The Department of Education should consider making a rule that Life Orientation should only be taught by specialist educators since this learning area involves learning life skills needed to prepare and equip learners for life. If learners do not have this then there is the possible risk of them making wrong choices in some aspect of their lives. This learning area should not be given to educators to fill up their teaching loads since it is not an area that everyone and anyone can teach.
According to Pillay (2012, p. 168), “An individual does not construct meaning in isolation, but through being part of a community of learning (e.g. a school)” (Cottone, 2007; Prochaska & Norcross, 2007). As Pillay has noted, the accomplishment of achieving the aims of Life Orientation will depend on how teachers and learners collaboratively build knowledge and understanding of the world. From this, learners
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will know how to use what they learn in Life Orientation in their daily lives. For this to happen, educators need to engage in conversations with learners by not simply being the content provider but rather the facilitator in the classroom.
Life Orientation educators should collaborate with fellow educators as an internal support network if help is needed and not simply shy away from teaching the content under Sexuality Education.
The Department of Education (external support network) together with the management of schools should support Life Orientation educators since these are the educators that prepare learners for survival skills after school. Regular workshops should be given to educators to find out what kind of help is needed by educators and also to inform educators about teaching learners about current issues (e.g. human trafficking, child pornography, teenage pregnancy, rape, drugs, bullying) and not to simply read from the textbooks. Life Orientation educators are expected to be skilled to counsel and advise learners about social problems. Pillay (2012, p. 172) says, “The underlying assumption is that all the social problems are most likely to affect learners, schools and local communities”.
Policy-makers of Life Orientation should take into consideration educators’ religious and cultural upbringings, values and belief systems that impact on educators’
understanding of sexuality. Since sexuality may be a taboo topic for certain religions, educators are still forced to teach the topic and this may be unfavorable for educators to teach what may be taboo to them. Alternatively, if educators do not teach the topic or use their own discretion in teaching the topic by convincing learners otherwise, it may deprive learners of what they need to know.
The Department of education should make it clear that Life Orientation educators do not know ‘everything’ and cannot help with every problem the child possesses. For
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example, the role of the Life Orientation educator is to guide learners in career choices. There is a notion for Life Orientation teachers to have effective career guidance, for instance: “They should be well-informed about career information as finding a job is increasingly becoming a challenge for many school leavers” (Pillay, 2012). Life Orientation educators should be work-shopped about the various career fields and be given information/ resources to give to learners so educators can advise learners on the different career fields. It may be difficult for a new educator in the profession to possess such knowledge since they may have been specialised in specific fields and can only advise learners on those specific fields.
Educators should be work-shopped to teach in a diverse manner since Life Orientation prepares learners for life skills and the world of work. Educators have seven roles in the classroom.
Figure 4: Seven roles of educators
Life Orientation educators are mainly expected to play the role of ‘community, citizenship and pastoral’ role and ‘learning area/subject/discipline/phase specialist’ in
Learning mediator
Interpreter and designer of learning programmes and materials
Leader, administrator and manager
Scholar, researcher and lifelong learner
Community, citizenship and pastoral role
Assessor
Learning area/subject/discipline/phase specialist
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all areas. All educators should exhibit these roles and not only the Life Orientation educator since every educator ought to establish a competency to cultivate an empowering and supportive setting for the learner.
All educators ought to be thoroughly established in the skills, knowledge, values, methods and procedures pertinent to the learning area. By this, a heavy load would be lifted from LO educators. For example, an accounting or life science educator can inform learners of specific programmes that they can pursue by simply learning the subject.
Life Orientation educators should be more approachable to learners so that learners can feel confident enough to speak in class and comfortable to talk to educators in private regarding personal issues. Learners will be afraid to ask unfriendly educators questions if clarity is needed. It is important for learners to be comfortable in the Life Orientation classroom so they can try to come up with solutions with their educators to solve issues that they may have or may come across in future. The charisma of the Life Orientation teacher is of paramount prominence and should be exposed with integrity (Prinsloo, 2007).