Supporting
Equity in Primary Schools
South Africa
July - October 2000
 The
National Department of Education in South Africa has made
great efforts to support improved educational equity and
put in place a number of education policies to help achieve
an inclusive, gender-equitable, and anti-discriminatory basic
education program. To support these efforts, USAID’s
Office of Women in Development provided technical assistance
and training to South Africa through the Equity in the Classroom
Project. BEPS was engaged to enhance the impact of the Equity
in the Classroom activities through organizing a national
equity in the classroom training workshop.
The BEPS team designed
and conducted training to prepare trainers to teach teachers
to create more equitable, child-centered
classrooms. To develop the training, the BEPS team, together
with South African staff, held briefings with key National
Department of Education Directorates, as well as provincial
and district officials in the Gauteng and Free State
Provinces. They also visited nine schools, and observed and
filmed
seven primary classrooms. Insights gained from observations
and
interviews were utilized in designing the training-of-trainers
workshop, which preceded the national workshop.
The team also
produced Equity in Education – A Window
into the Classroom Experiences of Young Learners, a one-hour
videotape of teacher-student interactions in classrooms with
an accompanying user’s guide. These activities resulted
in preparing a core group of South African trainers to train
teachers in equitable, child-centered, participatory practices.
Resources:
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