In a radio interview in 2014 Max Du
Preez spoke to Brian O’Connell on RSG about the education situation
in South Africa. Brian in that interview said: “Because South
African children these days have only 20 % of the resources that
white kids had before 1994, we must become incredible in teaching
large classes.”
I was very intrigued by this statement,
not completely convinced that it is realistic to hope or pray for
something like that. The end of last year though, I met a couple
from the USA who have been working in a Township School in Cape Town.
There they developed a method how to teach CAPS-Maths in the primary
level in large classes, who has proven to be very successful. The key
they say is that learners get a lot of time to practice in the
classroom, without the fear of making a mistake.
Two schools in Jeffrey's Bay have now
committed to learn this method. This makes me extremely hopeful. If
we can introduce this method to more and more schools, what positive
influence will this be able to bring about in our educational system.
Now, I also have hope that there might
be a method to teach reading in large classes, without leaving a
large percentage of learners behind. If you, as a teacher, have a
method that has been working in classes of 40/45+ in the area of
teaching reading, please share that with us.
Evelyn
