Education Programme

Educational Materials
Collection, transport and delivery of educational materials, facilities and equipment. The Foundation will work with other organisations and individuals based in the UK and South Africa to secure educational materials, (new and used) and arrange for their shipment and distribution to the poorest schools in southern Africa. It will seek to mobilise resources in South Africa and the UK, covering the collection, shipping and distribution costs associated with the recycling of used educational books, school furniture and equipment, and computers from schools, libraries and establishments of further and higher education in the UK for re-use by schools in Southern Africa. It will do so by using and developing links, which have already been established with a number of organisations, which have indicated their continued support for this activity. To date, over a dozen 40-foot shipping containers of educational equipment and materials have arrived in the Eastern Cape for schools in the region. This partnership has been driven primarily by Oxfordshire County Council.

Teaching Training
Upgrading of educators – providing training for higher quality teaching capacity. Working in partnership with the Department of Education representatives in both Bisho and Elliotdale, the Foundation will assist in the further training of teachers working in schools (INSET). The focus of its work will be teachers who are under and/or poorly qualified. It will do so through the development of materials and participation in teacher training programmes. Primary focus of this work will be teachers in the Mbashe River area, but also with a focus on assisting education departments and institutes of higher education including universities, technikons and colleges of education.

Complementary Teaching
Working a complementary partnership with local educators, but with a wider remit in relation to the school curriculum, to include community development factors and challenges affecting the everyday lives of schoolchildren in the area. The Foundation will develop, lead and assist in programmes of student development in the area of personal and social education. Programmes will include wider community issues, e.g. HIV/Aids, drugs education, money management, etc.

Education Development
Aiming to develop all facets of education in the area, with a particular focus on the wider political, social and community issues that affect the all aspects of capacity, quality and effectiveness and how this in turn relates to schools, schoolchildren, educators in general. This will be worked out in consultation with the schools themselves, local education coordinators, the communities in which they exist, development education specialists and the Department of Education at Bisho.