mathematics of Grade obtained in SACMEQ.
The following three tables illustrate where South Africa stands currently, and where we would like the country to go in the coming years. Though different groups of countries participate in different assessment programmes, a combined picture is obtainable by making use of the figures from countries that participate in more than one programme. In the first two tables, apart from the SACMEQ scores, scales that are the equivalents of the PIRLS Grade 4 reading scale and the TIMSS Grade 4 mathematics scale are provided.
600 Hong Kong, Singapore 580 Taiwan 560 Japan 540 Cuba, Kazakhstan, Russia, United Kingdom 520 United States, Germany, Australia 500 Italy, Canada, Swedcn 480 Czech Republic.
10 Ensure that all children remain effectively enrolled in school up to the year in which they turn 15.
II Improve the access of children to quality early childhood development (ECD) below Grade 1.
concern to UOUI I education Ministries.
Fulfilment of our statutory obligations regarding compulsory schooling. The South African Schools Act obliges the state and parents to ensure that all children are enrolled in school from the year in which they turn seven to the year in which they turn fifteen. This requirement covers South Africa's commitment within UNESCO's global Education for All (EFA) campaign to attain universal primary schooling by 2015. Currently the enrolment rate for this age range is high, at over 97%. Yet the figure implies that there are still around 250 000 children who are not participating in compulsory schooling. Many of these children are vulnerable and require special needs schooling, so a part of the challenge is to strengthen the implementation of the inclusive education policy and provide more access to special schools for the poor. In addition, there are children of compulsory school-going age who are formally enrolled at school, but whose day-to-day attendance is very poor. Assisting these learners must be an integral part of our efforts to realise compulsory basic schooling.
More quality early childhood development. The enrolment figures for early childhood development (ECD) have displayed major improvements in recent years.
12 primary education increased from 60% to over 80% in the last five years, largely due to improved public spending on Grade R and pre-Grade R ECD. However, just as there are concerns around the quality of primary schooling, there are concerns around the educational quality of Grade R and other forms of ECD. One measure of quality is whether the pre-Grade 1 education received by learners was formal or informal. Annual survey data indicate that by 2008 51 % of Grade 1 learners had participated in formal Grade R. It is Government's aim to increase this figure to 80% by 2014, but also ensure that 100% of Grade 1 learners have received some form of ECD, whether formal or informal, by this year. By 2019 all Grade 1 learners should have participated in formal Grade R. The 2001 White Paper on ECD had envisaged a gross enrolment ratio of just under 30% for the ages 0 to 5 by 2010. By 2008 a level of 32% had already been reached. This figure is comparable to those in other middle income countries. It is envisaged that the enrolment ratio for ages 0 to 5 should increase to 50% by 2024, which would correspond to an average of three years of ECD per child. In addition, Government will need to focus on improving the quality of all types of ECD as it is not enrolment in ECD as such, but rather enrolment in good quality ECD that contributes towards better learning outcomes in primary schools.
have currently not reached universal completion of secondary schooling. In the United States the figure is just under 80% and in the United Kingdom it is 90%. Moreover, South Africa's current enrolment ratio for upper secondary schooling, at around 92%, is relatively good compared to those of Botswana (58%), Mexico (61%), Cuba (91%), Malaysia (53%) and Turkey (72%). The challenge in South Africa at the FET level is partly to increase the current enrolment levels, but the challenge is also largely about creating more variety and better learning outcomes. The Action Plan and Schooling 2025 must chart a clear way forward for FET schools, based on a holistic view of FET generally. For this, further consultation and thinking is required.
A summary of current medium term challenges relating to improving schools are explained below, as well as likely goals (and in some cases indicators) to guide action over the longer term. Goals and especially indicators are explained in less detail here than was the case for the output goals described above. How action for better schooling is organised over the coming years in support of the sector's output goals requires much consultation and careful technical work. There is no shortage of plans at the national and provincial levels currently to deal with the improvement of schools, at least in the medium term.
The curriculum. The curriculum lies at the heart of the schooling process. It specifies what should be taught and how, and how learning in the classroom should proceed. A 2009 curriculum review led to a set of recommendations for changes that would make the school curricula easier to implement. Some recommendations have already been followed through. For instance, the requirement that teachers maintain individual learner portfolios was dropped given that records can be kept in a more consolidated fashion by teachers. The recommendation that more specific learning programmes be developed to guide teachers has resulted in the establishment of teams to develop such programmes, drafts of which will be released in 2010. It is important that we should not lose sight of over-arching principles that must guide curriculum development as we move forward. The curriculum must be educationally sound and based on appropriate pedagogic theory. It must be practical, easily understandable and implementable in the context of South African schools. As this context changes, the curriculum must be modified if necessary. The 2003 e-Education strategy for the education sector offers new opportunities and challenges in this regard. The curriculum should also strike the right balance between prescription and opportunities for teacher innovation in the classroom. The current shift towards clearer prescriptions is necessary, but this should not stifle genuine innovation and creativity by teachers. The ongoing struggle for a better treatment of language of teaching and learning in the curriculum must continue. We need more research into how the use of language in the classroom can reinforce the plans, some of which are excellent and well-focussed, into this Action Plan.
paragraphs 20 to 26.
languages be elevated should be taken seriously. Capacity within the country to assess and develop school curricula is not what it should be. Such capacity is currently being strengthened within the national department, which should clearly playa key role in this area.
Teachers. Teachers are primarily responsible for implementing the curriculum. In many ways the future economic and social development of the country depends on the capabilities, commitment and well-being of the approximately 365000 teachers who teach in the classrooms of South Africa's public schools. Current challenges with respect to teachers can be broken down into the following four policy areas.
An optimal distribution of teachers across the country. The total number of teachers in South Africa is below what it should be if one makes an international comparison. However, we also experience problems with respect to the distribution of existing teachers across schools. The problem of large classes is in part a result of a skewed distribution of teachers.
Support and accountability. Even for well trained teachers, teaching is often a difficult job that places a strain on the individual. Support to teachers should take the form of not just professional development, but also psycho-social support. At the same time, there must be sufficient teacher accountability. Teachers need to prepare for class, spend at least the required amount of time engaged in active teaching in the classroom, maintain the necessary assessment records (which were simplified in 2009) and ensure that they manage their time in such a way that teaching programmes are completed within the school year. The evidence suggests that too many teachers are not taking these responsibilities seriously enough. Time spent in the classroom has been found to be too low and in many cases programmes are not completed within the year, partly because there is too little accountability within the school and to the Department in this regard. The overarching framework governing support to teachers and teacher accountability must be a social contract between teacher organisations and the employer. Maintaining such a social contract has been found to be critical in many countries. South Africa has seen key successes in this area in recent years. The Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTe) brought together key stakeholders, including education departments and teacher organisations, around a core set of principles underpinning the improvement of schools. At a more operational level, there needs to be a set of transparent and fair procedures to incentivise good teaching, in monetary but also non-monetary terms, and to deal with under-performance, both through support and, where necessary, discipline. The Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) is not a perfect system, but it provides a basis from which to move forward in this area. Key challenges in future will include finding better ways of incentivising whole schools to do better, recognising that improving results requires a team effort, and to base policy and practices more closely on what teachers themselves like and dislike. Monitoring improvements in the quantity of time spent teaching and in the completion of annual learning programmes should be a key concern.
School governance and management. Many of the problems seen in schools and described in this document come about as a result of inappropriate action, or perhaps more commonly, lack of action by the school principal. Amongst the country's more than 25000 school principals there are many exemplary principals. Yet many principals lack the management skills and sometimes the commitment to execute their responsibilities. A part of the problem is that normal lines of accountability between the principal and the Department are not always functioning as they should. Clearly, a school principal who does not comply with basic requirements such as the regular submission of a credible school development plan to the Department is unlikely to be maintaining proper lines of accountability within the school. Research points clearly towards the critical role of a good school principal in making a school functional. Over the coming years the professional ethos and identity of school principals will need to be strengthened. Steps in the right direction have been taken in recent years, for instance with the introduction of the middle management service (MMS) tier in the conditions of service regulations. Like teacher development, the capacity development of school principals needs to become more massive, more focussed on results and better monitored. The national department has a key role to play in promoting existing training programmes that clearly add value and in improving the institutional arrangements whereby principals access development programmes. Practicing principals with a proven track record should play a more direct role in the design of materials and the training itself. Moreover, ways should be found of tapping into the management expertise of NGOs and the private sector. School functionality is defined in several policies, in particular in the policies governing the Whose School Evaluation (WSE) programme. There should be better tracking of indicators that reflect school functionality. Many of the indicators already discussed in this document fall into this category. With regard to school governance, the evidence suggests that the current system of SGB elections and procedures provide a good basis for moving forward. The challenge will be to improve the levels of parent participation, in particular in more disadvantaged communities, and bring about a better focus on improving learning outcomes (as discussed earlier). Not only should improving results through more focussed action within the school become a central concern of the SGB, parents should be encouraged to play a stronger role in supporting learners in the home and insisting that learners attend school on time.
20 costly and it is important that it should have an impact. Evaluations of district support should partly be based on ratings of this support given by schools and teachers. District officials themselves often complain that districts are treated as 'post offices' and that administrative work ~;queezes out professional support duties. This tendency must be opposed, partly by ~ treamlining administrative processes and using e-Education to facilitate this work.
THIS ACT THEREFORE AIMS TO- O establish a criminal justice system for children, who are in conï¬ict with the law, in accordance with the values underpinning our Constitution and our international obligations, by, among others, creating, as a central feature of this new criminal justice system for children, the possibility of diverting matters involving children who have committed offences away from the criminal justice system, in appropriate circumstances, while children whose matters are not diverted, are dealt with in the criminal justice system in child justice courts; O expand and entrench the principles of restorative justice in the criminal justice system for children who are in conï¬ict with the law, while ensuring their responsibility and accountability for crimes committed; O recognise the present realities of crime in the country and the need to be proactive in crime prevention by placing increased emphasis on the effective rehabilitation and reintegration of children in order to minimise the potential for re-offending; O balance the interests of children and those of society, with due regard to the rights of victims; O create incrementally where appropriate, special mechanisms, processes or procedures for children in conï¬ict with the law- O that in broad terms take into account- O the past and sometimes unduly harsh measures taken against some of these children; O the long term beneï¬ts of a less rigid criminal justice process that suits the needs of children in conï¬ict with the law in appropriate cases; and O South Africa's obligations as party to international and regional instruments relating to children, with particular reference to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; O in speciï¬c terms, by- O raising the minimum age of criminal capacity for children; O ensuring that the individual needs and circumstances of children in conï¬ict with the law are assessed; O providing for special processes or procedures for securing attendance at court of, the release or detention and placement of, children; O creating an informal, inquisitorial, pre-trial procedure, designed to facilitate the disposal of cases in the best interests of children by allowing for the diversion of matters involving children away from formal criminal proceedings in appropriate cases; O providing for the adjudication of matters involving children which are not diverted, in child justice courts; and O providing for a wide range of appropriate sentencing options speciï¬cally suited to the needs of children.