Service Provider
Skills Based Education

Description of project:

Skills Based Education (SBE) is an organization initiated by Noel Scheepers and his colleagues in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Both Noel and his colleagues have been involved with the teaching of mathematics in schools for many years and have also served as Curriculum Advisors. The aim of this project is to test a new approach for teaching mathematics that they have developed. SBE's method involves the use of the number line and the abacus to teach the four basic mathematical skills, viz. addition, subtraction, multiplication and division within the principles of OBE.

The Shuttleworth Foundation's involvement:

The Foundation is funding the piloting of the material in five schools within the Eastern Cape. The schools have been chosen from a cross-section of schools, representative of the total demographics in the province.

Aims and objectives:

• To teach educators how to use the tools and the new method to teach mathematics in their schools
• To monitor the classroom implementation of the methodology
• To evaluate the impact of the methodology and provide recommendations for the way forward regarding the possible implementation of the methodology in additional schools

Timeline and deliverables:

March - November 2004