Kimberley Thusanang Project

Project Name:	Kimberley Thusanang Project
Region:	Kimberley, Northern Cape
Partner:	Northern Cape Department of Education
Key Objective:	To provide intensive educational support to the Kimberley Region at regional, circuit and school level
Number of Schools:	65
Timeframe:	2000 - 2003
Project Manager:	Stephen Harvey

Funders:

USAID, and

Background

This is one of four USAID funded District Development Support Projects in South Africa. Link is the lead organisation of a consortium which received £8,000,000. The approach is informed by Link's previous work - especially our focus on district development. The key objective is to support the Kimberley Region in Northern Cape and in particular to impact on 65 target schools covering regional and circuit management, school management and teaching and learning.

Overview

This is a major project for Link which commenced in January 2000. The goal is to improve the quality of educational delivery for grades 1-9 in the Kimberley Region. Educational delivery has been defined as teaching, learning systems, management, transformation, governance resources, policy adaptation and implementation. A key feature of the programme is to facilitate the development of approaches, practices, structures and operational systems that provide good models of effective schooling, education management and school support. The project places special emphasis on bringing about holistic change at the district and school levels through whole school and whole district development. This is consistent with the Department of Education's own District Improvement Programme, as well as USAID's education strategic objective of "increased access to quality education and training" in the basic education sector.

Key Activities

The focus is on:

supporting farm schools
in-service training (as well as cluster support workshops/school support visits)
school development planning
regional and provincial integrated planning

Extensive monitoring at school level shows a marked progression towards the projects objectives. We are also moving forward with a pioneering Provincial Integrated Planning process in Northern Cape, working with each regional department to improve efficiency and impact of educational delivery in the province.

Activities in the Northern Cape are progressing brilliantly, with very positive feedback from stakeholders and funders alike. In a grantee assessment (March 2001), Link scored 'excellent' in every category of the report. Key achievements include:

The establishment of Farm Schools Training Programme. This is an extremely unique and innovative programme - Link may well be developing a product of much wider significance and marketability.
Exceptional attendance rates (around 80%) at our training courses.
School Governing Body training has been initiated using an innovative course designed to address the needs of illiterate rural parents. The training revolves around a 'simulatrion game' involving role-playing and decision making. The development of these methods is another project product which will be of wider significance.

APSO Link is delighted that APSO, the Irish national body which promotes service by skilled people in developing countries have provided a grant of IR£20,000 to support Barbara Harvey - our Training Co-ordinator at the Kimberley Thusanang. Barbara's job is to manage training of lecturers, cluster support teams, school support teams and district officials. She ensures coherence of the overall training programme through liaison with everyone else involved in delivery. Brian Nolan of APSO, says "We recognise the agencies we co-finance, for example Link Community Development, as being one of our important stakeholder groups".

Barbara Harvey, Training Co-ordinator for KTP says:

"It is exciting working for a project that looks at schools holistically. Not only do we train teachers in the primary schools; we also have an excellent relationship with school managers and governors. We believe that we will have a more positive, long-term impact on schools through this approach. As one principal said to me recently, 'With KTP, we feel that the whole school benefits, not just some of the teachers'".