Focus Area 2 aims to help rural multigrade schools – a total of 7000 predominantly foundation phase schools, with perhaps a total of three million learners nationally, and where drop-out rates are close to 80 percent - deal with the varying abilities of learners and different grades in one classroom, as this facility has not evolved in this country, and for that matter, in sub-Saharan Africa. Multigrade teaching refers to settings where a single teacher has sole responsibility for two or more grades of learners simultaneously.
Funds allocated to this focus area amount to R22m, nearly 15% of the total project funds, and 100% of funds in this priority area, all of which are directed to Centre for Multigrade Education.
Focus Area 2: Rural Education
R (m's)
R (m's) to Dec 2010
% of Total
R’s to date/R’s total (%)
CMGE
22
9.88
14.7
44.9
Table: SEEDS Consortium Focus Area 210
The review of activities and performance of CMGE in the focus area of rural education follows a two-fold method as already outlined. In the first section of the review, we present the results of the Management Survey; section 2 presents the results of the Survey of Beneficiaries.
SECTION ONE: FOCUS AREA 2
Section 1, Management Survey, presents a narrative review of the progress and activities of CMGE, compiled from interview extracts/direct speech garnered from 4 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with seven directors/project managers/facilitators. Clarifications on key themes were drawn from extracts and data from the CMGE’s own annual and quarterly reports, its growing library of published documents, and on-line resources etc.
CENTRE FOR MULTIGRADE EDUCATION, CAPE PENNINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
The Centre for Multigrade Education (CMGE) was established in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa in 2009 with a SEEDS grant of R22m as “the only centre in Africa addressing the dire situation of rural education using multigrade education as a pedagogical solution and one which hopes to develop as a solution-based resource centre for Africa on multigrade (MG) education.”
Though institutionally independent of CPUT, the Centre builds on the expertise that has been growing at the university in the domain of rural and multigrade education since the late 1990’s when it received provincial and national funding to research rural education and develop an alternative pedagogy for the training of rural teachers (“In 1999 we began a full blown intervention in the Western Cape in MG 900 with 900 teachers and 300 schools”). CMGE directly employs some former CPUT staff from the education faculty who were engaged in this research; much of the Centre’s training and teacher support revolve around the CPUT ACE in Multigrade/ Multi-age (amongst others) and various Multigrade Short Courses offered by the faculty; and many (not all) of CMGE’s facilitators and post-graduate students and researchers have been recruited from CPUT.
In 2011 CPUT had XX ACE students registered and XX SC students in MG – largely as a result of CPUT’s provincial and national training outreach programmes.
The Centre for Multigrade Education is: “Committed to make rural schools ‘centres of excellence’ which will nurture a generation of well-educated and informed leaders of the future. The drivers of education policy have the responsibility to prioritise and support these schools and their learners. Without this support, millions of children will continue in poverty and deprivation.”
The philosophy, methodologies and practices of multigrade education lie at CMGE’s core and drive the Centre and all its activities. As explained by CMGE’s director:
“The heart of the CMGE is the PEDAGOGY which is designed to promote active and collaborative learning. It shifts the conventional paradigm of education and introduces a vision for a new type of school that is both high quality and cost effective. The common problems faced by Multigrade schools are how to manage a roomful of children of different grades and abilities meaningfully. The focus must shift from teacher attendance and teaching and syllabus completion to student learning. Focusing on ‘what is learnt’ as opposed to ‘what is taught’ ensures greater accountability and improved learning outcomes by the children.”
“This means a completely different approach to teaching. A multigrade class requires teachers to consider the learning cohort as individuals, each with his or her own continuum of learning and to structure learning as activities to meet the needs of individuals rather than to teach the middle of the class.”
“The role of technology in our classrooms is to support the new teaching paradigm. That is, technology’s role – and its only role – should be to support students teaching themselves (with, of course, their teachers’ guidance.) Technology does not, and cannot, support the old pedagogy of telling/ lecturing, except in the most minimal of ways, such as with pictures or videos. In fact, when teachers are using the old “telling” paradigm, adding technology, more often than not, gets in the way.”
“ICT becomes the vehicle which engages students in discovery, transforming the role of teachers into managers of students’ enquiry.”
CMGE faces a tough task convincing education policy makers, politicians, the teaching profession, and education researchers that MGE as phrased in this unique and innovative manner is the 21st century pedagogic panacea to the quality ‘learning and teaching’ challenges of rural schools particularly in early learning and Foundation phases: “The effectiveness of MG environments for learners and educators is in disfavor and the present paradigm of schooling as encapsulated in the single-grade approach is entirely dominant. Nothing less than a paradigm change is required if MG is to the bonds of the present system and be acknowledged as an authentic pedagogy in its own right.”
The central place afforded ICT in CMGE’s approach – and its unique take on MG pedagogy in ICT in learning –is likewise innovative and critical to the wider debates on technology and innovation in education.
These are challenges that the Centre plans to rise to and this urgency has infused both CMGE’s Vision and Mission.
CMGE’s 2009 Vision Statement was to “enhance the development of multigrade education solutions and develop the capacity to make a significant difference in the chances of success for rural primary school children”. CMGE’s 2011 Vision Statement – “to combat poverty in the world by means of the establishment of an expert centre which will improve and distribute the knowledge of MGE” - reflects the Centre’s growing confidence and belief in MGE, the emerging MG ‘community of practice’ in which the Centre is playing a not-insubstantial role, CMGEs growing research expertise in MGE and pedagogical practice, and to an extent its leadership role nationally, in sub-Saharan Africa, and internationally.
CMGE’s 2011 Mission is now also bold and ambitious: to strategically position the Centre as a credible, authoritative, MGE policy-making and standards-setting body - “for quality instruction and learning in MGE, based on research and good practices and distributed and supported through ICT.”
CMGE’s focus is on “Supporting and spreading the gospel of multigrade to Africa” (the phrase used in one of the interviews).
This emerging priority has sharpened and focussed the activities of CMGE from the outset:
“During 2009 we were trying to find our direction in this work, understanding exactly where to use our money, and what to do. SEEDS people were marvellous, not getting itchy about it when you start to use your budget and rearrange it. You must not be stuck with something put down 3 years ago and waste money. Originally, I was going to some research and do text books. I realised that was the wrong way and rearranged the budget. In short, I started to network and set about understanding what are the problems in MG and commissioned a literature review. I collated the best material on MG here in our library. I then set up a website within 2 or 3 months. Commissioned a baseline study of multigrade schools and schooling in South Africa as my first publication, then organised an International Conference on MGE and MG best practice here in Wellington, got the world experts together and drafted a World Declaration on MGE by the world’s best MG practitioners; that was my second publication. It became apparent that there is great interest in researching successful models in a wide range of countries grappling with the challenges of MGE including us – we began work this, our next publication…. We now knew what we had to do.”
CMGE now has four core aims: Effective capturing and collecting of relevant data on the domains of MGE (Classroom management techniques; Instructional strategies; Planning the curriculum; Instructional materials; School and community); Design, compare and develop the multigrade curriculum through research; Production and creation of material, training and support of teachers and curriculum and didactical management; The development and creation of curriculum policies, models and frameworks.
The work of the CMGE is based on the fact that it will occur through a specific intervention. The intervention will be driven by a ‘design research approach’. One of the features of design research is the collaboration of researchers and practitioners. This collaboration increases the chance that the intervention will indeed become practical and relevant for the educational context that increases the probability for a successful implementation.
In more prosaic terms, CMGE is a picture of an active and dynamic Centre moving forward on a number of fronts - which it terms ‘projects - with beachheads secured in some areas, major breakthroughs in others, and some setbacks:
Project on Multigrade Pedagogy Development: takes forward the resolutions of CMGE’s 2010 International Conference and Declaration on MGE. Current activities include circulation to stakeholders of a discussion document - TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY FOR MULTIGRADE EDUCATION – SPECIFICALLY FOR SOUTH AFRICA AND SUB-SAHARAN – DEVELOPING COUNTRIES – which is to kick-start development of a framework of standards for a pedagogy for multigrade education for quality education and learning in SA, in alignment with the internationally accepted aims of EFA and the MDG, with inputs and in conversation with MG stakeholders and a growing ‘community of practice’. The document will be used “as a basis for a discussion about how the community will look like in future and how children can help to create such a community and how to live in it.”
Research Projects on Rural and Multigrade Education: The research programme of the CMGE focuses on: multigrade pedagogy; Multigrade curriculum; Multigrade teaching and learning materials; and Teacher training. To do full justice to the Centre’s approach to research and its method (grounded in design-based research) would take some time. In essence, CMGE believes with some justification that rural MGE education has suffered neglect in education research, which is mono-grade obsessed and in the main conducted in developed, urban schools (and societies). CMGE also believes that, as in action-research, education research should target issues to be solved by developing prototypes/actions based on prior research, and together with practitioners refine such through long-term iterative engagements and processes. Success lies in finding solutions, and not proving or disproving theory. In the space of two years since the Centre was founded, CMGE students have completed two D.Eds and five M.Eds. in aspects of MGE; there are five research projects in progress; and 15 new D.Eds and M.Eds in the pipeline. Topics are wide-ranging and a substantial research ‘bank’ has been created with SEEDS support. “When we set out, there were no South African experts on MG pedagogy- but we stopped that, now we are the experts.”
MG Demo Schools: work with 7 MG schools in the Wellington/Paarl area
ICT: CMGE’s project on ICT (undertaken amongst others with the DST) is premised on belief that “Adding technologies to the classroom while keeping the same old educational system will result in the same old, ineffective, shallow, rubber-stamp learning.” CMGE is working with Moraka Institute to develop learning materials for use with the new technology of smart phones, laptops, hand-held readers etc so that learners have/can access in a MG context to a wealthy of resources that can be accessed through a sound pedagogical framework. CMGE is concerned that ICT, as with other innovations, will bypass rural schools, so CMGE wants rural schools to lead in piloting ICT in education in the country.
CMGE believes too that the pedagogy of MG especially supports ICT innovation and can accelerate its uptake and impact:
“MG pedagogy in ICT is ‘paradigm shaking’ in that it is designed to promote and enhance active and collaborative learning. Successful MG schools need manage a roomful of children of different grades and abilities meaningfully by shifting focus from teacher attendance and teaching and syllabus completion to student learning: focusing on “what is learnt ” as opposed to “what is taught” ensures greater accountability and improved learning outcomes by the children.”“The role of technology in our classrooms is to support the new teaching paradigm.”
“Technology’s role – and its only role – should be to support students teaching themselves (with, of course, their teachers’ guidance.) Technology does not, and cannot, support the old pedagogy of telling/ lecturing, except in the most minimal of ways, such as with pictures or videos. In fact, when teachers are using the old “telling” paradigm, adding technology, more often than not, gets in the way.”
“Today’s technology, though, offers students all kinds of new, highly effective tools they can use to learn on their own – from the Internet with almost all the information, to search and research tools to sort out what is true and relevant, to analysis tools to help make sense of it, to creation tools to present one’s findings in a variety of media, to social tools to network and collaborate with people around the world. And while the teacher can and should be a guide, most of these tools are best used by students, not teachers. Many teachers resist being taught to use technology. This also makes sense – teachers should resist, because it is not they who should be using the technology to teach students, but rather their students who should be using it, as tools to teach themselves. The teacher’s role should not be a technological one, but an intellectual one – to provide the students with context, quality assurance, and individualised help.”
Sport and Art & Craft Programme: The project is currently running in seven farm schools in and around Wellington/Paarl in the Western Cape. The aim is to see what the effect of sport and arts and craft development have on the general well being of the scholars and academic outcomes in rural farm schools. Facilitators have been appointed from the area/community that each school is in. All have passed the highest grade at school and were unemployed. As these facilitators have no formal teaching training, they are presently receiving training and support as well as materials and lesson plans. CMGE staff manages the programme and conducts the research.
ECD: CMGE believes that “the big future for CMGE will be early childhood.” Three CMGE facilitators – all with Doctorates in MG - do the training in certain areas of ECD: they work with 13 rural MG ECD schools. The rationale of the training is to establish a workable solution to the problems in obtaining ECD training and qualifications. At present ECD practitioners are either untrained, have ECD National Qualification Framework (NQF) Level 4 or 5 and a need of Continuing Professional Teaching Development (CPTD). No ECD Level 6 qualification is available as bridging course to a B.Ed degree (Level 7). Qualifications for Grade R teaching has been stipulated in the Gazette No. 34467 of 15 July 2011, in the form of a diploma in Grade R teaching, but no course material exist as yet. The CMGE would like to be part of this process. Differentiated accredited training takes place to address these practitioner’s individual professional needs. Those with no training an ECD NQF Level 4 qualification and those with an ECD NQF Level 4 with an ECD NQF Level 5 qualification. Assessment is done on site and external moderation takes place at the FET College.
In this project, as in others, CMGE facilitators follow the model of practice developed by CPUT in the 1990’s for the ACE in MG which is premised on the belief, sustained by research in the UK, that “if you want to change education you must do it in the classroom”. This model follows the following processes: “identify teacher’s needs; change their motivation; take theory and explain how they can use it in their own work; discuss it and visit them in the classroom and discuss their classroom practice.”
MG Learning Material: “We are producing material for kids to use on their own and in a group. The idea is that we have a shortage of teachers 25 to 30 % teachers so if the teacher is not there the parent can step in. We support the teacher with a method so the kid can carry on. The subjects are maths, language and world orientation ((based on European model - the kids world) not specific subjects, from Grade 1 to 5.. We take CAPS and repackage the curriculum ... use our money to take teachers to Netherlands to understand this ‘method’. It’s well-known in Europe. We call it ‘unwrapping the curriculum’ identifying the parts so that everyone can understand it.”
African Conference on Multigrade Education: CMGE is planning to hold this conference at CMGE CPUT Wellington Campus in December 2012.
There are several special projects running at CMGE:
The Reading Project: Six rural schools in the Wellington district are part of CMGE's Reading Project. Teachers from the Intermediate Phase attend regular workshops about different reading strategies and how to implement these in a multigrade classroom.
The Leadership Development Project: To ensure relevance and ownership of MG as a methodology to be practiced, a selected group of principal-educators are involved in a specific project focused on the role of a PLC in supporting principal-educators in a multigrade school.
The Choir Project: For years extra-mural activities were neglected in these small, rural and farm schools. CMGE believes that contributions to a child's learning process can be made inside and outside the classroom. Physical, emotional, social and cognitive skills intervene and overlap and are developed by all the experiences children go through.
CMGE has developed good relations with District Officials, both in the local area where the Centre is based, and more widely with provincial officials where the bulk of the Centre’s training is taking place, and with the National Departments of Basic Education and the DST. Relations with the WCED are not good: “WCED didn’t give me the time of day.”
Challenges and Issues:
“We are located in the WC which has a very specific problem in rural farm schools in MG but we understand that the big problem in MG is national.”
“We need HEI’s to include MG and more rural components in pre-service courses and in education faculties: there is a need to organise workshop and engage university lecturers on MGE.”
“There is not one University teaching skills on use of ITC in classroom as part of training of teachers”
Pre-service/Education Faculties at HEI’s: “if you want to train Foundation Phase teachers you need good Foundation Teachers in Faculties to get you into the system… now all you get is a person with a Doctorate who doesn’t know what’s going on in a Grade One class”
We need teachers with MG pedagogic skills: but overall numbers of pre-service teachers in WC is plummeting; this year, there are 80, next year 100 [sic], but they are not in MG. Imagine what this problem looks like nationally”
“Teachers morale in our small rural schools is low and poor quality”
“We work with poor children, children at risk. Many kids in the Western Cape suffer foetal alcohol syndrome... 4 of 10 kids with an IQ of about 50… but we only have one academic stream for them: it’s not enough. ”
“Drop-out rate in small rural MG schools is near 80%, three times more than in mono-grade schools.”
“Children from small MG schools are in need of an extra year when they graduate to [a mono-grade] Intermediate Phase school – they are not prepared.”
“The social skills of these kids from our farm schools are 3 or 4 years behind other kids: it affects their education performance forever.”
“In effect no teaching of reading exists in the majority of the country’s rural schools … must constitute the most urgent crisis on the sector, yet it is one the most poorly researched areas.”
Curriculum changes: “Look at CAPS maths, it’s a fruit salad, you don’t know where subtraction is, everything is deurmekaar. CAPS training is useless and a waste of resources: there is no classroom follow-up or support for teachers.”
Systemic testing by NDBE and the WCED: “Dangerous situation at the moment as nobody is focussing on the pedagogy, with what is actually happening in the classroom.”
Provincial policies on closing down dysfunctional schools leading to closure of small schools: “This is a question of human rights! What about the rights of these learners?”
SEEDS/partners
“Difference between us and other SEED partners is that everything is based on research. You can’t change and support teachers without any real research, and the research is out there. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Sometimes it can be very irritating for me in the SEEDS consortium. Partners are flying into a thing without any supporting work.”
“Difference between us and others is that we don’t want to hand out money, but solve a problem”
“From the moment we heard the MTR I started to ask the Q I don’t want to be compared with the other people”
“We don’t have the energy to work together in projects that not really possible to work in. It’s not that I am against the rest of the Consortium but, if you want to work together and solve problems, it must be a natural thing to work together.”
The problem with SEEDS from the start is that the Dutch had that money and they made the decision that we would work together; another way would have been to bundle and cluster all maths people together: with pleasure would have taken part of that process.
“Big future for CMGE will be early childhood. I have 3 ladies very well qualified - Doctorates - to do the training for me: we have a core group of 10 schools and add in all of the Wellington rural schools and we train them in certain areas of ECD. Sent them to Netherlands, with ELRU (Ursula), on fact finding study visit, and me and Mike and Frieda believe that we can work together... Our focus is more of research, theirs is something else, but I think we work it out in natural way... Idea is that when they come back we will sit down and work it out”
Other consortium members focus on their specific areas – except SciFest, and GOLD
I still think you will see fantastic results. Some may be wasting money but some colleagues want to work together… but they must work it out before hand! Or put 50K each in, or 500K… maybe that will teach us to work together. That’s the way they do it in the Netherlands.
We [the Consortium] are still trying to find out what the problem [we want to solve] is!
“Most organisations carried on as usual”
SEEDS/project management
“During 2009 we were trying to find our direction in this work, understanding exactly where to use our money, and what to do. SEEDS people are marvellous, not getting itchy about it when you start to use your budget and rearrange it. You must not be stuck with something put down 3 years ago and waste money. Originally, I was going to some research and do text books. I realised that was the wrong way and rearranged the budget. In short, I started to network and set about understanding what are the problems in MG and commissioned a literature review. I collated the best material on MG here in our library. I then set up a website within 2 or 3 months.”
CMGE/international links
Unlike other SEEDS members, before 2009 we had running partnerships with Dutch institutions… SLO, CTU, Universities, Parvus and Hoge Skole. That’s why we applied for the money.
[I like the way the Dutch people think about education. They are open thinkers in the sense you can discuss things with them, very structured in solving problems. Their education system is very simple. Ministry develops the curriculum, the schools must implement, and receive money to do so and, at the end, typically Dutch, there is an independent inspectorate... It’s all results based... You find this all over Europe now. The way we do OBE ... you are told what to do: but now you are asking principals to sign a document saying ‘I take responsibility’: how can you do that when you are told what to do?]
“In Africa the Gospel of MG is spreading: Botswana very interested”
Links with Tunis-based, African Association for Education in Africa
Commonwealth Education Desk
SECTION 2: FOCUS AREA 2
A two-page questionnaire was designed and customised for CMGE. The questionnaire was customised for the educators taking the ACE in MGE. The questions included self-assessments of levels of satisfaction with different aspects of the specific project, including ways in which it might be enhanced. The instrument also checked for awareness of other distinct components of SEEDS. A systematic random sample of participants was selected to complete the questionnaire. The realised sample size was 38. The number of respondents is listed in Table 1.
Table : Number of respondents from each of the SEEDS component projects
Participants in the CMGE ACE programme are also mainly women, in the late 30s to late 50s age group. Most indicate that they participate in sport or other activities and more than three-quarters are satisfied with the progress they are making in their studies. Almost all express satisfaction with their lives as a whole.
Table : Characteristics of participants in the Distance Education interventions
Number of respondents
38
Male : Female ratio
21:79
Age range
37-59
Plays Sport
81%
Music/cultural activity
60%
Religious group
92%
Other club
39%
Very satisfied or satisfied with study progress
79%
Very satisfied or satisfied with life as a whole
97%
Almost two-thirds of participants in the CMGE ACE programme indicated strong agreement that they had enjoyed this participation, with the rest agreeing.
Table : “I have enjoyed participation in the programme” (% in distance education programme)
Programme
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure or Disagree
CMGE ACE Educators
65
35
0
Almost all (97%) were of the view that their participation in the CMGE ACE programme had increased their subject content knowledge; 94% had become more confident in their teaching; and 97% that the syllabus content covered by ACE is relevant to the curriculum.
Most indicated that they had used the teaching materials supplied by the programme in their teaching since participating in the ACE (92%); and that the teaching methodologies demonstrated had been extremely helpful (97%). A high proportion had had contact with teachers at other schools in the project (81%); and almost all were of the view that multigrade education is helpful to their teaching (95%). More than four-fifths (81%) said that the management at their school is fully supportive of the CMGE ACE programme.
More than two-fifths (42%) said that teachers at their school who are not in the programme feel marginalised. For most participants, the workshop and interaction times had been most suitable (82%); as had been the workshop venue (78%). A heartening 87% expressed the view that they enjoy teaching more since participating in the ACE programme.
The most positive consequences of participation in the CMGE ACE were seen to be:
“the short course of Mental Maths made me more excited about my capabilities”;
“this course is talking directly to me”;
“the interaction and teaching methodology”;
“introducing new aspects / ideas to my teaching e.g. student governing body etc.”;
“dis baie prakties ek kon terug gaan klas toe en toepas wat ek geleer het”.
Many participants said that nothing should be changed. Some of the comments included:
“Op hierdie stadium voldoen dit aan my verwagting”;
“Would feel more comfortable if everybody could be taught in their own mother tongue”;
“The material was copied (translated) from overseas & caused a problem to us Afrikaners”;
“Cost of course and travelling – high”;
“ACE programme and short course must be separated, too much work at the same time”;
“Not having experience in a multigrade class/school, I would have liked to observe such a class/school”.
