BASIC Education minister Angie Motshekga says her department is developing a new plan to promote the nine previously marginalised languages at schools in South Africa – other than English and Afrikaans.

Responding in a recent written parliamentary Q&A, Motshekga said the plan will see these languages used as ‘languages of learning and teaching’ from Grade 3 and beyond. Languages which will be featured in the programme include:

IsiZulu;IsiXhosa;IsiNdebele;Siswati;Sesotho;Setswana;Sepedi;Tshivenda;Xitsonga.

Research worldwide shows that learners learn best through their home languages, Motshekga said.

“The Department of Basic Education, through the Eastern Cape Education’s own initiative, piloted the Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education wherein IsiXhosa and Sesotho were utilised as languages of learning and teaching for mathematics and science and technology beyond Grade 3,” she said.

“The learnings from the Eastern Cape Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education pilot taught us to be very prudent in dealing with a programme of this nature.”

Motshekga added that her department was working with the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation (DHESI) on teacher production to ensure that there are enough teachers to instruct students across these nine languages in key subjects.

The minister has previously acknowledged that there are issues with moving to a purely mother-tongue-based system, noting that it was likely impossible to have a pure class in Sotho or Xhosa in Gauteng the way similar classes have been held in the Eastern Cape.

She added that in classes teachers use multiple different languages to help children learn and get their point across. However, when it comes to assessments – which are typically done in English – they are once again forced to grapple with a language they did not understand while learning.

“They are no longer being tested on their cognitive development or understanding (of the work). You are now testing their language abilities, which is a problem.

“Government has begun the process of changing this and the next step is to assess them in the language they are taught – so that we are able to assess performance and not language proficiency.”

She added that government would have to use technology and other systems to effectively translate complicated scientific and mathematical concepts into languages that do not necessarily have the same terminology.

BUSINESS TECH

PUBLIC Service and Administration Acting Minister, Thulas Nxesi, has called on government departments and public entities to enrol young people in internships as part of the breaking barriers to Entry into the Public Service Programme (BB2E) and the Cadet Programme.

These programmes are aimed at preparing young people for careers in the public sector and for the work environment in general, as the country begins National Youth Month.

The five-day BB2E course and the 18-month Cadet Programme are offered by the National School of Government (NSG) and target unemployed graduates with post-school qualifications, and interns in the public sector and statutory bodies.

The BB2E course introduces young people to government and teaches them how government works and the strategies for delivering quality public services.

It also teaches them how public funds are administered and managed, how to carry out basic administrative and communication functions, the policies and prescripts that guide the appointment of persons into the public service, and how to write CVs and prepare themselves for interviews.

In a statement on Monday, Nxesi said the unemployment rate among youth with post-school qualifications is very high in the country.

“The public service, as the largest employer, has responded to this challenge by enabling unemployed graduates to gain experience through the Public Service Graduate Internship and Learnership Programme.”

“In addition to this, the NSG has introduced the BB2E course and the Cadet Programme. The aim is to prepare the unemployed graduates for employment opportunities in the public sector.”

“This is a very important investment in our youth and promotes their development. As we mark National Youth Month, we invite government departments and public entities to enrol youth in these critical development programmes,” Nxesi said.

The 18-month Cadet Programme is a sister initiative to the successful Breaking Barriers to Entry into the Public Service initiative and seeks to deepen the understanding of the public sector, whilst also covering issues in the broader social entrepreneurial space.

It is made up of four courses/modules, which are: The Constitution and the Administration of the Public Sector, Ethics in the Public Service, Writing for Government and Personal Mastery.

The Minister emphasised that the Personal Mastery component is particularly important because it covers other generic employability skills that are necessary in the workspace in both the public and private sectors.

These include self-management, emotional intelligence, job search skills, problem solving skills, as well as entrepreneurship/creating your own job.

Nxesi said the ultimate goal is to shape the young graduates into “public service cadres of a special kind”.

The attributes of such public service cadres are:

* Breaking new ground: A public servant who will be able to make personal interventions to translate policy into action.
* Inspiring success: A public servant who is self-motivated and ready to motivate others to serve the public.
* Raising the standard: A public servant who is responsive and capable of giving her/his best regardless of whether he/she is in the front office or at management level.
* Nothing is impossible: A public servant who does not use policy or resource constraints as an excuse for not doing work but comes up with turn-around strategies to salvage a failing situation.
* Making a difference to people: A public servant who is always committed, results-oriented and measures the impact of her/his actions against the public’s expectations.
* Collective responsibility and teamwork: A public servant who believes in partnership, considers the opinion of other colleagues, peers and the public, and is able to network with organs of civil society, community development workers and all other stakeholders.
* On board: A public servant who is on board is one who owns the processes of service delivery and understands that blame for the failure of the system should be laid squarely on his/her shoulders.

On 20-24 June 2022, 45 officials from different national and provincial departments will attend a training of trainers (TOT) session to be empowered and developed to train the youth on Personal Mastery.

This follows a successful TOT session that was conducted in November 2021, which was attended by 40 officials.
In March 2022, at total of 288 Young Patriots from the National Youth Development Agency and the Department of Arts, Sports and Culture attended Personal Mastery course.

“The feedback received from learners and officials from both the NYDA and the Department of Arts and Culture was extremely positive. We thus encourage departments and entities across all spheres of government to enrol young graduates (interns) on the Cadet Programme,” Nxesi said.

For enquiries and enrolment, relevant officials in departments should contact The National School of Government call centre on 0861008326, via email on contactcentre@thensg.gov.za or visit the website on www.thensg.gov.za.

SA NEWS

SMILES could not cease from the faces of the graduates of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) Zion University as the Liberian President George Weah announced at the 31st Graduation ceremony that he will pay the graduation fee for all 356 graduates.

Each of the 356 graduates was to pay US$450 and with that, the President will have to pay US$160,200 in fulfillment of his promise.

Weah, after giving the keynote address at AME Zion University 31st Convocation program, a faculty of the institution announced that a significant portion of the graduates was still owing graduation fees.

However, being generous, the President sent a message to the faculty who was giving the announcement that he will pay all 356 graduates’ graduation fees.

Weah, according to record, has been the first President to pay all graduation for under-graduate level. The move by the President comes after he paid for all students from the University of Liberia graduate school.

In March 2022, Weah paid the amount of $55,800 to the University of Liberia authorities through the president of the class to cover all the expenses for 124 students who graduated from various disciplines.

Also, speaking earlier, the Liberian President told graduates to work hard, adding that success will not come to the graduates if they rest on what they have achieved.

According to the President, after adequate preparation, success will only come to those who are dedicated and disciplined enough to do the work.

“I want to encourage you to dream and to dream big dreams. But then, I advise you not to make dreams your master but to wake up from the sleep of dreams and go to work to make it happen. Most dreams will not come true without hard work, struggle, and sacrifice,” the Liberian Leader said.

Weah added: “I want you graduates to know that failure is a crucial part of success. Failure teaches you a lesson that you must be willing to learn, and only when you learn that lesson, will you benefit from your failure.”

According to President Weah, in his own career, there were many failures along the way but he was able to triumph over every problem that came his way.

“In the beginning of my soccer career, for example, I was benched many times before I became a regular member of the starting teams. But I used my time on the bench to study the game and the other players, and learn from their mistakes, so that each time I got the opportunity to play, I tried to make sure that I made a positive.”

Weah added: “And you are all aware that in my political career, I ran for President and was defeated twice, but I did not give up. Each time, I took stock of my journey, and I went back to where I had left my dream, and recalibrated, and continued my journey. Eventually, I applied those lessons to develop a winning formula. And here we are today.”

Also, at the event, Weah was honored for what the university terms as his outstanding contributions, and achievements to humanity and society.

“The Board of Trustees of the AME Zion University by recommendation of the Faculty Senate, and president of the AME Zion University, has herewith approved the conferral on you, George Mannah Weah, the Degree of Doctor of Letters (L.H.D.) honoris causa in international Relations,” the University citation quoted.

It is not the first time President has been honored by the university.

The President received his first-ever honorary doctorate degree, 23 years ago from AME Zion University. The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) was conferred upon him in recognition of his efforts, achievements, and humanitarian gestures as a philanthropist and a world-class athlete.

The AME Zion University commenced in 1993 with the founding of the AME Zion School of Business, attached to the AME Zion Academy.

In 1987, the AME Zion Community College was established, offering Associate Degrees in Criminal justice administration and law enforcement, liberal art, and business, as well as Diploma in Trauma Counseling, and its first convocation in May 1989.

In 1996, by an act of the national legislature, the AME Zion University College was established with the Reverend Frederick Umoja, serving as its first president.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA

WENDY MOTHATA|

THE learner registration and admission process to all North West public schools for the 2023 academic year has opened and will close on September 30 2022.

In a media statement on Sunday, the North West Department of Education said that application forms for admissions are available in all public schools.

Admissions will be on first come-first serve basis, it said.

“As of 01 June 2022, the North West Department of Education has opened learner registration season for its public schools and encourages parents and legal guardians to register children for the 2023 academic year,” said North West education spokesperson, Elias Malindi.

In accordance with Section 5(4)(a) of the South African Schools Act (SASA), the requirements for admissions are as follows:
• Grade R: 4 years turning 5 by 30 June 2023
• Grade 1: 5 years turning 6 by 30 June 2023,
• Other grades: A learner who is still under the age of 15 must be placed on suitable grades and those above 16 years of years be advised to register at an AET centre provided they are already enrolled at ordinary public school in January 2000 (except if it is deemed to be in the best interest of a learner), and
• Learners with special needs should be admitted where it is reasonably practical in ordinary public schools, special schools and full service schools.

North West Education MEC, Mmaphefo Matsemela, has encouraged parents and legal guardians to adhere to the directives for smooth registration.

“We ask all parents and legal guardians to take this four months’ period to register learners for 2023 academic year. Over the years this has helped us with proper planning in terms of school furniture and ordering of textbooks and I thank parents for their cooperation,” Matsemela said.

Matsemela outlined documents that needs to accompany the application.

“We also ask parents to accompany application forms with a certified copy of birth certificate, immunization card, most recent report card, and transfer letter or card from previous school.”

Matsemela added that parents outside South Africa must present asylum seeker permits or certificate granting refugees status.

“To parents from outside South Africa, they must have learner’s study Visa or parents work permit, residence permit (or proof of application for non-citizens), asylum seeker permits or certificate granting refugees status for all non-citizens should be presented,” she said.

While schools are compelled to compile waiting lists, principals and SBGs are advised to encourage parents to submit application forms before the deadline to avoid longer waiting lists and issue written responses of acceptance or non-acceptance to parents by 31 October 2022.

INSIDE EDUCATION

STAFF REPORTER|

THE court case between SECTION27 and the South African Council for Educators (SACE) is back in the Johannesburg high court on Tuesday after two incidents of corporal punishment involving Grade 2 and Grade 5 learners whose assaulters received a light fine and continue to teach.

In December 2020, SECTION27, on behalf of the Centre for Child Law and the parents of two young learners (ages 7 and 10), initiated a case against the SACE for imposing lenient sanctions on two educators who pleaded guilty for assaulting learners in their classroom.

In South Africa, corporal punishment has been banned since 1996.

“We are taking SACE to court and requesting that it reconsiders the decisions it made in respect of the two educators, as well as revise its Mandatory Sanctions on Contraventions of the Code of Professional Ethics, a document used by SACE when sanctioning educators for misbehaviour, in an effort to protect learners from further harm and ensure that the ban on corporal punishment is taken seriously,” said the public interest law centre on Monday.

SACE, the professional body responsible for maintaining and protecting educators’ ethical and professional standards, is opposing the case.

Their code of professional ethics expressly states that educators must refrain from any form of abuse, physical or psychological, and they are mandated to investigate and sanction any educator found guilty of this behaviour.

“Therefore the body is one of the important institutions that can help address and stop the use of corporal punishment in schools,” said SECTION27 in a statement.

“Sadly, they are failing in this role by imposing very lenient sanctions on educators found guilty of corporal punishment, including suspended sentences or mere fines, without addressing teachers’ violent behaviour or equipping them with the tools to implement non-violent discipline strategies.”

SECTION27 said although corporal punishment has been banned from South African schools since 1996, teachers are still tragically using corporal punishment to discipline learners, thereby perpetuating the culture of violence and abuse that already characterises many South African Communities.

Countless reports of learners being hit, thrown with objects, or verbally abused in class indicate that the ban on corporal punishment is not being properly enforced in schools, said SECTION27.

Children’s Institute, represented by Equal Education Law Centre, has been admitted to the case as amicus curiae (friend of the court), and will be making submissions to support our relief.

INSIDE EDUCATION

BLENDED mode of learning’s footprints can be traced back in mid of nineteen century.

It spread its wings in late 20th Century with Learning Management System and interactive learning experience through sound and Video with extensive usage of CD ROM developing it into First Web based Instruction.

Union between face-to- face and technology-based learning gave new impetus to students’ educational experience.

Pandemic propelled Digitization, Technology based learning seeping rapidly in the Education right from Junior KG to Graduation Level studies.

Leap bound technological development in the form of various User friendly easily accessible Video conferencing platforms facilitated blended learning during pandemic and is even facilitating other sectors also.

The concept of borrowing notes got promoted as sharing of pdfs, homework in notebooks rapidly converted into word document assignments.

This complete online mode soon made students as well as teachers miss their classroom environment but made them wish that technology could become a seamless part of their classroom learning.

Blended Learning assists in making this wish of an explorative digital classroom come true.

Blended Learning is the methodology of using digital learning tools along with the traditional face to face classroom teaching.

But then the question arises whether such digitization just of using pdfs instead of books or having files uploaded in LMS instead of workbooks submitted in staffroom, proves to be Blended learning?

Of course not.

Blended Learning has the potential to transform the entire teaching and learning process into a fruitful, engaging, and collaborative learning environment.

It is more about allowing students to control how they learn thus enabling them to gain personalized learning experiences.

The combination of in-person teaching techniques, teacher-led online modules, and self-paced learning forms the core of the Blended Learning strategy.

The teaching units developed under this umbrella focuses on:

* Creating micro lessons for helping students grasp content easily.
* Perform in between checks for understanding and design assessment that will align with the learning goals to be achieved.
* Collaborate with peer students to assimilate different perspectives
* Explore scenarios and connect the student’s understanding with them

Nowadays it is quite feasible to build student centric study materials with the help of modern multimedia tools.

Developing interactive lessons using ICT can really bring in an excitement among students to learn new skills. The teacher is now in the role of Facilitator rather than just a knowledge provider.

Advantages of Blended Learning:

Blended learning helps students to get a customized education as the teachers can assess their performance in multiple ways and can provide e-materials accordingly to help students grasp the subject matter according to their learning style.
Digital technology is helping to create interesting e-lessons involving gamification which explain concepts effectively to different learning styles of learners.
The blended mode of learning offers more time for student-teacher interaction as the online dissemination of study materials saves times of classroom teaching hours. This time can be utilized for student centric in-class activities.

Students learn at their own pace. The slow learners can go through online resources at their own speed for concept understanding which they would have found challenging to do so in regular classrooms.

The advanced learners get a chance to explore a lot more via content rich study materials. Currently it is possible to create a nourishing academic environment with the usage of different types of e-resources.

Collaboration with peers is one of the major differences that is seen during blended learning. When the students are trained to use the online tools effectively, they can communicate and collaborate with each other in a better way, even surpassing the geographical and time constraints.

They get time to interact with teachers and their classmates, thus gathering different perspectives leading towards deeper understanding.

Students discuss their ideas, experiment while working in teams and most importantly, they can do so within their campus or remotely, even with other student communities.

Multi language support with translated versions of e-resources is helping students to learn from teachers across the globe.

Knowledge now flows over the language hurdles and has spread across with help digitization.

Special e-content is developed for hearing and visually impaired learners with the help of which their teachers can make their classroom activities quite engaging.

Teachers have a greater responsibility to blend the online education with experiential and activity-based learning. It must be realized that Blended learning is not just a mix of our teaching and technology.

Merely replacing blackboards with presentations or a classroom lecture with an online video streaming does not become a blended mode of teaching.

The in-person learning, and online factors must work together to design enhanced experiential learning environments.

The digital education initiatives launched by the Indian government are providing online education across the country.

Teachers can take advantage of these initiatives for a blended mode of teaching. Several portal hosts MOOCs which can be accessed by all citizens for quality education.

Various portals provide engaging learning resources in multiple languages. Virtual Labs enables the undergraduate and postgraduate students to remotely access the virtual labs for their practicals.

The Open Educational Resources (OER) materials have opened the doors of learning to everyone willing to educate themselves.

Blended learning aims to develop a student-centered model of education.

With technology progressing rapidly, digitization and blended learning will create a promising definition of education and enrich students’ learning experience.

SUPPLIED| TOI

ALMOST one-third of the National Science and Technology Forum’s (NSTF) top 19 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) matriculants from 2021 were accepted to study at the University of Cape Town.

These first-year students, who are all studying STEM-related courses at various universities, are part of the NSTF’s Brilliants programme, now in its 21st year.

One top male and one top female learner from each of the provinces (three were chosen from Mpumalanga, the result of a tie) was chosen by the NSTF for their 2021/2022 NSTF Brilliants programme.

This supports young South Africans who have the potential to be future STEM leaders and innovators.

Of the 19, six (three females and three males) are at UCT. Half are registered with the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment and half with the Faculty of Health Sciences.

One of the students is from the Eastern Cape, one is from the Free State, two are from Limpopo and two are from Mpumalanga.
Each of the 19 impressed with their marks in mathematics and physical science in the 2021 National Senior Certificate examinations.

Two of the three Mpumalanga candidates scored 100% for physical science and one got 100% for mathematics.

One of the awardees’ rewards is an educational tour sponsored by the Lewis Foundation.

The sponsors of the Brilliants programme are South32 in the Department of Science and Innovation and the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions.

SUPPLIED| UCT

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA|

LATER this week, we will commemorate Youth Day in honour of the bravery and sacrifices of the generation of 1976 in its struggle against an unjust and illegitimate regime.

Today, the youth of South Africa confront new struggles in their quest to lead lives of dignity and in pursuit of a better life. Though we have made substantial progress in broadening opportunities for young people in basic and higher education, millions of young people remain unemployed.

While the latest employment figures give some cause for optimism – some 370,000 jobs were created in the first quarter of this year – we still have a huge mountain to climb in our quest to create more jobs, especially for young people.

According to Stats SA, youth unemployment in South Africa is at 66.5%. No society can expect to grow or thrive when the vast majority of its young people are out of work.

Our foremost priority as government is to achieve higher rates of inclusive growth that generate sustainable jobs at the scale of social need.

The economic reforms we are implementing, alongside measures such as industrial policy to support labour-intensive growth sectors, aim to drive growth and expand private sector employment. However, we cannot simply wait for higher growth to create jobs, especially for young people.

I hold the view that even as millions of people are unemployed, there is no shortage of work to be done to build a better South Africa.

This is the fundamental premise of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which is designed as a once-in-a-generation effort to tackle unemployment at scale.

The employment stimulus is on track to support a million jobs through a wide range of programmes, all of which contribute to improving communities and creating public goods that will last beyond the work itself.

Eighty-four per cent of all participants in these programmes are young people, and 62% are women.

The most recent initiative to be launched through the stimulus is the Social Employment Fund, which will pioneer a new and innovative approach to public employment.

The Social Employment Fund will partner with non-governmental organisations across the country to deliver ‘work for the common good’. This work is in areas like community safety, food kitchens, urban agriculture, early childhood development and the fight against gender-based violence.

The Social Employment Fund will create 50,000 new work opportunities in the first phase before scaling up further in subsequent phases.

The unique feature of social employment is that it recognises that unemployed people in communities are a powerful resource for development, not a ‘problem’ to be solved.

We have many real problems to address – from improving waste collection to creating safe and beautiful public spaces – that require work, and many people who are eager to do it.

Not only does social employment provide an income for participants by supporting locally-driven initiatives to fulfil local needs; social employment can also unlock creativity and agency, build local participation and strengthen mutual support systems in communities.

Another important programme that has now entered implementation, and which I announced in the State of the Nation Address, is a revitalised National Youth Service.

This programme will create a further 50,000 jobs for unemployed young people performing acts of service across the country, while providing much-needed work experience and reinforcing the value of active citizenship.

The recruitment of participants for social employment and the youth service is currently underway.

What these programmes show is that public employment can achieve multiple objectives at once. These include addressing unemployment, building skills and experience, providing public goods and services, and, perhaps most important of all, contributing to a massive national effort to improve the state of our country.

Despite the great setback caused by COVID-19, our economy is slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels. As government, we will continue to champion programmes and initiatives that limit the impact of unemployment on young people until the private sector starts creating more jobs at scale.

I once again call on business to be part of this effort by employing more young people, by making use of the Employee Tax Incentive and other measures, and by supporting and buying from businesses owned and run by young people.

This Youth Day, as we recall the struggles of our past, let us remain firmly focused on the work that we are doing – including through our innovative public employment programmes – to build a better future for all the young people of our country.

From the desk of the President

JAAMIA GALANT & URSULA HOADLEY

LEARNING to read, write, count and calculate forms the basis for all other learning in school and beyond. Pupils start to learn these basic skills in the first three years of schooling. Their learning continues throughout their time in school as the content becomes more complex.

In 2020 and 2021, learners across South Africa missed at least a quarter of a school year due to COVID-related lockdowns and rotational timetabling. Many learners lost much more school time.

Given these disruptions, how much learning was lost across the schooling system? The systemic tests carried out by the country’s Western Cape province provided an ideal opportunity to find out.

Each year the Western Cape Education Department tests learners in mathematics and language at the grade 3, 6 and 9 levels.

A team of researchers from Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town compared learner performance on the mathematics and language tests in 2019 with that of 2021 on a range of mathematical and reading and writing competencies.

The study is the largest of its kind in South Africa. It investigated the performance of about 80,000 learners, aged between nine and 15 years, in each of the three grades, across both poor and rich schools in the Western Cape province.

The size and range of the sample makes it likely that the results will generally hold for South Africa as a whole and for learners in all grades.

A conservative estimate from the results is that learners have fallen 40% to 70% of a school year behind earlier cohorts in language learning and much more – 95% to 106% of a school year – in maths.

The greater losses in maths are consistent with international findings. This possibly stems from the more specialised nature of the subject and greater need for it to be formally taught, face to face.

Learning is a cumulative process and in language and maths this is especially critical as each year of learning sets up the building blocks for the next year of learning.

If children lose out on learning essential knowledge and skills for reading and writing they will struggle in all subjects where they have to read, interpret texts and express their understanding in writing.

Similarly, maths has its own specialised language and concepts that build progressively over grades. If learners lose out on basic concepts and skills, their later learning will compromised as mathematical problems and contexts become more complex.

Learning losses

Our study found that the greatest losses on the language test were at the grade 6 level. This is probably linked to learners being exposed less to the language of teaching and learning in the two previous years. Most South African learners are taught in their home language in the foundation phase (grades 1-3). From grade 4 onwards, they are taught in English for all subjects (except their home language). The pandemic has made this difficult language transition even more difficult.

We analysed language results in relation to reading comprehension, writing and vocabulary.

Although there is cause for concern across the three areas, learners performed particularly poorly in writing tasks at the grade 3 and grade 6 levels. Declines in vocabulary knowledge were particularly acute at the grade 6 level.

This could partly be attributed to a lack of exposure to print material and vocabulary instruction.

It would be worse for those learners who had changed to a different language of instruction in grade 4.

In mathematics, learning losses were severe across all three grades. The results illustrate how learning losses in this subject are compounded as learners move up the grades, resulting in the poorest performances at grade 9 level.

In “Number, Operations and Relationships”, the most fundamental content area, the average mark for grade 3 learners dropped from 57% in 2019 to 48% in 2021.

Learners are struggling with routine addition and subtraction problems and simple fractions. They also struggle with simple word sums.

Learning losses in “Number, Operations and Relationships” were apparent in grades 6 and 9 as well, and evidently led to poor performance in other areas, most notably in “Measurement”, where basic number knowledge is applied.

In grade 9, the biggest proportion of the curriculum is spent on “Patterns, Functions and Algebra”.
Yet average marks for this area dropped below 40% for grade 9 learners in the 2021 test. Grade 9 learners are struggling to grasp basic principles of algebraic language.

Curriculum areas to prioritise

It is clear that schools need to allocate more time for language and mathematics. Where feasible, time allocations for other subjects could be reduced or non-core subjects suspended or integrated into other subjects.

Existing timetables could be used more efficiently. Suspending tests and homework in other subjects would free up time to focus on language and maths.

These curriculum areas should be prioritised:
Reading, writing, number and measurement in the foundation phase English first additional language in the intermediate phase (children aged 9 to 12 years), especially writing and vocabulary.
In the senior phase (ages 13 to 15), proficiency in routine operations with whole numbers, fractions and basic algebra.
For at least the next three years, priority should be given to mastering the skills and concepts that are necessary for progression in learning. “Stand alone” topics in social science for example can be left for later grades.

Going forward

Teachers need assistance with diagnostic tests – not only administering them but also analysing the results and planning on the basis of outcomes.

They also need support in providing opportunities for learners to catch up previous grades’ content.

The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative allows for young “educator assistants” to help teachers in classrooms. Phase 3 of the initiative began in April 2022.

These assistants should now focus on assisting individual children with mathematics and language.
Their sole task could be to work through the previous year’s Department of Basic Education Rainbow Workbooks developed for each grade.

This would provide learners with one-on-one tuition to catch up to required levels of competence in language and mathematics.

(Jaamia Galant, Researcher University of Cape Town)
(Ursula Hoadley, Professor, University of Cape Town)

THE CONVERSATION

SIX University of Johannesburg (UJ) student-athletes and Netball Club manager and coach, Bongiwe Msomi, were named as part of Team South Africa’s athletes headed to the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) made the announcement on Wednesday, 08 June 2022, just 50 days before the Games begin.

UJ students Yane van der Merwe (para-athlete), Caitlin Rooskrantz (gymnastics), Kristen Paton (hockey), Boitumelo Mahloko (netball), Bongiwe Msomi (netball), Monique Reyneke (netball), Michelle Moganedi (wheelchair basketball) and alumnus Ronald Brown (rugby 7s) where among the players announced as part of Team SA.

“We are very proud of our club members and wish them well,” said Lezanne Bruwer, Manager: UJ Sport for Students with Disabilities (SSD).

The 2022 Commonwealth Games will be feature different sporting codes such as netball, 7s rugby, boxing, cycling, table tennis, gymnastics, weightlifting, lawn bowl and para-lawn bowls, among other sports.

The Team SA announcement comes a day after Netball SA announced 24 players that, for the first time in the history of netball in South Africa, were offered professional contracts starting 0n 1 April 2022 to December 2023. Msomi, Mahloko and Reyneke were among the contracted players. Msomi is the SPAR Proteas captain and has represented the country on numerous occasions and was also appointed the World Netball Official Athlete Ambassador for the African Region ahead of the 2023 Netball World Cup.

UJ Sportswoman of the year and Master of Health Science, Chiropractic student and intern, Paton, was recently announced as part of the SA senior women’s hockey team that will participate in the 2022 FIH Women’s World Cup in July. Paton was part of the SA Women’s Hockey team that participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 AFCON Hockey Tournament in Ghana in January this year.

Brown is the UJ Sportsman of the year and plays for the SA rugby 7’s team.

Moganedi is no stranger to representing SA; she has previously donned the national colors at the recent Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Afro World Championship qualifiers in January 2022. In March 2022, Moganedi was also selected as part of the IWBF Players Commission and will be participating in 3×3 wheelchair basketball.

Sport Science honours student and para-athlete in the UJ SSD Club, van der Merwe will represent South Africa in Javelin.

Rooskrantz is a first year BCom Marketing Management UJ student who won gold at the 2022 FIG Artistic Gymnastic World Cup in March 2022 at Egypt.

“Anybody who brings a medal will be awarded, anybody who breaks a record will be awarded double. Enjoy Birmingham, but remember you must do the best that you can, and I want you to bring those medals. From the 37 that the team before you brought, you are bringing 37 times two,” said Nocawe Mafu, Deputy Minister of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture.

SUPPLIED