MEDIA RELEASE
SANRAL attends the 14th Annual Family Math Summit at University of Free State
Bloemfontein, 15 September 2024 – At the 14th annual Family Math Summit held at the University of the Free State this week, the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) outlined ways in which it continues to support teacher development throughout the country, while also supporting learners and their parents.
The Summit was attended by more than 300 teachers and representatives of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the university. It found that long-term solutions and interventions are required to the challenges facing mathematics teaching and learning in South Africa during the primary learning phases. Also, to change the status quo, it is equally important to look at alternative ways to make a difference.
“The Science-for-the-Future (S4F) unit from the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with several funders, are working towards strategies to demystify mathematics in the early school years. SANRAL continues to support the development of teachers,” said Reginald Demana, CEO at SANRAL.
The innovative partnership between SANRAL and the University of the Free State to train maths and science teachers and support learners and parents through the UFS SANRAL Schools Outreach projects ultimately resulted into the notion of expanding to six further universities all over the country.
The universities collaboration initiative not only allowed for new learning hubs to reach more teachers, learners and parents, but also serves as a platform for knowledge and experience gained over the past few years to be shared between institutions to build further capacity and upskill more facilitators/lecturers and communities.
“Maths cuts across every field. There are virtually no careers that do not require you to be proficient in maths. To quote Albert Einstein, “Pure maths is in its way the poetry of logical ideas”. We are not teaching our children to be geniuses in maths and science, but to solve problems analytically, across all disciplines. For SANRAL, we see a lifetime of investment. From the time we fund a scholarship, to an external bursary, to employing a graduate intern, supporting them to professional registration and having them stay at SANRAL, managing mega projects. We have many examples like this,” said Demana.
Apart from the university collaboration initiative, SANRAL also funds the physical science ICT Laboratory programme of S4F, Education Student Family Math training as well as the UFS Chair in Mathematics, natural sciences and Technology Education.
The head of the Family Math Family Science programme at UFS Professor Cobus van Breda mentioned the importance of the role parents play in their children’s schooling. “Parents play a crucial role in maths and science education and through this Family Maths programme, we are successfully demystifying maths and changing attitudes towards maths. The learner whose parents are actively involved in their learning, achieves better results. This argument has been substantiated with evidence through research,” said van Breda.
SANRAL Board Chair Themba Mhambi highlighted the importance of education as a way to rescue South Africa from its social ills.
“We live in a country/society that has become dysfunctional in many ways, with social ills, crime and extortion. The only hope lies in education and the only hope lies in teachers. Priests as teachers, parents as teachers, teachers as teachers, lecturers as teachers. Our hope finally lies in how the parents, the teachers and learners come together as a community because where the parent and learners are, you will not have the child become an alcoholic. Where the teacher is present in the life of the learner, you are minimising the prospect of these young people losing their way. It could become a template for how our education system should be reconstructed,” said Mhambi.
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