Time allocation

Phase One: Reflective activity

Time allocation is an important component required in the teaching and learning of the dual- content subject for an example the ES&C NQF L4 curriculum. This section therefore, presents participants reflections on time. During the reflective activity, P6 said, “Time allocation for ES&C NQFL4 is fifty-five minutes per day scheduled for four-days in a week and one day is a double period which we use for practical. Furthermore, I teach from Monday to Friday but sometimes use Saturday to compensate students number ratio to facilities, the lack of infrastructure, equipment and time constraints”. The reflections from P6 implies that officially time allocation is two-hours, twenty-minutes per week of teaching and learning for both theory and practical. Furthermore, P4 remarked, “Our teaching plan is a seven- subject time-table covering four vocational and three fundamental subjects. The time table is groups based and time allocation is two-hours ten minutes per day two times per week and in total four hours twenty minutes. This time allocation covers both theory and practical”. Participants were expected to give detailed time allocation informed by three propositions (classroom, workshop and computer laboratories) and their respective reflection levels. However, participants could not explain how time allocation is spread among classroom, workshop and computer laboratory. I therefore arranged a group discussion session.

Phase Two: Discussions and findings

During group discussions P5 remarked as follows on time allocation, “For our campus, thirty- two students are recruited and placed in the Electrical Infrastructure Construction (EIC) subjects and these students are further split into two groups for vocational subjects and

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workshop this is done to ensure that compliance of lecturer to students’ ratio is accomplished. The time allocation is informed by a forty-week plan and subject guidelines topics time allocation (110hrs of teaching and learning per year). Our time- table is allocated fifty-five minutes per day four times a week (2hours 20 minutes) and one double period (1hour 10 minutes) in one of the days which we use for practical training. Practical training demands continuous practice to promote coordination between the mind and hands therefore time is not enough, and it compromises the curriculum vision and product quality”. Furthermore, P3 remarked, “I use my multi-purpose classroom to teach and demonstrate abstract theoretical concepts for students to understand facts and thereafter let students practice what I have demonstrated (student-centred approach) to them. During theory classes, we are afforded few hours to reinforce theory through demonstration. There is sufficient time for theory, but more time is needed for effective alignment of theory and skills.”

I asked the participants whether time required for theory, the what compared to practical the how (Khoza ,2016) is the same considering the equal spread of time. P1 said, “To develop an artisan (competent person) you need years, part of which spent in a quality workshop under competent trainers and industrial exposure (trade-test requirements) as opposed to hours needed to explain theoretical concepts which is done in a classroom. Therefore, to develop competences, values, skills and students’ practical confidence, sufficient and appropriate training resources, equipment and enough time (Hoadley. & Jansen, 2013) are essential.” P2 and P4 agreed with P1. Furthermore, P4 remarked, “Workshop training time is reduced by time taken to distribute tools and material to students and also time taken to take stock of what was issued. Moreover, practical is done only once a week to allow smooth flow of groups. The quality of time spent is not enough to develop competences, skills and values to meet prospective employer expectations”.

On the last proposition (computer laboratories) P5 said, “Our college is slowly migrating from analogue to digital. The vocational subject students don’t have access to computer labs as labs are fully occupied with different groups to learn Life Orientation. The resource centre (campus library) have few computers but there is no internet. The college is working on accessing connectivity so that students may access internet. Lecturers are using their modem and personal laptops to access internet and buying data bundles is expensive. Apart from the above, there is a huge need to transform some of the lecturers from being semi digital refuges to digital natives in order to make them effective user of digital technology”. Other participants echoed remarks from P5. P6 added, “Other subject topics demand that students use web-pages and

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YouTube to further explore subject-content to be able to respond to formative group activities. However, while other students may have access to internet from their smart phones, the disadvantaged students may not be able to afford data bundles even though they may have smart phones capable to perform sophisticated operations. My campus is located in a semi- rural environment, I had to buy a router to improve the quality of the signal in order to surf information for my students. The surfing of information is time consuming (sometimes may take days to complete) and time allocated in our time- tables is not enough. Both the router and data bundles are expensive and the college does not compensate me.”

This study findings reveals that time distribution across all seven subjects based on time-table provided, is the same. For an example, Life Orientation is a ten-credit subject but receives the same time allocation like twenty-credit subjects. Furthermore, non-practical subjects like English and Mathematics also get the same share of time distribution. The core subjects including ES&C NQF L4 also get the same share of time apart from being dual-content. Therefore, time need more attention and possible policy review for effective delivery of the ES&C NQF L4.

Furthermore, this study findings reveal that there is no consistency in time distribution. This argument is based on the reflections of P5 and P4 who assert that time is two-hours twenty minutes (P5) and four-hours twenty minutes (P4) a week. For P6 and P5, additional time is achieved through using Fridays and Saturdays. Moreover, this study findings also reveals that time allocation and training resources are a major obstacle in the delivery of the intended, practiced and attained curricula at Micro-level. Furthermore, reflections of the participants reveal that lecturers are using their own modems and laptops to access the internet and web- sites recommended for ES&C NQF L4 students. In the same line of thinking, Khoza (2015c) posits that internet resources can connect a person to all corners of the world and bring education to students living venues. Competent lecturers may be hired to implement the intended/official and enacted curriculum however, the attained curriculum is depended on quality assessment.

5.3.10 Assessment and Quality Assurance