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Pearson South Africa has created Survival Guides as a resource to support teachers and learners in the process of making up for the lost time and successfully finish the 2020 school curriculum before the year ends.
Reggie Mokotsi, Executive Head of Learning Resources at Pearson South Africa, says the lockdown has resulted in a monumental disruption of education in this country having lost valuable teaching time out of the school calendar. “We believe that education is the key to every individuals’ success. Despite the shortened teaching year, teachers and learners need to meet all the necessary learning outcomes for the year. Pearson has created a Survival Guide to support teachers and learners during this difficult time.”
The Survival Guide provides various strategies such as trimming the curriculum, grouping or reorganising content and creating opportunities for learner-centred work and blended learning opportunities. The strategies help the teacher to use the limited time to address the vital concepts and skills for successful curriculum coverage.
Currently, Pearson has made available the Grade 7 and 12 Survival Guides as these are the classes that have returned to school, other grades will be made available in the weeks to come. Pearson will also be releasing full phase (FET) versions as well as full Senior phase (Grades 7-9) within the next two weeks.
Pearson has developed the Survival Guides with reference to the Revised Annual Teaching Plans (ATPs) from the Department of Basic Education’s Recovery Framework. The DBE’s revised ATPs were created to assist schools and teachers to complete the 2020 school year. They address strategies such as curriculum trimming and reorganisation to ensure core skills and knowledge are taught so that learners are ready to progress to the next grade.
Building on this foundation, Mokotsi says Pearson has engaged with DBE’s revised ATPs to provide further support to teachers and learners. The Grade 12 subject content will not be trimmed/cut, but time can be saved through grouping and reorganising content, as shown in Pearson’s Survival Guides. “Teachers should also follow the amended guidelines for assessment as set out by the DBE’s Recovery ATP’s per subject and grade.”
The Survival Guides do not include any curriculum condensing strategies for Term 1 as it is assumed that Term 1 content was already taught.
The Survival Guides provide teachers with a way to efficiently and effectively condense the rest of the school year, but Mokotsi warns that teachers need to follow all safety precautions prescribed by the Government to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“Pearson’s Survival Guides come with safety guidelines to help remind our teachers how to instil proper social distancing and hygiene practices in the classroom and at school. We can come up with strategies to cover the curriculum, but it is up to the teachers and the learners to stay safe,” says Mokotsi.
Pearson’s Survival Guides for all grades and subjects are available on the Pearson’s Classroom Solutions website.
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