The PETS Foundation was founded in 2012 by Dr Michael Rice, formerly Special Advisor to the Minister of Education.

PETS is a non-profit Public Benefit Organisation (PBO No. 930038834)

PETS’ primary focus is to enhance teaching and learning in the South African education system; specifically in-service teacher education and Professional Development using inter-active web-based technology supported by collaborative learning communities, and building on existing knowledge and experience.

PETS is committed to working with other NGOs to facilitate and share new research and good practice, publishing in the press and playing an active role in relevant conferences.

All the course content on this website has been developed in collaboration with teachers, by teachers, for teachers in Barrydale in the Overberg Education District.

The Board
Michael Rice D.Litt. et Phil., RAU (Chairman), Advocate Allan Schwarer, Josephine Frater B.A. Hons. Cantab., Natalie Wood (CEO E-classroom).

Projects

To begin with, PETS’s primary function was research into the viability of using Information Communications Technology (ICT) to enhance teaching and learning in the South African education system. “Twelve Steps Towards Good Practice” model for introducing digitization into the school system and FET colleges was the fruit of initial research: a four-module workshop presented at a number of education conferences, and published as a series of articles in the Mail & Guardian in 2012.

Since then the Foundation has changed its focus and has concentrated on developing programmes for in-service teacher training (INSET) and Continuous Professional Development, most notably an alternative approach to current practice commissioned by the Western Cape Education Department (WECD)in 2013. This project resulted in the development with teachers in rural settings, of three on-line courses in Afrikaans and English for the teaching of Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, accredited by SACE for CPD points.

PETS most recent contribution to teacher development is “It begins at birth” an online interactive enrichment course supporting emergent literacy and mathematics in multilingual and multi-cultural settings, developed in partnership with e-Classroom. It is available in Afrikaans and English for practising Foundation Phase teachers and Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners. This project has been funded by the Hoskins Consolidated Investments Foundation (HCIf) and accredited by SACE for CPD points.

“It Begins at Birth” (iB@B) has been created with South African teachers for South African teachers.