Curriculum adviser EMILIA POTENZA answers questions from teachers about outcomes-based education (OBE) and Curriculum 2005.
Q: We would like to get hold of the full OBE syllabuses for grades 7 to 9, but we do not know where to apply for them. We are aware that the content of the syllabuses might be subject to change. However, we need some direction about what to include in our learning programmes as we don’t know where we are going.
A Odendaal, Sasolburg
A: A big difference between the new curriculum and the old curriculum is that there are no syllabuses in Curriculum 2005. The idea is that teachers will design learning programmes based on the needs of their particular learners. They will determine where their learners are now and where they need to get to next. The only pointers that are provided regarding the content or context in which learning should take place in each learning area in the Senior Phase (grades 7, 8 and 9) are the range statements provided in the Senior Phase Policy Document. So, your first step should be to ask your principal for a copy of this document. If he or she does not have a copy, try to get one from the district office.
Once you have obtained this document, you may find that you still feel confused about what exactly it is that you should be doing. My advice is that you should take a good look at the textbooks that are available to you for each of the Learning Areas you are teaching. Use the textbooks as a starting point for designing your learning programmes. If you have access to more than one textbook for a Learning Area, so much the better. Decide which sections of the textbook/s would be worth using with your learners. Plan your programme organisers with these sections of the textbook/s in mind. Supplement the textbook/s with other relevant material, e.g. newspaper and magazine articles, posters, songs etc. Most textbooks are accompanied by teacher’s guides that show you how the content of the textbooks links back to policy. Use these guides to help you to link your learning programmes back to the policy.
Don’t work alone. Get together with other teachers who are teaching the same Learning Areas and share ideas and resources. These teachers may be from your own school or from other schools in the neighbourhood.
Q: I hereby request you to send me the following documents so that I can have a better idea as far as Curriculum 2005 in grade 7 is concerned: Grade 7 Curriculum 2005 Training Manuals for MLMMS, EMS and NS and the Senior Phase Policy Document. I never attended courses last year as I was on leave.
KL Skosana, Roossenekal
A: Unfortunately it is not possible for The Teacher to provide you with these documents. All I can do is encourage you to go to your nearest district office and ask for them. The national Department of Education produced training manuals for each of these Learning Areas in 1999. These training manuals were supposed to be distributed to every teacher in every province. Your district office should be able to give you copies of these manuals for the learning areas you are teaching. Regarding the Senior Phase Policy Document, your principal or head of department should have a copy.
Failing this, you should be able to get hold of a copy from the district. Once again, however, you may well find it more immediately helpful to consult available textbooks for the new Learning Areas.
Q: I wonder if you could possibly supply me with the Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase Arts and Culture textbooks. I haven’t been workshopped in OBE yet due to illness but hope that I would soon be afforded the opportunity.
F Ndlovu, Empangeni
A: Arts and Culture is not a separate learning programme in the Foundation Phase. It is supposed to be integrated into each of the three learning programmes, namely Literacy, Numeracy and Life Skills. However, it would probably find its place more in Life Skills than in the other two learning programmes. Check existing Life Skills textbooks and see whether you can find examples of Arts and Culture activities there.
In the Intermediate Phase, Arts and Culture is combined with Life Orientation to form one learning programme called Arts, Culture and Life Orientation. As the Intermediate Phase will only begin to be implemented in 2001, textbooks for this learning programme have just been ordered by schools and will only be supplied by the end of this year. So you’ll probably have to wait until January 2001 to get some idea of what the Arts, Culture and Life Orientation textbooks are going to be like.
Are you one of the many teachers at sea about understanding and implementing OBE and Curriculum 2005? Send in your questions to our curriculum adviser, Emilia Potenza, c/o The Teacher, PO Box 91667, Auckland Park, 2006, or e-mail her at [email protected]
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, June 2000.
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