The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is pleased to announce to names of the province’s top teachers for 2004.

The department presented the provincial Teacher of the Year Awards to the finalists at a prestigious event in Cape Town tonight (Friday, 10 September 2004).

The provincial awards form part of a national initiative to acknowledge excellence in teaching, through the National Teaching Awards.

The Western Cape finalists in different categories are:

• Primary School Teaching: Mr Francois Jones, De Villiers Primary School, Robertson.
• Primary School Leadership: Mr Ronald Philander, St Marks Primary School. Prince Alfred Hamlet, Ceres.
• Special Needs Teaching: Therapy Group, Mesdames G. Behardien, R. Deva, A. Cresswell, H. Gangraker, M. Talip, A. Price, A.S. Ismail, G. Hendrickse, M. Wild, H. Arbuckle, R. Salie, B. Greager, K. Van der Walt, Eros School for Cerebral Palsy, Athlone.
• Early Childhood Development: Preprimary school teachers Worcester Preparatory School, Worcester, Mesdames R. Smit, L. van der Walt, L. Lötter, C. Watkins, A. van Nieuwenhuizen, .
• Secondary School Teaching: Mr Andrew Putter, Rondebosch Boys' High School, Rondebosch
• Secondary School Leadership: Mr Simon Winter, Plumstead High School, Plumstead.
• dult Education and Training: Mrs Let Williams, Worcester Community Learning Center, Worcester.
• ifetime Achievement Award: Mrs Edwina Smith, Westville Primary School, Mitchell's Plain.

Tonight’s announcement follows a rigorous selection process, which began with a call for nominations in April this year.

The key aims of the awards are to:

• Focus public attention on the positive aspects of education, thereby raising the public image of the teaching profession;
• Recognise and promote excellence in teaching performance;
• Honour dedicated, creative and effective teachers and schools;
• Encourage best practice in schools;
• Afford South Africans the opportunity to publicly say thank you to outstanding teams or individual teachers in schools.

The national organisers have added an extra category to the competition this year, for Excellence in Adult Education and Training, to bring the total number of categories to eight.

The WCED launched an advocacy campaign to promote the awards following the call for nominations, and organised adjudication based on clusters of districts.

The department’s three rural districts formed clusters of their own, while the four urban districts combined forces to form two clusters.

Teams of adjudicators assessed nominations and visited teachers on the shortlists on site. Each cluster announced its winners at special functions in August.

The clusters then submitted the cluster winners for assessment for the provincial awards. The adjudicators for the provincial awards included representatives of teacher unions and school governing associations.

The WCED will forward their names to the national Department of Education for the National Teaching Awards, to be announced on 22 October 2004.

The WCED extends a special word of congratulations to two of its provincial finalists who achieved second and third places in their respective categories in the National Teaching Awards announced on 22 October.

The national Department of Education placed Mr Ronnie Philander of St Marks Primary School in Prince Alfred Hamlet, Ceres, in second place in the Primary School Leadership category.

Mr Francois Jones of De Villiers Primary School in Robertson was placed third in the category Primary School Teaching.

The WCED acknowledges the contribution of all its dedicated and caring teachers in their continuous effort to develop each learner as a proud citizen of South Africa.