Uniforum SA, the organisation that maintains the .co.za domain registry, has increased its support for a teacher training project to R500 000 for next year.
The registrar has pledged to provide ICT training for 190 teachers during 2011 as part of the Internet Service Providers' Association's (ISPA) “Train the Teacher” project. It sponsored 150 teachers as part of the project last year, at a cost of R370 000.
Uniforum adds that the project began in December 2001. “Through this initiative, ISPA has assisted educators in developing their personal computer and organisational skills, knowledge and abilities.”
To date, 2 000 teachers have benefited from the training.
Spreading IT skills
Through the programme, teachers learn practical computer skills that help them produce learning materials, subject plans, assessments and marks records, as well as to complete administrative tasks more efficiently, according to Uniforum.
They are then encouraged to pass their learning on to learners and colleagues, and to generate further projects of benefit to their communities.
According to Fiona Wallace, UniForum SA's Corporate Social Investment manager, in many cases, teachers run after-hours classes for their colleagues, their local communities and learners at their schools.
Uniforum SA and ISPA will choose the schools and teachers to benefit from the programme in the next few months, according to the registrar.
A number of ISPA members have promised to fund the training of 60 additional teachers during 2011, resulting in at least 250 teachers benefiting from the programme next year.
ISPA provides sponsorship for the programme, while Avuxeni Computer Academy and Schoolnet conduct the training, explains the registrar.
It adds that other ISPA members supporting the programme this year include SAP, eNetworks, Ensync, MTN Business, Vox Telecom and Adept Internet.
Training focus
Parthy Chetty, manager of corporate affairs at Intel, says teacher training and development is an integral part of the attempt to close the digital divide.
This sentiment was echoed at this year's Education Week conference, where teachers highlighted how much ICT intimidates them, due to their lack of skills.
Earlier this month the European Union (EU) committed just over R1.1 billion to the Primary Education Sector Policy Support Programme in SA, says the Presidency.
A portion of this funding that was given to the Department of Basic Education will be set aside for ICT in education and e-education.
The EU says teacher training will be a strong focus. It adds that the teacher education system will be improved to attract and deliver higher numbers of capable primary school teachers.
Democratic Alliance shadow minister of education and training Wilmot James agrees, saying teacher training should be the main focus when allocating the funds.
“I would spend all the money on in-service and pre-service training for teachers to improve quality. ICT is not the answer to our education problems, teacher quality is. ICT is an aid and teachers should learn to master it as part of their training.”
IT teacher shortage
Only 400 out of 38 000 schools in SA are teaching IT as a high school subject, says Fiona Wallace, head of .co.za Cares - the corporate social investment arm of Uniforum.
She says her numbers are based on requests from schools needing study material to teach IT as a subject.
Wallace pointed out that the reason so few schools teach IT as a subject is largely due to the low numbers of teachers who can teach it.
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