City pupils to benefit from ‘living lab project’

THE WESTERN Cape Education Department (WCED) has launched a new pilot project, aimed at improving the language and maths performance of Grade R to 3 pupils at 105 schools.

The department’s spokesman, Paddy Attwell, said the living lab project was launched following studies in primary schools that identified issues that needed to be addressed.

The studies were conducted by the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (Needu), UCT and Stellenbosch University. Needu identified various challenges, including teachers grappling with subject knowledge, the curriculum and effective teaching methods.

The studies also looked at schools that are achieving better results than other schools in the same area.

Attwell said the department would fast-track the provision of education technology at the schools, as part of the provincial government’s eLearning game changer programme.

“The WCED will introduce technology in stages, starting with 42 of the schools that will each receive trolleys of tablets preloaded with education software. The software will include Talking Stories, an innovative South African reading programme.”

He said that for security reasons, the tablets would carry the department’s logo, embedded chips for classroom and device management, and a lock-down facility that would render the tablets useless in case of theft.

The department would provide Early Grade Reading Assessment toolkits to the schools to help them diagnose reading challenges.

“The WCED will work in collaboration with Shine, an NGO, to offer family and parent workshops in all of the participating schools.”