After a successful second school term, thousands of learners and educators from across the province will tomorrow begin their winter school holidays.
While our learners and educators look forward to a well-deserved break, many of our schools will be buzzing with numerous holiday activities and extra tuition for learners, as well as, training programmes for thousands of educators.
The long winter holidays provide the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) with an opportunity to train over 12 000 educators outside of school hours in important areas such as language and mathematics and CAPS.
It also allows our schools the opportunity to provide learners with extra tuition, especially for Grade 12s ahead of their National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.
The following activities and programmes will be available at selected schools and venues this winter holidays:
Teacher development and training
Ongoing professional development and training of our educators is a priority for this government.
Around 12 700 educators will be attending training sessions across the province during the mid-year holiday.
We are especially determined to ensure that as many of our educators receive the relevant support and training in terms of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which will be implemented in Grades seven to nine and 12 in 2014.
9 000 educators will receive training to prepare for final phase of the CAPS implementation next year.
The WCED is also providing language and mathematics training for Foundation Phase teachers in the June holidays.
Approximately 1 800 educators have registered for language training and over 1 900 for numeracy training.
In addition to the CAPS and literacy and numeracy training, various seminars and conferences will be held at the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute.
The seminars include a three day course on “Aspiring school leaders” which will give our aspiring leaders a better understanding on the experiences and skills required for promotion posts, the legal framework that governs educators in promotion posts, as well as, an awareness of the challenges and the opportunities that come with leadership.
