| 1. |
The WCED, in conjunction with the national Department of Education, recently released a media statement on 29 June 2007 explaining Phase 1 of the Recovery Plan. This included the provision of a wide range of support materials including study guides, textbooks, pacesetters and programmes on electronic and print media.
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| 2. |
We need to acknowledge from the outset that we cannot hope to make up for the time lost during the recent public service strike. However, our Recovery Plan is intended to create opportunities for teachers and learners to focus their attention on crucial aspects of the curriculum that would have been affected by the strike. The Recovery Plan, therefore, is an education intervention to mediate the impact of the strike.
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| 3. |
Phase 2 of the Recovery Plan has been consulted with the recognised teacher unions, School Governing Bodies and staff associations. It outlines various forms of interventions, the details of which are to be found in the attached Plan. This Recovery Plan will cover the period 30 July 2007 - 21 September 2007.
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| 4.1 |
The Recovery Plan includes the following additional time:
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| 4.1.1 |
2 hours per week additional time for 7 weeks, during the week, for literacy and numeracy for all affected primary schools (See Annexure A for guidelines.)
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| 4.1.2 |
2 hours per week additional time for 7 weeks, during the week, for Grades 8 and 9 at affected high schools. For guidance on the content of the additional classes see the 'Setting the Pace for Recovery' July 2007 GET documents, which were delivered to schools and are available from EMDCs.
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| 4.1.3 |
3 hours per week additional time for 7 weeks, during the week, for Grades 10, 11 and 12. These additional classes should be guided by the revised WCED Pacesetters sent to schools at the beginning of the third term.
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| 4.1.4 |
3 hours per Saturday for Grade 12s for six Saturdays. The urban schools should be clustered and the rural schools should be site-based. The WCED study guides sent to Grades 10, 11 and 12 learners contain excellent material which could be used to prepare learners for studying and they contain checklists in a number of subjects which should be used to determine what content still needs to be covered.
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| 4.1.5 |
4 hours per day for 5 days during the September Spring School from 24 to 28 September, for Grade 12s only. The urban schools should be clustered and the rural schools should be site-based. The Directorate: Curriculum Development will develop a framework for Spring Schools to be held in the September holidays.
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| 4.2.1 |
The department has decided that stipends will be paid to designated and participating educators according to a formula determined by the Minister of Education, Mrs Naledi Pandor, on 19 July 2007.
| (i) |
Hourly Rate: to be determined by dividing the participating teacher's annual salary by the annual number of working hours, i.e. 1800 hours; |
| (ii) |
Daily rate: to be determined by dividing the participating teacher's annual salary by the maximum number of school days, i.e. 225 days |
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| 4.2.2 |
Participating teachers will be remunerated for the number of additional hours that they will be working, at the rate determined by the Minister. This rate works out at a teacher's normal hourly or daily salary. The stipend will be calculated based on the individual teacher's annual salary package. (See Annexure I.)
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| 4.3 |
This additional time per week should be arranged, planned and monitored at a local school level. The school principal should play a key role in monitoring and reporting. The roles and composition of the school teams and EMDC teams are explained below.
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| 4.4 |
Each educator involved must develop a personal recovery plan. Each personal recovery plan will form part of the school recovery plan that must be submitted to the EMDC for approval. Every school must submit a timetable for this plan to the EMDC by 3 August 2007.
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| 4.5 |
Participating teachers and janitors will be remunerated for the additional hours with a stipend to be calculated by dividing their annual package by 1800 hours.
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| 5.1 |
We respect the fact that some schools have already written examinations. Schools have the option not to write the June examinations or alternatively to write scaled- down control tests after consultation with SGBs and RCLs.
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| 5.2 |
Those schools that did not write examinations, or that do not wish to write the examinations during this time, must utilise the time optimally to prepare for examinations in September. Schools are advised to utilise the study guides sent to schools as part of the learning support materials.
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| 5.3 |
All grades could use an open-book examination as practice. Learners in Grade 10 and 11 should work through the national exemplars distributed to schools, either in class or as homework.
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| 5.4 |
Formal assessment in Grades 10 and 11 in the NCS requires one mid-year examination. If learners have not written an examination in the second term, they must write examinations in the third term to prepare for the final examinations and to provide a school-based assessment code/percentage.
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| 5.5 |
Higher Education Institutions have agreed to extend the deadline for the submission of mid-year examination results and will take into consideration Grade 11 results, as well as preliminary and final examination results.
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| 6.1 |
It is essential that the recovery plan is carefully monitored by the school, the district and Head Office. Each designated school and educator at such schools must work according to a school-based Recovery Plan that is based on the provincial Recovery Plan. This Plan must indicate which learning areas are to be covered during the additional hours, and must therefore also include a timetable of educators who will be participating in the exercise. The composition of the monitoring teams at each level should be as follows:
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| 6.2 |
School team: the principal and one member per union. Principals of schools must monitor and submit a report indicating that work is of a satisfactory standard on a weekly basis. (See Annexure D.) This report must reach the district monitoring team (EMDC team) on a Thursday of each week and include an attendance register of teachers and learners.
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| 6.3 |
EMDC team: the director, 1 member per union, the chief curriculum adviser and the senior circuit manager. This team will monitor at a district and school level and sign off that work is of a satisfactory standard on a weekly basis. (See Annexure H.)
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| 6.4 |
Head Office team: 3 union members, Head: Education and Chief Directors for Finance, Planning and Operations. The purpose of this team is to monitor the Recovery Plan and to sign off work completed as satisfactory on the basis of submissions from the district.
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| 6.5 |
Since this Recovery Plan has financial implications, the programme must be very carefully monitored and controlled. The various monitoring and control teams must take this exercise very seriously. Note that no payments can be made unless the various teams have signed off on all aspects of the exercise.
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| 7. |
Mending Relationships
Given that not all educators at all schools participated in the strike, it is conceivable that tensions will have arisen among teachers at the same school. It is critical that the working relationship between teachers is a co-operative one if we are to ensure that our learners are not further disadvantaged by the strike. It is essential therefore, that the principal, together with the School Management Team and the SGB, initiate a programme to restore relationships where these have broken down during the strike.
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| 8. |
Because of the urgency of the situation, Phase 2 of the Recovery Plan will begin on 30 July 2007. There are deadlines set in this document for specific data required relating to numbers of teachers and learners.
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| 9. |
Many teachers have sacrificed income, many learners have been greatly affected, and parents are deeply concerned about the future of their children. With an intensive use of the remaining school days left in 2007, as well as holidays and weekends for self-study, learners can be supported to succeed.
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| 10. |
Kindly inform all teachers, learners and parents of the contents of this circular.
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SIGNED: S.M. NAICKER
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2007:07:27
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