EDUCBLOG

The Basic Education Laws Amendment Draft Bill 2009 has been published for public comment. 

These can be emailed to Mr C Ledwaba.c at doe.gov.za no later than 11 February 2009.

Thanks to Parliamentary Monitoring Group

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (USA) has set up a webpage to encourage reading with the slogan "Explore New Worlds.  Read".     The site contains book-related info, interviews with authors, suggested reading lists and more.   Teaching resources can be found on the Educators and Parents link. 

World Teachers’ Day 2009 puts the spotlight on the global teacher shortage and the challenges of being a teacher today. 

In our rapidly changing and interdependent world, teachers not only have to ensure that students acquire solid skills in basic subjects, but also that they become responsible local and global citizens, at ease with new technologies and able to make informed decisions about health, the environment and other challenges.

Sustained investment is required to develop a well-trained and motivated teaching force. A global total of 10.3 million teachers should be recruited between 2007 and 2015 just to meet the goal of universal primary education. At a time when the global economic slowdown risks putting tight constraints on education budgets, it is critical that governments support the recruitment, training and professional development of teachers.

Spotted on UN Pulse 

All Children, Everywhere   (pdf, 4.31MB)  is the advocacy version of the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) education strategy through 2015. It provides an overview of UNICEF's work in basic education and gender equality outlines the organization's goals, guiding principles, main partners and key actions to deliver a quality education for all children.

CALL FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS

STRENGTHENING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENT

All teachers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Higher Education experts, parents and members of the public:

This is a call for you to participate in a public comment process to refine and strengthen the implementation of the curriculum

The Department of Basic Education invites you to share your experiences on implementation challenges associated with the NCS in public schools. This process is intended to obtain first-hand information on the pressure points and to find solutions that will improve the efficiency of curriculum delivery in the classroom.

Your comments should be captured in writing and be specific to the phase of the schooling system (Foundation, Intermediate, Senior or FET Phase). You must also indicate your relationship with the NCS e.g. parent, learner, teacher, researcher, etc.

More information on the process and the format of the submissions can be obtained from the home page under What’s New? of the educational portal Thutong at www.thutong.doe.gov.za.

Submit your written submissions to the Department of Basic Education in one of the following ways:

·        By delivering it by hand to: Attention Ms N Tom, Department of Basic Education, Sol Plaatje House, 123 Schoeman Street, Pretoria, 0001

·        By posting it to: Attention Ms N Tom, Department of Basic Education, Private Bag X895, Pretoria, 0001.

·        By faxing it to: 012 3289828 Attention Ms N Tom

·        By sending an e-mail to: NCS.comments@doe.gov.za

·        Complete and submit an online questionnaire on Thutong

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!

Spotted on IOL

 Public hearings will be held into South Africa's schools curriculum in coming months as it remains the subject of endless complaint, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday.

"We will be doing both investigations and holding public hearings on this matter in the next four months, to make sure that we identify areas of further work and interventions and address them once and for all within the coming months and years," she told MPs in her department's budget vote.

The International Children's Digital Library - a Library for the World's Children.    The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world's children in becoming effective members of the global community - who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children's books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children. 

SA Child Gauge 2008, released by UCT's Children's Institute,  "paints a bleak picture of roughly two thirds of junior primary school children being functionally illiterate and innumerate, a statistic that grows to 73 percent innumerate when pupils reach Grade 4."   

IOL reports that the report shows that while the country has a very high rate of enrolment in grades one to nine, they are often not receiving "meaningful access to education, or meaningful learning outcomes". 

Meaningful access to education, said the Children's Institute's Shirley Pendlebury, requires among other things access to well-conceived text books and other learning materials; competent and prepared teachers who are able to use a range of appropriate classroom practices; a curriculum that builds a strong basis in the foundation phase; teaching facilities and resources such as laboratories and well-stocked libraries; and a safe and supportive environment.

"Ninety-six percent of children of compulsory school age are enrolled in school, yet poor national averages for language and mathematics in grades 3 and 6 show that most learners do not acquire the skills and understanding that give substance to the right to education."

Only 36% of grade 3 pupils passed the literacy and 35% the numeracy assessments in 2007, according to the preliminary findings.

Quoting from this morning's State of the Nation Address by His Excellency JG Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa.   (Full text is available on Amandla blog; also thanks to Kate Hunter at the GSB Library)

Compatriots,

Education will be a key priority for the next five years. We want our teachers, learners and parents to work with government to turn our schools into thriving centres of excellence.

The Early Childhood Development programme will be stepped up, with the aim of ensuring universal access to Grade R and doubling the number of 0-4 year old children by 2014.

We reiterate our non-negotiables. Teachers should be in school, in class, on time, teaching, with no neglect of duty and no abuse of pupils! The children should be in class, on time, learning, be respectful of their teachers and each other, and do their homework.

To improve school management, formal training will be a pre-condition for promoting teachers to become principals or heads of department.
I will meet school principals to share our vision on the revival of our education system.

Fellow South Africans,

We will increase our efforts to encourage all pupils to complete their secondary education.

The target is to increase enrolment rates in secondary schools to 95 per cent by 2014. We are also looking at innovative measures to bring back into the system pupils who dropped out of school, and to provide support.

Honourable Members, we are very concerned about reports of teachers who sexually harass and abuse children, particularly girls.

We will ensure that the Guidelines on Sexual Harassment and Violence in Public Schools are widely disseminated, and that learners and teachers are familiar with and observe them.

We will take very serious, and very decisive, action against any teachers who abuse their authority and power by entering into sexual relationships with children.

To promote lifelong learning, the Adult Basic Education and Training Kha ri Gude programme will be intensified.

Compatriots, Honourable Members,

We have to ensure that training and skills development initiatives in the country respond to the requirements of the economy.

The Further Education and Training sector with its 50 colleges and 160 campuses nationally will be the primary site for skills development training.

We will improve the access to higher education of children from poor families and ensure a sustainable funding structure for universities.

Spotted on IOL.

Quoting:-

Teachers are spending less time in the classrooms, and instead are confused and swamped by paperwork and administration, a ministerial panel has found.

The culture of teaching and learning has disappeared in most rural and township schools, the panel found.

The committee, set up last year by former minister of education Naledi Pandor, was appointed to recommend methods by which schools could be evaluated and developed.

The rest of the story is here.

From UN Pulse

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued Child-Friendly Schools Manual, (available as a free download, 500 KB). The child-friendly school (CFS) model has emerged as the organization’s signature means to advocate for and promote quality education for every girl and boy. According to the Manual, "fulfilling the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requires not just getting all children into school, but making sure that all schools work in the best interest of the children entrusted to them. This means providing safe and protective schools that are adequately staffed with trained teachers, equipped with adequate resources and graced with appropriate conditions for learning", so that "children who are enrolled in primary school are likely to continue, complete the full cycle, achieve expected learning outcomes and successfully transition to secondary school"

From the Guardian  

Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in Primary School.

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow  schools greater flexibility in what they teach.

It emphasises traditional areas of learning - including phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic - but includes more modern media and web-based skills as well as a greater focus on environmental education.

The plans have been drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, the former Ofsted chief who was appointed by ministers to overhaul the primary school curriculum, and are due to be published next month.

The papers seen by the Guardian are draft plans for the detailed content of each of six core "learning areas" that Rose is proposing should replace the current 13 standalone subject areas.

 The proposals would require

• Children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.

• Children to be able to place historical events within a chronology. "By the end of the primary phase, children should have gained an overview which enables them to place the periods, events and changes they have studied within a chronological framework, and to understand some of the links between them." Every child would learn two key periods of British history but it would be up to the school to decide which ones. Schools would still be able to opt to teach Victorian history or the second world war, but they would not be required to. The move is designed to prevent duplication with the secondary curriculum, which covers the second world war extensively.

• Less emphasis on the use of calculators than in the current curriculum.

• An understanding of physical development, health and wellbeing programme, which would address what Rose calls "deep societal concerns" about children's health, diet and physical activity, as well as their relationships with family and friends. They will be taught about peer pressure, how to deal with bullying and how to negotiate in their relationships.

The six core areas are: understanding English, communication and languages, mathematical understanding, scientific and technological understanding, human, social and environmental understanding, understanding physical health and wellbeing, and understanding arts and design.

Full story, and comments here  

Spotted on several alerts including BuaNews Online, Newstoday and AllAfrica.com,  is the news that the Presidency has a new website aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 13, aiming to " educate young minds about government and encourage them to use the internet" (AllAfrica.com). The link to the official statement from the Presidency is here. 

Minister in the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that it was government's intention to continuously improve on the website so that in the future it can include critical information such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of children

Check out the website. 

Finance Minister Trevor Manual was speaking at the launch of Census@School Project. 

Quoting:   Minister Manuel said it was important for learners to be involved in the project because the outcomes of the questionnaires would help government take certain decisions.

He was greeted by loud applause by learners at the school when he conceded that Mathematics was a "tough" subject to learn and teach.

However, he highlighted that it was an important proficiency to have. "So much of what we do in life needs some unit of measurement," he told learners.

The minister, responding to a question from a learner about how well he had done in Mathematics at school, said he had battled and did not have high marks until he came across a teacher who helped him.

The objective of the project, which targets learners between Grades 3 and 12, is to enhance the statistical and numerical literacy of learners as well as raise awareness of the national population census.    Here's the link to the Statistics South Africa information about the project.Read the rest of the story from BuaNews Online.