The aim of the study was to ident-fy issues involved in the establishment of an ABET centre in a rural secondary school. A case study of two schools with ABET centres and one without an ABET centre as well as a community college was undertaken. The procedure involved gathering information on how ABET was established and how it is implemented in the two schools. Observations and unstructured interviews were carried out in the four institutions. The information which was gathered was analysed to identify themes related to the establishment of an ABET centre. Factors which were investigated in the four institutions included among others, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (herein referred to as swot-analysis, see Abbreviations, Acronyms and Terminology). All the stakeholders such as ABET practitioners and governing bodies were requested to, for example, list and explain factors of 'swot' which they were experiencing. The analysis of the information gathered was used to inform the ’ researcher what factors to consider in es'tXL ishing an ABET centre in a rural school,, A procedural model for the establishment of an ABET centre is proposed in this study. The proposed model can be used not only by the sale rural school alone, but by other schools both in the rural and urban areas wishing to establish ABET centres in future. The decision, to :ise the model will depend on the evaluation by ABET implementers.

Because of the impact of teacher strikes on education there has been a call to declare the teacher‟s profession an essential service and thus prohibit them from striking. This call was made by the Democratic Alliance (DA). The Democratic Alliance arguments in their application to the Essential Services Committee was based on the fact that education in South Africa is in a crisis and the life-altering inconvenience this caused for children. The combined teacher unions in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) expressed their concerns over the DA‟s call for education to be declared an Essential Service. The Bill of Rights grants every employee the fundamental right to strike. This is an absolute and should always be exercised under certain controlled conditions, as stipulated by the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995. Convention 87 of the International Labour Organising (ILO) recognises the right of trade unions, as an organisation of workers set up to further and defend their interest (Article 10), to formulate their programs and organise their activities (Article 3); this means that unions have the right to negotiate with employers and to express their views on economic and social issues affecting the occupational interest of their members. This constitutes the position that the right to strike is one of the legitimate and indeed essential means available to workers for furthering and defending their occupational interest. Balanced against the right of every teacher to strike is the right of everyone to have a basic education as set out in section 29 of the Constitution. In terms of section 29(1)(a) everyone has a right, enforceable against the state, to basic education. This creates a strong positive right. Aspects of the right to education are found in human rights treaties and declarations. This right to education is contained in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which states that “everyone has the right to education”. The International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural v Rights of 1966 covers the right to education comprehensively, especially article 13 and 14. In 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child further confirmed this right. The right to a basic education is further enhanced by section 28(2) of the Constitution “(a) child‟s best interest is of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child”. It is significant to note that in 2007 the Constitutional Court elevated the “best interest” principle to a right. This implies that the best interest of the child would be the decisive factor in each matter that affects the child. In deciding to declare the teaching profession as an essential service constitutional rights must be balanced. These are the right to strike, the right to a basic education and the best interest of the child principle.

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / The aim of this study was to investigate the merger of schools’ programmes in the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in Vhembe District for the academic years 2010 to 2016. When small schools are not merged, it is difficult for the Department of Basic Education to adequately allocate resources for effective and efficient teaching and learning. The study adopted Eisner’s Connoisseur Model of Enquiry as its theoretical framework. Besides the theoretical framework, the study also adopted a legal framework: SASA, Act No. 84 of 1996. This study was conceptualised within the interpretive paradigm, subsumed under a qualitative research design. Data was collected through interviews and document analysis. The population of the study was eighty-five (85) schools identified for merger in the Vhembe District. Purposive sampling was used to select nine (09) principals from the merging schools, three (03) Deputy Manager Governance officials from the identified circuits and one (01) district governance official in Vhembe District. Hence the sample of the study was thirteen (13) participants. Data was analysed thematically. The study revealed that most schools identified for merger were merged prematurely; that is, schools were merged before the provision of relevant infrastructure and resources in the merging centres and this caused the communities to reject mergers. The study recommends that proper consultation with relevant local structures like traditional leaders in particular is crucial to ensure that the merging of schools is implemented with minimal challenges. Correct interpretation, implementation of policies and effective monitoring of programmes should be ensured to advocate for school merging. / NRF

Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management / DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Also availabe in print

LLM / Department of Criminal and Procedural Law

Thesis (M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The Department of Basic Education has a duty of ensuring that all children enjoy free and equal access to basic education despite their socio-economic status and backgrounds. The South African constitution also recognises universal access to quality primary education as a fundamental human right. This compels the Department of Basic Education to ensure that every child is provided with basic primary education at no cost, hence the expansion of no-fee schools and the National Schools Nutrition Programme. In an attempt to fulfil the Millennium Developmental Goal 2, which advocates for the provision of equal access to primary education, the multi-grade teaching practice was then introduced to ensure the provision of education to children in sparsely-populated and rural communities. However, this type of teaching practice comes with myriad difficulties which teachers face as they manage curriculum delivery. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the various difficulties that teachers face as they have to deal with multi-grade teaching and how they overcome those difficulties. The literature revealed that multi-grade teaching is not limited to the South African situation alone, but a global phenomenon practised in both developing and developed countries. It also emanates from the literature that multi-grade teaching, if used correctly and effectively could yield positive results. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. This study follows a case study design. Following that the study adopted the qualitative research approach, data collection tools linked to the approach were used and included: Interviews, document review and observations. A principal, teacher and parent from three schools managing difficulties associated with multi-grade classes were purposively sampled. The research findings, based on the interviews, document review, observation and the literature reviewed revealed that the insufficient backing from the Department of Basic Education, heavy workload of teachers and general shortage of teaching staff are some of the difficulties that teachers in multi-graded schools have to grapple with. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that the dearth of intervention from the Department of Basic Education hugely affects the effective curriculum delivery in multi-graded schools. To mitigate the identified difficulties, the researcher recommended that a different post-provisioning norm and funding model for the multi-graded schools be experimented with.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has associated the poor pass rate in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations to the learners’ lack of practical skills and the inability of learners to solve problems by integrating knowledge from the different topics in Physical Sciences. The CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) is central to the planning, organising and teaching of Physical Sciences. Even though more than a third of the learners achieved below 30% in the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences: Physics (P1) November 2017 examination, there was a lack of references made to the CAPS, rationalising the poor performance. A disjointed alignment between the CAPS and the P1 is a possible cause for the poor performance. Since there have been no previous studies that investigated the alignment between the CAPS and the P1, this study aims to fill that gap. This study used a positivist research paradigm and a case study research strategy. A purposive sampling procedure selected the CAPS Grades 10 – 12 Physical Sciences document; the Physical Sciences Examination Guidelines Grade 12 documents and the final and supplementary P1 examinations in the period starting November 2014 to March 2018 as the documents for analysis. A summative content analysis research technique was conducted using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) research method. The SEC method employed the use of the four topics of Grade 12 Physics and the four non-hierarchical levels of cognitive demand as described in the modified version of Bloom’s taxonomy. The physics topics included mechanics; waves, sound and light; electricity and magnetism; and optical phenomena. The cognitive demand levels included recall; comprehension; application and analysis; and synthesis and evaluation. This study found a 100 percent categorical coherence, a 67.3 percent balance of representation, a 79.4 percent cognitive complexity and an average Porter’s alignment index of 0.77 between the CAPS and the P1. The overall Cohen’s kappa for all the documents analysed was 0.88. The findings of this study indicate that the mechanics topic was under-emphasised whilst the application and analysis cognitive demand was over-emphasised in the P1. The CAPS and the P1 did not utilise the highest cognitive demand, synthesis and evaluation which may be interpreted as an environment that fosters lower order thinking. To change this environment of lower order thinking and simultaneously increase the alignment between the CAPS and the P1 this study recommends that firstly, the CAPS decreases the recall based content of the mechanics topic. Secondly, the CAPS and the P1 increase the synthesis and evaluation cognitive demand-based content at the expense of the recall cognitive demand-based content. Thirdly, the CAPS must include the content of the school-based physics practical assessments while decreasing the focus on physics definitions. The ultimate aim is an improvement in the pass rates of the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations. / Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (Physics Education))

The purpose of the study was to find out why adult learners absent themselves from adult basic education programmes and to devise strategies to encourage them to attend classes. In order to achieve the aim of the study, the objective of the study were to investigate the economic and social reasons why adult learners do not attend classes. The research focus on a critical issue of absenteei(sm by adult learners at SEKGOSESE West Circuit adult centre in Limpopo Province. Literature review was engaged in the field of Adult Education and related to the research problem. The literature review presented an insight into theoretical frameworks and conceptual frameworks about causes of adult learner’s absenteeism. The researcher used sources which included journals, books, articles and dissertations. To collect information. This qualitative study explored the causes of adult learner absenteeism and came with strategies to reduce adult learner absenteeism. Critical theory was used as a theoretical framework. The theory deals with social economic factors and conditions under which people live. Data was collected through focus group interviews. There were sixteen participants who attend classes at Mosima adult learning centre, and they were selected homogeneously. It was discovered that adult learner absenteeism is caused by lack of motivation, lack of support from departmental officials, lack of adult learner commitment, lack of facilities, lack of qualified adult educators, lack of respect amongst adult learners and adult educators as a serious matter, lack of parental support for those who are still under parental care and lack of transport for adult learners who stay far from the centre. Based on the causes of adult learner absenteeism, recommendations are made for the Department of Education to address these causes in order to elevate adult learner absenteeism and further research efforts are recommended. It is recommended that the department of education include stationery material in their budget for adult basic education. Adult Basic education educators should also receive adequate training s o that they can be able to teach adult learners effectively. / ABET and Youth Development / M. Ed. (Adult Education)