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Johnathan Paoli
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has announced her vision of transforming foundational education and concentrating on quality and proficiency when it comes to early, mid and secondary learners.
Gwarube delivered an address at the 40th Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) conference at the Century City Conference Centre and Hotel in Cape Town, which aimed to bring together examination councils, assessment bodies, researchers, policymakers, educators, research institutions and government officials, among others, to engage, exchange and share their experiences, research Endings; and discuss topical issues germane to access to, and success in, postgraduate studies.
She said the South African schooling system is extremely diverse and complex; with 13.4 million learners, 460 000 teachers, over 24 000 schools and 12 official languages.
“With so many learners in our system, making sure and looking at the standards is very important,” Gwarube said, pointing out that the greater concern is ensuring the quality of outcomes throughout the schooling system.
Gwarube confirmed the implementation of an evaluation of learners in Grade 3, 6 and 9; coupled with a similar appraisal of school functionality and provincial support.
She said there was a fundamental need to obsess over outcomes and the impact of that educational product on the success of learners completing 13 years of schooling
“Make sure learners can take pride not only in what they have attained, but also in order to facilitate the opening of global opportunities,” she said.
Gwarube said the ‘educational’ product is indicative of Basic Education requiring a shift of thought, from being a social department to being considered part of the economic cluster.
“That shift in thinking is important, because we need to start thinking about how we maximise the product in order for learners to unlock economic opportunities, particularly for countries like SA with its legacies of inequality with 7 out of ten young people being unemployed,” she said.
The South African educational system was being evaluated in terms of 6 social justice indicators: access, equity, quality, proficiency, redress and ‘improsivity”.
Gwarube called for more to be done, particularly in terms of quality and proficiency, and not just access, in light of the achievements since the dawn of the democratic dispensation.
“How do we re-imagine educational assessment? Curriculum strengthening processes involve the content of what gets taught, the teaching and learning, and the assessment and professional support schools receive,” she said.
She said that very little focus was placed on skills, competencies, attitudes, values and character development of learners, and that this needed to change.
The minister called for the strengthening of the curriculum and said it was needed in order to shift the priority to focusing on a holistic development of the learner, to better equip the youth with the skills to face tomorrow.
INSIDE EDUCATION