In an effort to foster partnerships between schools and share resources, the Gauteng education department is improving its School Twinning Programme by going virtual.

The programme, which is unique to the province, pairs schools from different communities, encouraging resource-sharing and collaboration to enhance learner performance.

Speaking at Halfway House Primary School in Midrandthis week at the virtual launch, Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said the aim of programme was to “facilitate social cohesion in schools, enable sharing of resources, sharing of best practices and improve learner performance”.

He was addressing learners and principals from various schools participating in the project. 

Excited pupils were keen to show off different projects, including a “smart yard” that used different kinds of technology to operate.

The MEC also attended a classroom session where he was shown how Grade 7 learners from different schools were connected virtually to a maths lesson at Halfway House.

The virtual teaching includes Halfway House Primary, Mikateka Primary School in Ivory Park, Bovet Primary School in Alexandra and Lyndhurst Primary School in Lyndhurst. 

Mikateka Primary School principal Mandhla Sibanyonisaid that the programme was extremely beneficial for the pupils from his school, many of whom came from impoverished backgrounds. 

The school is one of Gauteng’s fully ICT-equipped township schools, where learners engage in robotics and coding. Lessons are delivered through smartboards and computer tablets.

“Pupils from a township school can now code robotics,” he added.

Sibanyoni said that he embraced the “bromance” he shared with his counterpart at Halfway House and expressed his eagerness to have more schools in Gauteng come on board.

In order to address educational challenges, the department amended Section 17 of the SA Schools Act to incorporate the school governance of twinned schools. The initiative allows for one governing body to govern two schools.

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The Gauteng education department is expected to start sending placement offers for Grade 1 and 8 learners to parents and guardians on Monday.

Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said on Friday that Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloana would outline the details for the placements on Sunday.

Once the applications haven sent, they must be completed by the parents and guardians.

Chiloana will highlight what is expected of parents during this process.

“Among others, the MEC will highlight the important details applicants must be aware of during the placement period, starting from the 16 of September 2024.

“This where placement offers will be sent to parents and they will then have to go to the system and accept the offers that would been sent to them,” Mabona said.

In previous years, parents have faced a number of challenges while trying to secure a placement in the province’s public schools.

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Miss SA Mia le Roux and Gauteng MEC for Education, Sport, Art, culture and Recreation Matome Chiloane teamed up on Tuesday to promote sign language at schools.

Chiloane told a sign language mini festival at Transoranje School for the Deaf in Pretoria that to support hearing and deaf learners, the department had introduced the Basic South African Sign Language (SASL) to hearing learners starting from Grade 5.

Since sign language was declared the 12th official language in 2019, the MEC said teaching it would enhance interaction and social inclusion.

Le Roux was thrilled to see the government taking more of an initiative on the matter. She said that by promoting SASL, learners would be keen to pursue studies in the field of deaf education and interpreting. 

Speaking to the learners, Le Roux said: “I believe that the deaf community, including me, we are so well capable of achieving our dreams if we are to believe in ourselves”.

While the MEC said: “We are building bridges and breaking barriers of teaching and learning.”

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