The workshop was a culmination of a training of Curriculum Designers on CSE and other emerging issues in 2020. It was also, as a result, of audits carried out in 2019 and 2020, which were aimed at finding out the extent, at which CSE has been integrated into the Competency Based Education (CBE) Instructional Materials. The integration of Life Skills Education (LSE) into CBE instructional materials began in March 2017, wherein a matrix that aligns with CBE syllabus topics in each learning area was developed. The purpose of the matrix was to provide a guideline that Curriculum Designers would use to integrate CSE/LSE when drafting CBE Instructional materials.
The workshop was meant to also ascertain the extent at which LSE issues were included in the planning process for the drafting of Grade 5 CBE instructional materials. It was also to ensure that LSE topics that were not integrated in the prior grades over the years are integrated into the Grade 5 LSE instructional materials, as well as, COVID-19, EUP and Connect with Respect (CwR) concepts. The drafting of the Grade 5 instructional materials commenced in 2021.
The findings of the audit reports indicated that a majority of the learning areas have been integrated LSE at both the Foundation phase which is Grade 1 to 2 and at the Middle Phase. However, there is still a need to upscale the integration of LSE and emerging issues. The envisaged results of the workshop will result in about 240 000 learners being systematically reached.
The workshop results were that there are learning areas that will have more LSE concepts appearing in the Grade 5 instructional materials than those in the LSE Matrix for this grade level. This is because the LSE concepts that were not integrated at the lower grades, will be integrated at this level. The learning areas that will have more LSE concepts at this grade level are; Expressive Arts, General Studies, Consumer Science, Agriculture ICT, and Health and Physical Education. This will leave a gap of one concept in Grade 5, which will be bridged in the upper grades. During the workshop it was discovered that there were no concepts for Science in the LSE Matrix, the reason for this, was that most concepts were encapsulated in the other learning areas because at the lower levels science is integrated in General Studies and Health Physical Education. The Science Curriculum Designer(s) at this workshop identified concepts that align with their syllabus at the upper primary level, the following concepts were identified; families, individuals, peers and communities as sources of information about sex and gender. However, these will be integrated in the Grade 7 instructional materials, which will be drafted in 2023. Overall 19 LSE concepts will be integrated in the Grade 5 instructional materials, across the afore listed learning areas.