School Wide Enrichment Programme (SWEP)
The School Wide Enrichment Programme (SWEP) was initiated in January 1996 by the Growth of Children's Potential Trust (GCP), a non-governmental organisation that has been working in the Johannesburg area since 1982. When the GCP closed in 1999, SWEP started working with the College of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand.
SWEP has been working with schools in Soweto, Lenasia and Eldorado Park aiming to enhance the development of teachers in under-resourced areas, to increase the teachers' competence in managing children in their classrooms and to provide opportunities for more effective learning and teaching in the school environment. The programme brings together student teachers from the College and teachers already working in primary schools and invites them to work together on a number of initiatives from developing appropriate material to implementing programmes on Literacy and Communication. This approach of classroom-based teacher development combines pre-service and in service training.
SWEP aims to
- Improve individual teacher performance and competence within their present work situation
- Help the whole school strengthen its performance in areas identified by the staff
- Support the school staff to identify and meet future demands - particularly changes required by education policy and social change
While focusing on the teacher and the learner in the classroom SWEP also gets involved in other important areas, such as school management and parent involvement.
The Canon Collins Trust is funding the expansion of the SWEP to include five primary schools in the Kwena Basin farming area - approximately 343km from Johannesburg, in Mpumalanga Province.
