On Tuesday, learners returned to classrooms after the winter break and the Western Cape Education Department has announced that they will be adding extra time to the curriculum.
This extra time will be specifically for Maths and Reading subjects for pupils in the foundation phase in hopes to catch up on the learning losses caused by the pandemic.
Education MEC David Maynier made the announcement during a visit to Boundary Primary School in Bonteheuwel on Tuesday.
“We are going to allocate an additional hour for Mathematics and additional 2 hours for reading per learner in the foundation phase” says MEC Maynier.
Maynier says that they will be monitoring this project throughout the school calendar.
Although there haven’t been many dropout cases, they are alarmed by recent data that shows declines in Maths and Reading for grade 3 leaners.
“When comparing systemic test results from 2019 and 2021, Grade 3 pass rates in maths had declined by 13.8 percentage points, and language by 8.0.”
The impact the lockdown had on rotational education system put severe strain on the learning processes in many if not all schools during the pandemic. Teachers were tasked with playing catch up and this raised many concerns for teaching staff.
“That was a great challenge because whatever you taught over the day that they were present, you had to reteach the next time they came. This delayed any progress that was made.” says Henriette Fritz, Head Of Department of the Foundation Phase at Boundary Primary School.
Teachers are hopeful that these extra sessions will be beneficial to their learners and could assist in bridging the gaps that were brought about by Covid-19.
Members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) are concerned that prioritising certain subjects will compromise the rest of the curriculum and that the department should suggest a better way forward.
Jonovan Rustin SADTU Provincial Secretary says:
“We are also concerned about the numeracy and our languages but what we are saying is that lets not compromise the other part of the curriculum where we are developing skills for Mathematics and Reading.”
The Western Cape is set to commence this pilot project during the third and fourth terms of the current school year and has emphasised that the intervention will not increase the length of the school day.
