Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education

Basic Education Shadow Report: A Review of the Department of Basic Education’s performance in 2010/11 and 2011/12

16 October 20121

Who Are We?EE is a movement of learners, parents, teachers

and community membersWe seek to address poor quality and inequality in

the education systemInvolved in evidence- based activism, community

organising and youth developmentEE’s Head Office is based in Khayelitsha. We

have members in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, the North West and Limpopo provinces.

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IntroductionEE acknowledges that there are areas in which the

Department of Basic Education (DBE) has made progress with regard to the provision of education

However, there are also important weaknesses that affect the quality of education provided for South African Learners

The EE Shadow Report focuses on specific programmes and activities undertaken by the DBE

For the purposes of this presentation, we will confine ourselves to the following areas

Regulations for School Infrastructure Workbooks and Textbooks School Libraries Annual National Assessments

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Regulations for School InfrastructureMost schools in South Africa either lack necessary resources

or only have access to inadequate facilities that render them incapable of providing learners with quality education to which they are entitled by law.

According to the National Education Infrastructure Management System (NIEMS) Report, published in 2011, of the 24 793 public schools:

3 544 schools have no electricity supply, while a further 804 have an unreliable electricity supply

2 402 schools have no water supply, while a further 2 611 have an unreliable water supply

913 schools still do not have ablution facilities and 11 450 schools still use pit-latrine toilets

Only 7% of schools have stocked and functioning libraries and only 10% of schools have stocked computer centres

Only 5% of schools have stocked laboratories 4

Regulations for School InfrastructureThe DBE has made provisions to address the issue of

inadequate infrastructure, in the form of grants.The Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery

Initiative (ASIDI), seeks to eradicate 496 inappropriate schools and make provision for water, sanitation and electricity at schools, between the 2011/12 and 2013/14 financial years.

However, progress has been extremely slow, especially with regard to the completion of the first batch of schools in the Eastern Cape.

Of the 49 schools in the EC earmarked for construction this year, only two have been completed thus far.

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Regulations for School InfrastructureThe Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) is meant to assist in:

“[accelerating] the construction, maintenance, upgrading and rehabilitation of new and existing infrastructure in education…”

This grant is provided to provincial departments of education to implement the targets.

The DBE monitors progress made on the targets in order to provide provinces with payment

Although there is sufficient information in the public domain, on the manner in which Provinces have utilised funds, there does not seem to be any information on progress made with regard to targets i.e. we do not know the number schools built from the EIG

There is also been no evidence that the DBE has briefed Parliament on the progress around the EIG

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Regulations for School InfrastructureThe 2011/2012 DBE Annual Report records some of the

challenges in the delivery of school infrastructure as follows:“substantial variances exist in the cost of building schools

across provinces, which is compounded by a lack of uniformity provincial planning, budgeting, design, procurement processes and implementation procedures to meet infrastructural targets.”

EE contends that, the provision of binding minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure would do a great deal in alleviating the lack of uniformity in provincial school infrastructure planning and implementation.

Regarding the adoption of regulations relating to minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure, the DBE Annual Report 2011/2012 reads:

“The regulations in terms of Section 5A of SASA were drafted. HEDCOM adopted a resolution to the effect that the draft regulations should only be published as guidelines. The Minister then referred these regulations back to the CEM for further consideration, where it was resolved that the draft regulations should

be reserved as guidelines. The regulations were thus published as guidelines…”

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Regulations for School InfrastructureEE argues that there is a distinct difference between

regulations and guidelines.Regulations would set an enforceable standard by which

all Provinces would be legally bound to adhere.It is for this reason that Section 5A clearly contemplates

regulations prescribing minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure.

SASA sets out mechanisms to ensure provincial compliance in regard to these regulations.

These mechanisms cannot kick-in in the absence of binding minimum norms and standards contemplated by the legislation

Since it was clearly Parliament’s intention that regulations were required to address poor school infrastructure, it should indeed be Parliament that takes the lead in ensuring the DBE fulfils this obligation.

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Regulations for School InfrastructureEE would like the Committee to note that, the DBE’s

2010/11 Annual Report refers to the development of “regulations relating to equitable provision of enabling physical teaching and learning environment at public schools,” which are recorded as a highlight. Yet, as indicated above, such regulations do not exist

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Workbooks and TextbooksThe DBE is commended for its provision of workbooks

to learners in primary schoolsHowever, workbooks must be supported by textbooksThe Delivery Agreement signed by the Minister in

2010 states that“...the intention is not that workbooks should constitute

the only reading material...It is expected that teaching and learning will occur beyond the scope of

workbooks and supported by textbooks.”

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Workbooks and TextbooksThe textbook is one of the most effective tools through

which to deliver the curriculum and support assessmentIt can ensure curriculum content and assessment

coverage, and it can also offer appropriate pacing and weighting of content

Textbooks can assist teachers with lesson and year planning.

A study conducted by Social Surveys and the Centre for Applied Studies, found that half of learners aged 16-18 were forced to share textbooks with other learners.

This means that learners cannot do their homework and rely on class notes as a source of reference.

The impact this situation has on learners, with regard to examinations and mid-year tests is profound.

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Workbooks and TextbooksIt was with great disappointment that EE learned of the

DBE’s failure to complete the delivery of textbooks for learners in Limpopo.

EE supports the Presidential Task Team recommendation that: “to efficiently manage the budget and to have credible information that will serve as the basis for both costing

and procurement [of] Learner Teacher Support Material, a headcount for both learners and teachers in

the province should be conducted.”This should assist the DBE with planning for the 2013

academic year, and hopefully ensure that a similar situation does not arise again.

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School LibrariesResearch has shown that school libraries are beneficial

to the progress and academic development of learnersOther than the direct academic benefits, libraries offer

social advantages tooCurrently, 93% of public schools in South Africa do not

have functioning libraries, a trained and qualified librarian or teacher librarian and sufficient library materials

The DBE has stated, as one of its goals, the establishment of norms for school libraries

The Department has published a document that outlines information on the provision of school libraries and information services

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School LibrariesThe National Guidelines for School Library and Information

Services, published in March 2012, propose to:“…pave the way to full library and information services provision in

all schools in South Africa and ensure that all South African learners have access to adequate library and information

services.”Such as the case of regulations around school infrastructure

norms and standards, the same argument applies with the National Guidelines- they are not binding.

The document does not refer to the provision of resources, which brings into question, how the guidelines will be implemented

The 2011/12 DBE Annual Report, does note that an implementation plan has been developed in collaboration with provinces- however, this is yet to be made publicly available.

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Annual National Assessments One of the challenges of using only Grade 12 pass rates as an

indicator of the education system’s performance is that many learners do not get as far as grade 12

Grade 12 examinations only measure performance at the end of secondary school, meaning that the examinations do not show were interventions are needed.

The DBE in introduced the ANA because it recognised the problem of using Grade 12 results as the main indicator of system quality.

As a monitoring tool, the ANA is meant to identify districts and schools most in need of interventions and assistance

It is unclear whether the DBE has put interventions in place following the 2011 ANAs.

It is imperative that a plan is established to improve numeracy and literacy results

It is also concerning that teachers only receive a short manual that explains how administer the ANAs, and yet do not receive assistance in how to analyse and use the results. Teachers must also play a role assisting learners to overcome their challenges

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Annual National AssessmentsThe National Development Plan recommends that the:

“ANA results should be made accessible to parents and the community in a way that makes the data easy to

interpret”This is in line with the Minister’s foreword to the report

on the Annual National Assessments (2011) in which she invites:

“all stakeholders and the broader public to view the ANA results with a sense of ownership.”

EE welcome’s the NDP’s call to make the ANA’s publically accessible-however, as the DBE is yet to make the 2011 ANA results (per school/per district) available to the broader public

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ConclusionThe EE Shadow Report assesses the DBE’s

performance against its own stated policies, goals and targets as set out in official documents

EE acknowledges the appropriateness of many of these policies, goals and targets, as well as progress in some.

However, in some cases the achievements remain largely on paper, which affects the quality of learning for South African learners.

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