On Tuesday the 30 November I attended a conference hosted by Bridge. The aim of the seminar was to create a stronger community for learner support programmes for Maths and Science. The meeting took place at the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance in Johannesburg CBD.

Not knowing anything about Bridge or exactly what the meeting would entail, I went with an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised to see my ex high-school Science teacher who now works for the Mindset Learning Channel. We immediately got talking about the education system and the problems we would need to address in order for South Africa to move forward. One key topic that continuously came up with many of the delegates was that we need to change the negative perception surrounding being a teacher. Children aspire to be Engineers and Doctors but it’s rare to find those who aim to be an educator someday. Who is going to teach their children?

Very quickly, following several such thought provoking conversations, I felt right at home. I learnt about various educational support projects running in South Africa. They all have closely linked value systems to that of Siyavula, and as our greatest asset is the rich library of Open Educational Resources we have compiled, the opportunities for collaboration is endless.

I soon learnt that the objective of the Bridge meeting was to provide a platform for various stakeholders to network. This allowed the complimentary interaction between those people with the development projects, those with the teaching skills and those wishing to fund aspects of the two. The diverse number of people allowed for an exciting and impassioned array of new ideas and collaborative prospects to be thrown around. Gaining fresh perspectives from passionate individuals is always invigorating.

A key point raised was that smaller groups with a refined focus were more prone to success and as soon as they extended themselves and became too ambitious they seemed to lose traction. Therefore we should strive to a cross pollination of skills and resources rather than try doing everything in isolation.

This is in fact the philosophy on which Siyavula is founded: if we could get teachers collaborating and sharing their skills and resources the work being done would be done in a fraction of the time, and possibly even at a higher quality.

Without knowing it, by attending this meeting I had now joined a community of practice amongst the most influential people outside the Department of Education.

This was the first of an ongoing series of meetings and I look forward to becoming an active member. I also look forward to pursuing the various individual relationships with projects that were established and exploring how we could learn from and build on each others’ successes.

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