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The Department of Basic Education will hold the annual Inkosi Albert Luthuli Oral History Competition finals at Misty Hills Country Hotel, Muldersdrift from Saturday 04 to Sunday 05 October 2014.

The competition is a sole project of the Department of Basic Education and all provinces, in exception of Limpopo have to date held their provincial elimination rounds.

In this edition, high school learners from Grade 8 to Grade 11 were invited to participate through conducting an oral history research project that investigates unique aspects of their local history and heritage which hitherto remain unknown and in the fringes of our mainstream historical lexicon.

This oral history programme is named after one of the fearless luminaries of our liberation struggle, Nkosi Albert John Luthuli. Luthuli person has resonance with us as the Department of Basic Education as we recognise his credentials as an educator - completing his Higher Teachers’ Training Course on scholarship at Adams College, before taking up his first teaching assignment in the same college as one of only two Africans to join staff.

It was Luthuli’s experience with public education that prepared him for other more challenging roles in the broader South African society including of course being elected as the 8th President-General of the African National Congress in 1952, ironically just four years after apartheid was promulgated as formal policy of the state. This competition forms part of the Department’s contribution to the strengthening of the teaching and learning of History in schools as well as strengthening the literacy imperative.

Topics that learners were required to choose from in preparing for the oral history project were:

• How Apartheid affected people’s lives and how people responded;
• Unsung Heroes and Heroines in my local community in the first 20 years of democracy; and
• The achievements in the education system since the advent of democracy in 1994.

The competition does not only concentrate on learners but also aims at improving teaching practice with particular reference to History. Hence, educators are also part of the competition. The educator section of the program required educators to prepare portfolios on how they went about assisting learners in preparing for their oral history projects, and how this experience has improved their teaching practice in the classroom.

National adjudication will take place over two days (from 04-05 October), with an awards ceremony and a gala dinner to conclude proceedings in the evening of 05 October 2014, from 19h00 – 22h00.

Issued by Government