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The Polokwane conference last year proved to be a turning point for the political career of Jacob Zuma. In hindsight, it may also have been the birthplace of a new, revised and more streamlined education system for South Africa.

The ANC decided at its Polokwane conference to assign top priority to education. To give practical expression to this decision, it was felt that the current Department of Education was too big and overburdened, with a vast and comprehensive series of tasks and functions.

It seemed more meaningful and it made more practical sense to group together the issues that relate to the special focus area of school education, while separating that from the issues relating to higher teaching.

“Skills development is one of the greatest challenges, and taking into account that the Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) are also now the second department’s responsibility, it makes practical sense to give separate and focused attention to this,” said André Gaum, former deputy minister of Education in the national government.

The South African economy relies heavily on a more widely developed skills development base.
Because of the massive amount of time that school education requires in South Africa, there always lurks the danger that this strategic intervention, as well as the development of the tertiary institutions’ strategic role in South Africa do not receive adequate attention.

“But because the different educational levels are interdependent and a seamless transition of students from one level to the other is vital, close co-operation between the two ministers and their departments are of paramount importance, if one wants to witness good results following from this positive development,” said Gaum.
President Zuma announced the split in education departments on 10 May, removing higher education and training from the traditional education ministry.

He placed former Gauteng Education MEC Angie Motshekga at the helm of the Education ministry, and Communist Party general-secretary Blade Nzimande as the political head of higher education and training.

Applause for splitting departments

The decision was lauded by the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU). “The splitting of the education department makes sense, but the problems in basic and higher education were immense”, it said.
“The former department was just too big, one department accounting for 40% of all public service employees. The separate ministries will allow for greater focus on the very real challenges faced in both sectors,” SADTU added.

Nzimande faced “immense” problems, the union said, with a lack of access to higher education by the poor and working class and the slow pace of transformation in the sector.

“For those outside of higher education, there are some three million unemployed in the age group 18 to 24. Offering hope and training opportunities to these youngsters is a priority.”

Motshekga faced an uphill battle, too, confronted with the need to ensure that all South African children received good grounding and the critical need to develop a national strategy and plan for teacher training, development and support.
The teachers union pledged itself to working with the new administration.

Education specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Graeme Bloch also welcomed the splitting of the ministry. “The new directed focus on higher education, along with vocational and labour market issues relating to the Sector Education and Training Authorities, further education and training and other job-skills issues, can only benefit from being located in the new ministry,” he said.
“Nzimande has a long interest and involvement in education and we wish him well.”

He added that Motshekga also had a long involvement in education and “is not afraid to stare down anti-social behaviour that impacts on education.
“She will have a wide reach and ability to mobilise, which is crucial where increased community involvement in education is needed,” Bloch added.
The Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU) also came out in favour of the split, saying it made sense because higher education and training needed a different approach to the schools sector.

“Schooling needs a more hands-on approach, whereas (for the higher education and training sector) you need to create an environment in which the institutions can function as autonomous institutions,” said SAOU general-secretary and CEO, Chris Klopper.

South Africa has had many educational challenges over the years. One of the disturbing trends was the overall drop in the pass rate for the New National Senior Certificate from 65% to 62.5% in 2008.

This year, the Ministerial Committee on a National Education and Evaluation Development Unit found indications of systematic collapse in schools. “The committee has received consistent reports from schools about confusion, suspicion, and at times outrage about the underlying dysfunctionality of schools,” the report says.
“Teachers and principals report about time lost because of absent teachers, incompetent principals and under-prepared district officials.
The culture of teaching and learning has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared, especially in rural and township schools.”

Ineffective teachers

Professor Tienie Vermeulen, former director of the School for Educational Science at the Vanderbijlpark campus of the North-West University, said Motshekga has certainly focused in her inaugural speeches on the true problem area in basic education – ineffective teachers.

Vermeulen added that separating the one lop-sided department into two entities will enable the two ministers to improve their focus and improve service delivery. He is confident Motshekga will successfully tackle the problem of a poor matric pass rate.

Motshekga recently confirmed her department was closely scrutinising the Schools Act, especially areas where it thinks the Act makes it difficult for the department to function the way it is intended. One of the challenges involves regulations that govern the employment of teachers so that red tape around the firing of inefficient teachers can be cut.

“It takes ages to deal with incompetence and by the time you prove it, it’s the end of the year and children have suffered,” Motshekga told the Sunday Times.
“Your best allies in education are the parents and learners in terms of making sure things run well. We want parents and learners to take responsibility for their education and to take a stand when their rights are being violated. They should report incompetent teachers and those who loaf around.”

Motshekga outlined her commitment to address some of the major issues including training grades R, 1, 2 and 3 teachers at further education and training (FET) colleges so universities can focus on maths and science teachers and those who want to teach senior learners, as well as allowing only learners who have competed matric to study at government-funded FET colleges.

The commitment to improve the quality of training for grades R, 1, 2 and 3 teachers ties in with the commitment by the government outlined in the new, revised Human Resource Development Strategy of South Africa (HRD-SA).

The number-one commitment outlined in the HRD-SA is to urgently overcome the shortages in the supply of people with the priority skills needed for the successful implementation of current strategies to achieve accelerated economic growth.

The government clearly outlined in commitment 3 of the HRD-SA that it wants to ensure improved universal access to quality basic education and schooling which is focused on achieving a dramatic improvement in education outcomes for the poor.

An active inspectorate

Among the strategic priorities is to improve learner performance and quality of education in the schooling system and to expand age-appropriate participation in early childhood education.

Among the other strategic priorities is to improve the percentage pass rate in Grade 12 and ensure that the profile of passes is commensurate with the country’s social and economic imperatives.

Vermeulen says Motshekga would most definitely invest in an active inspectorate to visit schools and to ascertain whether teachers are performing to maximum capacity. That could ultimately improve the quality of teaching. “Motshekga would address the poor work-ethics by some teachers, which is a positive thing for the South African educational system,” he added.

Outcomes-based education

Vermeulen was positive that Nzimande would not abandon the policy of outcomes-based education (OBE), as he was the chairperson of the National Education Crisis Committee that introduced OBE in 1992.

When Prof. Kader Asmal indicated a leniency towards abandoning OBE or out-phasing it, the ANC clearly instructed him to keep his hands off this principle, added Vermeulen.

Skills revolution

Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the ANC, said the government needed a person who understands the concept of the skills revolution, and that the skills revolution is critical for the country’s success.
The government urgently wants to overcome the shortages of people with the skills needed for the successful implementation of current strategies to achieve accelerated economic growth.

The other strategic priorities in this regard were to increase the supply of skilled personnel in the priority areas of design, engineering, artisans that are critical to manufacturing, construction and cultural activities through net immigration, as well as to accelerate the number of new training graduates in priority economic sectors.

“Therefore, you need a revolutionary to do that (skills) revolution,” said Mantashe.
Nzimande will have to face other challenges. A 26% rise in matric exemptions – from 85 000 in 2007 to 107 000 in 2008 – amounts to 22 000 more matric candidates achieving university entrance, but they may not be absorbed into an overtaxed tertiary education system.

Theuns Eloff, chairperson of Higher Education South Africa said the education department had earmarked R3.2bn for spending on infrastructure and graduate outputs, allowing a number of universities to grow in terms of class size. But building would only start this year.
Education deputy director-general Molapo Qhobela conceded that the universities were full and urged matriculants to look to further education and training colleges that offered “excellent vocational training”.

The first-year intake at South Africa’s 23 public universities is estimated at 150 000 students, including repeaters and Unisa students. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme only caters for 125 000 students each year.
Another challenge for Nzimande is that up to 50% of university students fail or drop out before completing undergraduate degrees.\

Investigation into discrimination

Nzimande has indicated he will act decisively on a government investigation into discrimination at higher education institutions. He would send the disturbing report to universities and outline a new policy on transformation.

“We will engage with universities in the months to come. I am confident of a positive response.
“But those universities that continue to allow racist practices – we will be hard on that,” he said.
He added that a compulsory course on Africanness, ubuntu, liberation and decolonising knowledge – proposed by the committee that ran the government investigation – was a good idea.

“The types of initiation ceremonies that have taken a racial form... there is no place for them in a democracy,” he added.

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