All children have the ability to learn and the right to a quality education to enable them to reach their full potential.
Running from 2016 to 2019, and led by the British Council, Teaching for All is an ambitious material and teacher development project that aims to provide teachers in South Africa with the skills to teach inclusively in diverse classrooms in diverse communities.
In South Africa, despite substantial gains made in education since 1994, many children continue to be marginalised due to a range of barriers thus making them vulnerable to education exclusion. Children often face more than one obstacle and have to contend with a web of inter-related barriers at intrinsic, pedagogic, systemic and societal levels. Some are denied access while many others pass through the school system, or simply drop out, with learning difficulties and other barriers undetected and unsupported.
As noted in Education White Paper 6, by adopting inclusive teaching methodologies to meet diverse learner needs, teachers can play a pivotal role in the transformation of South Africa’s education system into an inclusive education system.
In working towards the goal of an inclusive education system, the Teaching for All project aims to contribute towards the translation of South Africa’s constitutional obligations and inclusive education policies from strategic intent to operational practice. The project has adopted a four-pronged approach:
- planning and research
- development of courses and materials
- roll out of courses and materials
- impact evaluation.
Working with partners and key stakeholders, teacher training courses will be developed collaboratively and available in both online and lecture-based formats for Bachelor of Education and Post Graduate Certificate in Education programmes. The implementation will be achieved by partnering with universities and integrating the courses into the universities’ curricula. Grants of up to €10,000 will be provided to facilitate the process.
In parallel with the pre-service teacher training programme, South Africa Certificate in Education-endorsed inclusive education in-service programmes will be developed for delivery by provincial education departments.
The success of Teaching for All relies on multi-sector partnerships that are committed to providing quality education for all learners between the EU, the British Council, the University of South Africa (UNISA) and MIET Africa
For further information on Teaching for All, please contact Joanne Newton.