If you were in high school less than four years ago I am sure you still remember the feeling of being a learner. Sitting behind the desk and regurgitating what the teacher is feeding you. But things have changed now, the matriculants of 2008 wrote their first examination under the Outcome Based Education system (OBE). The system encourages them to apply what their have learnt in the class room in real life situations and think critically. Despite the change in the education system I still felt like I could relate to the learners on a very personal level. I also went to a high school in a previously disadvantaged community like T.E.M Mrwetyana Senior Secondary School-Grahamstown. The teacher we interviewed mentioned that one of the reasons why they could not successfully implement the OBE curricular is because they school does not have enough resources
Listen to the podcast to hear more about what the OBE teacher had to say about the system:[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/teachermp3.mp3[/podcast]
How we followed the story: – “If it bleeds, it leads”
After brainstorming all possible angles we were going to follow to put together the story. We just noted down possible sources, location for filming and the research. One of the sources we were going to use is Prof. Chrissie Boughey; she is the Rhodes University Dean of learning and teaching. Prof Boughey was quoted in an article published in the previous edition of the Financial Mail. We could not meet with her for an interview so we were going to use her picture as a graphic cutaway in our package and also use her quote. We could not do that because we had to make the package as short as possible. Check out the full article about OBE:
“The Benchmark Tests assess students against a set of ‘benchmark competencies’ — skills experienced academics have identified as necessary if students are to be able to engage with first-year work”.
-Prof Boughey