Kwena Basin Extension Project (2025-2028): Support Visit Report (September 2026)
Part of the Project
From Training to Classroom Practice: September Support Visits
During September 2-4, the Basic Concepts Foundation conducted a new round of classroom support visits to our project primary schools (Kwena Basin Combined and Ukhwezi Primary), including both Foundation Phase classrooms as well as visits to five Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. The visits provided an important opportunity to see how teachers and ECD practitioners are translating their training into everyday practice.
The picture is encouraging, while also highlighting the importance of continued support. Across the schools, teachers were using Basic Concepts materials, preparing lessons and beginning to incorporate mediational approaches that encourage learners to think, compare, explain and apply rather than simply repeat answers. This is particularly significant in classrooms where teachers are working with very large groups of learners and substantial everyday pressures.
The ECD visits produced similarly encouraging examples. At Leratong, for example, a teacher gave an excellent demonstration, using thoughtful questioning, conceptual language and both English and isiZulu to support young learners. At other centres, however, the visits showed that understanding the programme does not necessarily mean that regular implementation has become established. This distinction—between knowing about the programme, demonstrating it when prepared, and consistently implementing it in the classroom—is becoming increasingly important as the project develops.
The visits are therefore informing the next phase of the project. Teachers are being supported to use assessment to identify individual learning needs, deepen their mediation and move beyond completing activities towards developing genuine conceptual understanding.
These experiences reinforce a central principle of the Basic Concepts approach: training is only the beginning. Regular classroom observation, mentoring and feedback are essential for new teaching practices to become embedded.
The next phase will focus on strengthening this cycle of implementation, observation and support—building local capacity so that increasingly confident teachers and practitioners can sustain and extend these practices within their own schools and ECD centres.
