Three teachers who impressed the judges with their ability to inspire learners and achieve consistent results for up to 20 years won the seventh annual Aggrey Klaaste Maths, Science and Technology Educator of the Year awards, sponsored by Sowetan and the Telkom Foundation.
David Modiba
General education and training category
Pulamadibogo Primary School, Mankweng, Limpopo
‘It was a great honour especially when you consider the person after which the award is named. He was a great man,” said Modiba, who until recently was a temporary grade five to seven teacher.
Modiba, who has been teaching for five years, believes every ‘child is a star”, and with good motivation and inspiration all learners can realise their potential. His approach is that learners respond well to innovation and creativity, in particular in those subjects considered difficult.
Modiba said he goes out of his way to demystify maths and science: ‘For instance I use a garden as a laboratory to ensure what I teach is practical, realistic and relevant to my learners.”
He said teachers should learn to improvise, especially those in poor areas where there are no adequate facilities and resources to do experiments and other practical activities. ‘My observation is that schools that do well are the very same ones that lack resources.”
Thanks to Modiba’s achievement his school will receive a science laboratory and a computer centre.
Fararai Rufetu
Further education and training category
Ekangala Comprehensive High School, Mpumalanga
For Rufetu, winning the award was a momentous occasion, capping 22 years of teaching. ‘I feel humbled and honoured indeed. It was quite unbelievable,” he said.
Rufetu said the award will not only motivate him as a grade 11 and 12 teacher, but will help the teaching profession to claim back the respect it used to command in the community.
Rufetu is proud about the achievements that undoubtedly helped him to win the award. ‘[In 2004] I was the only one in the sub-region of 43 schools to obtain four distinctions in science, while the whole region together got only five As. And in 2005, I doubled the figure,” he said.
‘To get learners interested in maths and science one needs to be disciplined and committed and also encourage them to think out of the box,” said Rafetu.
He too believes in improvisation: ‘Use the surroundings as a laboratory and make sure you use practical and real examples that learners can relate to.”
Rufetu’s prizes include a personal computer and R5 000, 20 computers for his school and a science laboratory to be stocked with relevant teaching equipment and resources.
Wakeford Gova
Retired teacher category
Tsolo, Eastern Cape
Although Gova (59), from Tsolo near Umtata, is no longer actively involved in teaching, he oozes energy and willingness to impart his knowledge. ‘Winning this award inspired me to work even harder to motivate and train more people to excel in these two important subjects,” he said.
Gova taught for more than 30 years and retired in 2001. ‘Now and then I get invitations from schools around my area to help them,” he said.
Gova has long been involved in various community-based projects aimed at improving performance in teaching maths and science. ‘In 1991, while I was heading a school principals upgrading project, I was a finalist in the Impumelelo Innovation awards,” he said.
The Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust acknowledges exceptional individual projects that touch the lives of ordinary people in the disadvantaged communities. Gova was rewarded for his commitment to teaching maths and science in the schools in his area.
Gova is also a founder member of the Phakama Schools Project, which helps principals upgrade their skills and serves as a forum for inter-action.
Gova has started another project called Fundani Nonke Education Solutions, which empowers teachers with a variety of skills in education.
‘I believe strongly that science is not science if it is not done practically,” he said. ‘You cannot draw a cabbage on the board, while there is a garden outside”.
Science and maths are abstract and teachers must improvise to bring them closer to learners, he said. ‘But,” he added, ‘you cannot improvise all the time.”
Gova said that teachers must constantly upgrade their teaching skills and this does not mean ‘leaving teaching for six months and coming back with a diploma. No, they must study while they are still teaching so that they can implement what they learned the previous night in the classroom the next day.”