Volume 8, 2001

Vol 8, No 1
15 March 2001

Access, Redress and Quality:
Continuties and Discontinuities in Education Reform
(January - March 2001)

Shireen Motala, Helen Perry, John Aitchison, Jane Castle and Tamar Ruth

Table of Contents

Introduction
The 2000 Senior Certificate Examinations
Budget 2001
ABET on Trial
Will RPL Succeed in Higher Education?
Further Educating the Nation

Summary

This issue of the Quarterly Review begins with an analysis of some of the trends discernible in the results of the 2001 Senior Certificate Examination. These figures and their meaning are juxtaposed with those that have emerged from the 2002/2003 Budget, with an emphasis upon the national education budget and what it means for different educational sectors. The significance of information of this kind is deepened when the figures from the School Register of Needs are examined critically, noting progress and how much still needs to be done. The second half of this issue is devoted to a description and analysis of the National Working Group s Report on the future of Higher Education in this country. Once again, the Quarterly Review addresses a contentious matter in order to provide perspectives and information for cogent and coherent thinking. A further model for the distribution of Higher education in each province is proposed in the article, with a focus on "transformation" and "redress".

Fighting the Dragon:
Globalisation and Its Attack on Equity

Kim Porteus with inputs from: Neva Makgetla, Jonathan Jansen and Lisa Hoyos

Table of Contents

Introduction
Gauteng Department of Education: Patterns of School Funding
The Human Resources Development Strategy
Early Childhood Development
The National Skills Development Strategy
Skills Development and Globalisation
The National Plan for Higher Education
Changing Institutional Research Cultures
Developments in HIV/AIDS
The Treatment Action Campaign: A Model for Engaging with Globalisation
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References

Summary

An older woman taking care of her late daughter s child said to me, There is something out there. I don t know what it is. It is hard to see but larger than me. And it is out to get the poor.

Several political analysts have pointed to the dual challenge facing South Africa s poor. The history of the previous century solidified a social order with the ability to produce and reproduce extreme inequities. The coming century, characterised by a qualitative and quantitative shift in the global political economy, brings with it new dangers. Respected analysts consistently warn of the proclivity of the emerging global economy for economic polarisation -- of the tendency of globalisation to affirm historic inequities and to further polarise economic access and wealth. The tendency to polarise occurs at the international, national, sub-national, and individual levels. Nations deemed less fit by the new global logic are faced with a future of economic exclusion. On an individual level, there is a tendency for the information economy to favour a small elite (those able to constantly retrain and learn how to learn ), leaving behind the majority of the working class and the growing numbers deemed without worth according to the new global logic.

Riding on the back of globalisation is a conviction, becoming more and more rooted in the bedrock of our ideas, that there is no alternative . While there may be tough aspects of globalisation, developing nations are supposedly left with only two choices ? compete or perish. The price of competition is often conceded to include leaving the poor behind , for the short, medium, or even long term. In this issue of the Quarterly Review we consider this dragon -- the dragon in the shadows working against equity ? the dragon that insists that there are no alternatives. This has been an important quarter for the development of education and training. Throughout this quarter, the provincial departments of education tabled their 2001/02 budgets for provincial approval. In March, the Minster tabled the National Plan for Higher Education establishing a transformation framework for higher education. In April, the Ministers of Education and Labour launched the Human Resource Development Strategy providing an integrated framework for shaping the human resources required to build the South African economy. The strategy is an umbrella strategy coordinating constituent parts -- from early childhood development, to general and further education, to skills development, to higher education. In April and May respectively, two important constituent policies were launched. In April, the Minister of Labour launched the National Skills Development Strategy. In May, the Minster of Education released the long awaited White Paper on Early Childhood Development. Perhaps the most important development of the quarter was the landmark campaign led by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), pressurising the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) to drop its lawsuit against the South African Government for defending the Medicines and Substances Control Act of 1997. Not only does this case represent one step forward for treatment possibilities, but represents an important model for intervening and changing the trajectory of the most negative tendencies of globalisation. Through the course of this review, several specialists were asked to provide specific inputs. Neva Makgetla of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) comments on how the skills development strategy confronts the challenges of globalisation. Jonathan Jansen, Dean of Education at the University of Pretoria, responds to the National Plan on Higher Education by outlining the central challenges required to change institutional research cultures. In the final section, Lisa Hoyos, National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI), reviews the recent victory of the Treatment Action Campaign coalition, and consider the lessons emerging from this experience.

Strangers in Their Own Territory:
Searching for a Path in A Complex Terrain

Margaret Tshoane with contributions by Console Tleane, Salim Vally and Johnathan Jansen

Table of Contents

Introduction: Margaret Tshoane, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Curriculum Statement Review: Margaret Tshoane, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Special Needs Education-Building an Inclusive Education and Training System: Salim Vally, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Drug Testing in Schools: Console Tleane, Independent Researcher
T l-Apartheid by ANOTHER NAME?: Jonathan D. Jansen, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria
HIV/AIDS in Education: Margaret Tshoane, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Educator Development and the Department of Education s Interventions: Margaret Tshoane, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Acknowledgements
References

Summary

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen major policy shifts and developments in education. Committees and commissions were set up, white papers and documents were produced with the aim of providing policy and implementation solutions. Hopes were raised, crushed and raised again (e.g. around the issue of rationalisation of educators). Some policies were made and implemented, then debated and amended (e.g. Curriculum 2005). Some policies were made without proper consideration of the context in which they would be implemented (e.g. language policy). And a number of policies were introduced and implemented in schools without support and monitoring procedures in place at the school level (e.g. feeding schemes). Debates about what should be included and excluded in the education sector still continue (e.g. whether any universities should be custodians of Afrik ns, discussed in detail in this report). Educators are at the centre of it all, searching for a path in this complex terrain of ongoing changes. This Quarterly Review, covers some of the ongoing debates and changes in the education sector and also looks at newly introduced regulations, white papers and report. Specific issues covered are the National Curriculum Statement; inclusive education; drug abuse in schools; HIV/AIDS; universities as custodians of Afrik ns; and educator development. The National Curriculum Statement incorporates the results of the Ministerial Project Committee. It looks at the debates raised around the recommendations made by the Committee and at implementation constraints. The report argues that the second version of Curriculum 2005 looks more user-friendly and has, on the whole, been warmly welcomed. If one takes into account some of the concerns raised by educators, academics and bureaucrats around the first version, educators should find it less difficult to implement this second, more streamlined and less complex second version. The section on inclusive education focuses on some of the points raised in the recently released White Paper on Special Needs Education. It looks at the new definition attached to special needs in education, according to which special learning needs go beyond physical, mental and neurological impairments, to accommodate socio-economic deprivation. This section argues that issues of disability should not be confined to individual learners but to the make up of the entire education system. It argues that reforms and policies based on individual disadvantage abstracted the learner s historical, cultural and social context will flounder. The section on drug abuse deals with the increasing use of narcotics by learners in a number of schools. It examines the debates and responses that emanated from the use of random drug tests in a number of schools. While these tests were welcomed by some, they posed major constitutional and ethical questions, and for this reason, the Minister of Education placed a moratorium on these tests. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) supported the Minister and offered some of the reasons why random testing should not be allowed in the form adopted by some schools. This Quarterly Review outlines some of the reasons advanced by both the Minister and the SAHRC. It also examines some of the conventional assumptions that characterise debates around drug abuse in schools, and the implications for education policy. The section on universities as custodians of Afrik ns looks the Gerwel Committee Report. The report is a corollary to the Minister of Education s request to the Committee, to advise and give recommendations on how Afrik ns universities can ensure long-term maintenance, development and growth without denying Afrik ns speakers access within the system. The Minister also sought the Committee s advice on how the use of language as a medium of instruction could perpetuate racial, ethnic or cultural divisions and discrimination. An argument raised is that such a Committee was unnecessarily given the role of a statutory body dealing with languages, like the Pan South African Language Board. This section argues that these institutions will be custodians of Afrikaner exclusivism. It is also argued that Afrik ns speakers who enrol in such universities will be political, cultural and social misfits on graduation. Being on track with HIV/AIDS developments is important for future planning. The Minister of Education recently released the second phase of Tirisano, which covers programmes on HIV/AIDS. The pandemic was also part of his nine point plan in his 1999 Call to Action programme. This section covers some of the programmes undertaken by the Department, both at school and tertiary institution levels. It looks at some of the discussions raised around HIV/AIDS, including the effects of the pandemic on the education sector, and alternatives to better training in relation to the pandemic.

The section on educator development raises debates around constraints that educators are faced with in regard to policy implementation. A focus is given to factors such as educator qualifications and in-service training. There is some discussion on specific policies which educators have not successfully implemented due to insufficient training and support, resources and monitoring. The national Department of Education s interventions in the form of regulations, policies and programmes are discussed. An argument raised is that with the plethora of policies, which have been introduced, educator development is a pressing need. When all else is put in place (for example, educational facilities), the knowledge base of educators should be strengthened, in order for quality teaching and learning to take place.

Fundamentalism and the Fundamentals of Education

Salim Vally with inputs by Console Tleane, Morrison Chakane and Samiera Zafar

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Right to Education

• User Fees and the Cost of Basic Education
• Using the Constitution to Ensure Transformation
• Adult Education and Illiteracy
• Infrastructure, Facilities, Transport and Feeding Schemes
• School Feeding Schemes
• Out-of-school Children and Child Labour
• Farm Schools
• Violence and Girl Learners

The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Schooling Norms and Standards for School Funding War, Terror and the Role of Education The Revised Curriculum and Fundamentalism

• The Home Schooling Movement and the Curriculum

The Third World Conference against Racism (WCAR) - What Role for Education?

• The Mood and Modalities at WCAR
• The Faces, Facets and Features of Racism at WCAR
• The Role of Education within the WCAR Declarations
• Racism and Racial Discrimination in the South African Education Landscape

Governance Teacher Education Policy Conference

• Introduction
• Papers
• Analysis
• Admissions
• Policy Revisited
• Acknowledgements
• References

Summary

This quarter commenced with the chillingly explosive events in the United States, the repercussions of which will stay with us well into the new millennium. Technological innovation and its control in this globalising era have ensured that the theatre of war is not a distant phenomenon but can be brought into our living rooms and class rooms and can mould our consciousnesses. Beyond the narratives and descriptions of the horror and carnage, it behoves us as educationists to understand the ramifications and implications of this epoch-making episode in the way we understand the world, how it will change and our role in these processes. The events force us to re-examine the values, knowledge and skills we impart and instil in our schools and universities. We can only agree with Roy when she implores us to understand that, ?There is no way out of the spiraling morass of terror and brutality that confronts the world today. It is time now for the human race to hold still, to delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both ancient and modern. What happened on September 11 changed the world forever.

Fortuitously and appropriately the draft national curriculum statement (NCS) was released this quarter for public comment, affording us an opportunity to give reflective meaning to Roy s plea. The NCS resulted from a recommendation by the Review Committee Report last year. Criticism of the cumbersome and complicated features of the then version of Curriculum 2005, its insufficient guidance on assessment and progression, complicated terminology and bungled implementation. The new streamlined NCS is aimed at reducing and simplifying its features, providing guidance to educators and importantly infusing all learning areas with issues of social justice and anti-discrimination. In this issue, we limit our focus on the area of the NCS that has resulted in the most comment and vociferous challenges, including a pubic imbroglio between a resurgent fundamentalist religious constituency and Minister Asmal. Conservative Christian groups, currently on the ascendancy, have taken umbrage at those outcomes in the Social sciences and Life Orientation learning areas which speak to the themes of HIV/AIDS, reproductive rights, sexuality, and learning about different religions. In the light of September 11, and its aftermath, a discussion of the dangers of fundamentalism and the importance of understanding diversity become even more critical.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to wreak havoc in sub-Saharan Africa. Its impact on South African education is analysed in a few sections of this Review. In the specific section on HIV/AIDS in Education, we review Michael Kelly s contention that the entire content, method, role and organization of school education in a world of HIV/AIDS must be radically altered.

In a keynote address to the SADC Education Policy Forum in November, Professor Jonathan Jansen contends that African education reform can only be successful if it recognizes that the basic physical conditions for effective educational change are not in place. This according to Jansen, is a first-hurdle problem . These fundamental conditions include trained and qualified teachers, basic infrastructure in schools, textbooks, libraries and laboratory facilities.

Another argument made by Jansen is that effective reforms have to acknowledge the moderating influence of context. This includes not being oblivious to the dialectic between school and the broader society. Violence, unemployment and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are key issues that impact on schooling. For instance, "After a serious miscalculation by policy makers about massification in South Africa, universities are suddenly under threat. About 10 000 fewer students (were) registered for the 2001 matriculation examination and the immediate effect is that the 36 public higher education institutions now have another year of drastic reduction in much needed students from which to select. Also teacher rationalisation policies, despite the pandemic, were pushed through. Not much prescience was needed to know that this would result in a serious shortage of teachers.

Policies are often made for symbolic reasons and for their political currency. There is frequently less commitment to their implementation. Jansen s rule-of-thumb in evaluating policies revolves around answers to the following questions:

• Does the policy make concrete resource commitments?
• Are the resource commitments, if made, adequate, given the scale of need?
• Is there an indication as to where the resources will in fact come from?
• Does the policy contradict or reinforce pre-existing policies?
• Does the policy provide a time-scale and strategy for implementation?

The first section of this Review grapples with these questions in dealing with the fundamentals of education and the right to basic education. In the face of inertia and a sometimes recalcitrant state apparatus, litigation is proffered as a possible option.