Introduction
The ‘Teacher Professional Learning Programmes’ (TPL) form a key part of SIOC-CDT’s Education, Training and Skills Development focus. It aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. A key target area focuses on substantially increasing the supply of qualified teachers across specific areas.
School Leadership Programmes
Most developed countries set a professional education leadership and management qualification as a requirement for school leaders and managers. However, in South Africa, there is currently no such requirement. It is well-known that the quality of a school is closely linked to the quality of its school leaders and managers. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the South African education system is in a ‘crisis’ – an inability to assure quality education to all the children in South Africa.
Mathematics and Science
The quality of education in South Africa (SA) has been shown in several authoritative reports to be the worst of all middle-income countries and even worse than many low-income African countries, with SA learners rated as the weakest in Mathematics (Mullis, Martin, Foy & Arora, 2012; Spaull, 2013; Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2014).
Further, South Africa is also faced with a shortage of qualified teachers in the subjects of Mathematics and Science. Numerous Mathematics and Science teachers currently in South African schools possess restricted understanding of both the subject matter and child development psychology. This ultimately leads to a lack of quality learning outcomes in these subjects.
English
There are, at present, in-service teachers whose current minimum teacher qualifications were completed more than 15 years ago or do not specialise in English language teaching despite being allocated to teach English in their respective schools.
Early Childhood Development (ECD)
Formal ECD Centering begins at age six, turning seven, but many children are ill-prepared owing to a lack of access to quality ECD programmes. The knock-on effect of costly remediation implies that learners will likely leave the ECD Centering system before completing Grade 12.
The intervention
The programme targets a total of 460 teachers working in schools situated in SIOC-CDT’s beneficiary areas. This number includes ECD practitioners who teach at ECD centres throughout the same areas as well as educators at different levels from primary and secondary schools.
The teachers will be enrolled in postgraduate and undergraduate degree programmes at different universities from 2024 to the end of 2025; 2024 to the end of 2026, and lastly from 2024 to the end of 2029 for the longest programme. The programmes include the Advanced Diploma in Education and Bachelor of Education in various fields of specialisation as well as ECD Practitioner training.
School Leadership Programmes
Since 2021, SIOC-CD has sponsored an initial offering of ‘The Advanced Diploma: School Leadership and Management’ [Adv Dip: SLM], in partnership with several institutions of higher learning. The Adv Dip: SLM was developed by the national Department of Basic Education (DBE) and is aligned with the new National Qualification Framework (NQF) that intends to take forward the National Development Plan’s (NDP) vision for 2030: Improvement of human resources in the education system and school management.
Mathematics and Sciences
SIOC-CD’s Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) initiatives focus on content, pedagogy, and teacher academic and social support.
English
In partnership with the Northern Cape and Limpopo Departments of Basic Education, SIOC-CDT’s goal is to upskill and reskill teachers to become competent English language teachers who would, in turn, provide Intermediate/Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Phase to provide learners with 21st century literacy skills and practices.
This takes the form of continuing teacher professional development through the Bachelor of Education in English Language Teaching which is offered at Rhodes University over three years.
In addition, the Bachelor of education in Bilingual Education for Diversity and Access aims to lay a solid foundation in the understanding of the multilingual dynamics of South African societies and classrooms where learners with diverse linguistic repertoires attend the same classroom.
ECD
The NWU, by means of our B Ed (ECCE) qualification, aims to help build the potential of a quality ECCE workforce for birth to four years and to provide a well-rounded education that equips graduates with the required disciplinary knowledge, educational theory and methodology that will enable them to demonstrate competence and responsibility as academically and professionally qualified ECCE Practitioners. Principles and theory form the basis for establishing and progressing in a professional career as an ECCE educator.
About this project
The TPL programmes target 460 school-based educators including Early Childhood Development practitioners across all of SIOC-CDT’s beneficiary communities. It covers the costs of the academic program, the IT and data equipment, accommodation, food, travel for students, administration, mentorship (NWU and SPU ADE-SLM) and stationery.
The programme will be rolled out on a part-time basis between two to four years through a blended approach (which caters for virtual and face to face contact sessions). The contact sessions will run over the 15-day period per year targeting school holidays whereby teachers will be transported to common venues to be identified by service providers.
For the Advanced Diploma in Education – School Leadership and Management, there is a mentorship program whereby expert leaders are appointed by these partner universities to provide leadership support and guidance to the school leaders who are enrolled on the program.
Expected outcome
The building of a solid pipeline of competent, qualified and life-long learning educators, some of whom are school leaders in beneficiary communities, who will be able to support their learners to perform at their fullest potential in the gateway subjects and to increase enrolment by 20% until all teachers have a recognised minimum required qualification. While the plan is to implement this until 2030, with the above rate of increase of enrolment, by 2026 it should have covered all the teachers who need this qualification.
Partners
The governance and implementation of this programme is made possible by a vast network of stakeholders:
- Department of Basic Education (Northern Cape and Limpopo provinces).
- Educational District Offices (JTG, ZFM and Waterberg).
- Implementation organisations (AEL and Stellenbosch University).
- District municipalities (four in the Northern Cape and one in Limpopo, Thabazimbi).
- Parents.
- Universities and Universities of Technology.