SECTION 2

Provincial departments of education were requested to perform an evaluation of the preparedness and the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7 in the respective provinces under the following headings:

The new curriculum, Curriculum 2005, was implemented in grade 1 in 1998 and grade 2 in 1999. In year 2000 the new curriculum is being implemented in Grades 3 and 7. The Department of Education conducted the pilot stage and training of educators for the implementation of grade 3 and 7 during the latter part of 1999. Provincial Departments of Education also conducted their own training in readiness for the beginning of the year 2000. Detailed accounts of preparation and state of readiness for implementation by province are described below.

In the western, central and northern regions all grade 3 educators were trained and follow-up workshops were conducted until the end of the second term of 1999. In the northern region, some districts like Aliwal North, conducted their grade 3 educator training at the same time as they were training the grades 1 and 2 from May to August 1999.

In the eastern region, districts like Elliotdale, Libode and Tsolo, educators were trained during the first semester, while the other 5 districts continued up to the third term. The region also did recapping during the fourth term and will continue during the course of the first term of 2000.

In the south-eastern region, some districts like Tsomo also trained grade 3 educators with the grade 2 cohorts, during the last semester of 1998. Recap was done from April 1999. On the other hand, districts like Willowvale had their training during the second semester of 1999. In the north-eastern region, all grade 3 teachers were trained as from September to November 1999.

Table 2.1 gives an indication of the number of Foundation Phase teachers trained up to the beginning of February 2000.

In the western, central, south-eastern, eastern and north-eastern regions all grade 7 teachers were trained on time. In the case of the first four regions mentioned, training was done from August to November 1999. Due to the north-eastern region having the most districts, they could only complete grades 7 of the 9 by 26 November 1999. However, the remaining two districts (Mt Frere and Mt Fletcher) were successfully trained in the period between 24 January and 4 February 2000.

Due to various logistical and infrastructure reasons, the northern region only trained three pilot schools in August 1999. However, the training for grade 7 started off in the week of 24 January and was scheduled for completion by 17 March 2000.

Due to the fact that the second semester of 1999 was spent on training the grade 7 teachers, this grade only started with Curriculum 2005 classes in January 2000. The provincial department of education will make an extensive evaluation on the success of implementation during the third term of 2000.

Throughout the province the commitment of trainers was evident in them making financial sacrifices to see to it that the training of educators took place. This was evidenced by trainers using their own transport at times, using home and cell phones and purchasing training materials out of their own pockets. Officials from the Colleges of Education, as well as the Department of Arts and Culture willingly participated in the training, thereby making the workload easier. Funding by DFID and USAID was of great help financing parts of this massive task. If it were not for the Policy Reserve (PRF) Fund, the province would not have moved at all in the way it has done.

Lack of official transport (especially. Kombis) not only for training, but also for monitoring and support; and shortages of material during training. In some cases rain clashed with the moderation of year, practical and oral marks for the Grade 12 examinations. The province reports that the re-deployment caused teachers not to commit themselves to the training owing to the uncertainty of their future. Some of the learning areas, e.g. Arts and Culture, were poorly represented among the trainers. There is poor coordination of projects largely because the same people are used for a variety of projects such as Imbewu, Book Evaluation, Quality Assurance. This is an indication of human resource shortages experienced in the province. Many regions do not have a full complement of subject advisors. Timely release of order numbers and payment of service providers is also one of the internal problems experienced.

The Superintendent-General has already indicated that subject advisors and Education Development Officers (EDOs) will have first priority over subsidised cars. This will help relieve the shortage of transport. The provincial department of education will present the project manager of the conditional grants with statistics on the moneys spent on hired transport for a submission to the national Department of Education requesting that vehicles should be purchased for each region. In this way, the provincial department will have far greater value for the money.

The provincial department has already gone on Tender to purchase photocopiers for each regional office to speed up the copying of materials. Paper will also be purchased for this purpose. Policy documents have already been sent to Government Printers for printing.

Training will be scheduled for the 2nd term and part of the 3rd term to avoid clashes with moderation of Grade 12 marks. Structures will be set up with the Department of Arts and Culture officials at provincial level to secure the assistance of these officials in the training. Shortages of Subject Advisors and other personnel will be identified and requests submitted to the Superintendent-General for posts to be filled as a matter of urgency. Further effort will focus in ensuring that there is proper coordination.

The province has two projects in its plans. Project 1 focuses on the improvement of Grade 12 results and the other on the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7. The former is dealt with in a later section. Regarding the second, the province has not yet completed an assessment of its capacity for implementing Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7. It is currently monitoring how the implementation is proceeding to assess the nature of problems, if any to give support to the teachers in struggling schools. Plans that were put in place for training educators for the implementation of Grade 3 and 7 have, unfortunately, not been included in the provincial report. It is therefore not possible to report on these.

The following report does not include responses to the guidelines as indicated in the Memo from the National Department. The responses will be obtained only once the evaluation instrument has been finalised.

Preparation for implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7 in the year 2000 were completed before the end of November 1999. Twenty two (22) modules of teacher support materials were developed for implementation. Officials from the Department of Education trained Gauteng Department of Education officials at Warmbaths during March 1999 in preparation for the implementation of Grade 7. In turn, Gauteng Department of Education officials trained 450 District officials over nine weeks (60 hours) for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7. District officials trained 20 schools for the Grade 7 implementation during the third term as a pilot project. Thereafter, district officials were scheduled to train all Grades 3 and 7 teachers over 40 hours.

Programs in the districts to monitor and support the training of teachers for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7 were put in place. A team from the provincial head office visited districts and monitored the training of teachers. Additional support was provided to districts on request. Ongoing support and training was provided to teachers during the fourth term of 1999.

Workshops on selection and evaluation of learning support materials for district officials, teachers, school management teams and School governing bodies were held in April/May 1999.

The development and distribution of Illustrative Learning Programs for Grade 3 and 7 and the completion of Progress Maps was done in 1999. The GDE provided a budget to enable schools to select and purchase 100% learning support material requirements for Grades 3 and 7. The Department also printed 1000 copies of the Afrikaans policy document translated by courtesy of the Western Cape Education Department.

Formal INSET programs relating to C2005 for the Foundation Phase, Senior Phase and FET and including Grades 3 and 7 were arranged by the GDE through teacher-training colleges in Gauteng.

Report on the extent of teacher training in Gauteng province with particular reference to grades 3 & 7 educators:

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) officials conceptualized the training programme on C2005 for district officials, after receiving training from the Department of Education. The model used for training district officials was similar to the one used by the Department of Education. The model basically involved the 'design down and deliver up' approach of Curriculum 2005 methodology. The training occurred over nine weeks (60 hours).

After receiving the provincial training in May and June, district officials planned training programmes for educators. The programmes were then submitted to the provincial head office for scrutiny. Consultations were held with districts, which did not plan in accordance with the provincial training policy (e.g. some districts planned to train teachers over 20 hours hence training was supposed to be for 40 hours). Not all educators were trained at the same time owing to the shortage of personnel. Table 2.3 gives details of the number of teachers who were trained for Grade 3 and 7 and the number of teachers who were not trained as at September 1999.

Table 2.3: Number of teachers trained per grade to implement Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7

Grades	Total no. of teachers	No. trained	No. absent	% TRAINED
3	4940	4428	512	90%
7	8833	7363	1470	84%

Training programmes were implemented as planned until disruptions occurred as a result of the labour action by teacher organisations in August 1999. Districts had to come up with contingency plans to train teachers who couldn’t be part of the initially planned training programmes. Some districts implemented the contingency plans in October and November 1999.

On the basis of the district plans to train educators, the Gauteng Department Education conceptualised a monitoring and support programme to support districts during training. A process is in place to monitor and support the Grade 3 and 7 training and an evaluation instrument is being developed by an external consultant. The final document will be ready by the end of February 2000. The head office and district officials will commence monitoring schools once the instrument has been approved.

At the beginning of the year 2000, all schools offering Grade 3 & 7 were expected to implement C2005. The GDE has planned structured school visits to monitor and support the implementation of C2005 in schools. Head office and districts as from the 16th February 2000, jointly implemented the monitoring and support programme. The needs of teachers will be identified during the ongoing monitoring process and teacher development programmes will be designed as necessary.

The cascade model of training has been found to be unsuccessful. The level of training offered by district officials in different districts clearly indicated the ineffectiveness of the cascade model. In trying to address the issue of different training offered by districts the province developed a ‘ train the trainer manual’ to ensure that the training of teachers is of a consistent quality across the districts. The idea of training teachers after school hours has been a barrier towards effective training. Teachers come from the classroom tired and found it difficult to concentrate. District officials are also overloaded as there are so many projects which districts have to implement. Officials found it difficult to cope with preparations and delivery of the training while at the same time they also have to deliver on other GDE projects e.g. implementation of Norms and Standards for Funding Schools, developmental appraisal of educators, Grade 12 intervention programmes, moderation of Grade 12 Oral Examinations etc.).

In order to support Curriculum delivery, the province had to conduct workshops for developing and selecting learning support materials in May 1999. Educators were empowered on how to select materials to be used in Curriculum 2005 classrooms in line with the provincial procurement policy based on an open system. The policy requires schools to be responsible for procurement of textbooks in accordance with section 21 of the South African Schools Act, 1996.

The province, in conjunction with the Gauteng Institute for Curriculum Development has developed Illustrative Learning Programmes to cover 30 weeks (nearly one school year) to complement learning support materials that schools may purchase through the open system.

The total percentage of learning support material delivered to schools in January 2000 is 97.8% for the total allocation across the all the Grades. The 2.2 % that is outstanding is specifically around Grade 3 and 7. Reasons for the non-delivery include the ordering of small quantities, the ordering of books that are out of stock and the concomitant reordering processes. The target date for completion is 28 February 2000.

These workshops are conducted for district officials and educators. A selection of teachers from selected districts was made for these workshops. The duration of the workshops is 6 days (divided into 2 sessions). The workshops are residential and occur over weekends. The intention of these workshops is to build the capacity of Grades 3 & 7 teachers so that they could cope with the challenges of the new curriculum in their classrooms, with special reference to their roles as curriculum developers. In these workshops, training is mainly on how learning programmes are developed. Depending on the availability of funds, other districts will receive similar training in order to replace the cascade model as far as possible.

Formal in service training programmes has been arranged with Teacher Training Colleges in Gauteng. Five colleges will deliver teacher development programmes for a period of one year. Classes will be conducted after school hours. Training programmes will focus on the following areas:

Bursaries have been allocated for approximately 2500 teachers in the province to attend these programmes. These programmes will contribute towards further and higher diplomas in education or a B.Ed qualification.

Pre-implementation training workshops were conducted in 1999. Educators from 98% of schools in the province were prepared on Curriculum 2005 principles. The number of educators who were trained was 8958 for grade 3 and 10 006 for grade 7. It is not possible to isolate successful schools and struggling schools at this stage. Success factors include the following:

Inhibiting factors have been the brevity of training workshops and the transfer of trained educators through promotion and re-deployment. A limited advisory service and the policy directive to train after school hours pose problems.

The provincial report does not contain information on planning and training of teachers in preparation for the implementation of the new curriculum in Grades 3 and 7. The comments that follow could therefore not be examined critically with respect to the implementation plans. The report states that planning learning activities was completed in 1999 and then gives information on factors that influence the success in the implementation of Curriculum 2005.

Successful schools are estimated to be 45% but the number is growing. Factors that determined the success of some of the schools are summarised as follows:

Struggling schools are estimated at 30% but are decreasing. Struggling schools are normally farm schools. Some of the teachers from these schools do not attend training courses for up to four weeks per year. The reason for this is that they are the only teachers in their respective schools and cannot leave learners unattended, as there are no substitute teachers. These teachers make use of multi-grade teaching and can therefore not be away from school for longer periods of training.

There is generally a serious lack of technological devices that could assist in the learning process in schools. Often the time allocated for training is insufficient

Training teams from Head office do not all say the same things during training. This tends to lead to confusion among educators.

An on-going training programme for educators has been planned to take place on Monday to Thursday in the afternoon. Schools have been clustered across district borders to facilitate the integration of learning areas in terms of available expertise and prevent overcrowding at workshops. Training teams discuss training material to ensure uniformity.

Currently there is an investigation to determine the reasons for schools not attending workshops. Training of farm-school teachers will be conducted separately from the training of teachers from the rest of the public schools to accommodate mixed grade teaching.

The provincial preparatory process for the implementation of Grade 7 commenced with a pilot project. This included a workshop for facilitators held in April 1999 at which an implementation plan and a model for ‘micro-planning’ was drawn. This was followed by a workshop held on 13 –14 May 1999 for training of circuit managers who would be part of the pilot schools’ support teams. Two one week long workshops were held during 17 – 21 and 24 –28 May 1999 to train teachers from selected schools. Fifty four (54) teachers attended one workshop from 10 selected schools in the Kimberley and De Aar Regions; sixty six (66) teachers from 10 schools in the Upington and Springbok Regions attended the other. A total of 120 teachers were trained and are ready for the implementation of grade 7.

General training of all educators for Grade 7 commenced after the pilot stage had been completed. Officials from the Department of Education facilitated the workshops over a period of eight weeks commencing on Thursday afternoons and ending on Saturday evenings. Training occurred in 14 clusters of 80 teachers per cluster throughout the province. A total of 1290 teachers were trained during this period.

In general all Grade 7 teachers have been prepared for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 on the basis of the training received and the learning support materials provided. Further training will be held on specific topics after the first round of visits in the first term to monitor implementation.

Struggling schools will be supported by providing on site assistance according to the specific needs of the schools. Schools will also be assisted with assessment, developing resource materials and multilevel classes and with macro- and micro-planning.

Approximately 720 Grade 3 educators were trained in the implementation of Grade 3 from October to December 1999. Schools were organised in clusters and training conducted in workshops. Follow-up visits to schools and on site support was provided to educators at the beginning of the year. The following areas were identified as requiring further attention:

The Department is planning follow up sessions to focus on the above areas with the aim of providing support at a personal level.

Facilitators in the province do not have the necessary knowledge and skills in making effective transfer of knowledge to learners. Implementation of Curriculum 2005 may be unsuccessful due to a limited knowledge base among facilitators. The cascade model that has been used in training facilitators has limitations, particularly as Curriculum 2005 is not fully understood.

Training workshops have not been successful, as these have often taken place a few months before implementation. There has not been adequate planning for the implementation of Curriculum 2005. A review of the best strategies for effecting the curriculum change is under consideration.

Most of the successful schools in the implementation of Curriculum 2005 are those that are situated in urban areas. These schools had planning meetings supported by trained facilitators. The success factors included the following:

Schools that are struggling are mostly in rural areas. Educators use shared common transport from home to schools. This makes it difficult for them to meet regularly in the afternoon. Other inhibiting factors include:

The provincial department of education is considering putting in place plans for struggling schools with a focus on:

Plans and preparations for the implementation of Grade 3 and 7 in 2000 were completed in 1999. The programme that was followed in training educators has not been included in the report. The report gives in great detail the plan for follow-up activities for Grades 3 and 7 educators. These educators were trained in Curriculum 2005 in 1999 for the year 2000. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that the training that educators received in workshops is implemented by assisting them in the classroom situation and by conducting further training after school hours. Plans for both Grade 3 and 7 are summarised in Table 2.3

Table 2.3 Plan for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grade 3 and 7 in 2000

ACTIVITIES	GRADE 3
ACTIVITIES	Commencement date	Completion date
Establishment of cluster schools Criteria According to geographical area/proximity Schools with similar circumstances and needs Schools complementing each other e.g. available resources Recommended size of cluster is 5 to 8 schools Districts to develop their own structure according to feasibility studies or needs Distribution of Curriculum 2005 policy documents	18 Jan 00	29 Feb 00
Follow-up workshops For public schools including farm schools Time table (suggested activity)	1 Feb 00	24 Mar 00
Workshop on planning a learning experience Learning experiences to be developed according to learning areas	10 April 00	23 June 00
Workshop on assessment Assessment policy Strategies Instruments	10 April 00	23 June 00
Workshop Recording Reporting Portfolio	1 Feb 00	24 Mar 00
Workshop Multi-grade classes for country schools	10 April 00	9 June 00
Follow-up school visits Multi-grade classes Sample schools Visits on invitation from schools Class visits	18 Jan 00	22 Sep 00
Monitoring of implementation Progress report Cluster meetings School visits	24 Mar 00	30 Nov 00
Workshop on progression schedule Progression schedule Portfolio	Mid Sep 00	11 Oct 00
Seminar for subject advisors Implementation of Curriculum 2005 Challenges Successes Way forward	20 Sept 00	21 Sept 00

Two three-day workshops were conducted for both practitioners and managers of 15 pilot schools. Curriculum Developers monitored the process on a daily basis. Subject advisers were trained by both the Department of Education and by the provincial department of education. Learning support materials were screened and a catalogue produced for schools to select materials. Some of the schools received learning support materials which were delivered to schools before the opening of schools.

The provincial department anticipated difficulties with the implementation of Curriculum 2005. These range from:

Some of these problems could be addressed by establishing communication networks for neighbouring schools, appointment of staff, approval of subsidised cars or provision of pool cars to districts to be used by subject advisors.

The report, however, did not give an indication of which problems had been solved. In general the province appears to have made adequate preparations for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7.

The provincial department was of the view that to prepare a well-defined report pertaining to the first two points of brief, would be presumptuous in view of the following variables:

All schools offering and teachers responsible for teaching Grade 3 were invited to participate in a three-day initial retraining course as Phase One of the WCED support training model. Courses were conducted on a decentralised basis at 79 venues allowing for language preferences. Approximately 1450 primary schools participated involving approximately 5 800 teachers. These courses were conducted during the second term from April to June 1999 to avoid overlap with the Grade 7 training during the third term. However, the impact of these training sessions on school management was limited.

Phase Three of the support training model, i.e. classroom visits, especially in struggling schools took place during the third and fourth terms. In addition, Phase Three of the support training model was employed by means of cluster meetings with teachers, conducted every afternoon from Monday to Thursday within the circuit context. A number of specialised workshops were held over weekends and during holidays to build head of departments’ capacity to manage the implementation process in the foundation phase.

All schools and teachers offering the Grade 7 curriculum were invited to participate in five day initial retraining courses of Phase One of the WCED support training model. A total of 400 courses were conducted on a decentralised basis at 82 venues allowing for language pretences.

Approximately 1450 primary schools participated involving approximately 4 500 teachers. These courses were conducted during the third term from June to September 1999. The impact of these training sessions on school management varied from limited to major disruptions.

Phase Three could not be activated as implementation commenced in January 2000. Phase Two was implemented on a limited scale in that specialised workshops were conducted during afternoons, over weekends or as one-day sessions within Learning Area contact.

In many instances, in both rural and urban areas, (in well-researched), many success stories are evident. This can be ascribed to a number of factors

Many schools are experiencing numerous problems in preparing for, and implementing Curriculum 2005. In a number of well-researched schools, both principals and teachers are finding it difficult to make the required paradigm shift. The reasons for this are diverse. Many schools have lost experienced and competent principals and teachers in the rationalisation process and therefore, sound leadership is lacking. The teacher: learner ratio is creating a new teaching environment, especially in rural areas, with multi-grade classes requiring innovative teaching practices and new skills.

In many schools in need, teacher absenteeism at afternoon cluster sessions is very evident. In these schools there are ineffective management and monitoring systems. These schools are also characterised by poor socio-economic and unsafe environments in which teaching and learning must take place, under-resourcing or poor management of allocated monetary funds, problems in understanding sophisticated curriculum concepts and language application used in the C2005 curriculum frameworks. The expectation of and responsibility placed on teachers to become innovative curriculum developers at micro level is beyond their capacity.

A provincial project is planned to build teachers’ capacity to address literacy and numeracy in the Foundation Phase. Appropriate guidelines relating generic issues such as assessment team teaching, co-operative learning, macro- and micro- planning and Learning Areas are under development. A master plan has been designed to provide support to schools. Phases Two, Three, Four and Five of the WCED training support model will be in operation whilst an audit is conducted during the first term to assess schools’ needs. Schools identified will receive special attention by special teams within the first three weeks of the first term. A limited number of specialist teams will address immediate needs of schools on request.

There has been much variation in the level of reporting on the preparedness for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grads 3 and 7 during the year 2000. Comments contained in the reports suggest that there was uncertainty on the part of the departments on what to report on or on how much content could be included. This in part may have contributed to the variation in the level of reporting.

The strategies employed by provincial departments in preparing teachers for the implementation of Grades 3 and 7 vary from province to province. Five provinces (Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape) appear to have planned and implemented the training of educators. It was not easy to assess the level of training received by educators in the Free State and Mpumalanga due to the inadequacy of reporting on plans and training strategies employed.

The level of preparedness in the Northern Province is cause for concern. It appears from the report of the Member of the Executive Council responsible for Education that the cascading model has not worked in this province. A few other provinces have made reference to the difficulties encountered with the model and have suggested alternative strategies that will be employed to influence improvements. However, in the case of the Northern Province there has been no clear report on what plans or strategies will be employed to improve the competency level of educators and support personnel in the regional or district offices. There are clearly pockets of expertise in the province, particularly in urban areas. These could be exploited through intra-provincial discussions and exchange of information in order to raise the level of preparedness and capacity of educators and support personnel.

The level of preparedness, competency and commitment among educators in all provinces will be clearer during monitoring visits by the Department of Education during the course of the year and from the report of the Curriculum Review Committee which the Minister of Education established in February 2000.

Grade	Western Region	Central Region	South Eastern	Eastern Region	North Eastern	North Region	Total
1	1253	1270	996	1527	1734	1217	7997
2	1211	1143	936	1356	1474	1077	7197
3	1165	1076	907	1356	1449	1040	6993
7	2129	2915	1223	2682	2494	0	10 643

EVALUATION OF THE PREPAREDNESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OFCURRICULUM 2005 IN GRADES 3 AND 7

Introduction