Browsing by Subject "primary schools"

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    The Learning for Living Project 2000-2004: A book-based approach to the learning of language in South African primary schools
    (2008) Schollar, Eric
    The Learning for Living Project was implemented over five years in 957 primary schools in all nine provinces of South Africa. The intervention embodied a bookbased approach to the learning of English as a second language and was based upon a modified book flood model utilizing the supply of materials supported by in-service training as well as extensive classroom monitoring. A total of 13 164 teachers were supplied with a total of 4 002 103 individual books of different types – a mean of 304 per teacher. In addition, each teacher received a mean of 9.6 INSET courses and 6.9 monitoring visits. The project cost R153 million for a total of 875 000 learners yielding a per capita cost of R175 per learner over the whole five year project, including project staff salaries and administration. The project was externally evaluated through the use of a quasi experimental design that longitudinally tracked true cohorts of randomly selected learners in project and control groups drawn from a sample of 90 schools. The resulting data has a precision of just over 1% at a confidence level of 95% - mean scores of the project and control groups were virtually equivalent at baseline (-0.5% difference in relation to the project mean). All of the components of the sample measured significant impacts in the project group over the controls in literacy – Cohort One +6.9%, Cohort Two +3.4%, Grade Five +7.6% and Grade Seven +7.7%. There is a 100% certainty that these impacts were achieved as a result of the book- based approach to the learning of English as a second language applied by the Learning for Living Project. That similar impacts in mathematics were not obtained suggests that poor inputs and outcomes in mathematics exist independently of the language in which it is learned.
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    The association between nutrition and physical activity knowledge and weight status of primary school educators
    (2014) Dalais, Lucinda; Abrahams, Zulfa; Steyn, Nelia P; de Villiers, Anniza; Fourie, Jean M; Hill, Jillian; Lambert, Estelle V; Draper, Catherine E
    The purpose of this study was to investigate primary school educators' health status, knowledge, perceptions and behaviour regarding nutrition and physical activity.Thus, nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and risk factors for the development of non-communicable diseases of 155 educators were assessed in a cross-sectional survey. Height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and random glucose levels were measured. Twenty percent of the sample had normal weight (body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) < 25), 27.7% were overweight (BMI> 25 to < 30) and 52.3% were obese (BMI < 30). Most of the participants were younger than 45 years (54.2%), females 78.1%, resided in urban areas (50.3%), with high blood pressure (> 140/90 mmHg: 50.3%), and were inactive (48.7%) with a high waist circumference (> 82 cm: 57.4%). Educators' nutrition and physical activity knowledge was poor. Sixty-nine percent of educators incorrectly believed that eating starchy foods causes weight gain and only 15% knew that one should eat five or more fruit and/or vegetables per day. Aspects of poor nutritional knowledge, misconceptions regarding actual body weight status, and challenges in changing health behaviours, emerged as issues which need to be addressed among educators. Educators' high risk for developing chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) may impact on educator absenteeism and subsequently on school functioning. The aspects of poor nutrition and physical activity knowledge along with educators' high risk for NCD development may be particularly significant not merely in relation to their personal health but also the learners they teach.