Increasing the odds of success through primary maths support

​Durban 30 May 2017, Delivering the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education Budget for 2017, MEC for Education Minister Dlungwana said that the province’s learner population is a ‘demographic dividend bonus’ and encouraged investment in them to improve the quality of life of all citizens. He also said that more attention was being paid to improving the quality of schooling, especially in the acquisition of foundational skills for learning such as reading, writing and numeracy.
 
Taking up the call for investment in primary education, Kingdomslots through its Grand Gaming Corporate Social Investment programme has partnered with local non-profit organisation CASME.
 
CASME runs a training and support programme for primary schools in the Pinetown, Umlazi and Ugu Districts of the KwaZulu-Natal province. The programme provides support to teachers through quarterly training workshops and the distribution of teaching resources. The annual programme concludes with the staging of a Mathematics Olympiad Competition for learners from Grades 3 to 7.
 
Over 600 teachers from primary schools in the Umlazi districts will be supported by the Kingdomslots donation of R108,000. The teachers have demonstrated high levels of commitment to their professional development and participation in the training provided which ensured their place in the programme.
 
The project encourages interest and enthusiasm by learners through the staging of a series of mathematics competitions. These competitions are organised at two levels, the first being at school level followed by an inter-school competition.
 
Director of CASME, Henre Benson, speaking at the handover said that experience has shown that the competitions provide a number of benefits including motivating teachers to cover the curriculum at the appropriate standard and giving schools insight into areas requiring remediation which are then addressed through the teacher training workshops.
 
The best performing learners in the project will be awarded prizes at a ceremony during November.