Public Administration News
Share
 |
The School that the Whole Community Built |
| Source: |
Education Week |
| Source Date: |
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
|
| Country: |
South Africa |
| Created: |
Aug 31, 2011 |
|
Indisputable evidence
"The evidence is now beyond dispute: children succeed not only in school but also in life if parents are involved with their schooling," Ndebele said. He described his own research into parental involvement at 40 Gauteng schools, saying his investigation considers criteria that include communication, parenting at home, student learning, volunteering, school decision-making and collaboration with the community.
Based on his findings, he recommended that a school-family partnership course be part of every teacher-training curriculum in South Africa.
Universities are also part of what is meant by the "communities" that should support schools, said Dr Al Witten of the Centre for the Community School at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He described how his university works with the Eastern Cape's Manyano community schools network.
"Because schooling is complex, we need the collaborative commitment of the community as a whole," Witten said. "We should think about the community beyond geography, though, and involve individuals or organisations that support schools, wherever they may be," he said. He called for the development of school leaders who span boundaries and build common purpose by focusing on teaching and learning and getting others to support that.
One such leader is Lamile Faltein, principal of Limekhaya High School in Uitenhage's Kwa-Langa township in the Eastern Cape. Speaking after Witten, he said the school burned down in 1976 and was rebuilt in 1995.
At first its matric results were terrible, which made him think that "there must be challenges I don't know about", Faltein said. That inspired him to devise questionnaires that he asked former learners at Limekhaya High to complete. The answers revealed that the matric exams these learners had written contained questions about subjects the teachers had been unable to teach.
Faltein asked the teachers: "Why did you not ask for help? Look at the damage you've done!" He invited experts to ensure his staff had the knowledge base necessary for their subjects. Teachers at Limekhaya are now formally accountable to the school governing body and himself and Faltein has instituted measures such as his own class visits to monitor teachers' lesson preparation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Tag This |
The School that the Whole Community Built Communities need to support the schools that serve them if solutions to South Africa's education crisis are to emerge This was the repeated message at the third in the Teachers Upfront series which Wits University's school of education hosted on August 2 The series is a four-way partnership between Wits the University of Johannesburg's education faculty the Bridge network and the Mail Guardian The need for parents to involve themselves closely in their children's schooling is being repeatedly emphasised now in South African education research said Misheck Ndebele education lecturer at Wits Lots of improvement in attendance achievement and participation can be attributed to the involvement of parents and a close co-operation between schools and families he said speaking first at last week's meeting
 Tell A Friend |
 del.icio.us digg this Slashdot |
| Rate: |
0 ratings
|
Views: |
102 |
| Comments: |
0 |
Bookmarked: |
0 |
Tagged: |
0 |
|
|
|
|