#07 CAPS, IEB, NSC, Cambridge - What do they all actually mean?

Paul, guest · [00:40]Absolutely, we are able to help all types of student because the educational center is a skills-based system. There's very, very important correction I need to make here for you, is the IEB still follows the CAPS curriculum. The CAPS curriculum is what is legislated by South Africa for all South African schools to follow, be it a government school or a private school.

Presenter, host · [01:03]So what is the difference between CAPS and IEB then?

Paul, guest · [01:06]IEB is a independent examination board. Which looks after the private schools and makes sure that they do the private school CAPS education. They can choose any order that they approach that CAPS curriculum in over a three-year phase cycle. Government school will only do what is required in grade four in that same year. You're going to be either at a private school doing CAPS or you're at a government school doing CAPS.

Presenter, host · [01:34]So, Vishani, then the thing is that if I've got a child who's in grade ten and I'm taking them out of the school which is following the CAPS system, okay, and then I want to go and put them into a private school or another school which is doing IEB, it might actually be problematic because the new school doing the IEB may be actually doing something that they did the year before, and then they're going to miss out on a whole bunch of stuff. So does it follow that it's better to keep the kids At one school doing one system for the whole three years, say from grade ten to grade twelve.

Vishani, guest · [02:07]That is advisable, because CAPS is given to the school, but the order in which they do it is really up to them. So making those big changes in a particular term or a particular year might not be the best thing and might cause some confusion.

Presenter, host · [02:22]What is the difference between IEB, CAPS, Cambridge? I mean, I, I know that a lot of the homeschooling systems are using Cambridge. It's not something that's usually in the schools in South Africa, is it?

Paul, guest · [02:32]Correct. So Cambridge is not a South African curriculum. It's an international curriculum. It's used in a lot of countries across the world. However, it is, at the end of the day, you're not going to walk out with a traditional matric certificate. You're walking out with what they call an O-level, an AS level, or even an A level, which the A level being the highest of them all. It's not the CAPS curriculum. It's not South African. It's not being monitored by a South African Oversight body.

Presenter, host · [03:02]So if somebody turns around and says to you, well, which system do you use and why is it better than the others? I mean, what, what, what would the answer be to that?

Vishani, guest · [03:09]We're skills-based. We do not cover the syllabus, as we expect the child to cover the syllabus in their five-day school week, and when they come to us, we are supplementary. So we're more adding to the skills and the concepts that they did not understand or the areas that they are struggling with. So we still fall under the umbrella, whether it is CAPS, whether they're following the IEB or the GDE or homeschooling, we still fall under one umbrella, and that is how we are able to tackle what different kids from different schools, whether they're following different curricula, because we're skills-based, and a triangle is a triangle, no matter which school you're in.

Paul, guest · [03:48]You mentioned the word homeschooling. One of the biggest providers is Impact, Rainline, there's a few homeschool providers. Those all follow the CAPS curriculum. It's only Cambridge homeschool curriculum, which follows the Cambridge curriculum. And there again, there would probably be multiple providers in that space as well. So picking the right provider will still give you either an internationally recognized qualification or a South African CAPS recognized qualification.

Presenter, host · [04:15]Regardless of whether your child is at a government school or a private school, they're still going to be doing the same work, just maybe not in the same order at the particular year.

Paul, guest · [04:25]In that particular phase. So yes, you're dead right. At the end of the day, the metric written by the Independent Examination Board or written by DBE, Department of Education, will hold the same weight. The benefit, obviously, of having a private school, you've got smaller classes during your schooling career and during the schooling process, and they might do some enhanced work there or some extra attention, but at the end of the day, the value of that certificate is identical.

Presenter, host · [04:52]So they all have to get through the same work, regardless of what school they go to, and if they're having a problem with it, they'd be having a problem at another school as well, which is where you guys come in.

Paul, guest · [05:01]As we highlighted, skills-based, at the end of the day, math still becomes maths, doesn't matter which school you're going to. English is still English, doesn't matter which school you're going to. You're going to have to learn how to do that skill properly so that you can pass the year.

Vishani, guest · [05:15]In terms of maths, there's thousands of different methodologies, but we need to work one-on-one with that specific child on the methodology that they are using at their school and ensure that we are teaching that particular methodology as to not confuse them. So that is how we work around all the differences, but fundamentally, a skill is a skill and a concept is a concept.

Presenter, host · [05:36]So now I believe that within the IEB, there are different teaching methodologies as well, especially when it comes to maths. Can you expand upon that a little bit?

Paul, guest · [05:47]One of the things that some of the private school groups have done is they've applied different teaching methodologies which have been either well-researched over the years or recently developed for new age teaching. One of the more popular ones is the Brombach methodology, which the Kira group of schools is using, and Singapore maths is another one that's been used. The maths is still the same. It's the teaching methodologies, how the child approaches the problem-solving technique or the long division technique or the short division technique, it's still maths.

Presenter, host · [06:20]This is an interesting thing because my children would come to me and say, no, but mom, you're doing it wrong when it comes to long division. And I'm like, well, it always worked perfectly for me when I was younger. Why do these things change so much? Surely if something works, they shouldn't change it.

Paul, guest · [06:34]There are different learning styles for every student. A typical boy will enjoy what we refer to as the soldier method, where they put the numbers on top of each other and then they add up the place values, where girls, and I'm generalizing here, will enjoy the expanded notation methodology. You just particularly want to use one, but your child might not. So we've got to make sure we know both of them, and the teaching methodology is exactly that. Whatever works best for your child is the one that you need to use.

Presenter, host · [07:03]Well, it has made it a little bit more difficult for me trying to actually get children through school when they've changed everything so much, and I can't help them. They're talking about factorization, and as you said, expanded what. So those are all the things that come into it that I think you need to train the parents, let alone just the children.

Vishani, guest · [07:18]The best as a parent is to not confuse them with the methodologies that you used to use, because it then causes some sort of frustration, and I mean, just as much as English, you know, parents try to teach phonics, and they teach it the way they know it, and the way the child is learning it is a completely different one. So the best is to figure out the methodology they're using and teach it the way they are learning it at school.