Education has been a much debated subject of concern, from the Fees Must Fall saga to the latest matric pass rate.

However, the Department of Education Ugu KZN, and the South Coast Community Development Committee, in partnership with NPC Intercement have been working together to strengthen the development of education through a series of programmes and development workshops for teachers, lead teachers and school principals.

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Last month, the Department of Education (DOE-Ugu district), South Coast Community Development Committee (SCCDC) and NPC Intercement hosted an interactive “Women in School Leadership” workshop.

More than 30 women school principals and deputy principals took time out from their March school holidays to engage and interact in this leadership development programme, which was held at Port Shepstone Senior Primary.

Mrs N Mbotho, from the DOE opened the workshop and clarified the purpose of the day to the principals.

She described the importance of how to teach children, so they understand the subject matter and the responsibilities the principals and teachers have to ensure that all children are considered in each grade, including the progressed children.

She stressed the importance of a primary school’s role of laying a strong foundation of education for the pupils before they move on to high schools.  This assists the high schools in developing the pupils at the correct and necessary pace, and reduces the number of progressed learners in each grade.

To illustrate her point, she welcomed Sizathina Secondary School principal, Mrs Mthimkhulu, whose pupils achieved a 100 percent matric pass rate in 2018.

Sizathina Secondary School is in the deep rural area of eMandlalathi, Vulamehlo rural, in the Ugu District and some of the pupils walk 7 to 10 kilometres a day to attend this school.

Mrs Mthimkhulu described how she and her dedicated team of teachers achieved the 100 percent pass rate  by putting in realistic goals, values and standards, being passionate about the pupils and teaching practices and by also ensuring pupils have a balanced academic platform which includes participation in sport, cultural activities and debate.

The school achieves these results by starting classes at 7am and organising activities over weekends. Dedicated Academic Boot Camps take place during school holidays.

These Boot Camps allow teachers to work with five pupils each, giving their pupils maximum attention to their areas of need and encourages self-study to ensure their readiness for the upcoming exams.

She also encourages networking among her teachers and other schools in the district, so they can learn from each other. Her teachers are encouraged to attend workshops and development opportunities.

Mrs Mthimkhulu continues to monitor and support her teachers, encouraging their passion for teaching and above all, she leads by example.

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To further foster the Women in Schools Leaders abilities, the next speaker Mrs S Sayed from Catalyx spoke of needs analysis, where a school’s problems are identified so effective change, transformation and solutions can be implemented.

She engaged the principals with a series of questions: What does the future look like for my school? and, How do I achieve this? for them to workshop together, and present their outcome to the others in the room.

Many of the visions and outcomes bore similarities among the groups, with positive outlooks for the future.

The final question put to the principals by Mrs Sayed, came from the main host of the day, NPC Intercement: How can we help you with additional development and support workshops?

This resulted in identifying areas of development such as leadership and management, communication, personal finance management, assertiveness and conflict handling as well as several other development areas.

In conclusion, Mrs N Mbotho of DOE Ugu, communicated the way forward, by encouraging the principals to avail themselves to their teachers, learners and stakeholders, and to ensure the best interest of the learners.

She also urged the principals to stay up to date with the DOE policies and invited them to visit the local offices of the DOE should they need assistance or guidance.

She also spoke about the rekindling of debate at school, as it impacts the pupil’s ability to improve their English language skills and prepares for all subject matter taught in English throughout their school curriculum.

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