Project Showcase

Materials for ECD practitioners

Visual perception resources developed by Roelien Herholdt.

President's Education Initiative

The President’s Education initiative (PEI) was launched in 1997 with President Mandela’s personal appeal to several foreign heads of government for assistance in developing teacher skills in South Africa.

ITERP

The Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITERP) was a five-year research project which started in 2011 and which focused on exploring issues around teacher professionalism and how teachers are being prepared to enter the educational labour market.

Implementation Evaluation of the National School Nutrition Programme

The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) aims to improve the health and nutritional status of the poorest learners in South Africa. Its main objective is to enhance learning by providing a nutritious meal on time daily. The programme is of great strategic importance: it involves a large financial commitment from government (R5.3 billion), and reaches over 9 million learners. Given this, an implementation evaluation was commissioned by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and was conducted by JET Education Services.

PrimTEd

The Primary Teacher Education (PrimTEd) project is a four year project of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) that forms a part of a suite of projects in the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme (TLDCIP) that covers areas of Primary teacher education, TVET and Community College lecturer education, Inclusive education and Early Childhood care and education. It is managed by the Chief-Directorate for Teaching and Learning Development in the DHET. The programme is supported by the European Union.

Implementation Evaluation of the Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme (FLBP)

The FLBP was established in 2007 with the goal of attracting greater numbers of students into initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in South African universities. High-achieving students are given generous full-cost bursaries to undertake ITE programmes in priority education phases and subject areas to address both supply and quality issues in the education system. In return, recipients of the bursary are expected to teach in public schools for a period equal to the number of years they have received funding.

The National School Effectiveness Study

The project was undertaken by a consortium made up of the Human Sciences Research Council (the lead organisation), the Education Policy Consortium, JET Education Services, and the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, with the support of the Department of Education. The NSES study, conducted under the theme of improving school effectiveness, was designed to enable the gain scores of a learner over any one-year period to be related to the practices followed by the teacher for the same year. The study followed a group of children for three years, starting with Grade 3 in 2007 and ending in Grade 5 in 2009. Around 16 000 children participated in each year of data gathering, during which a cohort of 8 383 was tracked over all three years. The NSES culminated in the publication of the book Creating Effective Schools, edited by Nick Taylor, Servaas ven der Berg and Thabo Mabogoane