Improving the condition of schools located in rural parts of the country appears to be among the Basic Education Department’s main priorities. The department recently convened a meeting where it outlined how it has been working to execute this through a pilot project that is partly funded by entities in the private sector.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) recently held a meeting on Friday last week, in which it discussed how the draft framework on rural education is currently being implemented.
This is an effort on the part of the department to maintain high standards of education in all of the country’s schools, especially those that are found in rural locations by the South African Schools Act.
The Act states that all learners should have access to the same quality of learning and teaching and equal educational opportunities.
While speaking during an interview, the Department’s Director of Rural Education, Dr Phumzile Langa stated that one of the challenges they often face includes poor performance in school subjects such as mathematics as well as those related to languages which negatively affects the reading abilities of learners.
She further points out that as a directorate, they have sourced private funding which has enabled the department to implement the Edulution Project. The Edulution Project, according to Langa, uses technology to improve performance in mathematics during the foundation phase in primary schools and it has been going well since its implementation.
The pilot project was initially implemented in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and its implementation proved to be a success.
The project has since expanded and is currently being implemented in Mpumalanga in the Tanzania district and due to the project’s mass performance in schools where it has been implemented, it is drastically improving and the department presented the results.
One of the project’s most impressive results, according to the Director, is that foundation phase students will write books where they recount their stories and get them published.
Agricultural schools have been praised for the skills they impart to the students. The department already has a sample of a couple of them and that they are ready to share them with the country.
