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The new system aims to put right defects in the unpopular Outcome Based Education (OBE) system and improve learner achievements.
The Committee that reviewed the process acknowledged that teachers were over burdened with curriculum and administrative duties and the department has started the process of relieving some of the pressure on them, thereby allowing them to do what they are there for- to teach our learners. The Review Committee has set in motion measures to reduce the number of projects learners need to do and portfolio files of learner assessments have been axed. Also, as of January 2010 CTAS for Grade 9 learners were stopped.
When you look at some of the statistics that are being published, these changes couldn't have come sooner. A survey found that under OBE, a million children gave up schooling every year, with in excess of five million learners having left school incapable of reading or writing effectively.
The Minister explained the aims of the new National Curriculum Statement (NCS), summarised as follows:
• The repackaging of the existing curriculum into the general aims of the South African curriculum, the specific aims of each subject, clearly delineated topics to be covered per term and the required number and type of assessments, also per term.
• Outcomes to be absorbed into more accessible aims and content and assessment requirements will be spelt out more clearly. Topics and assessments to be covered per term are being aligned to available time allocations per subject.
• The reduction of the number of learning areas in the Intermediate Phase from eight to six. That means that in grades 4 to 6 technology will be combined with science, arts and culture will be combined with life orientation and economic and management sciences will be taught only from grade 7. One of the priorities in the Basic Education budget speech in March was the development and distribution of adequate learning and teaching material. Motshekga went on to explain "A crucial pillar in the Department's determination to improve learner performance is the provision of learner workbooks. This project is a result of the injunction by the Presidency to provide resources to teachers and learners to improve learner performance in literacy and numeracy.
To this end, the Department of Basic Education has developed a plan for the development of the Work Books for Grades 1 - 6 in order to ensure the development, piloting, printing and distribution of learner workbooks early in 2011. We will pilot the workbooks in schools in 2010 and they will be available for use in all schools in 2011. The project will provide resource support to 6.5 million learners and approx 180 000 teachers in nearly 20 000 schools. This will place workbooks in the hands of each and every learner in the system.
A team of curriculum experts/materials developers/translators is developing the workbooks. These individuals have proven experience in the development of learner workbooks, are conversant with resource based methods and are able to produce high quality output according to project deadlines."
Additional recommendations that Minister Motshekga made are:
"Firstly, the Council approved the recommendation that from 2011, the language chosen by the learner as a Language of Learning and Teaching shall be taught as a subject, or as a First Additional Language, from Grade One (1) and not from Grade 2, as is currently the case. What this means, for instance, is that the teaching of English will occur alongside mother tongue instruction for those learners who choose English as a language of learning and teaching. English will not replace the mother tongue or home language in the early grades, as some commentators have interpreted the recommendation.
Secondly, Council agreed to regular, externally-set assessments at grades 3, 6 and 9 in literacy (in home language and first additional language) and numeracy/mathematics. It agreed on a weighting of continuous assessment and end of year examinations.
Council thirdly agreed that the symbols or rating scales used to rate learner performance in Grades 10-12 will, from 2011, be extended to Grades R-9, so that there is consistency across the curriculum."
The fact that the OBE problems are being addressed is indeed progress but what of the 5 million kids that have left school with limited literacy and numeracy skills - are they to be written off as lost?
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