Friday, July 26, 2013

Value of CAT

I met a neighbour recently who told me with great pride that her daughter was doing, at great expense, a well-known computer course and writing and passing with 90+% their exams. She hopes to get a job with the qualification. She had passed Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The course was a textbook with a DVD with data files. She was studying on her own. I listened as a good neighbour does.
I gave the daughter some quizzes on Excel from the Gr 10 textbook which she could not do! It is costing her so much money. It appears to me that the test marks are not valid and she still knows so little. She will not get a job with that qualification. I wish learners valued the CAT work done at school and that more learners took the subject of CAT.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Qualification for CAT teachers

Friend has been teaching CAT for 10+ years.  Has repeatedly had best Matric results in the district. Now her principal requires her to get registered with SACE which means getting a degree and then a teaching diploma.
This requirement will not really improve her CAT results.
If she does her studying part time through Unisa what should she do her degree in – she teaches CAT?  Unisa does not offer a degree in CAT and she already has her advanced Computer Drivers Licence in the Office suite.
Should she spent all that time and effort on getting those qualifications or just give up a successful teaching career?  
She has about 15 years to go before she would have to retire.