Press release: South Africa’s Top Teacher Named by ISPA

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Phuti Ragophala has been named South Africa’s ‘Super Teacher of the Year 2011’ by the Internet Service Providers` Association of SA (ISPA) at an awards ceremony held at Montecasino in Fourways, Johannesburg last week.

Ms Ragophala from Pula Madibogo Primary School in Limpopo was amongst eight finalists identified by ISPA as having best utilized their newly-acquired computer skills knowledge for the benefit of their communities after participating in ISPA’s ‘Train the Teacher’ Initiative.

The 10^th Anniversary of this initiative also saw two new awards presented for the first time. Fiona Wallace, Chairperson of ISPA’s Teacher Training Working Group, presented Sonnyboy Baloyi with the Trainer of the Year Award while Barbara Heron of Parktown Boys’ High School in Johannesburg, and Mmipe Mokgehle of Toronto Primary School in Limpopo, were named as ISPA ICT Champions.

The awards formed part of iWeek, South Africa`s premier Internet industry event, which ran for most of last week. The award winners received prizes such as laptop computers, Blackberry smartphones and all-expenses paid attendance at key IT conferences, boosting both their opportunities for personal advancement and their ability to offer training to their learners.

Recognising the growing need for computer skills training and the importance of computer-literate teachers, ISPA established ‘Train the Teacher’ in December 2001. To date, ISPA has successfully trained some 2238 educators at more than 250 under-resourced and rural schools nationwide.

The annual ‘Super Teacher of the Year’ Award invited educators to compete with projects through which they are promoting and developing computer skills in their own schools and communities.

Twenty-six projects were registered for the competition in the first phase of the awards. Each project was assessed according to the teachers’ use of newly-acquired computer skills in their own teaching practice as well as their use of their skills for the benefit of their colleagues, learners or wider community.

The seven Super Teacher of the Year finalists were Thembi Mathobela, Adelaide Madiba, and Alpheus Mogashoa, all from Toronto Primary in Limpopo; Phuti Ragophala of Pula-Madibogo Primary in Limpopo; Maoto Setaole of Mountainview Senior Secondary School in Limpopo; Judi Le Roux of Coffee Bay Christian Comprehensive School in Eastern Cape; and MJ Poopedi of Thokgwaneng Primary School in Limpopo.

ISPA’s Teacher Training programme this year has received support from a growing list of sponsors including Uniforum SA, MTN Business, Internet Solutions, Adept Internet, eNetworks, MWEB, Neotel, Avuxeni Computer Academy, Future Foundation and Switch Telecom.

Further Information

For further information, please contact the ISPA secretariat on the Contact ISPA page.