Outlining 2020 strategies and plans for the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), Deputy Director-General for Curriculum, Advocate Alison Bengtson, said: “We are making progress with the introduction of the three-stream curriculum model, heralding a fundamental shift in focus towards Vocational and Technical education.
“Various Technical and Vocational specialisations have already been introduced in 550 schools, and 67 schools are now piloting the Occupational stream.
“The reason for the decline in Technical Mathematics is that learners choosing the Technical Stream are required to take Technical Mathematics despite them failing Mathematics in Grade 9. These learners have content gaps, compelling teachers to address these gaps before they commence with the Grade 10 curriculum”.
Advocate Bengtson further added that the province emerged as one of the top-performing provinces through the collective efforts of District Directors and Subject Advisors who support learners during school holidays.
[also read] – Newclare Primary School along with the Readers R Leaders (RRL) invite parents to talk about education
“In the process of improving learning outcomes, we aligned district subject strategies to the provincial set strategies.
“We also tracked quality curriculum coverage and School Based Assessment (SBA) completion to ensure that Subject Heads verify what is taught and assessed.
“Another intervention is that we rigorously tracked learner and teacher absenteeism and escalated trends as they result in poor learner performance. We further worked very hard to improve the quality moderation sessions focusing on improving SBA task quality and quality training of marker sessions”.
In response to the declining subjects such as Home Languages, Accounting, and Mathematics, she stated that the province has come up with a Home Languages Strategy to improve learner performance in all Home Languages (HL).
“We will continue with the School Holiday programme for Home Languages during the June/July vacation. Districts will have five days of walk-in programmes between 13 June and 18 July 2020.
“There will be 13,5 hours of teaching for each HL in the time table. The main Home Languages targeted will be English, IsiZulu, Sepedi, Xitsonga, and Sesotho.
“However, districts will be allowed to include any other HL if it is identified as a risk. Where possible the HL will also be fused into the residential camps and will be done during the evenings.
“The June/July Camp programme will comprise of High Flyers, Moderate and High-Risk learners. The Districts will run Camps during the period 13 to 30 June and 01 to 06 July 2020.
“Learners will participate in 5 days of residential camps and 5 days walk-in camps. Regarding Mathematics and Sciences, there will be two to three specific days allocated,” reported Advocate Bengtson
Follow Us Here:
Catch the latest news by visiting our other platforms:
