An overview of the first Tertiary Access focus group meeting held in the Maths and Science Learner Support community of practice

1. Tertiary Access
Focus Group
18 January 2011

2. Check in
Name, Organisation & Work Profile
Your view on the current tertiary access
debate/situation

3. What is our broad objective for today?
• To agree on
– What we mean by ‘tertiary’
• Broader then University
• What else is there other than university?
– The approach we wish to follow as a group
• Understand what works, underlying theory/principles for why it
works,
– Our role as a group
• Include other stakeholders in the field
– The outcome/s we envisage
• Success for those who enroll @ tertiary
• Is it to influence system through the what works? How…detail the
sub-steps! Actual actions we do?
• Limit the challenges identified
• Be a voice? What is it that which we raise?

4. History of the maths and science
community for effective practice
Community convened by Bridge, which brings together key stakeholders as
Communities for Effective Practice and facilitates a process of identifying working
practice through all interventions so as to:
•Achieve alignment and common purpose;
•Encourage the spread of successful working practices; and
•Influence practice-based policy and improved performance of learners and
education system as a whole.
Bridge works in the following key focus areas:
•School Leadership and Management;
•Teacher development, support, assessment & accountability;
•Learner support for increased performance; and
•Quality of materials used in teaching and learning.

5. History of the maths and science
community for effective practice
• Project (supported by the Zenex Foundation) with the intention of
developing a community for effective practice in maths and science
eduation.
• Community is for program implementers and key investors
supporting learners in maths and science.
• Community aimed at an increased impact on the number of quality
maths and science graduates in the country.
• Initial meeting of community on 30 November 2010, objectives of
which were to:
– share research;
– identify what is required to accelerate the spread of successful maths
and science programme objectives;
– create a collaborative process to identify critical success factors in
maths and science interventions for both pre and post Grade 12; and
– establish a community for effective practice in this area.

6. History of the maths and science
community for effective practice
•
Research carried out in preparation for first meeting. The research
identified a range of themes, including:
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The role of mentorship
The challenges of monitoring and evaluation
Learner selection and programme design
The role of government
Psychosocial issues
Tertiary access
An agreement was reached at the meeting that the community should be
broken down into smaller interest groups and teams, with a focus on:
– Tertiary access
– Monitoring and evaluation
– Learner selection and programme design

7. Tertiary access
• Presentation made during first meeting by Robert Stephens of TEN
about tertiary access, focusing on the lack of support for learners
when applying for and accessing funding for tertiary education, the
challenges of tertiary access and the need for strategic partnerships
in the creation of a network of funders.
• Comments from participants included:
– The need for a network of bursary opportunities;
– The need for information about who is doing what, what works, what
does not work, who is funding whom, real-time information, a userfriendly database, etc.;
– The issue of high-school access;
– The importance of rural development;
– The value of collaboration and collective wisdom; and
– The role of the CDE forum.

8. Summary of Day
• Concluding comments
• Where to from here?
THANK YOU