Earlier this year, hundreds of generous Makhandans donated 520 memory cards packed with rich learning resources to matrics in local no-fee paying schools. In this opinion piece, TRISTAN COOKE asks why the state is leaving it up to citizens to unlock the huge potential of the digital revolution for public education. COVID-19 severely disrupted last year’s Grade 11’s. And as they entered matric at the start of this year, they were desperate for any support to help them catch up. Digital learning resources are abundant, hanging in the ‘cloud’ in the form of study guides, video lessons and past…
Author: Rod Amner
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Hundreds of Makhanda parents are discovering that they don’t need to decode the written word to share books with their children, reports JESSICA FELDTMAN Emodeen Heathcote sets two blankets down on the living room floor of her small house in Ghost Town, Makhanda. Brandon, her three-year-old son, toddles into the room carefully, trying not to drop the numerous books locked in his arms. He grins at his mother as he plonks himself down on the blanket next to her and lays the books at her feet. His eyes gleam with excitement as his mother picks up a colourful book without…
Gadra’s pioneering matric school considers expanding to other EC cities writes MOEKETSI MOGALE The Gadra Matric School’s (GMS) lockdown teaching experiences may have opened the way for its expansion into other parts of the Eastern Cape. Gadra Education manager Dr Ashley Westaway said GMS’s online teaching experiments in April and May were “sufficiently positive and interesting for us to think that it might be possible to expand in the future”. Many potential GMS learners from other parts of the province cannot afford a year of rent and other living expenses in Makhanda away from home. “The pandemic has made us,…
By JESS FELDTMAN and LAURA DU TOIT The heat bears down on Sun City as a white car emblazoned with the Lebone Centre’s logo crawls along the rutted, filth-strewn street. Alongside the vehicle traipse three people wearing matching red shirts, hefting cardboard boxes. A rubbish dump forms the precarious foundations of Sun City; tin shacks and crumbling walls provide shade for dust-streaked children and their scrawny dogs. As the car makes its way through the community, faces appear at the windows and curious children gather in their yards. Every couple of metres, the Lebone convoy is called to a halt,…
By CAYLA MANDEAN The 2020 matric class that started exams on 5 November is the largest ever. In a statement this week, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) urged South Africans to rally behind all 1 058 699 candidates. Despite the extraordinary circumstances, the DBE said the Class of 2020 would be examined at the same high standards as in previous years. The exam papers were set by the Department in 2019, and have not been adjusted in any way. The last exam is scheduled for 15 December. The DBE said the education sector had employed resourceful measures, to ensure…
By POELO KETA A coalition of intrepid volunteers, spearheaded by the Rhodes University Canoe Club, waded into the heavy litter on Cobden Street recently. After being approached by the Canoe Club, Lisa Gaybba from the Makana Revive office organized a skip with the assistance of Marius Lombard from SKIPGO. Refuse bags and gloves were provided by Forever Pure Water. The caring canoeists, who also tackled the Fingo area last year, are determined to make the clean-ups a more regular occurrence. Club chairman, Chris Matthews said he hoped to organise monthly clean-ups at different areas. “Then anyone in the community can…
The Eastern Cape education department plans to shell out R538m to an Iqbal Survé subsidiary to lease tablets for 55 000 Grade 12s. That’s R9 781 per learner. Meanwhile, a small group of Rhodes University staff and students are downloading a wealth of free digital learning resources and hand-delivering them to parents and children in their homes. The cost is under R100 per child. Three journalism students, Tristan Cooke, Dylan Coetzee, and Pfunzo Ralinana, report on their lockdown service-learning project. Our cargo is tiny; a micro SD card only 15mm x 11mm x 1mm, about the size of a fingernail.…
By NASI HAKO Committed staff at Makhanda’s independent and fee-paying public schools have gone to extraordinary lengths to prepare their schools for the return of learners from this week. The schools surveyed by Grocott’s last week reported that the necessary protocols and equipment were in place for the safe return of learners, following months of online learning and weeks of intensive planning. In stark contrast, no personal protective equipment (cloth masks) for learners were available at four public schools on Monday 1 June when a delegation led by Makana Mayor Mzukisi Mpahlwa visited them. “No PPE for support staff and learners…
By JESSICA FELTMAN Anxiety is growing over the readiness of Eastern Cape for the reopening of schools Monday 8 June. Speaking on a Thursday webinar titled Back to School: Can the school year be saved? education commentator Prof Jonathan Jansen said the overloaded CAPS curriculum and loss of time means that the 2020 academic year “cannot be salvaged”. He said it would be wiser to end formal schooling for 2020 and have a more relaxed approach to teaching while focusing on a creating a hybrid-curriculum for 2021. This was “a more promising alternative due to the chaotic, mismanagement of the reopening…
By JESSICA FELTMAN and LAURA DU TOIT With schools closed for over two months, parents in poorer Eastern Cape households have been forced to juggle their duties as breadwinners with the new challenge of teaching their children. Many have done this with limited access to literacy materials and data, exacerbating the already-huge chasms in the schooling system. A number of local literacy organisations have partnered with parents to support productive and creative learning spaces for their children under lockdown. They have distributed resources to the doorsteps of hundreds of homes, built WhatsApp networks and facilitated access to zero-rated websites. Anna…