A grant of nearly R15-million received from the Netherlands government has reached the most needy children of South Africa. Under the guidance of the Department of Education, this funding was applied to supply learning material to 48 300 teachers in the three most needy provinces of South Africa, namely KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Northern Province. This implies that at least 2,2-million children now had some resources to equip them for the challenges presented in the world of learning.
Smile Education (Pty) Limited successfully won the tender to supply the learning materials. During the 1980s, Smile became well known for the distribution of trunks filled with teaching aids to many schools in South Africa.
The implementation of outcomes-based education in the form of Curriculum 2005 necessitated a new initiative from many suppliers to the educational industry. Smile Education established a specialised education unit. This division ensured that products suitable to the new curriculum were developed and manufactured at affordable costs to parents, schools, the government and non-governmental organisations.
This project included the mammoth task of manufacturing, assembling, packing and distributing, to reach nearly 12 000 schools. Transport giant RTT was contracted to oversee the task of delivering to the end users. A team of drivers was trained to deliver the daily quotas. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu-Natal and heavy rains in the Eastern Cape proved a challenge for the drivers.
Transport manager Des Gibbons had to plan the routes around schools that had no physical addresses. Drivers often left the overnight camps with a truck full of packages without a single piece of information with regard to the location of the schools. They had to drive into the districts and make use of assistance from the police and members of the community to direct them to hundreds of schools that do not feature on any road map or signboard.
This project was specifically targeted at the most rural and disadvantaged schools in our country, and according to Steenekamp, the success of the project originated at the starting point.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of materials. We are very often faced with projects where funds are restricted. The usual outcome is to select material of inferior quality, and focus is placed on quantity. In this project, quite the contrary happened.
“Although funding was restricted, the department selected high-quality and durable material. It was evident that materials that served cross-curricular purposes were considered. The packages contained a wide variety of items, such as abacuses for teachers and learners, scales, measuring jugs, plastic shapes, magnifying glasses, counting cubes and posters. An extensive training manual was included in every package to ensure optimal use to the teachers and the learners. We are very proud of the outcome so far and have received many letters from teachers and departmental officials in appreciation of the value of this project.”
Any inquiries about the project or Smile materials may be directed to Nina Steenekamp at Smile Education on (011) 477-1013.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, July 2001.