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26 September, 2013 |
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Reading conference: "Igniting the literacy fire in our young learners". Statement by Minister Donald Grant, Minister of Education, Western Cape Every year, the Western Cape Education Department makes available for educators various training programmes that will contribute to their development as quality educators. These programmes include courses on ICT proficiency, special needs education, training for aspiring school principals and subject-specific training for various grades. While all our programmes add value to our educators’ professional development and ultimately to the learners, our efforts to improve the quality of education in our schools will have little impact if our learners cannot read or write. Literacy is one of the more important skills our children need in terms of their education and is the foundation upon which all further learning is built. Therefore the significance attached to the development of our young learners’ literacy skills through reading should not be underestimated. While the Western Cape has made some encouraging progress in the improvement of our learners’ literacy skills in the last few years, there is still much to be done. It is for this reason that the Western Cape Government has made the improvement of literacy skills one of its top priorities. A number of literacy interventions have therefore been prioritised and implemented within the system, particularly at the very important Foundation Phase level. However, teacher development is also critical to improvements in literacy performance. The WCED offers a number of teacher training and development courses and conferences in literacy and language throughout the year. Today I visited the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI), where over 250 educators are receiving additional training on how to teach reading effectively and how to ignite the literacy fire in our young learners. The two-day conference entitled: "Teach, apply and live reading and writing" involves a series of workshops and seminars by over 30 presenters for educators from Grade R to 9. The aim of the conference is to share ideas and best practice on how to improve the reading and writing skills of learners, focusing on the different approaches adopted by educators when teaching reading and writing in their schools. The participating educators will also be exposed to a number of intervention strategies to use with poor readers and writers. There are some interesting and innovative workshops on offer, such as a workshop on how to get teens reading by exposing them to books on cellphones and how to create reading and writing opportunities through stories and sequence pictures. There is even a workshop on the teaching of writing through the medium of music! Other topic titles include; "Teaching thinking skills for better comprehension", "How to get learners interested in reading", "Teaching writing in a bilingual classroom" and "Teaching thinking skills for better comprehension." These workshops will be presented by teachers who are lead educators in their fields. I sincerely thank all the educators for attending this workshop during their holiday period. Their dedication and enthusiasm is an example of their commitment to improving the quality of education in the Western Cape. For enquiries, contact Bronagh Casey: 072 724 1422 or bronagh.casey@westerncape.gov.za. | |
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