position I was in going into the playoffs, knowing that I’ve only got eight rounds left to make that cut.

“And to win here this week, I mean, under the conditions, you know, the pressure that I was under, I’m going to take so much confidence from this.”

Putnam scored 11 points on the first four holes with an eagle on the par-5 No. 2 and three birdies, then had two birdies and a bogey on the final 14 holes. He won the 2018 event for his lone PGA Tour title.

“It was a dream start — birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie — and then just kind of hit the brakes and stalled out a bit,” Putnam said. “And just didn’t get it to happen those last few holes.”

Scott Piercy was third with 44 points after an 11-point day. Third-round leader Adam Schenk had a five-point round to finish with 43.

“It was unfortunate I didn’t have my best stuff today,” Schenk said. “I didn’t play good enough to win. He made a lot of putts, didn’t really make many mistakes. And he just deserved it more than I did, for sure.”

Putnam went from 104th to 75th in the FedEx Cup standings, and Piercy 144th to 126th, and Schenk 113 to 95th.

Clarkston’s Joel Dahmen, who held the lead after the first round, continued his downward trajectory from Thursday but still finished with his third top-10 of the season, a tie for seventhplace.

Competing in his 25th event of the PGA Tour season, the former University of Washington golfer tallied five points to finish with 38 for the tournament. He tied with Gary Woodland.

Dahmen, who won his first career PGA Tour event — the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship — on March 28 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, finished with four birdies and three bogeys in his round that would have been a 70 under normal tournament conditions.

The former two-time Washington state high school champion began his day with three bogeys in the first five holes, with a 6 on the par-5, 631-yard No. 2 and 5s on the par-4, 383-yard No. 4 and the par-4, 484-yard No. 5.

However, Dahmen finished strong with all four of his birdies coming in the final 11 holes. The stretch started at the par-4, 357-yard No. 8 and he closed the outward nine with one at the par-4, 452-yard No. 9. Dahmen then had birdies at the par-5, 551-yard No. 12 before finishing with one at the par-4, 396-yard No. 16.

For his efforts, Dahmen earned $113,750 and currently has made $1,403,422 this season.

Dahmen next will compete in the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. starting Thursday.

Lewis Tribune

IN many countries where many languages are spoken, English is often the language of teaching and learning in schools. Learners get their knowledge of school subjects through the use of English – be it reading and writing or speaking and listening.

Learners who are comfortable using specific English language structures, phrases and terms as they are used in each school subject have greater academic success. Some school systems therefore aim to teach language and subject content at the same time.

Organising the curriculum this way is known as Language Across the Curriculum. In South Africa – a country with 11 official languages – it’s referred to as English Across the Curriculum.

This is because English is the language of learning and teaching from grade 4, where pupils tend to be 10 years old.

The English Across the Curriculum strategy is to develop English language skills across all high school subjects, not just by studying English itself. It pays attention to how English is used for developing knowledge in other subjects such as Life Sciences, Mathematics or Geography.

Realising the importance of this approach, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education published a Manual for Teaching English Across the Curriculum in 2014. The manual provided high school teachers with subject-specific activities and lesson preparation demonstrations so they could follow the language strategy.

But in 2017, the department reported that high school teachers weren’t using this approach as was expected of them. This meant some high school learners would find it difficult to acquire subject knowledge. Subject concepts and skills can’t be understood outside the language they occur.

We decided to explore whether this problem arose from the training that teachers were getting. Our study explored how student teachers in different universities were prepared for integrating language and subject learning.

Student teachers in our study sample acknowledged the importance of developing English language in subject learning. But most of them indicated that their preparation to use the English Across the Curriculum strategy was largely incidental. Their curriculum didn’t ensure it.

Secondly, they rarely saw their own lecturers modelling the strategy.

We held several focus group discussions with 102 final year Bachelor of Education students from three universities in South Africa.

The Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation also supports the English Across the Curriculum strategy. It states that teachers who successfully complete an initial professional qualification should be proficient in at least one official South African language as a language of learning and teaching.

We found that at University A, there were no specific English Across the Curriculum courses or activities. A course that the student teachers mentioned as coming close was academic literacy. But this was a generic course that all first-year students took to develop academic language skills. It had little to do with English Across the Curriculum.

At University B there was a well-defined curriculum for the study of English Across the Curriculum. It allowed the students to choose between two languages of instruction, namely, Afrikaans and English.

Student teachers who selected English as the medium for teaching enrolled for a number of courses in their four years of study which modelled how to infuse language and subject learning.

The student teachers seemed confident that they would be able to do this in their future classroom. But they worried that during their teaching practice, they didn’t observe the mentor teachers using the strategy.

At University C student teachers were prepared as English Across the Curriculum practitioners using one course in their fourth year.

The aim of this course was to guide student teachers on how learners acquired language skills that would develop their thought processes in subject specific content. This course focused on how student teachers could use listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in subject learning.

Overall, we found that the student teachers weren’t confident that they could create the conditions for subject learning using English as a language of instruction. They didn’t have a thorough understanding of integrating English language skills and subject learning.

Some universities, like University B, are making efforts to prepare student teachers to follow the strategy. In others, like A and C, this preparation is largely fragmented, unintentional and left to chance. It shows a mismatch between policy and practice.

There’s no perfect teaching approach guaranteed to prepare student teachers to practise English Across the Curriculum. But there are a number of opportunities that universities can use.

Based on our research, we propose a specialised language knowledge for content teaching approach. This is different from the current strategy in teacher education, where English language is used for academic activities but not meant to enhance subject-specific proficiency.

In the approach we recommend, lecturers in different disciplines across the teacher education curriculum use language to represent content knowledge in an accessible way. This goes beyond linguistic forms such as vocabulary and grammar. It looks at how language is used for communication in a specific subject.

Learning activities such as lectures, microteaching, lesson planning, portfolio development, reflection exercises and teaching practice should all be used to develop student teachers’ specialised language knowledge for content teaching.

Our study initiates an important discussion that various universities through their faculties of education can have. But planning for the simultaneous development of student teachers’ subject and language knowledge isn’t easy.

It requires a review of the teacher education curriculum, reworking the knowledge base for student teachers and providing professional development for lecturers who teach student teachers.

With creative thinking, universities and government departments can find practical solutions that should enhance the academic success of school children through quality language and subject learning.

The Conversation

THE judgment in the matter between Section 27 and the Department of Basic Education has been reserved.

The date of the judgment is expected to be announced by Judge Gerrit Mueller soon.

SECTION27 is asking the court to rule that the DBE’s and the Limpopo Department of Education’s “plan” to abolish pit toilets is unconstitutional.

Section 27 challenged the Limpopo Department of Education at the Polokwane High Court on Friday over its plan to completely eradicate pit toilets.

The civil society group says that the department has underspent on infrastructure at schools.

The state argued that it could only achieve the eradication of pit toilets at schools by March 2031.

“The judge’s office will be in touch with us to let us know when they will deliver judgement. We will certainly follow up because this case has been pending for seven years and we would like to see a final conclusion,” said Section 27.

“We have done research into the annual report of the DBE themselves, and they have said that they are underspending on their infrastructure budget.”

The case was prompted by the death of five-year-old Michael Komape who died after falling into a pit latrine at school in 2014 in Limpopo.

His father, James Komape believes they have presented a compelling case against the state.

“Today’s case went well. I am confident that Judge Mueller will rule in our favour and infrastructure will be taken to schools. There is still a lot of schools in areas like Ga-Mashashane and in Moletji that still have pit toilets,” said James Komape on Friday.

Section 27 has also asked the court to appoint an independent sanitation task team to look into the matter.

In 2018 the court ordered that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) must file plans to eradicate pit toilets and provide the court with an updated audit of sanitation needs at schools in the province.

Thousands of children in South Africa attend schools with filthy, dangerous toilets.

A reliable report in January said 37 Eastern Cape schools had no toilets at all, 1945 had plain pit latrines and 2585 had ventilated pit latrines.

Inside Education

Cabinet has approved the release of the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee into the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The committee was appointed in May 2020 to look into the business processes, systems and capacity of the NSFAS to deliver on its mandate, acting Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said on Thursday.

“The investigation focused on the root causes of the problems experienced by NSFAS and the implementation of the new bursary scheme since 2018. The enquiry provided valuable recommendations towards improving the operations of NSFAS.

“Cabinet appreciated that some of these recommendations have already been implemented,” she said at a media briefing.

The report can be accessed through the Department of Higher Education and Training website on www.dhet.gov.za. 

National Infrastructure Plan 2050 

Meanwhile, Cabinet also approved the publication of the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) 2050 for public comment.

The plan details the country’s infrastructure investment drive, which also integrates African economies through some of its regional projects.

In addition to driving economic growth, Ntshavheni said the NIP would also address the legacy of apartheid spatial injustices.

“It is anchored on the participation of government, business, State-owned entities and civil society.

“Its priority sectors include energy, freight transport, water and digital communication.

“The NIP 2050 will soon be gazetted for public consultation,” the Minister said.

Consolidating support for business 

Ntshavheni said Cabinet also approved the incorporation of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) and Cooperative Banks Development Agency (CBDA) into the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA).

The merger of these entities will enable an integrated government support to small, micro and medium enterprises, as well as cooperatives with effect from 1 April 2022.

“A proposed single agency will provide both financial and non-financial support to these businesses. By pooling all the resources together, the agency will be more impactful and accessible in all the districts and metros,” Ntshavheni said.

The approved incorporation will result in the reclassification of SEDA (which will be renamed later) in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999) from a Schedule 3A to a Schedule 2 entity.

Cabinet approved the extension of the Board of SEFA to 31 March 2022 to enable the alignment to the commencement of the transitional arrangement. – SAnews.gov.za

SECTION 27 and Equal Education says the Department of Basic Education has not presented a coherent plan before the court for the eradication of pit toilets and inadequate sanitation in Limpopo and other rural provinces.

This is contained in the organisations’ heads of arguments presented before the high court in Limpopo on Friday.

“Instead of providing a sanitation plan to the Court, the defendants have described several infrastructure programmes, with no indication as to how these programmes relate to one another, how these programmes will advance the right of learners to safe and adequate sanitation and how compliance with these plans may be monitored,” the organisations said in court papers.

“The undisputed evidence before this Court is that there have been at least three other learners nationally who have lost their lives as a direct consequence of the dilapidated toilets at their schools.

Another child has been severely injured and traumatised after a similar fall into a pit toilet. The plaintiffs rely on this evidence
to illustrate that the tragedy that befell Michael Komape and his family, as well as these four other learners and their families, may well recur in the near future. The defendants have simply ignored these concerns.”

Section 27 and EE are petitioning for the Limpopo Department of Education to draft a new plan to fix school toilets, one that is “reasonable” and meets the requirements of the structural order.

The plan should also outline how the department will address the urgent school sanitation problems in the province.

They are also asking the court appoint a special master – an independent person who is normally appointed by a judge to assist the court in making sure the court order is implemented.

“In this case, we want a Special Master to oversee the implementation of the new plan that we want the DBE and the LDoE to produce. A Special Master enhances the court’s supervision by bringing additional resources and specialised skills to the case,” the organisations said.

“We are proposing that the court consider appointing a Special Master – an independent person who is appointed by and reports to the court, who is normally appointed by a judge to assist the court by making sure that what the court orders is actually implemented.”

“We want a Special Master to oversee the implementation of the new plan that we want the DBE and the LDoE to produce. A Special Master enhances the court’s supervision by bringing additional resources and specialised skills to the case.”

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says she is confident that her department will eradicate the remaining 3 898 pit latrines in the country’s schools “within the next four years”.

She said together with Provincial Education Departments, DBE has made great strides in efforts to replace pit latrines with appropriate sanitation
facilities for schools in the country through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative launched in August 2018 to accelerate the provision of sanitation facilities in the identified schools.

“I would like to thank all of those businesses and individuals who have agreed to partner with the Department of Basic Education to eradicate pit latrines in our schools and restore the dignity of our children, the support has been truly incredible,” said Motshekga

Mathanzima Mweli, the Director-General of the Department of Basic Education, has visited more than 500 construction sites since March 2021 to accelerate the delivery of the much-needed infrastructure.

Mweli was in Limpopo last week where he has visited sites in the Vhembe and Sekhukhune areas.

The monitoring function has assisted the Department to unblock challenges and resolve issues that delayed the building process.

“The SAFE Initiative is a flagship programme and I have resolved that I will carry out the monitoring function until the last school has a proper toilet. The monitoring has pushed our performance up and we are sure to hit our target even before the end of the current financial year,” he said.

 
The Director-General holds weekly update meetings with the chief executive officers of the implementing agents.

The department reports regularly to the Presidency on the work done to replace pit toilets with proper facilities and will continue to do so until the pit latrines have been eradicated in all the schools.

“We have improved the standard of reporting and the progress is satisfactory. Under-performing implementing agents have been warned that there will be consequences for poor delivery,” said Mweli.

– Inside Education

THE Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has condemned the damage and vandalism caused to schools in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) during the recent pro-Zuma violent protests.

 “It is shocking that the cost of damages and vandalism to schools is estimated at over R141 million. This is money that was not budgeted for. Money that government does not have and money that could have been spent on other much-needed projects,” said
committee chairperson, Ms Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba.
 
“As public representatives we need to have serious discussions in our constituencies that members of the public cannot be targeting much-needed infrastructure, especially schools, when they vent their frustrations for whatever reason. We cannot be comfortable with the current situation. Schools always end up being soft targets during protests and it is the poorest of the poor learners that suffer.”
 
On Tuesday, the committee received updates from the national Department of Basic Education (DBE), the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department and the Gauteng Education Department on the damages during the unrest, as well as the readiness to reopen schools for the third term on Monday.
 
DBE told the meeting that protests and looting affecting 137 schools and offices in KwaZulu-Natal – one school in Pinetown burnt to the ground.

Gauteng Province has four schools affected but fortunately there were no major structural damages. According to the department, it was still in the process of repairing more than 1 700 schools damaged during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020.
 
The committee heard that some of the damages during the latest protests include electric wiring, admin blocks, doors, roofs, ceilings, ablution facilities and sanitary fittings.

Looting also occurred during the protests and stolen property include electrical equipment, including laptops, computers, projectors, LTSM screeners, sound systems, routers, furniture (mostly tables), wires, transformer tables, lights and garden equipment.

Kitchen resources and equipment like stoves, fridges, microwaves, eating utensils, school nutrition programme equipment and food items and Covid-19 essentials like sanitisers, soap, and masks were also stolen.
 
The committee expressed its concern that food and equipment were also looted that are used to feed learners as part of the National School Nutrient Programme.

“The programme serves to cater for the most vulnerable learners in our schools. For many of them, this is the only meals they received. How can responsible communities take the food out of the mouths of the very vulnerable young ones that we are trying to make a difference to,” asked Mbinqo-Gigaba.
 
The DBE assured the committee that many of the items have either been replaced or are in the process of being replaced.

The committee resolved to undertake an urgent oversight visit to both provinces in order to establish first-hand the damages to school property.
 

Inside Education

GAUTENG Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi on Sunday announced the launch of online applications for grades 1 and 8 for the 2022 academic year.

The online application process has not been without its challenges, with the department having to attend to numerous technical glitches since its introduction in 2015.

However, Lesufi said this year, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has introduced new changes aimed at making the process easier and more manageable for parents, guardians, and public schools in Gauteng.  

“The applications for Grade 1 and 8 will take place in two phases. The first phase is for Grade 7 learners currently in public primary schools applying for Grade 8 and the second phase for Grade 1 and 8 learners not in Grade 7 in public schools,” said Lesufi.

The department further said the first phase will open on 10 August 2021 at 08h00 and close on 3 September 2021 at 00h00.

The second phase will commence on 13 September at 08h00 and close on 8 October at 00h00.

The placement of phase 1 will happen between 15 October and 30 November while phase 2 will be between November 15 and November 30.

“To ensure access to applicants who are unable to apply from the comfort of their homes and or offices, the department has identified 47 decentralised walk-in centres in different areas where applicants will be safely assisted. In addition, some District Offices and the Head Office will serve as walk-in centres,” the department said in a statement.

Lesufi added that this information will be made available to the public via the GDE Website and social media platforms.

“When a parent or guardian applies to a school for their child, it is critical to remember that the following criteria is considered in order of priority of the following: home address within the school’s feeder zone, sibling and or previous schools, work address within school’s feeder zone and home address which is within 30km radius,” said Lesufi.

“Parents will receive SMSes notifying them about the outcome of their application between 15 October and 30 November 2021. The parent must accept an offer to confirm placement.”

 The following guidelines are important:
· Before parents or guardians apply, they must provide accurate
parent and learner details to schools where their children are
currently in Grade 7;
· From Monday, 2 August 2021 – 6 August 2021, primary schools
will verify and update parents or guardians’ details including the
cell-phone number, Identity Document number and home
address;
· It is important that parents provide ONE reliable c ell-phone
number so that they can receive important SMS notifications
regarding the application process. This process is very important
because from 10 August 2021, an SMS notification with a LINK
will be sent to parents to complete the 5 Step Application Process;
· The parent/guardian will be required to verify the cell-phone
number on the system before starting the 5-step application
process which consist of verification of parent or guardian details,
home address details; learner details, application to a maximum
of five schools and uploading documents to system or submitting
documents at schools;
· In Phase two, parents and guardians will also complete the 5 Step
Application Process without prior verification of details. Parents
will also need to upload or submit certified copies of supporting
documents to schools they applied to within 7 days;
· The documents required for grade 1 and 8 applications are:
Parent and Child ID or Passport; Refugee Permit; Asylum Seeker
Permit; Permanent Residence Permit; Study Permit; South
African Birth Certificate; Proof of Home Address; Proof of W ork
Address; Latest School Report and Clinic Card/Vaccination
Report (Grade 1 only);
· If a parent uses a cell-phone number that differs from the one
provided to the school the system will prompt the parent to contact
the school to correct the number;
· Every step of the application process will be confirmed via SMS
for security and verification purposes;
· Parents who apply to Schools of Specialisation must ensure that
they contact the school to arrange for the auditions or admission
tests.

Inside Education

SADTU says the Department of Basic Education has failed to address several problems and challenges affecting education in South Africa before the reopening of primary schools on Monday.

These included overcrowding, lack of protective personal equipment (PPE), shortage of masks, mobile classes and the lack of water supply and sanitation.  

The union’s secretary general Mugwena Maluleke said that the majority of schools were still without water supply on Monday in several rural provinces, another obstacle to readiness of schools.  

“The majority of schools were unable to comply with Covid-19 regulations, including social distancing. The reopening of schools did not go as planned. We made submissions to the DBE to first allow some provinces to deal with the 1 metre social distancing before reopening. They didn’t agree,” said Maluleke.

“We are very depressed by the situation. We saw shocking things in Gauteng and Mpumalanga where learners had to be sent back because the schools couldn’t comply with COVID regulations. There is also lack of masks at some schools and lack of water supply in the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape. We are extremely disappointed.”

The teachers’ union said that it was ‘extremely’ disappointed that the DBE went ahead to reopen while the majority of schools did not receive PPEs.

“In fact, the Department has not delivered even a single PPE to schools,” said Sadtu. 

The union also said the reopening for the third term took place with teachers, learners and parents having had a lot of uncertainties informed by the incidences of the past two weeks in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which could not leave out schools. 

About 137 schools were reported as having been vandalised, some had break-ins while others suffered arson damages in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Close to 60 schools in Gauteng are not ready to welcome the full capacity return of primary school pupils today because they lack water supply, have insufficient space for social distancing and are plagued by electricity outages. 

The most hardest-hit areas include Orange Farm and Lawley in the south and Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg where erratic water supply is an ever-present challenge.

SADTU in KwaZulu-Natal said many schools were not ready for all learners because the Department of Basic Education did not provide more space to accommodate learners.

“This call is informed by the fact that learners are still required to practice social distancing of 1-1.5m at all times in and out of the classroom,” said SADTU KZN.

“The call from members in schools is that for this to happen the Department must provide mobile classes otherwise majority of schools will not be ready. Zululand, Umkhanyakude and King Cetshwayo districts have majority of schools without water supply – another obstacle to readiness of schools.”

SADTU KZN said it was also concerned that the replacement of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) equipment stolen from schools during the recent break-ins has not been addresses.

This has resulted in learners in these affected schools not getting the meal they usually get from school.

“Failure to feed learners in schools compromises their concentration in class and may lead to poor performance by learners,” said SADTU KZN.

“It is therefore important for the Department to address these issues.”

Kwazulu-Natal Sadtu secretary, Nomarashiya Caluza, said that their situational analysis suggested there was no capacity at most schools in the province to ensure the safe return of all primary school pupils amid COVID-19.

“With the information we have, unless the department does some things differently and drastically, the majority of primary schools are not ready to welcome back all learners,” she said.

Meanwhile, DBE announced on Monday that Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga was expected to visit Monde primary school in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday to monitor the return of all primary school learners, from Grade R-7, at full capacity.

This will be done in terms of the risk adjusted differentiated strategy, said DBE.

“The return of primary school learners will enable both teachers and learners to recover learning and teaching time that was lost due to the recently extended school break,” the department said in a statement.

“The return of learners at primary school level comes on the back of a successful vaccination programme for the basic education sector with more than 517,000 personnel having received their vaccines.”

Inside Education

NICOLA DEGHAYE

IN many countries, including South Africa, there is stark economic inequality between adults with disabilities and those without. One key to reducing these disparities is improving access to education for children with disabilities or difficulties.

South Africa developed a White Paper on Inclusive Education in 2001, recognising disability as a factor that hinders learning and participation in schools.

This policy emphasises that learners with disabilities or difficulties should be provided with the support they need, in their local school, wherever possible.

This is in stark contrast to the situation before 2001 where additional support was only available in a vastly inadequate number of special schools. Inclusive education focuses on removing barriers to participation for children. It does this by addressing physical environments, teaching practices and attitudes of teachers or peers, among other strategies.

Despite the publication of the 2001 White Paper and other inclusive education policies, implementation has been slow. By 2017, disability was still the main reason children aged between 7 and 15 were not attending school.

Until recently, the readiness of local schools to provide additional support to learners with disabilities or learning difficulties was seldom assessed in large-scale school surveys. This has hindered accountability.

The Department of Basic Education began to remedy this situation by expanding the 2017 School Monitoring Survey, a nationally representative survey of 2,000 schools. It monitors many aspects of school functioning. The expansion allowed it to take a closer look at implementation of inclusive education.

I used data from this survey to assess the availability of disability support structures, physical accessibility of schools and the adequacy of teacher training for disability inclusion in mainstream schools in South Africa.

I assessed the variation in these factors between schools in wealthier and poorer areas and from different provinces.

My study found that teachers are inadequately trained to adapt curricula and teaching methods to include learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. Ordinary schools receive little external support from districts and specialists such as psychologists, social workers and therapists. There’s still a long way to go to achieve the policy ideals set out in the 2001 White Paper. The policy is currently undergoing a long overdue review.

Can mainstream schools give extra support?

From 2001 onwards, school and district-based support teams, resource centres and outreach teams were meant to be introduced to support inclusive education in practice. Districts are meant to provide training and curriculum support to school-based teams. They’re also supposed to assist schools to identify, assess and address barriers to learning. My study found that two-thirds of schools had established school-based support teams by 2017 (up from 54% in 2011) and 65% of these school-based support teams were supported by the district in 2017.

The number of South African schools with wheelchair accessible toilets almost doubled from 2011 to 2017. But more than 50% of schools report being unable to screen learners for visual, hearing or learning difficulties. This implies that many students who may have these difficulties are unlikely to be identified and aren’t receiving the support they need to participate fully in schooling.

Inadequate teacher training

I found that while 74% of teachers in the sample had some training in identifying learning barriers or supporting learners with learning difficulties, only 57% had covered the critical topic of curriculum differentiation. Only 43% had been trained on setting assessments that accommodate learning barriers.

Teachers generally showed poor understanding of the screening process. These results show that additional teacher training is needed to deliver inclusive education effectively.

My study also found vast inter-provincial inequalities in disability support and teacher training.

Schools in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Limpopo were the least likely to have at least one suitably trained teacher. Gauteng, the Free State and the Western Cape had high levels of training coverage.

On a positive note, teachers in schools in poorer areas were just as likely as those in wealthier areas to have received some training.

Importantly, I found that teachers who have been trained in inclusive education were much more likely to be confident in addressing learning barriers.

Increased depth of teacher training, the creation of school-based support teams in every school and greater levels of district support in lagging provinces will help increase teacher confidence in those provinces.

It’s especially important that specialist support to schools is made available in every district. Effective, realistic strategies to deliver such support must be included in the updated White Paper.

If not, a disabled child’s access to effective education will continue to be a lottery determined by the province in which they happen to live.

(Nicola Deghaye, PhD candidate in Economics, Stellenbosch University)

The Conversation