Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Basic

Education4 May 2010

Development of Workbooks

FFL PILLARS

EVIDENCEAssessments

SUPPORTDocuments &Training

Te

ac

hi

ng

Le

ar

ni

ng

A s s e s s m e n t

Presentation OutlineA. Current state of performance in literacy /

numeracy Evidence from public schools Major predictors of performance

B. Strategy to address the literacy / numeracy challenge

Priorities and measurement

The Department is increasingly strengthening measurement to provide credible evidence to inform necessary interventions and support and improve performance in literacy and numeracy as important foundational skills.

Achievement of high quality learning outcomes is periodically measured against contextual factors of access, equity and quality that might impact on learning and teaching.

National priority at the basic education level is on literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics and these are monitored through periodic systemic evaluations and annual national assessments.

Observations from 2009 ANA results

The overall results in 2009 at grade 3 level indicate a slight improvement in both Literacy (41%) and Numeracy (44%) while the performance at grade 6 level remain relatively low with 35% in Language and 33% in Mathematics.

Major Predictors of Performance

Key predictors and the “percentage difference (diff.) they account for ” in learner achievement:-

Teaching practices (passive versus interactive learner participation) (diff. = 59%)

Language of learning and teaching (diff. = 49%)

School resources (diff. = 49%)Access to learning materials (diff. = 28%)Time-on-task (diff. = 20%)

SUPPORT TO THE SUPPORT TO THE SYSTEMSYSTEM

Support to the SystemThrough the Foundations for Learning

Programme, the department has provided teachers and schools with the following:

(a)The Government Gazette 30880 that clearly spells out expectations in respect of i) basic targets by 2011; ii) essential daily classroom activities to promote necessary skills and competencies; iii) basic resources necessary; iv) assessment of learner performance;

(b) document support in the form of Assessment Frameworks (milestones) that assist teachers to monitor learner progress in these critical areas.

They contain milestones (knowledge and skills) derived from the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Standards of the National Curriculum Statement and have been paced across the four terms;

Quarterly Assessment Activities that support teachers by providing good exemplars of assessment items as well as assisting teachers to track learner performance at the end of each term, thus ensuring coverage of key milestones per term.

Lesson Plans for Literacy and Numeracy (Grades1-6) that ensure full coverage of the curriculum and give guidance on planning and assessment.

Workbooks The necessary next step in intensifying

support to teachers and learners, as we work towards improving literacy and numeracy performance, is to provide learners with workbooks in all official languages aligned to the lesson plans provided to teachers.

The content of the workbooks will be informed by the key knowledge and skills that learners need to acquire in the specific grades.

Purpose of Workbooks The purpose of the workbooks is to: provide schools and teachers with good

quality activities and ideas that portray good practice that will assist them, in the long term to emulate such practice;

offer learners the opportunity to experience acquisition and application of skills in a systematic way;

ensure that learners are given adequate opportunities to consolidate their skills through written responses;

Purpose of Workbooks cont….

ensure that schools lacking photocopying facilities will be supported ;

model good practice, guiding teachers to improve their teaching;

provide a variety of activities to reinforce (a) mathematical concepts and skills, and, (b) literacy / language skills;

help teachers to monitor learner performance in key activities; and

prepare learners for the formats used in various standardized assessments.

Scope of workTwo workbooks (literacy and numeracy) for

Grades 1-6Twelve workbooks in total200 activity sheets per book (1 activity

sheet per day)Development in English and then

translation into 10 languagesTranslation of Lesson Plans into 10

languages

Scope of work: Number of learners per grade per language distribution

  AFR Eng Nde Sep Sotho Setsw Siswat Tshv Xho Xitson Zulu Other Braille

Gr R 47189 113381 4933 70100 22611 38860 12111 17809 136010 22452 151884 199 58

637597Gr 1 105201 238887 8369 95918 47060 88750 21387 21424 187082 32514 258278 382 127

1105379Gr 2 94685 230370 7410 90215 41543 82006 18879 21329 157950 31688 219277 411 101

995864Gr 3 95034 272186 6931 90385 37457 76984 16712 22566 144913 31364 201198 401 94

996225Gr 4 108379 830551 2405 5407 9935 18434 2730 1457 13861 3924 19798 359 35

1017275Gr 5 107754 836255 2092 4325 7425 16176 2624 1763 8874 2926 14454 363 3

1004974Gr 6 111491 839694 2216 4156 5911 15181 2506 1693 8425 2803 14267 341 2

1008686 669733 3361324 34356 360506 171942 336391 76949 87981 657115 127671 879156 2458 420 6762136

Process to be followedAppointment of a team of curriculum

experts / materials developers / translators to develop the workbooks for learners in grades 1-6 for Literacy / Language and Numeracy / Mathematics and translate Lesson Plans.

Identification by NGO’s and HEIs with strong Foundation / Intermediate Phase curriculum personnel, lesson plan writers and teachers.

Time framesThe whole process from development to

delivery to school will take five months.Workbooks and lesson plans in all official

languages will be in schools by end August/mid September 2010.

THANK YOU