Statement by André Gaum, Western Cape Education Minister

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will launch new training manuals today (20 November 2003), designed to improve teaching of literacy and numeracy skills in primary schools.

The training materials form part of broader strategies to improve the skills of children in literacy and numeracy in the province.

Research on provincial, national and international levels has shown that South African school children are not performing as well as their counterparts in other countries.

We have to act urgently to address this issue, especially in primary schooling, which must provide the solid foundation on which all future education is based.

We launched comprehensive strategies earlier this year, which include a range of initiatives we need to improve learner performance in literacy and numeracy.

These strategies include teacher training, developing special teaching and learning materials, special programmes and projects, and diagnostic testing to track progress and to identify areas for special interventions.

Examples of diagnostic testing include a study the WCED commissioned last year, which indicated that only 32.2% of Grade 3 learners had the literacy skills required for Grade 3 by the end of the year - in other words, 67.8% of learners did not have these skills.

At the same time, only 36.6% of learners had the numeracy skills required in Grade 3, which means that 63.4% did not have these skills.

Similar studies conducted nationally - the National Systemic Evaluation and Diagnostic Baseline Tests – provided similar results.

While learner performance is marginally better in these learning areas in the Western Cape than in other provinces, this is no cause for comfort. We have to act now to improve overall performance in literacy and numeracy. Our literacy and numeracy strategies provide a comprehensive, well-integrated approach to dealing with these issues.

As part of our intervention strategy, the WCED commissioned education specialist, Ansie Du Toit, to write the manuals we are launching today. Her research and development team included experts from the WCED’s Curriculum Development Directorate and Special Education Services.

These manuals will give teachers practical hints and strategies for improving and consolidating the learners basic concepts of literacy and numeracy.

The manuals are designed specifically for teachers in primary schools. Our Education Management and Development Centres (EMDCs) in each of our seven education districts will distribute the manual and will facilitate training workshops for clusters of schools in 2004 on how best to use them.

The manuals provide a step-by-step approach to teaching basic mathematical and literacy skills, and how to assess whether the learners have mastered them.

They provide practical guidance on how to ensure that learners achieve the outcomes of the revised national curriculum, and how to apply the relevant assessment standards.

Both the manuals describe and illustrate appropriate support materials and teaching aids for all sections of the curriculum, and provide a large number of exercises, questions and work cards designed to reinforce and consolidate learning.

The contents of both manuals are based on the accepted development phases that learners experience as they learn basic mathematical and literacy concepts and skills. This will make it easier for teachers to assist learners as they seek to progress. For example, if a learner is struggling with stage four, the teacher can take him or her back to stages two or three, to consolidate learning at these levels.

The manual on numeracy includes general guidelines on the knowledge levels for specific sections, followed by guidelines on how best to teach this knowledge, and then on how best to assess learner progress.

This approach helps to ensure that teachers do not discover learner problems too late in the teaching and learning process. Benchmarks are also used to guide teaching and learning of language skills.

In addition, the manuals are designed to develop the teacher’s understanding of the number system their learners must work with, for example, the properties and relationships of numbers of one or more digits. Similarly, the manual on literacy explores the role of phonics in teaching language.

We have to get the basics right to ensure that our children develop the foundation they need to further their education. The manuals will go a long way to making this possible.