Self-instructional Materials on HIV/AIDS for Teacher Education Programmes

The HEAIDS programme of Higher Education South Africa (HESA) (formerly SAUVCA) commissioned SAIDE a year ago to develop a set of materials to support the outcomes for a core module on HIV/AIDS for professional teacher education programmes in South Africa prepared by the HEAIDS teacher education task team. Tessa Welch provides details on the module.

Online Access and Connectivity of Primary School Teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa

During 2005 the Open University(UK) commissioned SAIDE to undertake a desktop study aimed at informing the TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) project Consortium of current and potential future (2005-2010) access of primary teachers to online resources. The study focused on South Africa , Tanzania , Kenya and Nigeria . Eunice Ivala and Ephraim Siluma-Mmekoa summarize the findings.

Thutong: The South African Education Portal

In early 2003, the Department of Education released a tender to build a national education portal. The Thutong portal is the realization of a key objective of the Department of Education's 2001 Strategy for Information and Communications Technology(ICT) in that promised to introduce ICT successfully to schools and to use technology to make a host of curriculum and support material available to South African educators. A consortium led by SAIDE won the bid to develop this portal on behalf of the Department.

Since then the Thutong portal has grown in leaps and bounds and currently boasts well over 10 000 registered users and over 17 000 captured curriculum resources! Janet Stewart provides an update on the project.

Reviewing Roles and Functions of the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL)

In July 2005 SAIDE and the International Research Foundation for Open Learning (IRFOL) were commissioned to review the current roles and functions of the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) and to make recommendations for possible future roles for NAMCOL. Ephraim Mmekoa (SAIDE) and Terry Ellsop (IRFOL) conducted the review. Ephraim Mmekoa reports.

SAIDE Workshops: Materials Development for FET Educators

Christine Randell provides an overview of two materials development workshops held in Limpopo for educators in FET colleges. Links are made to resources developed for the workshop

Benefits of Using an Activity Guide

Activity guides are learning resources that are often under-utilized. In the previous article Christine Randell provided an outline of the materials development workshops conducted in Limpopo and here she highlights the benefits of developing activity guides.

News in Brief

Remembering Dr Prem Naidoo of the HEQC