The University of Fort Hare is helping teachers to embrace change in the new curriculum, writes Julia Grey
When the University of Fort Hare started its distance education project (UFHDEP) in 1997, a staggering 40% of 60 000 teachers in the Eastern Cape were not adequately qualified.
Mark Evans of the UFHDEP believes the project has made significant inroads into the problem, reducing the number of underqualified teachers to around 30%. Their four-year, part-time degree course in primary education (B Prim Ed) has drawn the interest of underqualified teachers from all corners of the province.
Interim manager of the project, Liz Botha, says, “The idea is that we want to give people training in teaching methods that are cutting edge anywhere in the world.” The onus is on “getting teachers to enjoy their teaching and give them a deeper understanding of outcomes-based education [OBE] – different from the level of those who just go to OBE training.”
Judging by feedback from teacher-learners, the course is succeeding in inspiring educators to embrace change and make OBE work in their classrooms. “I felt we were in the horns of a dilemma being graded as unqualified teachers,” writes Edith Dweba. After three years of study with the UFHDEP, “We are now changed educators who have done away with the ‘jug and mug’ methods, the primitive ways of teaching,” says Dweba. “Even in our schools and communities we are change agents.”
The experience and context of the teacher-learners is given full recognition: the course’s structure takes into account the often remote areas where educators work and issues of transport, with 18 centres spread around the province. Local groups meet with their umkhwezeli (tutors) every two weeks, and cover an imithamo (learning module). Other principles of OBE are also reflected in the UFHDEP, with continuous assessment being used to appraise the progress of the teacher-learner instead of traditional exams.
All important is the effect of the training on classroom practise, and those on the receiving end of it – the learners. Teacher Ntombizanele Msumza from Flagstaff says she has overcome her hatred for certain learning areas like science – learning areas she used to hate “because I was not able to explain it and was unable to make it interesting to learners”. She has also recognised the benefits of group work, with “less able learners easily helped by others”.
The B Prim Ed itself is a work in progress, with the course developers completing the next module just a few weeks before the teacher-learners receive it. Although Botha says the process is a bit adhoc, “the advantages of this approach outweigh the disadvantages. When we conceptualised the course, we felt that we didn’t want to follow curriculum 2005 structures too slavishly – like the terminology and jargon. So the national review of the curriculum was quite wonderful for us because we could just continue with our approach.”
The minimum requirement for entry to the course is a matric certificate or five years teaching experience. For teachers who fall short of these requirements, a one-year part-time certificate course is available. Completion of the course gives the teacher-learner an entry point for further study.
Given the often brief and confusing training in OBE for teachers in the Eastern Cape, the value of a course which makes sense of the new methodology must be very welcome.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, September 2001.