Accelerated Programme

for Language, Literacy

and Communication

Implementation plan2006-2012

Department of Education

APLLC

2

Foreword to the Accelerated Programme for Language, Literacy

and Communication (APLLC) By

Gauteng Department of Education MEC,Angelina Motsekga

It was once said that if you plan for a decade, plant atree, but if you plan for a century, teach the children.

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) envisages providingaccess to quality lifelong learning opportunities – for both this centuryand the next. But centuries of inequality can not be remedied in adecade. It has been twelve years since democratization but the legacyof Bantu Education persists to the detriment of our educators and learners.

Gauteng is the first province to fully acknowledge the literacy problemand to seek a comprehensive strategy to find a solution. TheAccelerated Programme for Language, Literacy and Communication(APLLC) is such a strategy.

The GDE’s adoption of a literacy strategy of this scale is the most significant development in South African education since the turn of thecentury. The strategy aims to build literacy and language teaching bestpractices into the education system, thereby providing a sustainablemodel for replication.

The APLLC aims to accelerate Gauteng learners’ literacy skills by trainingevery teacher in every public school in Gauteng, by 2012.

The 21st century ‘knowledge economy’demands increasingly sophisticatedliteracy levels from South Africa’slearners. In pioneering a literacy strategyof this magnitude, the GDE hasdemonstrated that solutions to the literacy crisis exist and that it has thewherewithal to implement to scale.

We look forward to the challenge.

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STRATEGY OVERVIEW

The Accelerated Programme for Language, LIteracy and Communication is a system-wide programme for the acceleration of learners’ literacy and language skills in every public schoolthroughout the province of Gauteng. Theprogramme, spearheaded by the GautengDepartment of Education (GDE), is in response tocompelling evidence that learners in Gauteng arefunctioning at a basic language skills level that is far from acceptable (systemic evaluations 2003,2006).

It will rollout over a six-year period (mid 2006 - mid 2012) to everypublic primary school (1325) and every high school (532) inGauteng and will have a significant impact on the lives oflearners and teachers.

The aim of the programme is to equip teachers with the necessaryskills to accelerate their learners’ literacy and language skills andforms part of the GDE’s wider teacher development strategy.

The strategy will be delivered by the GDE in partnership with READEducational Trust and JET Educational Services - two leading NGOsin the field of education. READ will offer its expertise in training andmentoring departmental staff and JET in verifying the efficacy ofdelivery at all levels.

The programme will be funded through a joint-fundraising driveby the three strategic partners and the funds will be managed bythe GEDT.

The programme follows a balancedlanguage approach which is based oninternational and local best practice and is the most compatibleapproach to the curriculum. It workswithin the framework of explicit skillsteaching in a systematic and progressive way.

Strategy

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APLLC

VISION AND MISSION

Vision of the Gauteng Department

of Education

“Our vision is smart service delivery of quality public

education, which promotes a dynamic citizenship

for socio-economic growth and development in

Gauteng in South Africa. We will be at the cutting

edge of curriculum delivery and provide access to quality

life-long learning opportunities”.

Accelerated Programme for Literacy, Language

and Communication vision

The vision of the Gauteng Department of education’s accelerated

programme for language, literacy and communication is of a

highly literate, multilingual society, sustained by effective

acquisition of basic and higher levels of literacy so that citizens

are able to contribute fully to a democratic society and enjoy a

more fulfilled life experience.

Mission

The mission of the Gauteng Department of

Education’s Accelerated Programme for

Language, Literacy and Communication (APLLC)

is to strengthen the teaching and learning of

reading, writing, listening and speaking skills at all

levels so that learners are able to access, analyse,

evaluate and communicate effectively.

Vision

Mission

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APLLC

Goals

GOALS, OBJECTIVES

AND RESULTS OF

IMPLEMENTATION

Goals

• To accelerate listening, speaking, reading, writing and comprehension skills of learners through an in-service teacher training,mentoring and monitoring programme linked to appropriate resource provisioning in public schools.

• To build best practice in literacy and language teaching into the system of education in Gauteng.

Objectives

• To implement an in-service teacher education programme in accelerating learners’ language, literacy and communication skills.

• To mentor and support teachers in the implementation of the methodologies in the classroom.

• To adequately and effectively stock classrooms.

Results

• Improvement in teachers’ ability to teach language, literacy and communication.

• Improvement in learners’ speaking, reading, writing and communication skills with an emphasis on comprehension and information skills.

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APLLC

Principles

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

This programme is located within the policies and

curricula of the Department of Education and

course design will take cognisance of national and

provincial priorities such as:

• Promoting multilingual education

• Promoting inclusive education

• The need to increase teacher and learner morale

• Ensuring the link between the learners’ cultural identity and

classroom learning in listening, speaking, reading and writing

• Cultural tolerance and awareness of social issues such as

gender and disability issues by supplying classroom

material that is relevant to learners, together with

appropriate training in the use of the material

• Implementing peer learning and coaching by older

learners and volunteers

• The need to assist schools to address the

needs of learners who do not have

adequate support in developing language

skills at home.

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APLLC

Parternerships

PARTNERSHIPS

The GDE has recognised the need to work withservice providers/partnersto implement various components of theprogramme.

The two main serviceproviders are READEducational Trust (READ)and JET EducationalServices (JET).

READ, working with the GDE, shall be responsiblefor the training andmaterials developmentcomponents, the GDE formanaging, implementingand monitoring the programmein the districts and JET for theexternal evaluation.

READ Educational Trust

(READ)

JET Educational Services (JET)

SYSTEM-WIDE TARGETING

This programme aims to target all levels of GDE

personnel - from Head Office to the teacher in the

classroom to ensure systemic implementation and

sustainability.

Departmental officials will act as managers, mentors

and assessors of progress and will report regularly to

senior management. They will receive upfront

training by READ as required to ensure a high level of capacity

and skills to play a key role in the efficient delivery of the

programme.

The District Director will manage the implementation in each

district while Literacy and Language Facilitators will be responsible

for accurate and timeous reporting and training and mentoring

of teachers with project trainers.

Fiduciary and strategic management of the project will be

undertaken by a Project Board while the operational

management of the project will be undertaken by a Working

Group established for this purpose.

The APLLC Project Board will be established as

follows:

• 5 members nominated by the GDE, one of

whom will chair the board

• 2 members nominated by READ

• 2 members nominated by JET

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APLLC

Target

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Planning

Jul toDec‘07

Jan toJun‘08

Jul toDec‘08

Janto

Jun‘09

Jul toDec‘09

Janto

Jun‘10

July toDec‘10

Jan toJun‘10

Prim

ary

Sc

hoo

lM

anag

er o

rient

atio

n

Hig

h Sc

hoo

lM

anag

er o

rient

atio

n

X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X

Activity Jan to

Jun‘06

Jul toDec‘06

Jan toJun‘07

PilotX X

Orientation ofDepartment Officials

X

School Manager and SMT Orientation

Foundationphase teachertraining and mentoring

Senior phaseteacher training and mentoring

Intermediatephase teachertraining andmentoring

FET phaseteacher trainingandmentoring

PROJECT PLANNING

Training Model

APPLC Trainer and Language and Literacy Facilitators train

AllTeachers

Monitoring and mentoring at all levels to

ensure efficacy

SchoolManagers

HODs(Leader

Teachers)support manage

REACHING EVERY TEACHER

IN EVERY CLASSROOM

Fifty primary school and 24 high school trainers will

train and mentor every teacher in public schools in

methodologies that have been shown to accelerate

learners’ literacy and language skills development.

In addition, project trainers and Literacy and

Language Facilitators will train the School Managers and HODs

(Leader Teachers) along the agreed continuum of courses so that

they are able to offer support to their colleagues in implementing

the methodologies in the classroom.

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Reaching

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TRAINER ALLOCATION

BY DISTRICT

District TotalNo. of

PrimarySchools

Total No.of

SecondarySchools

Numberof

Primary Trainers

Number of

SecondaryTrainers

EE 131 62 5 2

EW 186 77 7 3

GN 39 12 2 1

GW 93 45 4 2

JE 77 34 2 1

JN 98 41 4 2

JS 227 80 8 3

JW 89 33 4 1

SE 62 26 2 1

SW 98 46 4 2

TN 98 52 4 3

TS 127 54 4 3

TOTALS 1325 562 50 24

Allocation

METHODOLOGIES AND

RESOURCES

Methodologies

The aim of the strategy is to build best practice inliteracy and language teaching into the system ofeducation in Gauteng. The methodologies that willbe applied in the GET and FET bands are those ofthe balanced language programme which have

been shown to be the most effective in fast tracking learners’ language, literacy and communication skills in both internationaland local studies. The methodologies are completely in line withNCS demands and are aimed at skilling teachers to effectivleyimplement the curriculum.

The programme is balanced in that it develops all four languageskills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) simultaneously andholistically in a balanced way using a variety of learning supportmaterial and techniques.

Resources

To the extent possible, funding will be sought from donors andDepartmental budgets to provide schools with adequate and rel-evant resources to facilitate the effective implementation of themethodologies.

Schools will also be trained to choosematerial which they will purchase fromtheir allocations. It is essential toimplement a systematic and thoroughtraining programme in LTSM selectionimmediately so that efficient selectionand purchasing can become the normas soon as possible.

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APLLC

Methodology

Resources

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

FRAMEWORK

A comprehensive quality management frameworkhas been developed to assess the progress made bylearners as well as the delivery of the programme atall levels. The various instruments have beendesigned to offer qualitative and quantitativeinformation that can steer project management.

The quality assurance framework comprises an internal evaluationand an external evaluation (conducted by JET EducationalServices). Together, the evaluations will provide enough informationto the Working Group to evaluate, revise and implement changesor corrective measures. This will maintain high standards in theefficacy and sustainability of the programme.

The external evaluation comprises of three elements:

• Assessment of GDE rollout to assess the extent to which the GDE is implementing the programme at provincial, district and school levels.

• Learner assessment to assess the initial state of reading and writing in all Gauteng schools and the impact of the APLLC on learners’ reading and writing skills, mid-way through theproject and on completion.

• Tracking school- and classroom-level implementation (cohort of 36 schools) to track the extent towhich the management ofreading and writing at school level and teaching of reading and writing in classes changes over the life of the project.

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APLLC

Quality

ADVOCACY AND

MOTIVATIONAL PRORAMMES

Advocacy of the programme

An advocacy programme will be launched under theleadership of the GDE to popularise the programme inthe media and through roadshows organised toinform the public of the strategy.

Cooperation between public and school libraries will assist in promoting the strategy through their services to all members of thecommunity.

Involving the whole-school community

Programmes for each school, which will include workshoppingSchool Governing Bodies in their roles and responsibilities, will beconducted by School Managers who will be trained for thispurpose. Documents will be produced for delivery to the schoolcommunity on the goals of the programme and the various stakeholders’ roles in the programme to ensure their support.

Parents will be offered workshops on the goals of the programmeand their roles in their children’s education by School Managers inas far as they are able.

Motivating teachers and learners

Motivational and recognitionprogrammes will be built into theprogramme in order to strengthen theimplementation of the methodology, develop the confidence of teachers and learners,increase morale and providerecognition for achievement at alllevels.

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APLLC

Motivation

PILOT

Prior to the system-wide rollout of the programme, a six-month long pilot, starting in September 2006,will test the implementation of selected methodologies in the foundation phase of 24schools (2 per district). The findings of the pilot willinform course development and programmeplanning for the wider rollout.

Six trainers will manage and implement the pilot in 4 schools each (1 trainer per 2 districts).

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APLLC

Name of School

Onverwacht

Laerskool Klipdrift

Dr Yusaf Dadoo Primary

Hartzstraat Primary

Padisago Primary

Reabetswe Primary

Sunnyside Primary

Phundzo-ndi-tsedza Primary

Laerskool Rynfield

Pinegrove Primary

Pheasant Folly Primary

Alberton Primary

Sibonile School for visually handicapped

Eureka

Bophelong

Noordhoek

Bertrams Primary

Glenhazel Primary

Wilhelminah Hoskins

Bree Primary

Hlakaniphani Primary

Gugulethu Primary

Bottom Mine Primary

Tshepsiong Primary

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

D9

D10

D11

D12

DistrictP

i

l

o

t

The effective roll out of this programmeto all schools in Gauteng will translateinto significant gains for both learnersand teachers throughout the province. It will also have a lasting effect on thesystematic delivery of education by thedepartment by building the human and systemic capacity to deliver qualityeducation in the field of language, literacy and communication.

Department of Education