Progress and Challenges of Teacher Centres in Basic Education Sector

1. PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON BASIC EDUCTATION MEETING22 SEPTEMBER 2015CAPE TOWN STATUS OF FUNCTIONALITY OF TEACHER CENTRES IN THE BASIC EDUCATION SECTOR

2. PURPOSE For the Portfolio Committee to note progress made in Teacher Centres: • Background • Location of Teacher Centres within DBE • Findings of Teacher Centres’ audit: • Provincial Teacher Development Institutes; • Number of Teacher Centres; • Functionality of centres; • Programmes offered; and • Challenges. • Progress made by DBE • ICTs in Teacher Centres • Roles and responsibilities of DBE and PEDs

3. BACKGROUND • The Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development (ISPFTED) calls for the establishment and strengthening of PDTIs and DTDCs. • PTDIs are physical sites that will serve as the base from which provinces coordinate and deliver all national and provincial priority Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course. • The following figure indicates the location of these centres within the Department of Basic Education:

4. HESA-EDF Teacher Unions EDTP SETA SACE CEM CEM DBE DHET HEDCOM HEDCOM NTEDC NICPD TEIs NATIONALLEVEL PPSs TSs PTECs PEDs PDTIs These are also called ERCs, ICT Resource Centres, School based Teacher Centres PROVINCIAL LEVEL PLC DTDCs DISTRICT LEVEL SC SC PLC PLC SC PLC SC YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

5. FINDINGS OF TEACHER CENTRE AUDIT • The Department conducted an audit of all Teachers Centres in 2014. • The focus was on established PTDIs and DTDCs, physical location, infrastructure, management, resources, programmes offered and general functionality. • The findings are indicated in the following slides:

6. FINDINGS: PROVINCIAL TEACHER DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTES(PTDIs) • Currently, five (5) provinces have established PTDIs. These include the Eastern Cape (EC), Gauteng (GP), KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Limpopo (LP) and the Western Cape (WC). • The following are still the in the process of establishing them: Free State (FS), Mpumalanga (MP), Northern Cape (NC) and North West (NW).

7. FINDINGS: NUMBER OF TEACHER CENTRES • A total number of 147 audits were conducted and distributed as follows in the different provinces: 9 24 21 17 5 49 5 16 3

8. FINDINGS: STATUS OF FUNCTIONALITY

9. INDICATORS FOR FUNCTIONAL TEACHER CENTRE • Knowledgeable and productive Centre Manager; • Availability of ICTs; • Connectivity of the Centre; • Number of Teacher Development Programmes; • Availability of training spaces; • Frequency of Teacher training workshops conducted; and • Community programmes provided such as youth programmes.

10. PROGRAMMES CURRENTLY OFFERED IN TEACHER CENTRES • EFAL CiPELT Training; • CAPS content training in all subjects; • MST teacher training; • Principals and SMTs training; • ICT Leadership and Integration into teaching and learning by Schoolnet; • Library services provided; • A+ ICT programme for the youth; • Self-Diagnostic Assessments for teachers; and • Sign-up for the CPTD SACE points;

11. CHALLENGES • Some of the centres do not have good infrastructure and lack training spaces, especially school or district offices based; • Staffing continues to be a challenge in most of the centres. A common trend on staffing amongst existing centres is to have a Centre Manager x1; Clerk, and General Assistants (GAs); • Some Subject Advisors (SA) are not based in the centres; hence Teacher Centres have minimum human resources that drive teacher development; • Very few centres have training schedules and viable training programmes as a result of the location of SA at District offices;

12. CHALLENGES – (Cont) • In most centres, teacher support/training is not provided on a daily/regular basis due to the general lack of capacity; • This challenge needs to be addressed through the Norms and Standards; & • Challenges with allocation and access to budgets; security, staffing and infrastructure and the role of districts in Teacher Centres pose threats.

13. PROGRESS MADE BY DBE • In the process of resuscitating the concept of Teacher Centres, the Department has forged partnerships with stakeholders like Vodacom, Mindset, Microsoft, Cisco and UNISA and UNICEF. • Teacher Centre Managers were trained on management and leadership of these centres; • E-learning specialists have been trained on the ICT Integration Programme which focuses on developing the skills of teachers to integrate ICTs into their teaching and learning programmes, as well as promote the utilisation of technologies to support curriculum delivery for improved learning outcomes; and • A number of apps have been developed with partners such as the Ukufunda Virtual School, Teacher Communicator app and many more.

14. MANAGEMENT TRAINING COURSE AUDIT OF PROGRAMS & INFRASTRUCTURE Centre Manager MANUAL (Digital & Print ) Building FUNCTIONAL PDTIs & Teacher Centres ICT RESOURCES in all Centres (with Vodacom, UNISA, Cisco, Mindset) ICT INTEGRATION TRAINING for Core Team of 50 National eLearning & Subject Advisors MOBILE PLATFORMS (ukuFUNDA, DBE Cloud) MINIMUM NORMS & STANDARDS

15. MINIMUM NORMS & STANDARDS FOR TEACHER CENTRES Defines the minimum requirements for Teacher Centres to be functional Continuing AUDIT & MONITORING OF PROGRAMS & INFRASTRUCTURE

16. DRAFT: NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR TEACHER CENTRES • The norms and standards aim to provide a regulatory framework to address some of the core issues related to the roles of institutes and centres, with particular focus on infrastructure and equipment, staffing, governance and management, and funding. • Furthermore enhance the functionality of PTDIs and DTDCs, ensure that they function as one integrated system and make a meaningful contribution towards the strengthening of teacher development and support. • In order to successfully implement Provincial Teacher Development Institutes (PTDIs) and District Teacher Development Centres (DTDCs), the norms and standards specify requirements on the following issues:

17. DRAFT: NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR TEACHER CENTRES • Link of the NICPD, PTDIs and DTDCs, governance and management; • The funding model; • Human Resources: Post Provisioning of PTDIs and DTDCs • Physical Resources; • Physical Infrastructure; • Tools and Equipment; • Resourcing for Maintenance; and • Resourcing for Practical Work. • Feeder Areas: Linking of centres with schools; • Teacher Development Programmes; and • Redress • These Norms and Standards are currently being finalised after receiving comments from the public.

18. ICT RESOURCES IN ALL CENTRES UNISA CISCO VODACOM MINDSET 10 Centres by March 2017 34 Centres by March 2017 82 Centres provided by December 2014 81 Centres by March 2016 Balance of Centres by 2017

19. VODACOM COMMITMENTS 61 Centres done by March 2015 20 Centres by end Nov 2016 34 laptops 16 Desk tops 1x Interactive Whiteboard 1x Data Projector 1x Printer 5x Kindles 1 x MindsetSolution Microwave Connectivity Technologies for Inclusive Education 1x e-Beam ICT Integration Training of Teachers in 30 schools per Centre Baseline Study of 333 schools 30 LaptopsData Projector 1 x Printer 1 x Interactive Whiteboard 1x e-Beam Microwave Connectivity Balance of Teacher Centres by 2017

20. VODACOM COMMITMENTS (Cont) Digital Classroom Portal containing information about Centres & digital content Zero-rating dedicated digital content sites (DBE, Mindset, Siyavula) Webinars for Grades 10-12 Math and Physical Science Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Study

21. MICROSOFT COMMITMENTS Explore 81 Centres at IT Academies to support skill development for youth and teachers Run National Core ICT Training for Team of 50 Master Trainers in all provinces Support University Accredited Course for ICT Champions Support large scale roll-out of teacher development via Teacher Centres

22. MINDSET COMMITMENTS 82 Centres by December 2014 equipped with Satellite Dish `Content Server Wifi Access Point LCD TVs On-demand content: 1500 hours of video print CAPS-aligned content Access to Mindset TV Channels: Mindset Learn & Mindset Health

23. UNISA COMMITMENTS 34 Centres by March 2017 30 Laptopsdesks, Furniture Video Conference Facilities, Unlimited Wifi Microwave Connectivity Call Centres

24. CISCO COMMITMENTS CEEDBOX SOLUTION IN ALL Centres This is technology that allows bi-directional distance learning It includes access to Cisco IT Academy Training which includes the International Computer Drivers Licence

25. UKUFUNDA MOBILE PLATFORM ANA- support Applications Calendar App to Monitor Events at Teacher Centres Self-Diagnostic Assessment Tool to determine Content Knowledge of Teachers CAPs-aligned digital Content Apps for teachers, learners, parents, and education communities

26. M PROGRAMMES OPTIMAL USE OF ICT TO SUPPORT PROGRAMMES Subject Specific Training Improve ANA performance Teacher Training Workbook Utilization Subject Advisor Training Research Monitoring & Evaluation

27. ROLE OF DBE • Ensure uniform standards and good practices in all provinces; • Encourage provincial budgeting for Teacher Centres; • Encourage alignment and synergy between Teacher Development; Curriculum and ICT Units; • Develop a national calendar for Teacher Development Programmes; and • Mobilise resources and keep a database of all DBE partners.

28. THANK YOU