Changes to the Outcomes Based curriculum (OBE) are already being implemented and local township teachers are welcoming the changes, hoping that the new curriculum will help learners with literacy and numeracy.
Changes to the Outcomes Based curriculum (OBE) are already being implemented and local township teachers are welcoming the changes, hoping that the new curriculum will help learners with literacy and numeracy.
Although most changes will only be implemented next year. Grades 3, 6 and 9 learners wrote the new exams in June.
The Grahamstown Department of Education (DoE) has distributed daily lesson plans and programmes for all learning areas to schools.
“I have taught in the old days and I think the education system is going back to how we were teaching before OBE was introduced,” said Ngoqo Nomvula, a Grade 6 teacher at Makana Primary School.
She added that they are now following a different programme and the daily lesson plans make it easier for teachers to do their work.
She maintains that teachers are no longer confused and demotivated. “Even the laziest teacher finds it easy to do the work,” she said.
According to the May edition of the DoE newsletter, Curriculum News, the common exam paper will focus mostly on the critical introductory skills of literacy and numeracy which are essential to learning
The national minister of the Department of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, who sets the exams, hopes to improve numeracy and literacy levels of Grade 3 and 6 learners from the current average of between 27% and 38% to 60% by 2014.
Zodwa Santi, a Grade 3 teacher at NV Cewu Primary School admitted that even though the common paper was easy to follow, learners in Grades 3 and 6 struggled with the June paper because they were not used to sitting for exams.
“The good thing is that teachers are compelled to work harder and the common programme pressurises them to complete the prescribed work before learners write the common exam,” said Santi.
When asked if they see any changes in learner performance since the inception of the common exam, both Santi and Nqobo said it was still too early to tell but they believe that learners will improve their reading and writing skills.
Mboyo Nomvuyo, a Grade 9 teacher at TEM Mrwetyana Secondary School welcomed the move by the department to discontinue CTA (Common Task for Assessments) for Grade 9s.
“CTA was confusing us as we were not clearly guided on what to cover and the questions were difficult to interpret,” said Mboyo.
She added that the new common exam is better because educators know exactly what to cover and it allows them to remain focused.
The only setback is the fact that the programmes and daily lesson plans were delivered late to schools – in March – while teachers were already following their own programmes.
“I had three months to cover six months of work and initiated afternoon classes to catch up,” said Nqobo. Teachers are allowed to adjust the departmental lesson plans to suit their classrooms or to use their own lesson plan, as long as they are in line with the new programme.
Since the inception of the common exams, teaching and learning is improving in Grahamstown’s township schools.
