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05 May 2023
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Story EDZANI NEPHALELA
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Photo Supplied
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This audit process will assess the resources available and required for the implementation of a Language policy framework for higher education (2020) – such as the development of multilingual terminologies, translation services for teaching and learning materials, campus signage, as well as various multimedia collateral – including their quality and relevance to the needs of the students and faculty. The audit will include an assessment of existing resources and whether they are furthering implementation goals, and may also include the gathering of feedback from students and faculty to identify improvement areas.
Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane, Director of the UFS Academy for Multilingualism, said the process will help the UFS identify the essential languages resources that are available for the successful implementation of the 2020 Language Policy for Higher Education framework (LPHE). “The audit will identify how much has been done at the UFS and which institutions we can collaborate with, for example, in the development of Sesotho, so that we do not reinvent the wheel, but we close the gaps.”
Once the audit is completed, the institution will develop a plan for resource allocation to address the identified gaps. This may involve acquiring new resources, upgrading existing ones, or reallocating existing resources better to meet the needs of students, staff, and faculties.
Due to the impact this audit will have on various stakeholders, all staff and students are encouraged to participate. To attend the audit, please RSVP here by 30 May 2023.
UFS researchers help find opportunities to create knowledge
2016-09-15
The initiative hopes that the mobile libraries
will continue to contribute towards literature
awareness and access to books at rural
schools in the Free State.
Photo: Supplied
Did you know that only 3 392 primary schools in South Africa have libraries? In the Free State the statistics are shocking. Only 277 primary schools have libraries, while 1 087 carry on without them. One of nine provinces in South Africa, the Free State is regarded as a rural province. The South African Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI), in partnership with other sponsors, has committed to expanding access to books by donating mobile libraries to service schools across South Africa. In the Free State, the project is embraced by the Free State Department of Education, which employs the mobile operators and library assistants to service these libraries, driving many kilometres of gravel road to visit remote farm schools and other under-resourced schools. SAPESI has set a goal to supply 75 mobile libraries to provide 2 000 schools with access to books by the year 2020.
Discovering the value of the mobile libraries
Although the mobile libraries in the Free State have been functioning since 2007, no formal research had been conducted on their work. Towards the end of 2014, the Free State Department of Education and the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) commissioned the UFS to carry out a participatory action research project. Dr Lynette Jacobs, Head of the School of Education Studies at the University of the Free State’s Faculty of Education and her team engaged with role-players at district and provincial level in a Participatory Action Research project.
The research project aimed to describe the work that mobile libraries do, and appraise its influence on learners and schools, towards improving their functionality. In addition, this project aimed to build research capacity within the district teacher development centres.
Highlights of the mobile library project
The way the Free State Department of Education embraced and supported the initiative by Mr Tad Hasunuma and SAPESI, was inspiring. Each of the five education districts has two fully equipped library buses that periodically visit schools. The stock on the buses is regularly replaced by books that SAPESI receives from the international community. Specific books are also loaded for teachers to use as resources. One of the outcomes of the research project was that guidelines were developed for teachers on how to use books in addition to curriculum material in the classroom. At district level, the teams reflected on the work that they were doing and implemented improvement plans to provide an even better service. Findings of the project were presented at the XIV Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society that focused on education provision earlier this year. It was lauded by representatives of the international education community as an example of good practice to provide education to marginalised children.
Reading helps enrich children’s lives
The research project concluded by stating that the aim of the mobile libraries was to provide learners and teachers at rural and farm schools with reading books, and they were doing as best they could. While the mobile libraries cannot make up for possible challenges related to teaching and learning or in infrastructure, the learners and the teachers are regularly provided with good resources to encourage reading and stimulate literacy development.