Translating curriculum into practice at Eastern Cape Technikon - a case study

Curriculum reform and the restructuring of qualifications is one of the key issues in the higher education sector. At Eastern Cape Technikon (ECT) a US-Aid funded project called, Building Staff Capacity through Curriculum Development, was instituted to address this challenge. The overarching aim of the project is to provide support to academic staff at ECT and to engage in activities that will build institutional capacity as well as strengthen the teaching and research activities through a comprehensive staff development programme. The project consisted of activities such as the determination of the purpose a skills audit; and various workshops. The purpose of the programme was defined as to train a core group of staff members to become competent curriculum developers according to SAQA requirements and to enable them to play a leading role in the development of learner centered and open learning approaches. In addition to a skills audit different workshops such as Learner-focused Competency-Based Instructional Practices; Step-by-Step Web Page Planning and Execution; Using web sites to improve instructional activities; and Inter-personal Skills were held by consultants and it is anticipated that key objectives concerning outcome-based education, flexible delivery and modularization will be achieved. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(2) 2001: 119-12