“Grade 4 to 7 educators will be provided with lesson plans for each term as well as quarterly learner assessments. This will reduce the workload of educators and allow them to spend more time with learners,” Creecy announced.

Last year, the department launched the literacy strategy in Grades 1 to 3 and Creecy reported that learners are already improving their understanding of phonics, reading and writing, and also beginning to enjoy mathematics as they grasp key counting and computational skills.

Through the strategy, learners from Grade 3 will participate in a catch-up programme to get them up to speed with the knowledge they will require in Grade 4, they will also receive graded readers and phonics programme.

The department will recruit 460 coaches to support literacy and numeracy in primary schools, where they will visit educators in classrooms at least twice a month.

Creecy encouraged educators to think of a coach as a critical friend, assuring them that they are not there to supervise them and they will still report to their HODs and principals.

“They are there to assist you with applying the training you have received into your classroom situation with its own particular complexities such as overcrowding or learners who have not eaten breakfast,” Creecy said.

She further encouraged educators to prepare for their classes, share their success and challenges with coaches.

The 2010/11 ANA results showed that in Grade 6, 23 percent of learners had the necessary knowledge of mathematics and 29 percent had achieved language skills, meaning that between 70 percent and 80 percent of learners go to secondary school having partially achieved or not achieved language and mathematics skills. 

The department target is to raise this to 60 percent of learners by 2014.