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Thulani Mfusin is a head of department at the
Commercial Technical High School in Umlazi, South
Africa. He is one of the teachers who got involved
from the start with the Centre for the Advancement
of Science and Mathematics Education.
Since Casme was set up by Shell South Africa in
1985, he has spent 563 hours attending Casme
workshops and more formal diploma courses linked to
the University of Natal.
This shows dedication to improving the science
teaching in his school. Teachers who take up
Casme’s training offers pay 2,500 rand (about
£300) a year in fees. They also have to pay
for books and for transport to a Casme centre. They
have to find time for study and they have to give
up Saturdays and sometimes weeks for their
course.
But they come, they acquire new confidence in
the classroom and they inspire other teachers to
come, too. Casme has taught teachers from over 300
secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal and it has now
expanded into three other provinces. Over the past
five years, KwaZulu-Natal has outperformed most
other South African provinces in the matriculation
exams.
Shell
set up Casme at a time when only one black pupil in
10,000 was attaining the qualifications needed for
a career in the sciences. Poorly trained and poorly
paid teachers from disadvantaged groups faced
daunting problems in the classroom.
Casme was not initially popular with supporters
of the then governing National party. But it soon
found students; not only teachers but pupils keen
to catch up on what they were not learning in
school.
It now concentrates on the teachers. It holds
workshops in maths and science teaching and has set
up eight centres to provide teaching aids, which
also supply kits for practical work, since South
African schools are short of laboratory equipment.
Teachers are beginning to take over the running of
these centres.
Casme also runs leadership courses, to encourage
teachers to set up their own workshops for other
teachers. It runs more formal two-year part-time
courses leading to further diplomas in education in
maths, science and technology: 89 teachers have won
diplomas and thereby a pay increase.
In 1997, Casme spent 2.45 million rand
(£300,000) in KwaZulu-Natal, of which Shell
provided two-thirds, the rest coming from Telkom,
the Thousand Schools Project and Natal University.
Magnate Ntombela, the director, believes his centre
has an important role in showing South Africa how
teachers can develop their skills.
Casme is Shell South Africa’s second major
initiative in education. The first, Shell Education
Services, has produced teaching aids for schools
and run workshops for their teachers for 30 years.
It distributes 40,000 items by mail order every
year.
Shell’s financial and practical contributions to
South African society range from instruction for
farmers and service-station operators to a
management course for taxi men, and piped water for
a village.
In 1995, Shell introduced to South Africa its
Livewire scheme for encouraging young people to go
into business. Livewire holds pre-training
workshops to demystify business and discuss ideas.
To those who show most promise, it then gives five
days training. Over 1,000 youngsters took part in
1996. Livewire also enlists the help of other
organisations to support the new businesses. ABSA
Bank has provided start-up capital for two
businesses in each province.
Lydia Phaloane, a social worker started by
making curtains at her home in Sasolburg. She went
to training sessions and entered a Livewire
competition, winning the best young business
category and 15,000 rand. Her firm, Home Elegance,
specialises in interior decorating, curtains,
clothing and also ornaments which she buys from
Kenya. She goes to new housing areas to find new
business.
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