We are one of the maths education Chairs jointly funded by the FirstRand Foundation, Anglo American, Rand Merchant Bank, the Department of Science and Technology and is administered by the National Research Foundation.
What skills and resources were you able to draw from the community for this project?
We partner with local teachers in primary schools in the Sarah Baartman district, and with after-care facilitators. We also work closely with GADRA Education through funding from the VESTAS Empowerment Trust in running our mathematics clubs in Makhanda.
The challenges
The focus of the chair is equally on research and development. Four interrelated objectives are: • To improve the quality of teaching of in-service teachers at the primary school level • To improve learner performance in primary schools as a result of quality teaching and learning • To research sustainable and practical solutions to the challenges of improving numeracy in schools • To provide leadership in numeracy education and increase dialogue around solutions for the mathematics education crisis
Addressing the challenges
All of the research we do is linked to implementation in local primary schools so that teachers and learners directly benefit from the academic work that we do.
The achievements
We have trained mathematics club facilitators in the Grahamstown community, at both local primary schools and after-care facilities. Currently we have more than 200 primary school learners from Makhanda involved in clubs run by our team and key partners. We have successfully run four major teacher professional development courses for teachers in the Sarah Baartman district. These courses have in turns addressed all primary school grades from Grade R to Grade 7.
Johannesburg, South Africa