The Department of Basic Education has taken measures to further develop its teacher assistant program. The department intends to do this through a series of partnerships with private sector entities such as National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMSA)
The organisation’s Digital Manager, Antoniette Young says that this is being done through basic training in digital skills, such as an introduction to ICT skills.
The first part is an introduction to how to use the platform and an introduction to digital literacy. We then take them through Microsoft Office, just an introduction to Microsoft Office so they can understand what it is and how it works, then we do a section on the internet on how to use the internet.
Young further states that they then take students through how to set up an email address and then the next section is about how teachers and educators can make use of digital technology in the classroom.
“I am actually doing a lot of work by studying by doing gatekeeping in school checking whether the children are coming to school on time are they in a proper uniform and after then start doing observation in the classroom checking whether is there any absenteeism of the children how do they behave when they get inside the class and while the teacher is so busy teaching how do they behave in second classes,” she explains
The introduction to new technologies would be the final component of week five of the course. After this, the department offers them an overview of data analytics and an introduction to Powerpoint.
