Education

One of the legacies of apartheid was poor education amongst the majority of the citizens of the country. This impedes the development of technical skills which modern mines and other businesses rely on. Quality education is a prime ingredient to providing access to employment, economic prosperity, improved quality of life and personal fulfilment and growth.

Palabora Foundation is addressing the situation in partnership with the Department of Education of the Limpopo Province.

The Limpopo Province is one of three of the poorest provinces in the country and the major focus of the Foundation’s education initiatives is to upgrade mathematics and science education in the rural and semi-rural schools. Some of the schools are under-resourced with learning materials and school equipment, some lack electricity and have high pupil:teacher ratios. This kind of learning environment makes it difficult to implement the Revised National Curriculum Statement and to use the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) methodology of teaching.

What we do

We assist around 50 schools in the Ba-Phalaborwa area, including 18 secondary schools. The Foundation delivers programmes to teachers working in classes from grade R to grade 12, and directly to learners with potential from grade 10. Early learning centres cover pre-school children's needs.

Our primary focus is to improve educator development and classroom management as well as educational performance from pre-school to high school. Interventions are aimed at creating a pool of high capability school leavers who have the potential to pursue scientific, technical and accountancy careers at tertiary institutions and to assist these learners to go to university, technikon and technical colleges.

We run programmes in the following areas:

Educators
Learners
School governing bodies and management teams
Municipal libraries
Environmental education
Rural Tele-Teach schools
Internet access
Early childhood education

School governance and management

Schools cannot perform well without good management. The School Governance and Management Programme identifies areas where local school governing bodies and management teams need training, and helps them to create a school environment that is conducive to learning.

The School Governance Training Initiative (SGI) in the Phalaborwa district is a well established partnership with the provincial Department of Education and started in 1999 as a pilot project. New school governing bodies are elected every three years and approximately 86 schools in the district have undergone specialised training on this programme.

The governance workshops include a number of modules, such as:

School Policy Formulation
Business Planning for Schools
Roles and Responsibilities for School Governing Bodies (SGB)
Representative Council for Learners (RCL)
Basic School Financial Management.

Courses are held outside normal school hours to ensure there is no disruption to learners.

Municipal community libraries

In the past, historically disadvantaged communities neither had access to community libraries and library programmes nor to competitions for learners and educators at local schools. In 1987/8 the Foundation built and equipped two community libraries at its education centres in Namakgale and Lulekani, which provide a valuable service to primary, secondary and tertiary learners.

These well equipped, air conditioned facilities provide a venue where students from crowded and often non-electrified homes can study and have access to relevant books and other printed media, and computer based education.

In 2003 the Palabora Foundation Trustees took a decision to donate the assets of the libraries to the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality. The Foundation entered into negotiations with the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality who agreed to take over the management of the two community libraries and provide staff for the libraries. The Foundation will continue to provide an annual grant for the provision of books for the municipal libraries.

Environmental education and schools’ eco-clubs

The purpose of this programme is to create and raise awareness on environmental and sustainable development issues through environmental programmes.

The Palabora Foundation’s environmental education and eco-schools programme focuses on developing ownership and empowerment with educators and learners as well as simply involving them in awareness campaigns such as the annual Arbor Week celebrations. The programme strives to produce individual learners and educators who would willingly and responsibly participate in environmental awareness and management in their communities.

Eco-Schools programme

The Eco-Schools programme is being developed in South Africa as a school improvement programme that aims at achieving sustainable environmental management in schools. In Phalaborwa it is conducted in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and BirdLife South Africa. The programme is designed to encourage whole-school learning and action to create a healthy environment.

The project involves no less than ten learners and two educators to lead the activities in each school. Each school chooses three focus areas, conducts action research and compiles a portfolio of the work to be done within their school environment. Mr Joe Peu of BirdLife South Africa has conducted Portfolio Development Workshops for local teachers.

In 2006, four local schools were among the 200 schools in Limpopo to qualify for the Eco-School Green Flag Award, for successfully completing the one year programme. These schools have to register again and submit a portfolio for assessment each year in order to maintain their green flag status.

The Foundation would like to thank BirdLife South Africa and the World Wildlife Fund of South Africa Eco-Schools programme for their selfless contribution to the success of Eco-Schools in Phalaborwa.

Workshops

Other partners with the Palabora Foundation having a common interest in the environment are invited to conduct workshops in Phalaborwa schools. Past workshops include:

"Life under the sea" by The South African Institute for Aquatic Bio-diversity (SAIAB). The workshop content was compiled by African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) from Port Elizabeth.
"Enviro-Energy" by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESA) - Lowveld Region. The purpose of the workshop was to assist teachers with ideas to prepare “Enviro-Energy” Projects for the Energy and Sustainability competition sponsored by Eskom.
"Elephant conservation and research" at the Hoedspruit Elephant Research Project.

Educational excursions

Educators are invited to to undertake a variety of educational excursions when opportunities arise, such as:

2 educators were chosen and invited to join researchers and other educators from all over the country aboard the Algoa research ship working with researchers for four days from Cape Town to Durban. The two educators earned this trip after they submitted an essay about the marine life to African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme. This is a School Based Marine Learning Programme, which exposes learners and teachers to careers focussing on the ocean.
10 educators visited the mini Haenertsburg Environmental Centre to witness the official opening of the Termite House. The centre has displays on the biodiversity of species (both plants and animals) and how they coexist, and how the environment benefits from their coexistence in a particular ecosystem.
24 teachers visited Bulamahlo Community Nursery in Lebowakgomo and Rusplaas State Nursery in Rusplaas (both owned by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry). The skills learned by teachers were grafting (mixing of different fruit species), tree propagation and the use of cuttings (planting a tree using a branch).
10 educators from 5 Eco-Schools attended the launch of the Limpopo Province Eco-School Programme at the Polokwane Game Reserve and also visited Bakone-Malapa Museum, Polokwane Snake Park and toured the Polokwane game reserve before returning to Phalaborwa. At the museum educators learned about preservation of cultural artefacts and ancient traditions. This knowledge will be integrated within the school curriculum learning areas like Indigenous Science & Technology, Arts & Culture and Life Orientation (Our Heritage).

Environmental awareness days

A good number of educators and learners celebrate various environmental awareness days, such as:

National Water Week
Arbor Week (trees donated to the Foundation by Trees for Africa)

Rural "Tele-Teach" schools

In Tele-Teach schools, afternoon lessons are broadcast via Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) from the MINDSET Learning Channel which is also broadcast for Grade 10-12 students.

There are currently three rural Tele-Teach schools (Maphokwane, Matome-Malatji and Makikele Secondary School). Some of the schools have requested additional computers for their learners and the Foundation finished installing these in early 2007.

"Bridging the Digital Divide" - Internet access

The Internet rooms at our two education centres are well supported with over 300 learners having access to the Internet in the afternoons. Educators are also using the centres to access educational information in the afternoons.

The learners are encouraged to use the Internet to visit educational and university websites to access information for projects and assignments, and information on careers, life skills and bursaries.

Early childhood education

The Palabora Foundation coordinates the operation of 7 Early Learning Centres in communities around Phalaborwa catering for approximately 800 pre-school children.

Each centre has a Steering Committee that assists with the daily management of the centres. Children attending the centres receive a meal and a balanced pre-school education programme in the mornings.

The Bambanani Early Learning Outreach Trust project reaches out to 63 pre-schools in very disadvantaged socio-economic communities. This project receives funding from private donors in the Netherlands, the Jim Joel Education and Training Fund, the ABSA and Solon Foundation, and the Palabora Foundation. The Palabora Foundation makes a monthly grant to the project and provides the project with a vehicle and rent free office accommodation.

There are 176 teachers working at these sites and 2 734 pre-school children benefit from pre-school education. There are currently 20 educators on the outreach training programme who are completing a basic certificate in Early Childhood Development (ECD) Level 1 Pre-school Training and another 20 educators on ECD National Certificate Level 4 training.

The pre-schools are visited on a regular basis and provided with educational support. Advice and assistance is given to children with learning disabilities, and we help with registration for social grants.

The Outreach project also operates a large centralized toy library and the Outreach pre-schools make good use of this facility.

The Foundation has arranged for the Bambanani project to provide outreach services to its seven Early Learning Centres. The Bambanani Early Learning Outreach programme became independent from the Foundation in 2005 when it registered as a Non Profit Organisation with the Department of Social Development. It has become responsible for managing its own finances and meeting the necessary legislative criteria governing trust funds. Find out more from their web site.