Statement by Ron Swartz, Head of Education in the Western Cape

About 7 700 primary school teachers and 1 900 school managers from across the Western Cape will flock to training programmes during the July school holidays this year to learn more about the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) for Grades 4 to 6.

The national and provincial education departments are introducing the RNCS for General Education and Training (GET, Grade R to 9) in stages.

They introduced the curriculum in the Foundation Phase (Grades R to 3) at the beginning of 2004, and will introduce the curriculum for the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4 to 6) in 2005.

School managers and Intermediate Phase teachers are attending training programmes on the revised curriculum for Grades 4 to 6 during the July school holidays.

The WCED has organised training sessions at about 60 venues in the province. The first sessions started yesterday (Thursday, 1 July 2004) for members of school management teams.

Intermediate Phase teachers will start attending training sessions on Monday, 5 July 2004. The theme for these workshops will be "Making the RNCS your curriculum". The workshops will take place from 1 – 24 July.

Education departments will also introduce the RNCS in the Senior Phase (Grades 7 to 9) in stages, starting with Grade 7 in 2006, Grade 8 in 2007 and Grade 9 in 2008.

The national Department of Education published the RNCS for General Education and Training (Grades R to 9) in the Government Gazette on 31 May 2002 after a lengthy process of revising Curriculum 2005.

Key features of the RNCS include comprehensive outcomes and assessment standards, that define what children must know and be able to do in each grade and learning area, and how their progress should be assessed.

Teachers and school managers responded well to training provided for Foundation Phase teachers during the July school holiday last year. Indications are that training for Intermediate Phase teachers this year will be just as successful.

Intermediate Phase teachers will attend five-day training workshops, while members of school management teams will spend a day-and-a-half looking at the management issues involved.

We deeply appreciate the keen interest shown in these training sessions by teachers and school managers.

Our teachers and school managers are displaying a highly professional approach to implementing the revised curriculum. They contributed significantly to our workshops last year, and we look forward to their contribution again this year.

We also appreciate the efforts of our officials who have worked tirelessly to prepare for these workshops, both last year and this year. These include officials in the WCED’s Head Office as well as our Education Management and Development Centres (EMDCs) in each district.

A provincial training team - consisting of curriculum advisers and planners, teaching and learning support personnel, circuit managers and other officials – attended a two-week training programme in April and May to prepare for the latest RNCS training exercise.

WCED specialists have worked hard to prepare training materials, which deal with the intellectual concepts and principles involved, as well as the practical, hands-on issues involved in preparing to implement the RNCS in Grades 4 to 6 in 2005.

As part of a separate process, the national and provincial education departments will start introducing a new curriculum for Further Education and Training (FET) in schools, in Grade 10 2006, with a view to awarding the first FET certificates in 2008.

Given our experience to date, and all the hard work that has already gone into preparing for next year by both schools and officials, we have every confidence that the latest training exercise will be a great success.

• Parents and other interested parties can look up what children need to learn in the revised curriculum on the web here  (http://wced.wcape.gov.za - select "National Curriculum policy documents" under "Quick Links")