Scaling a structured pedagogy literacy programme through partnership and collaboration in South Africa - Western Cape Education Department and Funda Wande

• In Event: The impact of literacy on learners' development and participation

Proposal

In 2023, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) in South Africa elected to adopt and roll out the Funda Wande literacy programme across all 861 Afrikaans and isiXhosa home language primary schools in the province, after a two-year pilot phase. Significantly, this was only the second time in South Africa that a province-wide, structured pedagogy programme has been rolled out and funded by a government. Funda Wande sees an opportunity in the Western Cape to develop a blueprint for working alongside the government to support programme implementation at scale.

Over the past five years, the WCED and Funda Wande have forged an important and unique partnership, which has yielded significant programmatic results and strongly supports a commitment to scale. This collaboration is recognised and valued at both the strategic political decision-making level in the province, and within the administrative implementation processes. The partnership is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding that clearly outlines the commitment to collaboration.

Due to the Funda Wande program being embedded at the level of the classroom and within the curriculum, Funda Wande’s efforts are directly aligned with the objectives of the provincial department. This alignment ensures that Funda Wande’s program is not only complementary, but is integral, to the province's educational strategies. The WCED's Reading strategy, which was rolled out in 2020, is built on six pillars: learner support, teacher professional development, research, parental involvement, the provisioning of Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM), and advocacy. The Funda Wande program supports all but one of these pillars.

In 2021 Foundation Phase literacy was identified as a key priority across all directorates of the WCED, and a considerable budget was allocated to this to enable the department to provide the necessary resources to all schools. Funda Wande, in collaboration with the WCED, piloted a synthetic phonics approach to teaching reading in 40 Afrikaans Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) schools, and a structured literacy home language programme in 10 isiXhosa LoLT schools.

Due to Covid and the resultant rotational timetables followed by schools, the programme could not be tested effectively. In 2022, the WCED added another 50 Afrikaans schools in Grade 1 to the pilot, while the original 50 pilot schools continued to implement the programme in Grade 2. In 2023 the WCED then embarked on the full rollout of the Funda Wande program to all Grade 1 Afrikaans and isiXhosa LoLT classes in the province. The full rollout continued to Grade 2 in 2024, and Grade 3 will be rolled out in 2025. By the end of 2025, the Funda Wande program will have been scaled to all Afrikaans and isiXhosa home language classes across the eight school districts in the Western Cape province.

The WCED has demonstrated its commitment by allocating significant financial resources and personnel to both the piloting and scale-up phases of the Funda Wande program. The estimated WCED expenditure for the full rollout amounts to almost R111 million over three years. This includes eight percent allocated for teacher training from 2023 to 2025, 15 percent for Grade 1 materials in 2023, 31 percent for Grade 1 and 2 resources in 2024, and 46 percent for Grade 1 to 3 resources in 2025.

Beyond the confines of the classroom, a train-the-trainer model has been followed. Funda Wande has conducted training of subject advisors, who in turn train teachers. The upskilling of subject advisors by Funda Wande specialists has been ongoing since 2021, with training offered on a quarterly basis for the duration of the pilot phase. With the rollout in 2023, the training of subject advisors was done by the WCED Head Office specialists, with Funda Wande specialists playing a support role.

All grade 1 teachers were trained in April 2023, grade 2 teachers in December 2023, and grade 3 teachers in September 2024. In addition, lead teachers were identified from the original pilot schools and trained to coordinate and lead Professional Learning Communities in their districts to support their peers.

Subject advisors have also been capacitated to support and monitor classroom implementation of the program by teachers. The WCED currently has 67 Foundation Phase subject advisors, 47 for Afrikaans and 20 for isiXhosa, and each subject advisor is responsible for overseeing approximately 25 schools (and 225 teachers) on average. The subject advisors do monitoring and support during school visits, and Funda Wande specialists visit schools with them where needed.

Given the collaborative nature of the partnership, provincial curriculum specialists and Funda Wande specialists meet regularly to discuss content development, content application, and how best to support teachers in delivering the material effectively in classrooms. These ongoing discussions are essential to ensuring that the resources are practical, relevant, and capable of making a tangible impact in the classroom.

The department plays a crucial role in the development of Funda Wande LTSM, and is actively involved in co-creating content and in quality assurance. While Funda Wande leads the development of materials, the WCED provides continuous input throughout the process. Both parties maintain equal authority in approving material sections, adhering to a formalised process that ensures content cannot be adopted without the full satisfaction of both sides. Periodically, literacy reference meetings and retreats are held to discuss strategies and developments, ensuring focused and effective dialogue.

Funda Wande also partners with the procurement directorate of the WCED to print and distribute the program materials, and has placed support staff in District offices to ensure the quick and effective delivery of materials to all schools.

Providing technical and strategic support to the government through the testing and scaling of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy solutions remains a strategic priority for Funda Wande. This work is supported by extensive research and responsible advocacy.

There are three primary research questions that Funda Wande seeks to answer:
- Has the programme provided the necessary inputs and supports to achieve effective implementation and the teaching and learning outcomes it seeks to shift?
- How has the programme impacted teachers and their practice?
- How has the programme impacted learner outcomes?

Authors

• Portia Ann October, Funda Wande

• Aletta Margaretha Du Toit, Western Cape Education Department

• Phumelele Nhlapo, Funda Wande