Local teacher wins provincial award

KNYSNA NEWS - Ethon Alexander, the deputy principal of Fraaisig Primary School in Hornlee, Knysna, won the provincial Excellence in Teaching Mathematics award on Friday 23 August, in the second round of the national teaching awards, run by the Department of Basic Education.

On 12 July, he was named as the winner of the award in the Eden and Central Karoo District, in the first round of the awards.

Alexander, who teaches maths to Grade 7 learners, emerged as the provincial winner of the award after competing against those who had won the award in the seven other provincial education districts.

He will now, together with the other winners of provincial awards in various categories, compete against the award-winners in the other provinces in the final round of the national awards, to be held in Gauteng on 5 October.

'Ecstatic about this'

"I'm still numb - ecstatic about this," he said of winning the provincial award.

"You do this (teach) every day for your learners - I try to make them fall in love with learning."

The managing director of the Knysna Initiative for Learning and Teaching (KILT), Sandy Ueckermann, said of Alexander:

"It's been amazing to watch Ethon Alexander grow from where I knew him first, as a young student at TSiBA (Tertiary School in Business Administration), Eden campus, to following him as he studied to become a teacher, and did some of his practicals at TSiBA, to becoming a teacher at a KILT partner school, and then rising very quickly to be a member of a

'Force to be reckoned with'

school management team at Fraaisig - he is a force to be reckoned with."

The Western Cape Education Department said of Alexander in a release: "As the head of Learning and Teaching Support Material at the school, he oversees the procurement, distribution, and management of educational resources.

"Ethon's teaching approach integrates ICT with mathematics, utilising interactive tools such as Zipgrade, Kahoots, ChatGPT, Coding (REACH), and Visnos.

"He also contributes to KILT ... a local organisation dedicated to improving educational outcomes in the area.

'Enhancing teaching'

"Through his involvement with KILT, Ethon collaborates with other educators and stakeholders to develop and implement strategies for enhancing teaching and learning."

Alexander was the only winner of a provincial award in the Eden and Central Karoo District, although it had runners-up in the second round of the awards.

Two other teachers from Knysna who excelled in the round are:

Constance Stuurman, the principal of Fraaisig Primary School, was the 1st runner-up in the Excellence in Primary School Leadership category;

Zanette Terblanche of Concordia Primary School was the 2nd runner-up in the Excellence in Primary School Teaching category.

Ethon Alexander, who won the provincial Excellence in Teaching Mathematics award, in the classroom at Fraaisig Primary School.