South Africa’s largest multigrade teacher training programme, spearheaded by CPUT academics, is changing the face of teaching.

Earlier this year academics at the Centre for Multigrade Education, rolled out a large-scale teacher training programme, aimed at transforming teaching methods at multigrade schools.

Although close to three million learners attend multigrade schools, training of teachers in this unique teaching environment has remained unaddressed, resulting in the poor academic performance of learners.

However, the delivery of education in these schools, primarily located in rural areas, is being transformed, with the help of CPUT academics who are at the forefront of multigrade education. Although only several months into the training programme, schools are already reporting a significant change in their classrooms.

Adrienne van As, a researcher at the Wellington based centre, said the course covers various aspects of multigrade teaching from classroom management to reading skills.

“It is an intense short-course, consisting of several contact sessions. There is the orientation session, several on-site training sessions, which are then followed by implementation of the methods in the classroom,” said van As.

According to the researchers, multigrade teachers have a tougher task than their counterparts at conventional graded schools. The multigrade classroom is labour intensive and requires more planning and professional development than the conventional classroom. Teachers have to write multiple lesson plans for each day, set up multiple tests and have the appropriate management skills to address learners’ individual needs.

However, van As said with the appropriate skills provided through the training programme, teachers can now better facilitate teaching in multigrade classrooms.

Due to the success of the initiative, Van As said the training programme, which is being funded by the Department of Education, will continue next year. Already a large number of schools have been identified to participate in the 2012 training programme.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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Despite explicit evidence on the existence of multigrade schools, official education policies in many developing and developed countries remain silent on this issue.

In South Africa, where three million children receive instruction in multigrade classrooms, government education policies make no mention of these schools.

The absence of multigrade education policies was one of many concerns highlighted at the Southern African Multigrade Education Conference, held in Paarl from 22 to 24 March 2010.

The conference, hosted by the CPUT Centre for Multigrade Education (CMGE) in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Association for Development of Education Africa (ADEA), was attended by more than 100 local and international delegates.

The conference was a first of its kind and created an opportunity for researchers, government officials, activists and teachers to debate, share lessons learnt and plot a way forward for multigrade education.

In multigrade classrooms, which are common in rural areas, a teacher teaches several grades in one classroom. These teachers are not trained to facilitate multigrade classrooms, have little support from government and often no resources.

Virgilio Juvane, Education Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat and Coordinator of the ADEA Working Group on the Teaching Profession, who was one of several keynote speakers, said nothing concrete is being done by governments to address the challenges these schools face.

“Educational management systems do not include data on multigrade schools. In most cases, educational policy makers and planners… are still largely unaware of the number of multigrade schools in their country.”

Juvane said the absence of policies, research and data makes is difficult to improve the planning and delivery of multigrade teaching.

CMGE Director Dr Jurie Joubert shared results of a baseline study on multigrade education in South Africa. The study revealed that there is an indifference towards rural people amongst government officials, resulting from a strong urban bias on the part of politicians and policy makers, while officials in most district offices are poorly informed and trained in multigrade pedagogies.

The study also revealed that teachers are not trained to teach in multigrade classrooms, nor is the curriculum conducive for these settings.

Dr Joubert said although multigrade education is “dismissed by policymakers as a second class option”, there is growing evidence from around the globe that well-supported multigrade techniques can result in positive education experiences.

In Columbia, the Escuela Nueva (new school) Foundation, has transformed local multigrade schools.

Head of the foundation, Vicky Colbert, who addressed delegates at the conference said: “Escuela Nueva is one of the longest bottom-up innovations that has been sustained and has impacted national policy.”

The programme promotes child-centred, participatory and cooperative learning as well as a relevant curriculum based on learners’ daily lives, flexible systems of promotion and a new role for the teacher as a facilitator of learning. The programme has been adopted as a national policy by the Columbian government.

A similar project, run by the Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources in India, has benefited 7.9 million children.

Reflecting on these successful examples and debates, delegates formulated a generic Multigrade Policy and rollout strategy at the conference. The policy provides guidelines for the implementation of multigrade teaching, training of teachers and other strategies which governments must put in place to ensure quality multigrade education.

It is envisioned that delegates will adapt the policy to suit their countries’ needs and lobby government for rollout.

By Candes Keating

Photographs: (top) Virgilio Juvane, Prof Jan den Akker, Gisela Siririka, Dr Jurie Joubert of the CMGE and Padmanabha Ra (bottom right) A multigrade classroom

Written by CPUT News
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After months of hard work CPUT’s Centre for Multigrade Education has released their first e-journal.

Titled the “South African Rural Educator” the journal provides a forum where researchers in rural and multigrade education, are able to publish and share their research findings, experiences, lesson plans, best practices and case studies.

Head of the centre, Dr Jurie Joubert, says with 50% of Africa’s children in multigrade classrooms, people are well aware of the challenges facing this sector. To ensure an improvement in these classroom, Joubert says those in the education sector must share experiences so that solutions can be found.

“The journal aims to stimulate research, debate and action towards providing quality education to rural learners, especially in multigrade classrooms, in South Africa and in other countries. As such, it will be an important starting point to establish multigrade education as an academic discipline in South Africa,” says Joubert.

Last year the centre put out a call for researchers and practitioners to contribute to the journal and was overwhelmed with the response.

As a result, they were able to put together a 94-page journal that delves into various issues in the rural and multigrade education sector, from curriculum to the role of principals.

To view the journal visit: http://www.cmge.co.za/ejournal

Joubert urged researchers and practitioners in this sector to share their research in future editions of the e-journal.

He says this is just one way of ensuring quality education in the 21st-century multigrade classroom.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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