Question NW104 to the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
02 March 2022 - NW104
Nodada, Mr BB to ask the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1) Whether her department has any programmes and/or workshops that intend to upskill and improve the professional development of teachers nationwide; if not, who is responsible for the training and continued professional development of teachers after they have graduated and qualified; if so, (a) how is the success of the specified programmes measured and (b) what is the success rate of the programmes; (2) whether her department has any public-private partnerships with education training institutions in order to provide professional development workshops to teachers in the country; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) whether she will furnish Mr B B Nodada with a list of programmes that are currently underway in each province; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
Question 1: The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has a number of programmes and/or workshops that intend to upskill and improve the professional development of teachers nationwide. Together with provinces, DBE developed a three-year plan which highlights all national priority programmes. These programmes and implemented by all provinces and monitored quarterly by the Department. The success of these programmes is monitored by subject advisors as they regularly visit schools. Tracking of learner participation and performance in provinces through the NSLA has an indirect way of assessing teacher programmes. The DBE has further just developed impact assessment tools which will used as from 2022 to determine the impact Teacher Development programmes.
Question 2: The Department has 133 District Teacher Development Centres and 9 Provincial Teacher Development Institutes which are used as hubs for Continuing Professional Teacher Development. The DBE also collaborates with Teacher Unions to deliver DBE priority programmes. The Department further works with the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) to delivery the Primary School Reading Programme to General Education and Training (GET) teachers. A number of partners such as Sasol Foundation for Coding and Robotics, Siyavula for Maths and Sciences, Cisco, SchoolNet and Vodacom for ICT programmes and Higher Education Institutions such Wits and University of Johannesburg in ICTs and Maths programmes and UNISA for Coding and Robotics.
Question 3: As indicated in Question1, the Department will share the 3- year plan for Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD). The Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) have a range of programmes covering a wide scope of subjects and grades. Some of the DBE initiated programmes are
* Support for Further Education and Training (FET) Accounting and Economics teachers
* Support for Senior Phase Mathematics and Natural Sciences