August 29 Elna Cavendish

English as second language learners, struggle at tertiary level education.

Education is a life long experience: life-long learning. The comment comes from an elderly woman who was only able to take herself off to university at the age of 60!

A vice-principle of a school in an economically and socially challenged area, made the following comments: [She is in no way afraid of the gangsters, she has a powerful presence, sharp wit and commands respect] The CAPS system will standardise education, and that means when pupils move from provinces, or within regional areas, they will remain current. The system is text-book based. She says it is up to the teacher to make the syllabus alive by enthusiastically relating the content back to the learner. She fully backs CAPS and says now the learners will really learn things.

Another comment made by someone who was previously involved in tertiary level learning. He feels that the OBE system was a superior system and was poorly understood and managed. OBE encouraged self learning, responsibility toward learning and life-long learning. It’s a sensitive balance between content, teacher and learner. It required more teachers training and better management.