Article: New chapter in schools curriculum

Fazda said:
So, scrap the bloody system, as it's simply not working. The old Bantu Education had a better success rate!...
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Have to agree but also keep in mind that those most influential in creating the current education system came mostly from that Bantu education system and their perception of quality education is not the same as whites from that period. I'm white and my kids will always have an educational advantage over their non-white friends and class mates because of my & my wifes educational background. Its sad that it is like this as good education is a right and its something I preach all the time.
 
Bantu Education was good enough for 90% of our politicians....had they been through the mess that is OBE, the majority of them would be semi literate!
 
(@) (@) twister said:
Can't they just bring back Bantu education and give it a new fancy name - will be an improvement on the current system...
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Bantu education for who? Why not the other system. Whatever it was that was reserved for white people and those deemed above others.
 
R13... said:
Bantu education for who? Why not the other system. Whatever it was that was reserved for white people and those deemed above others.
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yup ... never understood why we couldn't just keep that system that really did work out pretty well for whiteys
 
Palimino said:
They did! For technical issues, this is perhaps the best option as they don’t really depend on reading & writing skills to be useful. SA is (arguably) woefully short of technical skills. I don’t think it would generalise well into other areas. Mentorship perhaps?
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Mentorship = Apprenticeship. Seriously... think about it ... someone who knows how to do the job (used to call them journeymen), takes you under their wing and teaches you the ropes. Once they deem you up to the task you have to prove to an independent body that you really can do the job through some kind of assessment and then you get a qualification . - Translates perfectly into any area
 
McSack said:
yup ... never understood why we couldn't just keep that system that really did work out pretty well for whiteys
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:erm: Because it's associated with white people and like a lot of other things not cool or using it might make those in power feel inferior for adopting it.

Makes me angry, the NATS started this schit and the ANC is trying to outdo them at their own game.
 
R13... said:
Bantu education for who?
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Initially it was actually pretty good. When the idiot nats started the system they budgeted a lot of money for it and black education received more money than ever before, unfortunately though the funding did not keep pace with the population increase. And contrary to popular believe maths was actually a taught subject.

Either way I reckon we will be better of with the system used prior to '94 which is also what I went through.
 
Having spent many years teaching and then working with rural schools since 2007, there is no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that a return to the pre 94 Education system as used in the white/Model C schools would have done wonders for the kids of today. The teachers in the rural areas actually understand the 'old' system rather than the system of acronyms shoved down their throats with OBE.

They understand that a teacher is there to teach children rather than wafting around the classroom hoping that the kids understand the acronyms and exactly what they are supposed to be teaching themselves, because they sure as hell don't!

Instead the Education department has destroyed the spirit of thousands of teachers since 94, as well as made pretty damned sure that those poor kids who had to go the OBE route have a worse 'education' than Bantu Education ever dished out.

I just wonder how many more attempts at re-inventing the wheel it will take before these idiots actually hit on a constructive system, and start educating children once more.
 
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People tend not to realize that the United States had the highest literacy rate in the world... with absolutely no government education. It was an industrious and prosperous republic long before the notion of public schooling (based on the socialist model of militarist Prussia) ever caught on. Today the United States government spends more and is more directly involved in education than ever before... And the results are plain for all to see.

Sorry fellas, but this is Hayek's 'pretense of knowledge' run rampant. Government is not the solution; and neither are these individual hair-brained schemes for "improvement".
 
Hard Rain said:
Today the United States government spends more and is more directly involved in education than ever before... And the results are plain for all to see.
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So true. And they spend 6 times what they spend on education on defense - and look where their army is now!
 
McSack said:
Mentorship = Apprenticeship.
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No, they’re different. It’s feasible to redesign the traditional apprenticeship program for illiterates. The possible mentorship application assumes a literate candidate. They will have to read, write and understand instructions, send memos and so on. It is a different class of training and the traditional apprenticeship programs are inappropriate. I was speculating if a form of mentorship (as you have defined it) may be more appropriate.
 
Fazda said:
Bantu Education was good enough for 90% of our politicians....had they been through the mess that is OBE, the majority of them would be semi literate!
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And they’re not semi literate? You are blaming OBE for current educational shortcomings. OBE is not the killer. Its crappy teaching (from ignorant teachers mostly in rural areas) and the ‘teachers’ (I use the term loosely) should definitely be blamed and held accountable for the mess. OBE is not implemented properly in SA. It smells of an educational theoretician tasked with “define an educational system suitable for SA”. They did. Not their fault if the implementers are too useless to implement it properly. OBE could work if there were any people with the remotest clue about how to implement it, taking into consideration the useless, illiterate implementers. It tends to be vocationally oriented. Good evaluation questions are the key (to test outcomes) and derived directly from the objectives. **Nothing** would work in SA. You are using OBE as a scapegoat. “We would all be rocket scientists if OBE wasn’t used”. Using your logic ANY education system would be a failure in SA. Teachers and educationalists are just covering their butts by blaming OBE. Massive student failure = inadequate teaching (and comprehension) of OBE = “Let’s blame OBE and return to the safe regurgitation of material”.

Think about OBE with all the mystifying jargon stripped away (I’m so clever that I don’t even understand what I am saying). You formalise the pre-requisites required to form the learning foundation for the following year (objectives), you test them (pass/fail), you generate the lesson content required to pass the test. That’s it! Easy peasy and better than the random, hit-and-miss heuristics of traditional teaching.

A good book to have available is ‘Handbook for Developing Competency Based Training Programs’ by William E. Blank (ISBN – 0-13-377416-3).

Definition - **Competency = Outcome.**
 
Palimino said:
OBE is not the killer. Its crappy teaching (from ignorant teachers mostly in rural areas) and the ‘teachers’ (I use the term loosely) should definitely be blamed and held accountable for the mess.
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Let's continue blaming teachers for a moment.

Why do you think teachers are so bad, especially in the rural areas?

Are you differentiating between teachers of different colours?

What do you think of new graduates?
 
Fazda said:
I just wonder how many more attempts at re-inventing the wheel it will take before these idiots actually hit on a constructive system, and start educating children once more.
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The world has got more complex since the **old** system. You are assuming that the world has remained static and all that is required is to go back to the **old**system. I think the old teaching paradigm is obsolete. OBE is an attempt to standardise on education and address new issues. Instead, SA is going backwards. In any event, the OLD system required a motivated student body and non-idiot teachers. SA doesn’t have that and there is a constant pressure to ‘transform’ (read ‘dumb-down).
 
There may be a misunderstanding of what OBE is. It is not a curriculum but a didactic METHODOLOGY. It’s on the same level as lectures (one to many interaction), chalk-and-talk (traditional teaching), Computer Based Training (CBT), role playing, etc. It is a framework into which a curriculum (of any subject) fits. A framework only! A tool (like a typewriter). A typewriter does not produce a bestseller by itself or a sub-standard manuscript. That depends on the author (Edu. Dept.). The typewriter is a tool enabling a task to be accomplished. Same with OBE. It’s a tool, a skeleton into which any curriculum can be inserted. The venom directed at OBE should be directed at the inadequate curriculums. You are shooting the messenger. OBE just presents the information it is given in a certain manner – inadequate information in the SA case and everyone is blaming OBE. It just formalises and enables the evaluation (far better than the ‘old’ way IMO) of the school curriculum.
 
Palimino as a person who is not a practising teacher, your arrogance never cease to amaze me.
 
Picard said:
Let's continue blaming teachers for a moment.

Why do you think teachers are so bad, especially in the rural areas?

Are you differentiating between teachers of different colours?

What do you think of new graduates?
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“Why do you think teachers are so bad, especially in the rural areas?”
Because they received an inferior education (from bad teachers) who privileged the mere regurgitation of facts without understanding or comprehension.

“Are you differentiating between teachers of different colours?”
Essentially, yes. The bad teachers in rural areas were (are) overwhelmingly black.

“What do you think of new graduates?”
Not overly impressed. Not their fault really.
 
Fazda said:
Palimino as a person who is not a practising teacher, your arrogance never cease to amaze me.
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Be amazed then. Do you fondly believe that a ‘practicing teacher’ is more qualified to pronounce on issues (which in many cases) they know nothing about? I am totally underwhelmed at the standard of many teachers and they should, on no account, be let loose on defenceless children.
 
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