Springbok

Partner(s):

SAIE’s partner in BusinessVENTURES, the Department of Education (DoE) identified the schools in need of entrepreneurship learning resources and training. Namakwa is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa and the seat of Namakwa is Springbok.

This capital of Namaqualand lies in a narrow valley between the high granite domes of the Klein Koperberge (Small Copper Mountains). This name gives away the reason for the early settlement which gradually turned into a major commercial and administrative centre for copper mining operations in the region. There is just one main road north from Cape Town to Namibia, and Springbok is the last major town before the border and for hundreds of kilometres afterwards.

Today Springbok is a prosperous town with 15,000 inhabitants. The majority of the population speak Afrikaans. Income is mainly derived from tourism, mining activities, commerce and farming.

Our Involvement:

SAIE provides schools and educators with quality, innovative learning materials (BusinessVENTURES) and the requisite training in terms of content knowledge, methodology in Outcomes Based Education (OBE) and entrepreneurial development. SAIE’s Business Ventures materials conform to the Department of Education’s (DoE) curriculum structure classified under the Economic and Management Sciences (EMS: Grade 2 to 9) and Business Studies (Grades 10 to 12). Learners are empowered through the quality materials and effective teaching, in order to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and business knowledge. This prepares them for either creating their own jobs or participating in the post school life in a more entrepreneurial way.

Project Progress:

This project must be read in conjunction with the Calvinia project.

The initial edcuator training took place in June 2008, with 22 schools represented. 27 grade 5, 27 grade 6 and 16 grade 7 educators received training. Mr Milford of the DoE attended the training.

The first foolow-up was conducted by Gavin Leverton and took place in August 2008. 12 schools were visited to provide support to the trained educators. Most of the educators indicated that they had been using the materials. They indicated that the Afrikaans manuals were of great help.

The second follow-up was conducted by Trevor Bagley and took place in August 2009. Five schools were visited with 6 educators receiveng support. One educator did not attend the initial training and was provided with orientation to use the materials. The other educators are use the materials on a weekly basis, and indicate that the materials have made their planning and teaching much easier, and that learners have improved in the areas of numeracy, literacy, group discussion and critical thinking.

Funder:

Product:

BusinessVentures

Location:

Northern Cape