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White Paper on Education and Training
Notice 196 of 1995
Department of Education
Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
Cape Town, 15 March 1995
WPJ/1995
The White Paper on Education and
Training hereunder is hereby published by the Department of Education.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Reconstruction and Development of The Education
and Training Programme
Part 3: The Constitutional and Organisational Basis of The
New System
Part 4: The Funding of The Education System
Part 5: Reconstruction and Development In The School System
Part 6:
Conclusion
[ Top ]
Education and Training in a Democratic South Africa
First Steps to Develop a New System
Department of Education
Pretoria
February 1995
Education and training are central activities of our
society. They are of vital interest to every family and to the health and prosperity of
our national economy. The government's policy for education and training is therefore a
matter of national importance second to none.
South Africa has never had a truly national system of
education and training, and it does not have one yet. This policy document describes the
process of transformation in education and training which will bring into being a system
serving all our people, our new democracy, and our Reconstruction and Development
Programme.
Our message is that education and training must change. It
cannot be business as usual in our schools, colleges, technikons and universities. the
national project of reconstruction and development compels everyone in education and
training to accept the challenge of creating a system which cultivates and liberates the
talents of all our people without exception.
My Ministry is acutely aware of the heavy responsibility it
bears for managing the transformation and redirection of the system of education and
training within the terms of the Constitution and under severe budgetary pressure. The
national and provincial Ministers have worked together increasingly closely in the Council
of Education Ministers. The provincial Ministers have been carrying an exceptional load
since the beginning of 1995. They and their new departments need the people's
understanding and support. For its part, the national Ministry will do all it can to
assist.
The actual provision of education and training under the
national and provincial Ministries of Education occurs primarily in the schools, colleges,
technikons, and universities. These bear the direct responsibility for managing the
teaching and learning process. This includes finding practical, educationally acceptable
solutions for changes which are occurring as a result of the new Constitution and the
policies of the new national and provincial governments. Their environment is one of
considerable uncertainty, especially while the process of review and transformation of
governance structures is still under way at all levels of the system.
Having myself been an educational manager at school,
college and university levels, I wish to express a special word of understanding for all
those who carry management responsibilities in the education and training system during
this time of transition.
I wish also to thank and commend all other roleplayers and
stakeholders in the system: teachers and other educators, students, parents, religious and
other community leaders, education and training NGOs, and officials in the new education
departments who are charged with spearheading change. Their collective energy, expertise
and commitment are formidable resources for unifying and building our new system. Our
watchword should be: Let us put the learners first. If we do, I have no doubt that the
students of this country will respond magnificently.
This white paper was published in draft form for
consultation. Media coverage was extensive, and the response from the South African public
was heart- warming. Citizens, organisations and institutions took the trouble, under a
tight deadline, to make their views known, and I thank them all, They have helped us to
produce a better document. What is more, they have time and again expressed their wish to
help find principled and practical solutions to our country's educational needs. With this
spirit, we cannot fail.
The public hearings conducted by the joint National
Assembly and Senate Select Committee on Education demonstrated the keen interest taken by
my parliamentary colleagues in the white paper process. I thank them for their continued
interest and advice, and all the organisations which made submissions to the committees'
hearings.
I believe that the discussion of the draft document has
marked the beginning of a national consensus on the way forward. That is what the country
needs: a principled national accord on education and training which will provide a secure
platform for change and development, for widening access and raising quality.
It is essential for us to build a system of education and
training with which all our people can identify because it serves their needs and
interests. Such a system must be founded on equity and non-discrimination, it must respect
diversity, it must honour learning and strive for excellence, it must be owned and cared
for by the communities and stakeholders it serves, and it must use all the resources
available to it in the most effective manner possible.
This document is the first policy document on education and
training by South Africa's first democratically elected government. As the title makes
clear, it represents only our first steps on a long road. My hope is that it blazes the
trail of opportunity and self-fulfilment for all our citizens.
Professor S M E Bengu, MP
Minister of Education
[ Top ]
I believe that the approval of an education white paper by
the Government of National Unity is an essential prerequisite for the creation of an
education system which is acceptable to the majority of South Africans.
The ideal, namely "excellence in education for
all" and the cultivation and liberation of the talents of every young South African,
is still a long way off, but we are on our way!
The road we have to travel is an uphill and rocky one - a
difficult one - but the fact of the matter is that we are, as a result of a Government of
National Unity and an inclusive approach in the Ministry of Education, closer than ever
before to reaching a truly national consensus on the way forward in respect of education.
This will dramatically increase our chances of reaching the destination of relevant,
affordable, non-discriminatory, quality education for all.
As a member of the Government of National Unity I very much
look forward to working hard and with enthusiasm towards this goal, within the framework
of the white paper on education and training.
I sincerely hope that all South Africans will now put that
which was negative in the past behind them (also in respect of education), and will use
the opportunities presented by this white paper to the full, in their own interests and in
the interests of South Africa. It is a wonderful chance for a fresh start in education -
let's use it to the best advantage of our country.
Renier Schoeman, MP
Deputy Minister of Education
- ABET
- Adult Basic Education and Training
- AUT
- University and Technikon Advisory Council
- CBO
- community-based organisation
- CEM
- Council of Education Ministers
- CHED
- (former) Committee of Heads of Education Departments
- COTEP
- Committee for Teacher Education Policy
- CS
- college/school
- DET
- (former) Department of Education and Training
- ECD
- Early Childhood Development
- EMIS
- Education Management Information System
- ESS
- Education Support Services
- FEC
- Further Education Certificate
- FFC
- Financial and Fiscal Commission
- GDP
- Gross Domestic Product
- GEC
- General Education Certificate
- HEDCOM
- Heads of Education Departments Committee
- HOA
- (former) House of Assembly
- HOD
- (former) House of Delegates
- HOR
- (former) House of Representatives
- HSRC
- Human Sciences Research Council
- ICHED
- (former) Interim Heads of Education Departments Committee
- INSET
- in-service education for teachers
- LSEN
- learners with special education needs
- NCTE
- National Council for Teacher Education
- NGO
- non-governmental organisation
- NETF
- National Education and Training Forum
- NICD
- National Institute for Curriculum Development
- NICE
- National Investigation into Community Education
- NOLA
- National Open Learning Agency
- NQF
- National Qualification Framework
- OAU
- Organisation of African Unity
- RDP
- Reconstruction and Development Programme
- RSA
- Republic of South Africa
- SAQA
- South African Qualifications Authority
- SGT
- (former) self-governing territories
- TBVC
- (former) Transkei, Boputhatswana, Venda, Ciskei states
- VAT
- value-added tax
- UN
- United Nations
- Unesco
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
- Unicef
- United Nations Children's Fund
[ Top ]
This document follows government practice in distinguishing
between the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education.
The Ministry of Education comprises the Minister of
Education, the Deputy Minister of Education, advisors and administrative staff.
In terms of the Constitution, a Minister is accountable
personally to the President and Cabinet for the administration of his or her portfolio,
and is required to administer the portfolio in accordance with the policy determined by
Cabinet.
The Cabinet is required by the Constitution to
"function in a manner which gives consideration to the consensus-seeking spirit
underlying the concept of a government of national unity as well as the need for effective
government". Thus Ministers are obliged to seek Cabinet approval for their policy
proposals, such as this document, and to ensure that approved policy is effectively
executed.
The Department of Education is part of the organisational
structure of the public service, which is constitutionally required to "loyally
execute the policies of the government of the day in the performance of its administrative
functions".
The Department of Education is headed by the
Director-General, who is responsible for the efficient management and administration of
the department, and is accountable to Parliament for the funds voted to the department in
the budget.
The Director-General is accountable to the Minister for the
execution of policy, and in practice also makes available the professional resources of
the department for the development of policy as directed by the Minister.
Part 1 - Introduction
The Purpose and Scope of This Document
A national Ministry of Education white paper
- This document is a "white paper" which describes
the first steps in policy formation by the Ministry of Education in the Government of
National Unity. It
- locates education and training within the national
Reconstruction and Development Programme, and outlines the new priorities, values and
principles for the education and training system
- previews important developmental initiatives on which the
Ministry of Education is engaged
- discusses the implications of the new Constitution for the
education system, especially in respect to Fundamental Rights
- discusses the division of functions between national and
provincial governments in the field of education and training
- provides information about how the national and provincial
departments of education are being established
- analyses the budget process in education, and the necessity
for a strategic approach to education funding in relation to the national priority for
human resource development
- discusses in detail two significant policy initiatives for
the school system: the organisation, governance and funding of schools, and the approach
to the provision of free and compulsory general education.
- This document is published by the national Ministry of
Education with the approval of Cabinet. In preparing it, the Ministry has enjoyed
substantial cooperation from the provincial Ministries of Education, and appreciates their
comments and suggestions.
- Provincial Ministers of Education have indicated that they
intend to publish provincial white papers on education. Provincial white papers will
perform a vital service by sharpening the focus of debates on education policy within each
province. Collectively they will make an increasingly significant contribution to the
development of policy for the national system as a whole.
[ Top ]
Policy development and strategic plans in transition
- The development of policy has been going on in the midst of
the complete reorganisation of the national education system, the dismantling of the old
education bureaucracy through the establishment of new national and provincial education
departments, and the acceptance of legislative competence and executive authority by
provincial governments. The whole system's capacity for policy development will increase
rapidly as the new national and provincial education departments take shape, and a new
structure of statutory consultative bodies and development agencies is brought into
existence. New policy directions will be clarified by the major investigations and reviews
which have either been launched by the Ministry or are in preparation, in areas which are
crucial to the reconstruction and development of the education and training system.
- Policy is important, but execution is more important. This
document is not a plan, but target dates have been indicated for important development
processes which are underway. The determination and costing of medium and long-term
priorities is a major task for 1995, and will be reviewed and updated annually thereafter.
The new provincial Departments of Education will be partners of the national department in
this exercise, because they are responsible for developing the new provincially-based
information system for all education except technikons and universities. A reliable
information base is a crucial requirement for a trustworthy planning process, so the
current state of transition is far from satisfactory, but even provisional planning work
must proceed.
- The reorganisation of the national budget system and its
link to the RDP Fund affect the capacity of all departments to undertake financial
planning, which is the basis of all responsible development. The proposed shift to
zero-based budgeting and multi-year projections will provide the technical basis for the
clarification of development strategy and the setting of priorities and implementation
targets. However, the responsibility for planning, budgeting and executing provincial
education development, except for the university and technikon sectors, rests with
provincial governments. The national department will be working very closely with its
provincial counterparts, in order to establish the planning and budgeting framework within
which the education priorities of the Government of National Unity can be addressed.
- The development of policy is a learning process. The
Ministry of Education's policies will evolve, and they will be open to correction, not
through trial and error, but on the basis of a variety of academic, professional and
consultative sources of critique and advice. The national Ministry of Education will seek
the cooperation of the provincial Ministries of Education, and the technikons and
universities, in establishing well defined performance criteria, so that systematic
internal and independent monitoring and evaluation can take place. Particular attention
will be paid to the performance of the education and training system in the improvement of
quality, equity, productivity (effectiveness) and efficiency.
The public response to the draft white paper
- The vision, principles, broad lines of policy, and many
specific initiatives which were proposed in the draft version of this document have been
generally endorsed by most individuals, bodies and institutions from whom written
submissions were received. This revised document is therefore recognisably similar to the
earlier version.
- It is also different, however, because the Ministry of
Education has tried to do justice to the spirit if not the letter of the massive public
response to the draft. More than six hundred submissions were received. Respondents made
suggestions for improvement on almost every part of the document. Inevitably, since
respondents represented the entire spectrum of political and educational opinion, they
have not always conveyed the same message. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Education has
paid careful attention to what all respondents have said. Their advice has informed the
Ministry's understanding, even if it has not always been accepted.
- A large number of specific comments dealt with matters of
detailed implementation which this document does not cover. Suggestions of this type have
been reserved for consideration by the responsible implementing authorities, and many will
be referred to the respective commissions or committees which will be investigating major
areas of policy or of educational need in much greater detail than this document has tried
to do. In fact, all contributions from the public have been filed and classified for easy
access, so that they can continue to be consulted.
[ Top ]
Why Education and Training
An integrated approach
- The terms "education" and "training" are
coupled in the title of this Ministry of Education document, and at many points in the
text. This needs explanation.
- Training is a vital part of many learning programmes
administered in schools, teachers colleges, technical colleges, technikons and
universities. The Ministry of Education therefore has great interest in the training
function by virtue of its own responsibilities.
- Education and training are each essential elements of human
resource development. Rather than viewing them as parallel activities, the Ministry of
Education believes that they are in fact closely related. In order to maximise the
benefits of this relationship, the Ministry is committed to an integrated approach to
education and training, and sees this as a vital underlying concept for a national human
resource development strategy.
- An integrated approach implies a view of learning which
rejects a rigid division between "academic" and " applied",
"theory" and "practice", "knowledge" and "skills",
"head" and "hand". Such divisions have characterised the organisation
of curricula and the distribution of educational opportunity in many countries of the
world, including South Africa. They have grown out of, and helped to reproduce, very old
occupational and social class distinctions. In South Africa such distinctions in
curriculum and career choice have also been closely associated in the past with the ethnic
structure of economic opportunity and power.
- Successful modern economies and societies require the
elimination of artificial hierarchies, in social organisation, in the organisation and
management of work, and in the way in which learning is organised and certified. They
require citizens with a strong foundation of general education, the desire and ability to
continue to learn, to adapt to and develop new knowledge, skills and technologies, to move
flexibly between occupations, to take responsibility for personal performance, to set and
achieve high standards, and to work cooperatively.
- In response to such structural changes in social and
economic organisation and technological development, integrated approaches toward
education and training are now a major international trend in curriculum development and
the reform of qualification structures. An integrated approach to education and training
will not in itself create a successful economy and society in South Africa. However, the
Ministry of Education is convinced that this approach is a prerequisite for successful
human resource development, and it is thus capable of making a significant contribution to
the reconstruction and development of our society and economy.
- An integrated approach to education and training, linked to
the development of a new National Qualification Framework (NQF) based on a system of
credits for learning outcomes achieved, will encourage creative work on the design of
curricula and the recognition of learning attainments wherever education and training are
offered. It will open doors of opportunity for people whose academic or career paths have
been needlessly blocked because their prior knowledge (acquired informally or by work
experience) has not been assessed and certified, or because their qualifications have not
been recognised for admission to further learning, or employment purposes.
- Such concepts are not the property of the Ministry of
Education alone, but are part of the emerging consensus on the importance of lifelong
learning as the organising principle of a national human resource development strategy.
The National Training Board, a consultative and research body which advises the Minister
of Labour, has made a major contribution through its research on a National Training
Strategy Initiative. This was an investigation undertaken by a task team comprising
representatives of organised labour, organised business, education and training providers,
and the former Department of Manpower.
- The concept of lifelong learning organised in terms of a
National Qualification Framework, is incorporated in the human resource development
strategy of the government's Reconstruction and Development Programme.
- In promoting an integrated approach to education and
training under the NQF, the Ministry of Education does not wish to assume executive
responsibility for the provision of training which falls within the competence of other
Ministries.
[ Top ]
Inter-departmental cooperation
- The Ministers of Education and Labour have established an
Inter-Ministerial Working Group to develop their common interests in an integrated
approach to education and training and a National Qualification Framework, and to clarify
their respective competencies with regard to training. Both sides are strongly committed
to achieve these goals. The joint policy work of the Ministries of Education and Labour on
this matter necessarily involves very close cooperation between the two sides, on the
basis of a careful definition of where their respective interests, responsibilities, and
competencies converge and diverge. The Ministry of Education recognises the Ministry of
Labour's essential interest in its active labour market policy, of which the promotion of
skills development outside the formal provisioning system for education and training is an
integral part.
- The Working Group includes representatives of the
Departments of Education and Manpower, the National Training Board, organised business and
organised labour. The Working Group recognises that the prospect of an integrated approach
to education and training has alarmed some professionals in both the formal education and
the skills training camps. Some training practitioners are concerned that the specific
requirements of occupational skills training will be swamped by unreasonable demands for
the inclusion of general or academic courses. Some educators are concerned that the
intrinsic values of general or academic education will be over-ridden by a narrow
vocationalism or a merely economic approach to learning.
- To some extent, such concerns probably reflect past
divisions between the education and training sectors, and may not be fully informed by the
most advanced international practice in the design and assessment of learning programmes,
either in industry or in educational institutions. Nevertheless, they are not unreasonable
and they need to be addressed seriously. Enabling the National Qualification Framework to
be developed in an evolutionary, participatory, and consensual way, within clear policy
guidelines, will be the best way of implementing the new strategy. The organised teaching
profession, and the representative bodies of the university, technikon and college
sectors, as major stakeholders, will be invited to become fully involved in this process.
- The draft National Qualification Framework Bill being
prepared by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group will therefore allow ample scope for the
NQF to be developed from within the diverse education and training sectors, in terms of
national guidelines and a mutually agreed regulatory framework, not by bureaucratic
dictation from one or other department. The decisive steps to set the NQF in motion are
expected to be taken early in 1995, when the Ministers of Labour and Education will
consider the text of the draft Bill, and release it for general consultation.
- The National Qualification Framework, for which the Minister
of Education will accept executive responsibility in Cabinet, is envisaged as being
developed and implemented on an inter-departmental basis, with fully consultative
processes of decision-making, including all concerned government departments, education
and training providers, and major national stakeholders in education and training. The
establishment and operation of the NQF on this basis is the main strategic objective of
the Ministry of Education in the development of an integrated approach to education and
training.
- Most other Ministries have responsibilities for skills
development and professional training within their spheres of competence, such as Health,
Agriculture, Water Affairs and Forestry, Local Government, and the Public Service. The
provision and examination of professional education and training is also undertaken by
many professional institutes and by a wide range of private colleges. The establishment of
the NQF will enable all existing public and private sector education and training
providers to assist in establishing appropriate national standards in their specialist
fields through the respective accrediting bodies, and to seek recognition for their
programmes in terms of such defined standards. Learners engaged in education and training
under the auspices of RDP programmes will be able to earn credits towards national
qualifications by so doing.
[ Top ]
Chapter 3
Transforming The Legacy of The Past
Introduction
- For the first time in South Africa's history, a government
has the mandate to plan the development of the education and training system for the
benefit of the country as a whole and all its people. The challenge the government faces
is to create a system that will fulfil the vision to "open the doors of learning and
culture to all". The paramount task is to build a just and equitable system which
provides good quality education and training to learners young and old throughout the
country.
- This is a national task, acknowledged by the government as a
fundamental priority of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Developing the
human resources of the country is both a goal of the RDP and a requirement for achieving
other RDP goals. Appropriate education and training can empower people to participate
effectively in all the processes of democratic society, economic activity, cultural
expression, and community life, and can help citizens to build a nation free of race,
gender and every other form of discrimination.
Past
and future
- In a democratically governed society, the education system
taken as a whole embodies and promotes the collective moral perspective of its citizens,
that is the code of values by which the society wishes to live and consents to be judged.
From one point of view, South Africans have had all too little experience in defining
their collective values. From another, our entire history can be read as a saga of
contending moralities, which in our era has culminated in a historic agreement based on
the recognition of the inalienable worth, dignity and equality of each person under the
law, mutual tolerance, and respect for diversity. In the charter of Fundamental Rights and
the schedule of Constitutional Principles, the 1993 Constitution expresses a moral view of
human beings and the social order which will guide policy and law-making in education as
in all other sectors.
- The closing paragraphs distil the essential moral vision of
the constitution-makers:
"This Constitution provides the historic bridge
between the past of a deeply divided society characterised by strife, conflict, untold
suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights,
democracy and peaceful co-existence and development opportunities for all South Africans,
irrespective of colour, race, class, belief and sex. "The pursuit of national unity,
the well-being of all South African citizens and peace require reconciliation between the
people of South Africa and the reconstruction of society. "The adoption of this
Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the
divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the
transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred,
fear, guilt and revenge. "These can now be addressed on the basisthatthere is need
for understanding but notforvengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a
need for ubuntu but not for victimisation."
- This vision has power because of its honesty and generosity.
Frankly and without recrimination, it acknowledges past evils and conflicts, and in their
place offers a national agenda of reconciliation and reconstruction, leading to national
unity, well-being, and peace. The policy of the Ministry of Education takes its bearings
from this vision.
- When all South Africans won equal citizenship, their past
was not erased. The complex legacies, good as well as bad, live on in the present. Diff
icult as it may be to do so, South Africans need to try to understand each other's
history, culture, values and aspirations, not turn away from them, if we are to make the
best of our common future.
[ Top ]
Educational legacies
- As with other basic services, the distribution of education
and training provision in our country follows a pattern of contrasts and paradoxes. South
Africa has achieved, by a large measure, the most developed andwell-resourced system of
education and training on the African continent, withthe highestparticipation rates at all
levels of the system. In the best- resourced, well staffed, highly motivated, elite sector
of the school system, almost all students succeed in their senior certificate
examinations, and an impressive proportion qualify for admission to higher education. The
quality of South Africa's diploma, degree, postgraduate and research output has created
and sustained the country's sophisticated modern economic and financial infrastructure,
industrial, business and communications technology, medical, legal, media, cultural and
other professional services. In these respects South Africa compares well with other
industrialising countries and seeks to match itself with the world's best.
- At the same time, millions of adult South Africans are
functionally illiterate, and millions of South African children and youth are learning in
school conditions which resemble those in the most impoverished states. In the large,
poorly-resourced sectors for the majority of the population, a majority of students drop
out prematurely or fail senior certificate, and a small minority win entrance to higher
education. Access to technological and professional careers requiring a strong basis in
mathematics and science is denied to all but a fraction of the age cohort, largely because
of the chronic inadequacy of teaching in these subjects.
- Gross inequalities in educational attainment, skills,
employment opportunity, productivity and income have been typical of industrialising
economies in the modern era, on all five continents. In that respect, South Africa
resembles many other countries, and South Africans grapple with similar needs for social
justice, employment creation, housing, primary health care, environmental protection, and
educational services. Measured by international indicators of human development and
economic competitiveness, South Africa's overall performance is poor because the
achievements of its outstandingly well- developed elite sector are overshadowed by
inadequate provision for the basic needs, including education and training, of the
majority of the population. Low levels of life-expectancy, basic health and nutrition,
skills and productivity are the result.
- In these respects, our circumstances may be similar to those
of many other developing or industrialising societies, but our circumstances are the
result of our own history, not any other people's. The unique pattern of South African
inequality and under-development has been laid down over the generations of minority rule
and ethnically-based economic, labour and social development policies. The gradations
between rich and poor, articulate and voiceless, housed and homeless, well-fed and
malnourished, educated and illiterate, therefore mirror South Africa's complex racial and
ethnic hierarchies. By every index, African communities, followed by Coloured communities,
have the highest deficits in the provision of basic services, and lowest level of access
to the means of providing a better quality of life.
- The national and provincial Ministries of Education are
dealing daily with the legacy of South Africa's historically separate education and
training systems. The historic pattern of organisation has changed manytimes during
acentury and moreof public educational provision, butfrom the viewpointof the majority of
the population, it has always been the case that schools and colleges were ethnically
segregated and ultimate control of funds and policy was retained by White central
governments. From 1983, education was organised through the three separate "own
affairs" services of the tricameral parliament, for Indians, Coloureds and Whites
respectively (the latter being organised in four semi-autonomous provincial departments),
with provision for the Black population being divided between six self-governing territory
departments, a central government department administering education for Africans living
in the "White RSA", and four nominally independent state departments. A
"Department of National Education" controlled policy and budgetary allocations
on behalf of the central government.
- Until recently, all these separate systems have operated in
more or less total isolation from each other, except at the level of top management.
Mutual ignorance has therefore been the norm, even between teachers and administrators
working virtually side by side in neighbouring systems within the same city, town or rural
village. In 1995, as their educators and administrators are absorbed into new non-racial
national and provincial departments, the pre-democratic ethnic departments will dissolve
and their separate institutional cultures, personal networks and community relations, good
and bad, face extinction.
[ Top ]
A transformative
mission
- The fact that South Africans have experienced different
educational histories is therefore a significant factor in the transition to a single,
national non-racial system. In this situation, a priority for the national and provincial
Ministries of Education is to create a transformative, democratic mission and ethos in the
new departments of education which can completely supersede the separate identities of the
former departments. It is now the joint responsibility of all South Africans who have a
stake in the education and training system to help build a just, equitable, and high
quality system for all the citizens, with a common culture of disciplined commitment to
learning and teaching. In this task the best expertise and experience from the old ethnic
departments will be indispensable, just as all inefficient and reactionary administrative
and professional practices from the past dispensations must be jettisoned.
- Fortunately, the ministries have access not only to the best
of the old departmental experience, but also to a wealth of innovative policy research,
curriculum development, teaching, assessment and evaluation, in-service teacher education,
educational materials production, textbooks, educational media, and practical experience
in the delivery of education to neglected communities and sectors, which has been built up
by educational NGOs, community-based organisations, research units, resource and training
agencies, publishers, faculties of education, and schools and colleges outside the
official system. These have worked foryears within a non-racial, non-sexist and
participatory culture, developing alternatives and supplements to what prevailed within
the old departments, and preparing for the day which has now dawned.
- In recent years, with the national compass set towards the
democratic future, unprecedented investigations of national educational and training needs
have been undertaken with the participation of a wide range of stakeholder organisations
and agencies, at times including departments of government. The findings and
recommendations have been widely disseminated and discussed. In the process, a convergence
of view has emerged on many issues of fundamental importance, even if there is still
principled disagreement over others, and considerable debate over questions of
implementation, including the priorities to be set in the light of the limits to our
resources.
- New education and training policies to address the legacies
of under- development and inequitable development and provide learning opportunities for
all will be based principally on the constitutional guarantees of equal educational rights
for all persons and non-discrimination, and their formulation and implementation must also
scrupulously observe all other constitutional guarantees and protections which apply to
education.
Acknowledgement and invitation
- At the moment when the Ministry of Education in the first
democratic South African government lays the foundations of the new system of education
and training, it is appropriate to recall, soberly and without recrimination, that
education has been a deeply contested terrain from colonial times and throughout the long
history of minority rule. Language, cultural and education policies have always been
closely allied to the main themes of state policy. It is not surprising, therefore, that
major political movements in the country's modern history have frequently been stirred by
struggles for educational, language and cultural rights, in the face of overbearing state
ideologies.
- In the post-World War II period, the struggle for equal
educational rights and equal citizenship became completely identified, because the denial
of equal educational rights constituted a direct attack on the human dignity and life
chances of the vast majority of South Africa's peoples. As a result, schools, colleges and
universities became part of the arena of political mobilisation and confrontation with the
security forces. Casualties numbered in the thousands, thousands were detained, thousands
fled into exile. Many were killed. These statements are true, and they loom so large in
recent memory that they cannot be ignored.
- It is fitting for the Ministry of Education to pay tribute
to the generations of parents, students and teachers who were willing to risk their lives,
personal liberty, family life, educational progress and careers in the cause of democracy,
equal rights, non-racialism, and equal education.
- It is also fitting for the Ministry of Education to
acknowledge with gratitude the selfless service of generations of educators in all
communities who have exemplified the best traditions of their calling by dedicating
themselves to the interests of their students, especially those who have been called upon
to do so under conditions of severe inequality, hardship and danger.
- It is also true that the culture of resistance in
educational institutions created massive tensions and divisions among students, teachers,
and administrators from which the country is only now beginning to emerge. Even in recent
times, with a democratic government elected by all the people, abuses have taken place in
educational institutions in the name of liberation, which cannot be condoned.
- It is time to declare that a new era has dawned. In
publishing this document, the Ministry of Education opens not just a new chapter but an
entirely new volume in the country's educational development. The efforts of all South
Africans will be needed to reconstruct and develop the national education and training
system so that it is able to meet the personal and social needs, and economic challenges,
that confront us as we build our democratic nation. The Ministry of Education invites the
goodwill and active participation of all parents, teachers and other educators, students,
community leaders, religious bodies, NGOs, academic institutions, workers, business, the
media, and development agencies, in bringing about the transformation we all seek.
- For its part, the Ministry of Education undertakes to pursue
an open and transparent process of policy-making, to tell the truth about the condition of
the education and training system and the problems the government encounters, and to do
everything in its power to assist those who bear the responsibility at all levels for
turning the vision of a learning nation into reality.
An Education and Training Charter
- A significant step in this direction will be taken if, in
the spirit of reconciliation and reconstruction, all parties in the government and key
stakeholders and roleplayers can agree to a common statement of essential goals and
principles for the reconstruction, development and protection of the education and
training system.
- The Ministry of Education will shortly invite a
representative group of South Africans to prepare a draft Education and Training Charter.
This draft will form the basis for a country-wide consultation, out of which a revised
text will be developed and agreement negotiated. The Education and Training Charter is
envisaged as a solemn pact, in its own way as significant for peace and progress in our
country as the Constitutional Principles on which the new Constitution will be based.
 Return to Contents
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Values and Principles of Education and Training Policy
- It is necessary to identify the values and principles which,
in the view of the Ministry of Education, should drive national policy for the
reconstruction and development of education and training.
- Education and training are basic human rights. The state has
an obligation to protect and advance these rights, so that all citizens irrespective of
race, class, gender, creed or age, have the opportunity to develop their capacities and
potential, and make their full contribution to the society.
- Parents or guardians have the primary responsibility for the
education of their children, and have the right to be consulted by the state authorities
with respect to the form that education should take and to take part in its governance.
Parents have an inalienable right to choose the form of education which is best for their
children, particularly in the early years of schooling, whether provided by the state or
not, subject to reasonable safeguards which may be required by law. The parents' right to
choose includes choice of the language, cultural or religious basis of the child's
education, with due regard for the rights of others and the rights of choice of the
growing child.
- Since countless South African families are fragmented by
such factors as past unjust laws, migratory labour practices, and marital breakdown, and
handicapped by illiteracy from participating fully in the education of their children, the
state has an obligation to provide advice and counselling on education services by all
practicable means, and render or support appropriate care and educational services for
parents, especially mothers, and young children within the community.
- The over-arching goal of policy must be to enable all
individuals to value, have access to, and succeed in lifelong education and training of
good quality. Educational and management processes must therefore put the learners first,
recognising and building on their knowledge and experience, and responding to their needs.
An integrated approach to education and training will increase access, mobility and
quality in the national learning system.
- The system must increasingly open access to education and
training opportunity of good quality, to all children, youth and adults, and provide the
means for learners to move easily from one learning context to another, so that the
possibilities for lifelong learning are enhanced. The Constitution guarantees equal access
to basic education for all. The satisfaction of this guarantee must be the basis of
policy. It goes well beyond the provision of schooling. It must provide an increasing
range of learning possibilities, offering learners greater flexibility in choosing what,
where, when, how and at what pace they learn.
- In achieving this goal, there must be special emphasis on
the redress of educational inequalities among those sections of our people who have
suffered particular disadvantages, or who are especially vulnerable, including street
children, out-of-school youth, the disabled and citizens with special educational needs,
illiterate women, rural communities, squatter communities, and communities damaged by
violence.
- The state's resources must be deployed according to the
principle of equity, so that they are used to provide essentially the same quality of
learning opportunities for all citizens. This is an inescapable duty upon government, in
the light of this country's history and its legacy of inequality, and it is a
constitutional requirement. There must be purposeful strategies for ensuring that the
system protects the rights of teachers and students to equitable treatment. Fair
opportunities for training and advancement in the education service, including an
affirmative action policy, are essential, in order to ensure an effective leadership cadre
which is broadly representative of the population they serve. The representation of women
in leadership positions must be drastically increased.
- The improvement of the quality of education and training
services is essential. In many of the schools and colleges serving the majority of the
population there has been a precipitous decline in the quality of educational performance,
which must be reversed. But quality is required across the board. It is linked to the
capacity and commitment of the teacher, the appropriateness of the curriculum, and the way
standards are set and assessed. A national qualification framework will be the scaffolding
on which new levels of quality will be built. Other quality assurance mechanisms will be
developed to ensure the success of the learning process.
- The years of turmoil have taken a heavy toll on the
infrastructure of our education and training system. The relationship between schools and
many of the communities they are expected to serve has been disrupted and distorted by the
crisis of legitimacy. The rehabilitation of the schools and colleges must go hand in hand
with the restoration of the ownership of these institutions to their communities through
the establishment and empowerment of legitimate, representative governance bodies.
- The principle of democratic governance should increasingly
be reflected in every level of the system, by the involvement in consultation and
appropriate forms of decision-making of elected representatives of the main stakeholders,
interest groups and roleplayers. This requires a commitment by education authorities at
all levels to share all relevant information with stakeholder groups, and to treat them
genuinely as partners. This is the only guaranteed way to infuse new social energy into
the institutions and structures of the education and training system, dispel the chronic
alienation of large sectors of society from the educational process, and reduce the power
of government administration to intervene where it should not. Representative governance
structures do not exclude the importance of governments and institutions calling upon
expert advice to supplement their own professional resources.
- The restoration of the culture of teaching, learning and
management involves the creation of a culture of accountability. This means the
development of a common purpose or mission among students, teachers, principals and
governing bodies, with clear, mutually agreed and understood responsibilities, and lines
of cooperation and accountability.
- The realisation of democracy, liberty, equality, justice and
peace are necessary conditions for the full pursuit and enjoyment of lifelong learning. It
should be a goal of education and training policy to enable a democratic, free, equal,
just and peaceful society to take root and prosper in our land, on the basis that all
South Africans without exception share the same inalienable rights, equal citizenship, and
common national destiny, and that all forms of bias (especially racial, ethnic and gender)
are dehumanising.
- This requires the active encouragement of mutual respect for
ourpeople's diverse religious, cultural and language traditions, their right to enjoy and
practice these in peace and without hindrance, and the recognition that these are a source
of strength for their own communities and the unity of the nation.
- Education in the arts, and the opportunity to learn,
participate and excel in dance, music, theatre, art and crafts must become increasingly
available to all communities on an equitable basis, drawing on and sharing the rich
traditions of our varied cultural heritage and contemporary practice.
- The education system must counter the legacy of violence by
promoting the values underlying the democratic process and the charter of fundamental
rights, the importance of due process of law and the exercise of civic responsibility, and
by teaching values and skills for conflict management and conflict resolution, the
importance of mediation, and the benefits of toleration and co-operation. Thus peace and
stability will become the normal condition of our schools and colleges, and citizens will
be empowered to participate confidently and constructively in social and civic life.
- The curriculum, teaching methods and textbooks at all levels
and in all programmes of education and training, should encourage independent and critical
thought, the capacity to question, enquire, reason, weigh evidence and form judgments,
achieve understanding, recognise the provisional and incomplete nature of most human
knowledge, and communicate clearly.
- Curriculum choice, especially in the post-compulsory period,
must be diversified in order to prepare increasing numbers of young people and adults with
the education and skills required by the economy and for further learning and career
development.
- An appropriate mathematics, science and technology education
initiative is essential to stem the waste of talent, and make up the chronic national
deficit, in these fields of learning, which are crucial to human understanding and to
economic advancement.
- Environmental education, involving an inter-disciplinary,
integrated and active approach to learning, must be a vital element of all levels and
programmes of the education and training system, in order to create environmentally
literate and active citizens and ensure that all South Africans, present and future, enjoy
a decent quality of life through the sustainable use of resources.
- Two operational principles-sustainability and
productivity-are given strong emphasis in the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
They need to be upheld in the development of plans and programmes for the reconstruction
and development of the education and training system.
- The expansion of the education and training system must meet
the test of sustainability. The education and training system has not been given an open
cheque book by the government. Development needs to be planned for, and balanced across
the full range of needs, from early childhood to postgraduate study. Unsustainable
development is not development at all, but a kind of fraud practised on the people.
However, sustainability is not just a financial concept. True sustainability occurs when
the people concerned claim ownership of educational and training services and are
continuously involved in their planning, governance and implementation.
- The system of education and training, taken overall, has
developed many areas of inefficiency, where funds are wasted and staff are not well
employed. The productivity of the system-what it produces in terms of personal learning,
marketable skills, and examination results, in relation to what it has cost-is very low in
much of the system. Improving efficiency and productivity is essential in order to justify
the cost of the system to the public, to secure more funds for development when they are
needed, to raise the quality of performance across the system, and thus improve the life
chances of the learners.
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Developmental Initiatives
Introduction
- The government's Reconstruction and Development Programme
(RDP) is designed as an integrated, coherent socioeconomic policy framework. The main
theme of the RDP's human resource development programme is the empowerment of people,
through education and training, including specific forms of capacity-building within
organisations and communities, to participate effectively in all the processes of
democratic society, economic activity, cultural expression and community life.
- All Ministries are expected to re-orient their programmes
and budgets in accordance with RDP priorities. From one perspective, the entire work of
the national and provincial Ministries of Education supports the objectives of the RDP,
since education and training are by definition developmental. From another perspective,
the education and training sector requires transformation like any other, because of the
structural imbalances in provision, funding, quality and output, the need to deliver
education services to neglected adult, youth and early childhood constituencies, to
rewrite curricula and textbooks, link schooling and the world of work, restructure
governance systems, upgrade the professional competence of teachers, gear learning
outcomes to the country's reconstruction and development agenda, and much more.
- These vast needs cannot be met all at once or satisfied in a
short period. The Ministry of Education does not have a free hand, a clean slate, or a
blank cheque with which to plan and implement the future. The need for a strategic plan,
including both general and specific targets, is difficult to deny. In principle, a
well-founded plan would enable efforts and resources to be concentrated, and would help
prevent national and provincial ministries being swept along on a tide of immediate and
perhaps unrelated or conflicting demands and crisis-management decisions.
- Macro-planning exercises up to now have been focused
primarily on the rationalisation of the system, organisational development, broad policy,
and interim curriculum reform, since the entire organisational, institutional, financial
and legal infrastructure of the national education system has been in flux since May 1994.
Departmental capacity for strategic planning has been limited, and the new education
information system and data base are still being constructed.
- The developmental initiatives in this chapter, which
together comprise a large part of the Ministry of Education's main policy agenda for the
reconstruction and development of the system, will be brought within the scope of the
strategic planning exercise. Here they are proposals, or descriptions of actions, on
almost all of which the Ministry of Education is already engaged, without an attempt being
made in this document to propose a comprehensive plan of implementation with time-frames.
- Since the national Department of Education has no executive
responsibility for the provision of education in schools and colleges, it is imperative
that macro-planning should be undertaken as a collaboration between the national
department and provincial Departments of Education (which are being established and
staffed during 1995), and major providing systems including the universities and
technikons. This is a task for the new Department of Education which will relate well to
the government's requirement for a zero- based, multi-year budgeting process.
- The developmental initiatives which are described below
anticipate several important structural and institutional innovations. In a time of
transition it may appear that change takes on a momentum of its own. The Ministry of
Education is aware of the importance of continuity and the need to ensure that change
takes place in a considered and orderly manner, within a coherent structure of
accountability. Many of the inherited consultative bodies have been dissolved because they
are unconstitutional or no longer serve a useful purpose. Other bodies have been
substantially changed in membership, such as the University and Technikon Advisory Council
(AUT), or restructured, such as the former ethnically-based Committee of Heads of
Education Departments (CHED), now the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM).
Such structures of advice and consultation fulfil a vital function, both in order to
maintain the flow of decision-making, and as vehicles for managing change. In due course,
partly as a result of the developmental initiatives described below, the permanent system
of statutory advice will be brought into place.
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National
Qualification Framework
- National reconstruction and development demands that the
knowledge and skills base of the working and unemployed population are massively upgraded,
and that young people still at school have better opportunities to continue their
education and training.
- Our human resource development programme must therefore
expand the ways in which people are able to acquire learning and qualifications of high
quality. New, flexible and appropriate curricula are needed that cut across traditional
divisions of skills and knowledge, with standards defined in terms of learning outcomes
and appropriate assessment practices, in order to provide a more meaningful learning
experience, and prepare them more effectively for life's opportunities.
- An integrated approach to education and training will link
one level of learning to another and enable successful learners to progress to higher
levels without restriction from any starting point in the education and training system.
Quality assurance will be maintained by duly registered accrediting bodies. Learning and
skills which people have acquired through experience and on-site training or
self-education could be formally assessed and credited towards certificates, in order to
enable them to qualify for entry to additional education or training.
- As discussed in chapter 2, the Inter-Ministerial Working
Group of the Ministries of Education and of Labour has prepared draft legislation for the
creation of a National Qualification Framework (NQF). The Ministries are satisfied that a
very broad consensus has developed on the need for the NQF and its main principles of
operation. The NQF is specifically endorsed in the Government's Reconstruction and
Development Programme as a key element of human resource development strategy. Organised
business and organised labour have been leading actors in undertaking the
conceptualisation. The public response to the proposal in the draft version of this
document was strongly positive in principle.
- The NQF is a priority programme of the Ministry of
Education, acting in consultation with the Ministry of Labour. The South African
Qualifications Authority (SAQA), which will have responsibility for developing the NQF,
will be brought into existence through legislation as a parastatal body, in the shortest
possible time after the NQF Act has been passed. Since it is intended that the NQF be
developed and maintained in a highly devolved and consultative manner, the SAQA executive
office should not be large.
- The Ministry of Education is aware that many vital interests
need to be taken into account in the further development of this initiative. Through the
National Training Board's National Training Strategy Initiative, a large number of
organised constituencies have already participated in the development of the NQF concept.
It is intended that the draft NQF Bill, together with an explanatory memorandum, be
gazetted for consultation as soon as the Ministers of Labour and Education have approved
its release. Comprehensive consultations will be invited with the provincial Departments
of Education through HEDCOM, the university, technikon and college sectors, representative
stakeholder organisations, professional institutes, private educational institutions, NGO
providers and accrediting bodies, and the special educational needs constituency, so that
the revised Bill reflects their advice and enjoys their confidence. Special consultations
will be needed to clarify the future role of existing certification bodies.
- SAQA will be charged with developing the National
Qualification Framework, on a fully consultative basis, for the Minister's approval.
Meanwhile, without prejudice to the outcome, the Department of Education is basing its
forward thinking on a draft, provisional structure of the NQF comprising eight
qualification levels, which can be listed schematically as follows:
(1) Level 1: General Education Certificate (GEC), to be achieved by
the acquisition of the required credits
- at the end of the compulsory schooling phase: one year
reception class (pre- school) plus nine years to Grade 9 (present Standard 7)
- through Adult Basic Education and Training programmes, which
may be sub-divided into three sub-levels
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(2) Levels 2-4: Further Education Certificate(s) (FEC), to
be achieved by the acquisition of the required credits, which may comprise core units and
optional units in different combinations, undertaken in a variety of modes, including
- senior secondary school programmes, up to Grade 12 (Standard
10)
- general and career-specific programmes offered in the
college sector including those offered in the current Technical Colleges, Community
Colleges, Intermediate Tertiary Colleges, other private vocational or academic colleges,
and NGO providers
- programmes offered in Regional Training Centres, through
workplace training, etc
(3) Levels 5-8: Higher Education diplomas and degrees,
achieved by the acquisition of the required credits, undertaken in programmes offered by
- professional colleges, both public and private -
professional institutes
- technikons
- universities
- The Ministry notes that strong representations have been
made by organisations speaking on behalf of adult and young learners, to start Level 1 at
the first ABET benchmark, which could be equivalent to the end of primary education, and
that the term "sub-level" be abandoned for these learners. LSEN specialists also
point out that adjustments may be required in respect of learners with special education
needs. Such views will need to be given full weight by SAQA as it prepares its proposals
on the NQF structure.
Curriculum development
- The advent of democracy in South Africa has made it both
possible and imperative to undertake an overhaul of the learning programmes in the
nation's schools and colleges. The Ministry of Education is committed to a fully
participatory process of curriculum development and trialling, in which the teaching
profession, teacher educators, subject advisors and other learning practitioners play a
leading role, along with academic subject specialists and researchers. The process must be
open and transparent, with proposals and critique being requested from any persons or
bodies with interests in the learning process and learning outcomes.
- The Ministry recognises that it is important to set up rapid
processes for the production of new curriculum frameworks and core curricula. Much
valuable work has been done already, within the Department of Education, in university
curriculum projects, by subject associations, and by NGOs, alone and in networks. All
curriculum change is a lengthy process, but strategic points of entry will be found so
that a progressive transformation will take place on a phased basis.
- Important developmental and coordination work at the
national level has been done by the Curriculum Technical Sub-Commiftee of the National
Education and Training Forum, in which the Department of Education plays a full part. The
close involvement of national bodies of the organised teaching profession is a-major
benefit of this process. The Interim Committee of Heads of Education Departments (ICHED),
which links the national and provincial departments together, has now accommodated the
NETF's role in bringing together the major stakeholders in the curriculum change process,
by creating 41 National Curriculum Committees on which the national and provincial
Departments of Education as well as other major roleplayers are represented. The work of
these committees in developing national norms and standards for the curriculum is
coordinated by a representative Coordinating Committee for the School Curriculum.
- This extensive new structure of curriculum committees will
formulate draft norms and standards for consideration by HEDCOM. When approved by the
Minister of Education, they will be announced as national policy. Once the NQF has been
developed and implementation commences, this process will have to link up with the SAQA
procedures.
- The formulation of national norms and standards necessarily
involves the development of curriculum frameworks and core curricula. Within these
national parameters, provincial Departments of Education have significant scope for
defining learning programmes which express distinct provincial interests and priorities,
should they wish to do so. Curricula which satisfy national norms may alsobe developed by
other providing agencies. School-based "micro" adaptations can be an important
means of professional development and INSET, as well as expressing particular interests of
the school and its community.
- Considerable interest has been expressed in the concept of a
National Institute of Curriculum Development (NICD). In the light of the progress which
has been made in establishing new National Curriculum Committees and a representative
Coordinating Committee for the School Curriculum, the Department of Education will invite
HEDCOM and the main stakeholders and roleplayers in education and training to participate
in a study of alternative forms such an Institute could take, and the ways in which it
could function. The department proposes that the NICD study should cover the relationship
of curriculum, assessment and teacher education processes in all fields and phases of
education and training, including early childhood learning, education support services and
special educational needs.
- The role of a NICD in the development and implementation of
the National Qualification Framework should be a central element of the study. This will
encompass the development of norms and standards for the General Education and Further
Education levels, both in and out of school, and thus the implications of an integrated
approach to education and training, the articulation of school and out-of-school
curricula, the assessment and recognition of prior learning and experience, and the
current and future requirements for national norms and standards for teachers and for
"education, training and development practitioners" (a broad category introduced
by the National Training Strategy Initiative which is meant to encompass a career path in
formal and non-formal training).
- The study should clarify the link between teacher education,
especially INSET, and curriculum development, and the future role of the many NGOs working
in the curriculum and INSET fields. It should consider the new demands for learning
materials and well designed courses arising from the use of appropriate open learning
approaches throughout the education system. The relationship between national and
provincial curriculum processes should also be considered. Finally, the question of a
binding code of conduct concerning the writing and approval of textbooks, needs to be
investigated.
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National Open Learning Agency
(NOLA)
- The dimensions of South Africa's learning deficit are so
vast in relation to the needs of the people, the constitutional guarantee of the right to
basic education, and the severe financial constraints on infrastructural development on a
large scale, that a completely fresh approach is required to the provision of learning
opportunities.
- Open learning is an approach which combines the principles
of learner centredness, lifelong learning, flexibility of learning provision, the removal
of barriers to access learning, the recognition for credit of prior learning experience,
the provision of learner support, the construction of learning programmes in the
expectation that learners can succeed, and the maintenance of rigorous quality assurance
over the design of learning materials and support systems. South Africa is able to gain
from world-wide experience over several decades in the development of innovative methods
of education, including the use of guided self-study, and the appropriate use of a variety
of media, which give practical expression to open learning principles.
- The Ministry of Education is anxious to encourage the
development of an open learning approach, since it resonates with the values and
principles of the national education and training policy which underpin this document, and
has applicability in virtually all learning contexts. For this reason, the Ministry will
undertake an early investigation into the most useful structure and mission of a National
Open Learning Agency (NOLA). This is envisaged as a small, flexible and responsive
professional agency, with the mission of promoting the open learning principles wherever
they can be most influential. NOLA would undertake research and development on open
learning, help build a network of public and private open learning institutions and
practitioners, and facilitate their efforts to translate open learning principles into
effective practice. The NOLA and NICD concepts should be developed in close relationship
with each other.
Education Support Services and
Education for Learners with Special Educational Needs
- Education Support Services (ESS) encompass all
education-related health, social work, vocational and general guidance and counselling,
and other psychological programmes and services, and services to learners with special
education needs (LSEN) in mainstream schools. Parents, teachers and students in both
formal and non-formal sectors of the education and training system are beneficiaries of
and participants within these services, which until now have tended to function
separately, and to be administered separately with poor co- ordination. The Ministry of
Education accepts that the demands of specialized education for severely handicapped
learners are related to but should not be encompassed by ESS.
- It cannot be said that Education Support Services or LSEN
services have been comprehensive enough in any part of the former education and training
system, but in general, the better resourced a department had been in the past, the more
support services have been available to learners, and the greater the ease of access to
that support. Where the need has been greatest the service has been poorest. Low levels of
funding for Black education have relegated ESS and LSEN services to the periphery, with
the result that ESS and LSEN provision for African learners is meagre in the extreme,
whether through mainstream or specialised facilities.
- Provision of these services is a matter for provincial
departments. The Ministry of Education's interest in ESS lies in the necessity to take a
national overview, through careful research and consultation, of the condition of these
services, to consider the scope for national norms and standards, and minimum national
standards of service, and to give direction on policy.
- The Ministry of Education intends to explore a holistic and
integrated approach to Education Support Services, in collaboration with the provincial
Ministries of Education and in consultation with the Ministries of Health, Welfare and
Population Development, and Labour. The inclusive, integrated approach recognises that
issues of health, social, psychological, academic and vocational development, and support
services for learners with special education needs in mainstream schools, are
inter-related.
- The term "Education Support Services" may tend to
emphasise the auxiliary nature of "curative" services and to downplay the
potential advantages of an approach which integrates and infuses ESS into the mainstream
curriculum and the Lifeskills curriculum. In this vein, educational and career guidance
specialists have argued strongly, in response to the draft document, that guidance is an
integral part of the curriculum, not ESS. The Ministry fully accepts that guidance is an
integral part of the curriculum and must be given its full scope in that sphere and in
teacher education, but wishes to explore the advantages of conceptualising guidance
services within an integrated ESS framework.
- It is essential to increase awareness of the importance of
ESS in an education and training system which is committed to equal access, non-
discrimination, and redress, and which needs to target those sections of the learning
population which have been most neglected or are most vulnerable. At the same time, there
is every reason to believe that more effective infusion of ESS concerns within the
mainstream, will by prevention reduce the risk of increasing the numbers of learners at
risk.
- One way to ensure visibility is to require the
representation of ESS personnel, learners with special education needs, and their
legitimate representatives, on all statutory or consultative bodies which deal with ESS
matters, and to ensure representation on bodies dealing with general education policy.
- The vast need for ESS, coupled with the extreme
impoverishment and inequality in provision for ESS, the complexity of the professional
fields involved, and the necessity for co-ordination across levels of government and
different departments (as well as with NGOs), indicate that one or more special studies
are required.
- The Ministry of Education favours the early appointment of a
National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training to undertake a thorough
needs analysis and make its recommendations to the Minister. The Department of Education
will seek advice from the LSEN constituency, the Heads of Education Departments, and the
Department of Health and the Department of Welfare and Population Development on the
Commission's terms of reference, before putting a firm proposal to Cabinet for approval.
In view of the extreme importance of early identification of special educational needs,
the scope of the enquiry will specifically include the early childhood phase, from birth
to school entry, and the questions of prevention and support through effective ESS in the
mainstream.
- The Department of Education will propose to the Heads of
Education Departments Committee that an investigation into the holistic and integrative
concept of ESS be undertaken in parallel with the national commission and feed into its
deliberations.
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Teachers, Trainers and Educators
- The teacher education sector is a joint responsibility of
the national and provincial governments, since the 100+ teachers colleges fall under the
provincial Departments of Education, and teacher education conducted in universities and
technikons falls under the national Department, whereas the many NGOs involved in teacher
education may belong in either category. Teacher education belongs at present both within
higher education and within the so-called "college/school" (CS) sector.
- The Ministry of Education is strongly of the view that
teacher education is a unified field and belongs in higher education. The Ministry will be
expecting advice on this point from the National Commission on Higher Education which is
discussed below.
- This is not to say that the teachers colleges will or can
cease to fall under the respective provincial departments, since the Constitution is clear
on this matter. What is required is imaginative bridge building between the national and
provincial levels, so that the planning and development of the sector can proceed in a
purposeful, coherent and cost-effective way.
- The Ministry regards teacher education (including the
professional education of trainers and educators) as one of the central pillars of
national human resource development strategy, and the growth of professional expertise and
self-confidence is the key to teacher development. The responsibility of the national
level of government is to provide facilitative and regulatory mechanisms under which the
institutions and bodies responsible for programmes will have wide latitude to design and
deliver them.
- The Ministry of Education therefore requires appropriate
advice on all aspects of teacher education policy. These encompass the structure and
career paths in the teaching profession, demand and supply factors, initial teacher
education, induction, in-service education and professional development, whether based
institutionally or provided by distance education methods. The Committee for Teacher
Education Policy (COTEP) will continue to provide this advisory function as a
sub-commiftee of the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM). The desirability
of a statutory National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), representing all higher
education institutions, including teachers colleges, the teaching profession, and the
provincial Departments of Education, will continue to be examined in the light of
experience and such advice as the National Commission on Higher Education may render.
- The provincial Departments of Education, and university and
technikon faculties of education, will be responsible for the redesign of teacher
education programmes in line with the new values, goals and principles of national
education and training policy determined by the Minister. Such national policy will
include a qualification structure expressed in terms of minimum criteria and competences,
and will facilitate the qualitative improvement and developmental relevance of teacher
education programmes. It will contribute to a new system of accreditation for teacher
education and training institutions which accords with the NQF, and provides for quality
assurance and the portability of credits. As a benchmark for the new policy, a national
professionally-researched audit of teacher education capacity is being undertaken in the
first half of 1995 underthe auspices of HEDCOM and with the support of the Council of
Education Ministers.
- Given the magnitude of the task of teacher education and
development, and the cost factors, it is likely to be necessary to base as much teacher
education work as possible on what, for South Africa, will be an entirely new approach to
distance education, which will include strong professional support. It will be imperative
for COTEP to coordinate the development of such distance education courses, given the high
initial financial outlay involved, especially in preparing new learning materials, staff
development and student support systems.
- The Ministry believes that the most direct way of raising
the quality of learning and teaching is through a comprehensive reform and re-direction of
in-service education for teachers (INSET). The faculties of education in universities and
technikons, the NGO sector, the more creative colleges of education, and some subject
organisations of teachers, have been responsible for an array of innovative INSET
programmes, many of which involve professional development and teacher empowerment within
school settings, and cooperative work among teachers from different schools under
specialised guidance.
- There is a need for an evaluation of current INSET practice
in these and other settings, and the role of Departments of Education, faculties and
colleges of education, the NGO sector, and teacher organisations, in a revitalised,
properly accredited INSET service from primary school through to the senior secondary
phase. The audit of teacher education capacity will go some way to meet this need, but a
specific INSET initiative has been urged on the Ministry in the course of the public
consultation on the draft version of this document, and will be seriously considered by
COTEP.
- Special criteria will be needed to prepare students for
subjects in short supply, particularly science, mathematics and technology. 'Second
chance' opportunities should be extended to students who would not otherwise fulfil the
admission criteria, and special support should be extended to them, for as long as the
need persists. Well-functioning distance education programmes can play an essential role
in increasing the productivity of the small science, mathematics and technology base, and
providing opportunities to very large numbers of students in as flexible a way as
possible.
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A student recovery programme In Science
and Mathematics
- Such interventions would be part of a comprehensive
programme of special measures which are needed to enable many more students to follow
science-based careers. Coordinated and certificated "second chance to learn" and
recovery programmes for students in science and mathematics would offer alternative entry
to higher education and employment, but should be part of a comprehensive package of
measures, including new science and mathematics curricula linked to accredited in-service
programmes at all levels of schooling.
- The attrition of science and mathematics students in Black
schools is a special case of the broader problems of student retention, teacher
preparation, inadequate facilities and materials, inadequate guidance on curriculum
choice, and examination strategy. For a variety of such reasons, only one in five Black
students choose physical science and mathematics in Standard 8, and the trend of
performance in the senior certificate examinations has been low overall, with a
particularly dismal matriculation exemption rate among students taking these subjects at
higher grade.
- The consequence is a dearth of Black students with science
and mathematics qualifying for normal entry to higher education, fewer still continuing in
mathematics and science-based programmes, and a trickle entering mathematics and
science-based professional and technological fields in the economy. Mathematics and
science programmes in universities and teachers colleges therefore have a perennial
shortage of high quality Black candidates in these subjects. In particular, the number of
science and mathematics teachers graduating from colleges of education, is far too small
to make an impression on the need in schools, and their subject knowledge and professional
confidence is generally poor. A "cycle of mediocrity" perpetuates itself through
their efforts in the classroom.
- If this cycle is wasteful from an educational point of view,
it is catastrophic from the perspective of national developmental needs. The Ministry of
Education is committed to make its contribution to the broader field of national science
and technology policy through its special responsibility for national standards in the
fields of curriculum and teacher education. In particular, without derogating from the
value of the many existing intermediate and academic development programmes in science and
mathematics, from which much has been learnt, the Ministry of Education will give full
support to a new intervention starting in 1995 to 'recover' science and mathematics
students and upgrade both their knowledge and attitudes to these subjects, and link
successful completers to a new diploma programme in selected colleges of education. This
programme has the endorsement of the Interim CHED and will be undertaken in close
cooperation with the national and provincial Departments of Education.
Adult Basic Education and Training
- The historic inadequacy of school education, especially for
Black communities, has ensured that a majority of the adult population, both in and out of
formal employment, has had no schooling or inadequate schooling. This situation must be
redressed, because basic education is a right guaranteed to all persons by the
Constitution, and because our national development requires an ever-increasing level of
education and skill throughout society.
- The Ministry of Education views Adult Basic Education and
Training (ABET) as a force for social participation and economic development, providing an
essential component of all RDP programmes. The objective of policy is a national ABET
programme, focused on particular target groups which have historically missed out on
education and training, and providing an appropriate ABET curriculum whose standards will
be fully incorporated in the National Qualification Framework.
- To avoid becoming educational dead-ends for separate groups
or individual learners, therefore, ABET programmes should be designed around a common core
of fundamental concepts, knowledge and skills on which further learning, knowledge and
skill formation could be built. The expected outcomes, or learners' achievements, should
therefore be formulated in progressive steps which are appropriate to the learners'
circumstances and experience, which should encourage a large measure of self-learning, and
which enable learners to be assessed and credited with nationally recognised standards of
attainment.
- The main organisational principle of the national ABET
programme will be the building of partnerships of all constituencies with a vital interest
in the ABET enterprise, including organised labour and business, women's and youth
organisations, civics, churches, specialist NGOs, learner associations, all levels of
government, media and other stakeholders. The partnerships are expected to undertake
planning, arrange public advocacy, sponsor research and development, and mobilise
financial resources for the programme. A representative national ABET Council is expected
to be established as the authoritative voice of the field, and to advise the Minister.
- A professional directorate for ABET is being established in
the new Department of Education, in order to provide a national focal point for the
Ministry's commitment to the field, to undertake or sponsor research on structure and
methods, to develop norms and standards, and to liaise with the RDP Office, the Department
of Labour, and provincial departments of education. In the meantime, the Ministry of
Education has established a national ABET Task Team, including provincial representatives,
to carry forward the extensive preparatory work which has already been undertaken by the
community of ABET stakeholders and practitioners and plan the RDP Presidential Lead
Programme in this field, in conjunction with counterpart teams in the provinces. The
Department of Education will work with the Task Team to help translate proposals into
implementable policy.
- In general, ABET programmes can make more cost-effective use
of available educational facilities. They do not require major investments in new
buildings. In addition, they can exploit opportunities for distance education where
appropriate. One institutional innovation which the Ministry wishes to see investigated
with some speed is the idea of Community Learning Centres. These can be envisaged as a
network of facilities, usually pre-existing, which offers regular support and services to
students of all varieties in pursuing their learning goals. They would call for a new type
of learning facilitator, and have the potential to be connected electronically to almost
unlimited data sources and networks. Such centres would form an essential part of the
infrastructure required for the realisation of the open learning approaches throughout the
education and training system.
- Prototypes of such centres already operate in some South
African communities. In collaboration with provincial Departments of Education, other
government departments and the array of stakeholders in youth and adult learning, the
Ministry of Education wishes to explore their potential for shifting supported self-study
into a new gear.
[ Top ]
Further Education and Training
- The key to a successful integrated approach to education and
training lies at the Further Education level. The developmental task of the Further
Education sector is to address the inadequacy of programmes at the senior secondary level
and above, both in school and out of school, in the workplace, in other institutions, or
by private study.
- Success in the RDP requires a comprehensive human resource
development approach. Global changes in the industrial and service sectors of the economy
require an increase in the general education component of vocational training and a
concomitant increase in the ability of those in full-time education to develop applied and
problem-solving skills. So far, however, in South Africa, education and training tend to
operate separately in terms of provision, curricula, examination and qualification
structures.
- The Ministry of Education considers that the Further
Education level needs to be planned as a comprehensive, interlocking sector which provides
a purposeful educative experience to learners at the post-compulsory (post-GEC) phase,
irrespective of age, place and time of delivery. There is immense scope, within the
flexible structure of the NQF, for a modular curriculum of great variety comprising core
general education and optional vocational or academic subjects. The scope for
well-functioning distance education is considerable. This mode of learning is well suited
to the huge numbers of out-of-school young people and unemployed adults for whom
conventional school- type instruction is unappealing and inappropriate.
- Because the further education concept is not well developed
in South Africa and touches many institutional, economic and professional interests, the
Ministry of Education is of the view that a National Commission on Further Education is
needed to undertake the research, consultation and planning required to set this level of
learning on an energetic growth path. The Commission would be expected to advise on the
new institutional forms and resources which will be needed to revitalise learning at this
level, and to accelerate the articulation between General Education, Further Education,
and Higher Education as components of lifelong learning.
- The Department of Education will consult its provincial
counterparts through HEDCOM, the National Training Board and the Department of Labour, in
order to invite their participation in preparing for this important initiative. A wide
variety of stakeholder organisations, including the representative bodies of the teaching
profession, secondary school principals, school governing bodies, parents and students,
organised labour and business, the college sector, and open learning, distance education
and media specialists, will be invited to advise on the Commission and its modus operandi.
- In undertaking these preparations, the Ministry will give
full attention to the substantial volume of research and development work which has
already been done in connection with the National Training Board's National Training
Strategy Initiative, and the multi-stakeholder National Investigation into Community
Education (NICE).
Higher education
- The national higher education system represents a major
resource for national development, and contributes to the world-wide advance of knowledge.
Important as its role is, the system faces several simultaneous challenges which require
both short- and long-term policy responses.
- The process of transformation out of the highly segmented
apartheid mode is proceeding at different rates in different parts of the system and
creating substantial stress. The system as a whole is dealing with the effects of rapid
enrolment growth and simultaneous decline in the real value of subsidy from the state.
Students are under chronic financial pressure, which is transferred to their institutions.
The resulting actions and counter-actions have become a serious source of instability for
the institutions and interrupted study for the students. The student body is increasingly
representative of the broad population, and brings into the system the learning deficits
accumulated in the Black schools.
- The structure of higher education programmes is the inverse
of what is required by the society and economy, with a small technikon sector, a
relatively large university sector, and a poorly-developed and fragmented post-secondary
college system, with inadequate articulation among the various parts. Higher education
institutions are compelled to grapple with the consequences of poor secondary education
among an increasing proportion of the students they admit, in particular the
under-development of many students' language skills, science and mathematics, and the
narrow range and often inappropriate combinations of subjects they bring to their choice
of tertiary programme.
- The 1993 Constitution has created uncertainty about how
post-secondary education is to be planned, with universities and technikons being a
national function and teachers, technical and other colleges being located under the
provincial governments.
- These and other significant issues which confront the sector
are well known. The institutions are unable to resolve them on their own, individually or
collectively, although substantial innovative and developmental work is being done.
- The Ministry of Education is well aware of and upholds both
the tradition and the legal basis of autonomous governance in parts of the higher
education sector, especially the universities and technikons which fall within the sphere
of the national government. The Ministry also has the responsibility to advise the
government on whether this vast infrastructure of intellectual and professional endeavour,
substantially supported by public funds, is yielding a good return to the nation, and how
it might be assisted to do better.
- No official enquiry into the whole of the post-secondary
sector has ever been undertaken in this country. The new democracy needs to have
confidence in its senior institutions of learning, especially given the massive influence
which higher education exerts on the cultural, social, scientific, technological and
professional formation of the country's leadership.
- Accordingly, after a prolonged period of investigation and
consultation, the government has approved the Minister of Education's proposal to appoint
a National Commission on Higher Education, and the commission has been appointed and begun
its work.
- The commission's terms of reference cover the entire sector:
its identity, goals, demography, structure, funding, governance, management, planning,
programmes, size, qualification structure, articulation, intellectual and developmental
role, and more.
[ Top ]
Early Childhood Development
- Early Childhood Development (ECD) is an umbrella term which
applies to the processes by which children from birth to nine years grow and thrive,
physically, mentally, emotionally, morally and socially. ECD programmes include a variety
of strategies and a wide range of services directed at helping families and communities to
meet the needs of children in this age group. The care and development of young children
must be the foundation of social relations and the starting point of human resource
development strategies from community to national levels.
- ECD is particularly crucial in the current context of
reconstruction and development as impoverished families are not able to meet the
developmental needs of their children without assistance. Many young children are at risk
because their health, nurture and education cannot be provided for adequately from
resources available within the community. RDP programmes which address the basic needs of
families for shelter, water and sanitation, primary health care, nutrition, and
employment, are therefore particularly vital, and their successful implementation will
improve the life chances of young children, and enable families and communities to care
for them more adequately. From this perspective, ECD depends on and contributes to
community development, and the education of parents should go hand-in-hand with the
education of children. Thus programmes for Adult Basic Education and Training and for ECD
should be closely linked, and ECD programmes should help to empower parents with the
knowledge and skills of effective parenting.
- Since ECD is a multi-disciplinary field, the national and
provincial Departments of Education need to establish formal inter-departmental committees
on ECD with their counterparts in the Departments of Health and of Welfare and Population
Development, and link these with RDP human resource development planning at national and
provincial levels. The role of the inter-departmental ECD committees will be to develop
and promote a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach to the welfare and development
of young children from birth to nine years of age, and effective integration and promotion
of ECD services for young children and their families. The committees need to work in full
collaboration with the representative bodies of ECD practitioners, trainers and resource
specialists, and with the large array of non-governmental organisations, development
agencies and private sector bodies which have responded to the demand for ECD services,
particularly in impoverished communities. At provincial level, the participation of local
authority representatives will also be essential.
- In the context of such multi-disciplinary collaboration, the
Departments of Education have particular responsibility for the education components
within an integrated ECD strategy. For this purpose, the national Department of Education
has established a Directorate of Early Childhood Development and Lower Primary Education,
and recommends that provincial Departments of Education do the same. Strong links between
the national and provincial departments are essential in this as in all other fields.
- Within an inter-departmental and inter-provincial context,
the national Department of Education's role is the development of national policy
frameworks for the education of the young child, including the structure of provision, the
determination of financial responsibilities, and the establishment of national norms and
standards for ECD curricula and training.
- The Department of Education needs to be advised on these
matters by an inclusive statutory consultative body which is fully representative of all
sectors in the ECD field. The establishment of such a body is a departmental priority, and
the department will consult widely on its composition and terms of reference.
- There is virtually unanimous agreement in the early
childhood sector that the developmental needs of the young child are continuous from birth
onwards, and require appropriate, developmentally-based educational responses, with as
much continuity as possible between the home, the educare and pre-school phases, and the
early years of schooling. This has important implications both for policy and for the kind
of support which national and provincial departments of education should provide, a few of
which can be briefly indicated.
- Firstly, the scope of ECD policy, and appropriate
educational guidance and support for families and communities in need, should in principle
cover the full early childhood phase from birth onwards, in collaboration with the other
state departments with direct responsibility in this area, particularly Welfare and
Population Development, and Health.
- It is essential to avoid introducing the young child
prematurely and abruptly to formal learning, and in particular to attempt to do so in a
language which the child does not understand. The young child's learning, in educare
centres, pre-schools and in the early school grades, must be entrusted to teachers who
have specialised training in the educational needs of this age group. The new Directorate
of Early Childhood Development and Lower Primary Education, acting through the appropriate
National Curriculum Committee, will therefore be responsible for coordinating the
reshaping of curriculum frameworks and related advice on teaching methodology for early
childhood for the purpose of setting national norms and standards. As with all curriculum
work, this will be undertaken on the basis of full participation by teachers and teacher
educators in the field, with particular recognition forthe fact that major contributions
in this area have already been made by ECD resource and training agencies in the NGO
sector, who must continue to play a leading innovatory and advocacy role.
- Thus the Department of Education, working with provincial
departments in the Heads of Education Departments Committee and all stakeholder
organisations, will have the major responsibility for developing national educational
policy for ECD, including the reception year. Provincial departments would take up the
massive challenge of spearheading the phasing in of the policy, in conjunction with NGO
providers and accredited training agencies. However, it must be emphasised that the role
of the small number of national and provincial officials in the ECD field will be mainly
facilitative. The centre of gravity of professional innovation, and the major
responsibility for provision, will not lie with government departments but with
non-government, community-based and private providers, resource and training agencies,
operating within appropriate national and provincial guidelines.
- State funds have been allocated to mount the startup phase
and attract other funders. This process needs to be driven through a partnership of local
government, community, business, worker and development agency interests, in order to
build public awareness and develop a funding strategy for a national ECD programme. (See
also chapter 13, paragraphs 21-28).
[ Top ]
Partnerships
for human resource development
- A recurring theme throughout this account of selected
developmental initiatives has been the need to build partnerships for consultation,
advocacy, planning and resourcing. It is not possible to list all parties to such
partnerships, but it is important to name the main categories.
- The Department of Education will play its role in the Human
Resource Development Task Team of the RDP, which has responsibility for facilitating such
partnerships. There are significant ties to be established between the Department of
Education and the Departments of Health, Welfare and Population Development, Labour, Arts,
Culture, Science and Technology, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the Public
Service, in relation to the human resource development functions in which they have common
interests.
- As the whole of this document will testify, the Ministry and
Department of Education are committed to strengthen working and consultative relations
between themselves and their provincial counterparts, especially through the Council of
Education Ministers and the Heads of Education Departments Committee, without intruding on
the provincial domain.
- In view of their constitutional position and national
significance, the university and technikon sectors have a particular claim on the
attention of the Ministry and Department of Education, which will be discharged through
daily contact with the institutions and active cooperation with their representative
statutory bodies.
- The Department has a clear channel of communication with the
teachers college principals through their national representative body and their
participation in the Committee on Teacher Education Policy (COTEP).
- The department has opened a constructive dialogue with the
coalition of national organisations representing public, private and community colleges,
including the technical college sector and organisations representing trainers and
practitioners in the ABET field.
- There is a continuous communication with the Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC), in whose transformation process and restructuring the Department
has a keen interest, particularly as it will affect the prioritisation of funding for
research on education and education policy.
- The organised teaching profession has a particularly
important role as an indispensable partner in educational change, and the Ministry and
Department of Education will do all they can, in the Education Labour Relations Council,
in the development of policy, and through the sharing of information, to maintain a frank
and open relationship with the national teachers' organisations.
- In their different ways, the national organisations of
school principals, students, parents, school governing bodies, independent schools,
special education needs specialists, and subject or discipline specialists represent
essential interests and sources of advice, and the Ministry and Department of Education
intend to keep open the channels of communication with these bodies.
- The organised business and organised labour constituencies
have participated actively in establishing the National Education and Training Forum, and
have been key participants in the National Training Board's National Training Strategy
Initiative, and the Inter-Ministerial Working Group of the Ministries of Labour and
Education. Their respective roles in the conceptualisation of the National Qualification
Framework, and initiatives in ABET and Further Education, testify to their strategic
importance for the policy process.
- Many national non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
community-based organisations (CBOs), religious organisations, development agencies, and
research bodies have all expressed their wish to be associated with the process of
transformation in the national education and training system. The Ministry and Department
of Education welcome their cooperation with these bodies who between them represent such a
significant part of the vital interests and human resources of civil society.
- Finally, a new field of partnership in international
development cooperation has opened up for the South African education and training sector.
The Department looks forward to a pro-active, professionally-based and reciprocal
relationship with external partners, for the benefit of the whole sector.
[ Top ]
Chapter Six
Education and Training In The 1993 Constitution
- The present Constitution, agreed to in multi-party
negotiations, is the legal vehicle by which all South Africans achieved equal citizenship
and voted a democratic Parliament into being. Parliament, sitting as the Constitutional
Assembly, is required to adopt a new and permanent Constitution within two years, although
provision is made to vary this period under certain conditions. The new Constitution will
come into effect when it is assented to and promulgated by the President.
- The elected government decides policy. Government policy is
implemented in terms of laws passed by Parliament, from which government departments draw
their authority to act. The Constitution is the supreme law, and no law passed by
Parliament may be inconsistent with it. Thus all executive acts of government in pursuance
of its policy are required to observe the provisions of the Constitution. Moreover, the
Constitution binds all legislative, executive and judicial organs of state at all levels
of government.
- Several sections of the Constitution deal specifically with
education, and others do so by implication. Taken together, these provisions of the
Constitution guarantee a number of individual and collective educational rights, and
prescribe or entail a completely new legislative, bureaucratic, and value framework within
which the national and provincial governments are required to act in education matters.
- However, the meaning and the implications of each of the
provisions of the Constitution which relate to education are not straightforward. The
Ministry of Education takes the view that the Constitution is a living instrument of
justice in our society, whose meaning, however complex, needs to be established by
government for purposes of policy and executive action. It is therefore the responsibility
of the government, acting on the best advice it can get, to determine its policies in
accordance with a conscientious interpretation of the meaning of the Constitution.
- The government is bound to interpret the meaning of
individual sections of the Constitution in a manner which
- is balanced and reasonable
- takes into account other relevant provisions of the
Constitution
- affirms the constitutional goal of a new order in our
society
- is consistent with the spirit of an open society based on
democracy and equality
- protects the fundamental rights, freedoms and civil
liberties of all persons
- upholds the collective rights of persons to language,
culture, and religion based on non-discrimination and free association.
- The Ministry of Education recognises that the
constitutionality of any law or executive act of the government, and the meaning of any
constitutional provisions, may be tested in a competent court and ultimately determined by
the Constitutional Court. Nevertheless, the Ministry is of the view that it is the
responsibility of national and provincial governments to take a lead in interpreting
constitutional provisions, including those which appear unclear, ambiguous or contentious,
rather than waiting for court decisions to clarify the position. The Ministry of Education
will strive in good faith to create policies which interpret the provisions of the
Constitution in a balanced manner, and promote its broad intentions and values. In doing
so, it will seek legal advice, commission research and investigations, promote open
debate, undertake consultations and, if necessary and within reasonable limits, enter
negotiations with interested parties, and thereafter seek Cabinet and Parliamentary
approval for its proposals. In interpreting its obligations under the Constitution, the
Ministry therefore undertakes to consult as widely as possible and establish the broadest
level of social consensus consistent with the criteria in the previous paragraph.
- Deciding education policy in line with the Constitution may
pose problems of interpretation for the national and provincial governments in respect of
the allocation of legislative competence between the two levels. If interpretations
differ, the government believes strongly that every effort should be made by the parties
concerned to find agreement rather than resort to litigation. The Ministry of Education
will make continuing and determined efforts to find common ground between its own views
and the views of all the provincial governments, especially with respect to the division
of responsibility for education functions between the two levels of government. The
Council of Education Ministers is an appropriate forum for such consultations and
agreements.
- The following chapters summarise important provisions of the
1993 Constitution which have a bearing on education and training matters. Where
appropriate, an indication is given of how the Ministry of Education interprets both the
meaning of constitutional provisions and its own responsibilities under the Constitution.
These views represent the Ministry's best current understanding of the constitutional
position. In some cases, the precise nature of the obligation imposed by the Constitution
must be investigated and debated further.
- The Ministry of Education will encourage a thorough public
discussion on how education should be provided for in the new Constitution, and will do
its best to ensure that the Constitutional Assembly gives the matter the attention it
deserves.
Return to Contents
[ Top ]
Fundamental Rights To Education and Training, and Within
Education and Training
Introduction
- The Preamble to the 1993 Constitution declares the:
"need to create a new order in which all South
Africans shall be entitled to a common South African citizenship in a sovereign and
democratic constitutional state in which there is equality between men and women and
people of all races so that all citizens shall be able to exercise their fundamental
rights and freedoms."
- Chapter 3 of the Constitution affirms and specifies the
fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons. It binds legislatures and government
organs at all levels, and it applies to all laws and administrative decisions and acts
performed during the life of the Constitution. (section 7) In interpreting any law, a
court is required to pay "due regard to the spirit, purport and objects" of
chapter 3, and in interpreting chapter 3 itself, a court is obliged to "promote the
values which underlie an open and democratic society based on freedom and equality".
A court must also have regard to applicable public international human rights law, and may
take into account foreign human rights case law. (section 35)
- The government is in the process of examining all relevant
international human rights conventions with a view to signing them and, where necessary,
amending South African laws which contravene them. These international instruments include
a number of conventions which deal partly or wholly with rights to education and the
rights of the child, including the Convention Against Discrimination in Education (Unesco,
1960), the Intemational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN, 1966), and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989). When ratified by Parliament, they
will become part of South African law.
- The Department of Education will commission a thorough
examination of these instruments and their implications for South African education. It
will examine also the implications of other important international documents such as the
World Declaration on Education for All (World Conference on Education for All, 1990), the
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the African Child (OAU, 1992), and the Report of the
Intemational Conference on Population and Development (1994). Though not an international
document, the South African Children's Charter (1992) falls in the same category for
analytical purposes and deserves special attention. The government has decided, in
conjunction with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), to draw up a National
Programme of Action for Children in South Africa, and the Department of Education will
participate actively in this process.
- The fundamental rights guaranteed in chapter 3 may be
limited by laws of general application only to the extent that they are reasonable,
justifiable in an open and democratic society based on freedom and equality, and do not
negate the essential content of the right in question. (section 33)
- Chapter 3 provides that alleged infringements or threats of
infringement to any constitutionally entrenched human right may be brought to court for
appropriate relief, which may include a declaration of rights, by any person acting on his
or her own behalf, on behalf of others, or in the public interest. (section 7)
- The provisions of chapter 3 protect individual, group and
institutional rights and freedoms which bear directly and indirectly on education. Every
law, regulation, administrative decision or action for which any ministry, department or
educational institution is responsible, must conform to these provisions. They should also
satisfy the international conventions which South Africa in due course ratifies, and be
informed by the relevant international human rights law.
- The issues of interpretation which relate to the provisions
affecting education are complex and difficult, and most are novel in South African law and
administrative practice. The international law dimensions are little known to South
Africans. In these circumstances, the possibility that educational authorities may
unintentionally infringe persons' rights must be taken seriously. The Ministry of
Education is obliged to ensure that its own house is in order. It also has a duty to
stimulate specialist examination of the issues and implications, and take steps to open up
the field to serious public discussion.
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The right
to education
- Section 32 expresses the right to education in these terms:
"Every person shall have the right -
- to basic education and to equal access to educational
institutions
- to instruction in the language of his or her choice where
this is reasonably practicable
- to establish, where practicable, educational institutions
based on a common culture, language or religion, provided that there shall be no
discrimination on the ground of race."
- Four distinct educational rights are established here: the
right to basic education, to equal access to educational institutions, to choice of the
language of instruction, and to establish educational institutions of a certain character.
Each right applies to "every person" without distinction. The ordinary meaning
of each provision appears to be clear. However, the strict interpretation of each
provision separately, and the relationships between them, is less so, as will be discussed
below.
- The right to basic education. The right to basic education
accorded in section 32(a) applies to all persons, that is to all children, youth and
adults. Basic education is thus a legal entitlement to which every person has a claim. For
children, the right would be satisfied by the availability of schooling facilities
sufficient to enable every child to begin and complete a basic education programme of
acceptable quality. For youth and adults, the availability of basic education would not
necessarily be in the form of schools but in the form of education and training programmes
appropriate to their age and personal circumstances. Attaining this level of availability
of opportunity for basic education will be an immense achievement in the reconstruction
and development of the country.
- Since the term "basic education" is not defined in
the Constitution, it must be settled by policy in such a way that the intention of the
Constitution is affirmed. An important question is whether basic education should be
defined in terms of learning needs and outcomes, or qualification levels, or school
grades, and whether the content of basic education needs to be the same for children,
youth and adults.
- The World Conference on Education for All, sponsored by the
United Nations in 1990, addressed such questions in its authoritative World Declaration on
Education for All. Article 1 of the Declaration makes the following statement on
"basic learning needs":
"Every person - child, youth and adult - shall be able
to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs.
These needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression,
numeracy and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as knowledge, skills,
values, and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their
full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to
improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning.
The scope of basic learning needs and how they should continue to be met varies with
individual countries and cultures, and inevitably, changes with the passage of time."
- The Ministry of Education associates itself with this
statement. Basic education must be defined in terms of learning needs appropriate to the
age and experience of the learner, whether child, youth or adult, men or women, workers,
work seekers or self-employed. Basic education programmes should therefore be flexible,
developmental, and targeted at the specific requirements of particular learning audiences
or groups, and should provide access to a nationally recognised qualification or
qualifications.
- The Ministry's position is that appropriately designed
education programmes to the level of the proposed General Education Certificate (GEC),
whether offered in school to children, or through other forms of delivery to young people
and adults, would adequately define basic education for purposes of the constitutional
requirement.
- The Ministry of Education accepts that state authorities
have a continuing obligation under the Constitution to take purposeful and effective
action which would enable all persons to achieve the satisfaction of this right.
Responsibility for the provision of education (other than technikons and universities)
rests with the provincial governments. In meeting the constitutional obligation, which
will be a formidable task, the national Ministry of Education intends to work closely in
support of the provincial Ministries, on whom the main onus for planning and coordinating
execution will fall, with the National Youth Development Commission, and with the proposed
National Council on Adult Basic Education and Training.
- The cost of the provision of schooling for all children to
the GEC level, at an acceptable level of quality, must be borne from public funds. The
cost of the provision of basic education programmes for all young people and adults who
require them cannot be borne by public funds alone, but must be shared among a variety of
funding partners.
- The right to equalaccess to educationalinstitutions. Section
32(a) confers on all persons the right of equal access to educational institutions. The
precise intention of this provision must be to establish a condition of equality and
non-discrimination with respect to access to educational institutions. It is a provision
which can only be satisfied by the exercise of equal and non-discriminatory admissions
policies on the part of educational institutions. It is therefore reasonable to read this
provision with section 8 of the Constitution, the right to equality, which provides that:
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"(1) Every person shall have the right to equality
before the law and to equal protection of the law.
"(2) No person shall be unfairly discriminated
against, directly or indirectly....
"(3) This section shall not preclude measures designed
to achieve the adequate protection and advancement of persons or groups or categories of
persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination, in order to enable their full and equal
enjoyment of all rights and freedoms."
- However, the exercise of equal and non-discriminatory
admissions policies cannot be interpreted to mean that any educational institution is
obliged to admit every person who applies to enter. Regulation of admissions to
educational institutions must be permissible in terms of the limitation provision of the
Constitution (section 33), which was reproduced at paragraph 5 above.
- This document is not the place to specify constitutionally
permissible exceptions to the right of equal access. These will need to be defined by
legislation. However, limiting factors would include the physical capacity of the
institution in terms of the applicable norms, the appropriateness of the educational
programme forthe applicant's needs, the applicant's gender in the case of single-sex
schools, and the right to retain the specific character of an institution based on common
language, culture or religion (which is discussed in paragraph 29 below).
- The Ministry of Education understands the Constitution to
require that the authority responsible for determining conditions for admission to an
educational institution must apply those conditions equally to all applicants, without
unfair discrimination on any grounds, direct or indirect. Moreover, section 8(3)
specifically permits the application of measures, which would include special admissions
regulations, which are designed to remedy the effects of past discrimination. The Ministry
is of the view that the equality and anti-discrimination provisions of the Constitution
should be observed and resolutely applied when an application is considered.
- In the case of people with disabilities, the rights of
access and protection from unfair discrimination have profound implications for the
education system, and these merit urgent investigation. The Ministry of Education proposes
to appoint a National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training to address
these and other important issues of policy in this field (see chapter 5, paragraph 35
above).
- The Constitution makes special provision for the rights of
children, including the right
"not to be subject to exploitative labour practices
nor to be required or permitted to perform work which is hazardous to or harmful to his or
her education, health or well-being." (section 30)
- Exploitative child labour practices are symptoms both of
extreme poverty, which often compels parents to put young children to work, or forces
children to become homeless and vulnerable to abuse, and of the inadequate democratisation
of labour relations and labour conditions in some sectors of the economy, particularly but
not exclusively in rural areas. The symptoms are unlikely to disappear before the causes
are overcome. However, many abuses have been the result of ignorance, inadequate public
awareness, an ineffective regulatory environment, and a lack of urgency by state
authorities. The abolition of exploitative child labour practices, and the monitoring and
safeguarding of children's rights to education, health and well-being, will require
research, advocacy and action on many fronts by many government departments and agencies,
working with community organisations and NGOs, labour unions and employers' organisations.
- The Ministry of Education will strongly support all such
cooperative action. The national and provincial Ministries of Education are in a position
to address the issue through the Council of Education Ministers. Legitimate governance
structures at school and district level will provide the best mechanism through which
action in the community can be coordinated, including monitoring and public education
campaigns.
- The situation of farm workers' children may be a special
case, since a farmer may be at one and the same time the owner and the governing body of a
farm school, the employer of workers whose children attend the school, and the source of
instructions for child labour. The Review Committee on School Organisation, Governance and
Funding (see chapter 12, paragraph 30 below) will be in a position to consider any
relevant submissions on this issue, in particular from organisations representing farmers,
farm workers, and farm school teachers and students.
- The right to instruction in the language of choice. Section
32(b), provides for the right to instruction in the language of the applicant's choice,
"where this is reasonably practicable". This is an extension of the general
right accorded to every person "to use the language. . . of his or her choice"
(section 31). The right to instruction in the language of choice would clearly, in the
case of young children at least, be exercised on the child's behalf by the parents or
guardian. This section protects the choice of mother tongue instruction, or of any other
preferred language of instruction, provided the choice is reasonably practicable for the
educational institution concerned.
- This section has a direct bearing on the exercise of the
right of equal access to educational institutions, and thus the admissions policy and
practice of all competent education authorities and educational institutions. The right of
equal access, and the constitutional prohibition of unfair discrimination on any ground,
specifically including language, appear to ensure that preference for a particular
language medium of instruction cannot be a reason to refuse admission, provided the
condition of "reasonable practicability" can be met. However, where an
alternative institution is available to the applicant without undue hardship, offering
tuition in the preferred medium, such refusal cannot be deemed to be unfair.
- The right to establish educational institutions based on a
common culture, language or religion. Section 32(c) provides for the right of every person
(which in this case includes a juristic person)
"to establish, where practicable, educational
institutions based on a common culture, language or religion, provided that there shall be
no discrimination on the ground of race."
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This would also seem to be a specific extension of the
general rights protecting religious belief (section 14), and language use and cultural
participation (section 31).
- The use of the phrase "based on a common culture,
language or religion" implies that the culture, language or religion is the defining
characteristic of the educational institution and its prospective clientele. Again, the
interpretation of the right of equal access to educational institutions is affected by the
right to establish institutions of this type.
- The owner's competence to set admission policy cannot be
disputed. Where a reasonable alternative exists, refusal to admit an applicant who rejects
the defining characteristic of the institution cannot be deemed unfair, so long as the
refusal is not made on grounds of race. However, an admission policy that is calculated to
operate in a manner which, directly or indirectly, discriminates unfairly against an
applicant or class of applicants cannot be permissible. It seems unlikely, therefore, that
an otherwise qualified, bona fide applicant, knowing and accepting the nature of the
institution, could be refused solely on the grounds that the applicant did not, at the
time of application, share the cultural, linguistic or religious identity of the
institution in question. An applicant's choice of language medium of instruction, on the
other hand, would have to meet the test of "reasonable practicability".
Language and culture in education
- Section 31, which provides for the right to use the language
and participate in the cultural life of one's choice, and sections 32(b) and (c) which
respectively provide forthe right of language choice in educational institutions, and the
right to establish educational institutions based on a common culture, religion or
language, have already been referred to.
- In addition to these fundamental rights to language and
culture, language and culture matters are dealt with elsewhere in the Constitution: in
chapter 1, section 3 (official languages), chapter 9, section 126 and Schedule 6
(provincial government competences), and Schedule 4 (Constitutional Principles). Chapter 1
includes a lengthy section on languages, the most important part of which provides a set
of principles which must be observed in any legislation, policy and practice at any level
of government, including:
(a) The creation of
conditions for the development and for the promotion of the equal use of all official
South African languages; ...
(c) the prevention of the use of any language for the
purposes of exploitation, domination or division;
(d) the promotion of multilingualism and the provision of
translation facilities; ...
(f) the non-diminution of rights relating to language and
the status of languages existing at the commencement of this Constitution. (section 3(9))
- Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho,
siSwati, Xitsonga, Setswana, Tshivenda, isiXhosa and isiZulu are declared the official
South African languages at national level and "conditions shall be created for their
development and the promotion of their equal use and enjoyment". (section 3(l))
- Provincial legislatures are competent to pass legislation on
language policy and the declaration of any national official language as an official
language within a province, subject to relevant national legislation (section 3(5), and
Schedule 6)
36 The underlying intention of the
foregoing provisions is summarised in Constitutional Principle XI, which binds the
Constitutional Assembly in its preparation of the final Constitution: "The diversity
of language and culture is acknowledged and protected, and conditions for their promotion
shall be encouraged."
- Taken together, these provisions do not in themselves define
a policy on language in education, but they provide entrenched language and cultural
rights and state explicit language policy principles which bind national and provincial
governments and must therefore underpin such a policy.
- National policies which establish norms and standards for
language use and language teaching in educational institutions will be required to aim
positively at the promotion and development of all official languages, the non-diminution
of language rights existing when the Constitution came into effect, equal respect for
official languages, and multilingualism.
- Language in education policy must accommodate the right to
be instructed in a language chosen by the learner, where this is reasonably practicable.
(section 32(b)) This right includes a parent's or guardian's choice of the mother tongue
(or another language) as the language medium for a child's education. However, if it is
not reasonably practicable for a school to offer a particular language medium chosen by a
learner, it can have no obligation to do so, especially if the school is based on a common
language in terms of section 32(c). The onus would be on the applicant to change his or
her language preference, or to apply to another school in the vicinity where the original
language preference could be accommodated. The Ministry of Education encourages schools,
which are willing and able to offer more than one language medium in order to accommodate
parental or learners' preferences, to do so, in order to provide for the learner's right
of choice of language medium.
- Distinct provincial language policies are specifically
protected, so long as they observe the language policy principles and language rights
declared in the Constitution, and subject to the national government's legislative
override on matters relating to norms and standards.
- The development of national policy on norms and standards
for language in education, including the language of learning (or medium of instruction)
is a matter which is receiving urgent attention by the Coordinating Committee for the
School Curriculum (see chapter 5, paragraph 18). The independent Pan South African
Language Board will need to be consulted when it is established. (section 3(10))
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Freedoms of religion, belief, opinion and expression in education
- Every person is guaranteed the right
"to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief
and opinion, which shall include academic freedom in institutions of higher
learning." (section 14(1))
This individual right does not negate the right of a
person, including a legal person, to establish an educational institution based on a
common religion, in accordance with section 32(c). Such an institution may not demand
religious observances from students who wish to exercise their freedom of conscience.
- Every person is guaranteed the right
"to freedom of speech and expression, which shall
include freedom of the press and other media, and the freedom of artistic creativity and
scientific research." (section 15(1))
In addition,
"All media financed by or under the control of the
state shall be regulated in a manner which ensures impartiality and the expression of a
diversity of opinion." (15(2))
- The letter and spirit of these rights and freedoms should
inform the intellectual culture in all schools and educational institutions, and
professional services in departments of education. This has unavoidable implications for
curricula, textbooks, other educational materials and media programmes, teaching methods,
teacher education, professional supervision and management culture.
- The constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience,
religion and belief, which bind all acts and administrative actions of government
departments, including education, have particularly important consequences for a school
and college system which has been dominated in the past by a state-supported
national-religious educational philosophy. A substantial exercise may be required in order
for the implications of the constitutional requirements to be analysed, debated, and
translated into new guidelines. This matter should engage the relevant professionals in
the national and provincial education departments, and teacher education establishments.
- The Constitution affords protection to education
institutions based on a common culture, language or religion, as has been discussed above.
The circumstances under which religious observances may be conducted in state and
state-aided educational institutions are covered by section 14(2):
"Without derogating from the generality of the right
of freedom of conscience etc. religious observances may be conducted at state or
state-aided institutions under rules established by an appropriate authority for that
purpose, provided that such religious observances are conducted on an equitable basis and
attendance at them is free and voluntary."
Special provisions regarding educational institutions
- The Constitution includes, at section 247, special
provisions which are designed to prevent national or provincial governments from making
summary changes in the rights, powers and functions of the governing bodies of state or
state-aided schools, technikons and universities, and which require governments to make
equitable financial provision for state and state-aided schools in order to ensure an
acceptable quality of education.
- Section 247 is not part of Chapter 3, but like all other
constitutional provisions, it is subject to the fundamental rights provided in chapter 3.
The implications of chapter 3 rights for the governing bodies of schools covered by
section 247 have become a matter of considerable public concern which needs thorough and
dispassionate investigation.
- This matter, and others connected with the pattern of
organisation, governance and funding of schools, is discussed in more detail in chapter 12
below. The Minister of Education, with the agreement of the Council of Education
Ministers, is establishing a special committee to review and advise on these questions and
report in mid- 1 995.
- Meanwhile, without prejudice to the findings and
recommendations of the Review Committee, the Ministry of Education wishes to make clear
its view that educational institutions in receipt of public funds, in particular state and
state-aided schools of whatever type, have an obligation to observe scrupulously the
provisions of the Constitution with respect to rights such as non-discrimination and equal
access to educational institutions (sections 8 and 32). The duty of public educational
institutions is to facilitate the access to education of all eligible members of the
public, not to frustrate such access.
- The right of all persons to basic education and to equal
access to educational institutions must be upheld within the terms of chapter 3 of the
Constitution. As the preceding discussion has made clear, the interpretation of these
rights in particular cases may need to be balanced against the right of a learner to
choose the language of instruction where this is reasonably practicable, or the right to
establish an educational institution based on a common language, culture or religion,
where this is practicable. In the case of public schools, whether state or state-aided,
eligibility for admission should be defined principally in terms of the educational need
of the applicant and the capacity of the school to meet that need, on the grounds that it
is the duty of schools to educate. However, a school cannot be obliged to admit an
applicant if, when all circumstances of the case are taken into account, a school in the
vicinity which would more suitably meet the applicant's needs is able to do so.
- The Ministry of Education is mindful of the need for each
school to maintain the highest possible standard of education of which it is capable under
the circumstances in which it finds itself. However, the maintenance of standards cannot
under any circumstances justify admissions policies which are designed, directly or
indirectly, to exclude applicants from the basic education to which they are entitled by
right.
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Other rights of the person
- The rights of all persons to equality, human dignity,
freedom and security of the person, privacy, assembly, demonstration and petition,
association, political activity and choice, access to information and administrative
justice, and the rights of children (sections 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 21, 23 and 24) have a
direct or indirect bearing on the administrative and professional conduct of the education
system.
- Management practices, relations between school principals
and their staffs, between teachers and students, between schools and parents, campus
rules, disciplinary culture and procedures, student organisation, and much else, must come
under the microscope in order to ensure compliance with the nation's new
constitutionally-protected human rights culture.
Labour
relations
- Section 27 guarantees every person rights to fair labour
practices, workers' rights to form and join trade unions, employers' rights to form and
join employers' organisations, workers' and employers' rights to organise and bargain
collectively, workers' right to strike for the purpose of collective bargaining, and
employers' recourse to the lock-out for the purpose of collective bargaining.
- The Education Labour Relations Act (1993) has established
the Education Labour Relations Council as a collective bargaining and consultative forum
for teachers and their employers in the state and state-aided sectors. Like all new
legislation, this Act needs scrutiny in the light of practice, especially in regard to the
constitutional, governmental and organisational changes which have come about since the
measure was negotiated and enacted. The implications of the new Labour Relations Bill,
published by the Minister of Labour for consultation, are being carefully considered. The
Department of Education will consult the provincial Departments of Education and other
employers of educators on this matter and looks forward to a full and open examination of
the issues with the organisations of the teaching profession. The Ministry of Education is
of course committed and also legally bound to uphold the rights guaranteed in section 27
of the Constitution and all other constitutional provisions relating to employment.
- These provisions, while vital in the sphere of collective
bargaining, do not exhaust the relations between educators and the Ministry of Education.
In their professional capacity, individual educators, and, where appropriate, the
organisations which represent them, have indispensable roles to play in many specific
fields such as curriculum renewal and school governance, as well as in the broader arena
of policy advice.
An Action Plan for Human Rights
in Education
- The 1993 Constitution is the nation's school of democratic
practice. The implications of the fundamental rights provisions forthe conduct of the
education and training system are not yet generally well understood, yet the rights and
freedoms belong to all citizens and bind all government departments and educational
institutions operating under law. The Ministry of Education would like to see the full
resources of the nation's education system mobilised in support of the practice of
fundamental rights, freedoms and responsibilities which the Constitution promotes and
protects.
- It would be appropriate to begin with a frank and searching
self- examination, within every department and institution of the education system, of its
own practice, tested against the Constitution's fundamental rights requirements.
Information packs and checklists would need to be prepared in advance, and workshopped at
all levels of the system. The self-examination should result in action plans within each
school and educational institution, and within each branch and section of the education
services at national and provincial levels. Implementation, reporting and evaluation
should follow in a regular sequence, so that there is a purposeful, incremental
improvement in human rights practice throughout the system.
- It needs to be emphasised that the two objectives of the
exercise are extremely serious. They are: to enable the charter of fundamental rights to
become a vital element in the lives of every student, educator, manager and support worker
in the education system; and to ensure that no education department or institution impairs
or denies the rights of any person through ignorance of its responsibilities. There is
absolutely no desire or intention on the part of the Ministry of Education to conduct or
inspire witch-hunts, or to create a mentality of surveillance. Such actions would be a
denial of fundamental rights and the precise opposite of what is needed.
- The Ministry will consult the Council of Education
Ministers, the technikons and universities, the National Education and Training Forum, and
national teachers', students', and parents' organisations, and seek their views, advice
and cooperation in implementing this Action Plan on Human Rights in Education in a way
which offers the best prospect of success.
- The objectives of this proposal are fully consistent with
the terms of reference of the Human Rights Commission which will be established under the
Constitution. The Ministry of Education will seek the advice and support of the Commission
for its proposal, and explore with the Commission other ways in which the national
education system might become associated with its work.
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A Gender Equity Unit
- The Constitution recognises the specific nature of gender
inequality by establishing a Commission on Gender Equality. The national education system
represents the single largest organisation in the nation. By virtue of its educational
function, it has great potential influence on gender relations and on the respective
career paths of men and women. However, within the education system there are worrying
disparities between girls and boys, and many girls and women suffer unfair discrimination
and ill-treatment.
- Boys and young men drop out of school at a far higher rate
than girls and young women. Girls and young women exhibit significantly narrower subject
and career choices than boys and young men. Women are overwhelmingly represented in the
teaching service, but are poorly represented among the ranks of school principals, and are
barely visible in middle and senior management positions in education departments. Such
phenomena have long histories and complex causes. The reasons for the poor representation
of women in educational management are probably to be found as much in the values and
gender role patterns of South African families and communities, as in the patriarchal
culture of the South African bureaucracy.
- At another level of gender relations, in many schools and
other education institutions, including the most senior, social relations among students,
and between staff and students, exhibit sexism and male chauvinism. Sexual harassment of
girl and women students and women teachers, as well as acts of violence against women, are
common in many parts of the education system, both on and off campus.
- This entire situation must change. While appreciating that
the problems are deep-seated within the society at large, the Ministry of Education
believes that educators must show leadership in tackling them, and that the place to begin
is within the education system itself. The Ministry is confident of forging a strong
partnership between itself and the provincial Ministries of Education on this issue, and
will seek collaboration also from the technikons and universities. The understanding and
support of organisations of the teaching profession and student organisations will be
greatly welcomed.
- As a first step, the Ministry of Education proposes to
appoint a Gender Equity Task Team led by a full-time Gender Equity Commissioner who shall
report to the Director-General. The terms of reference of the Task Team will be to
investigate and advise the Department of Education on the establishment of a permanent
Gender Equity Unit in the Department of Education, initially with seconded or attached
staff. In cooperation with provincial Departments of Education, through the Heads of
Education Departments Committee, the Gender Equity Unit will study and advise the
Director-General on all aspects of gender equity in the education system, and in
particular:
- identify means of correcting gender imbalances in enrolment,
dropout, subject choice, career paths, and performance
- advise on the educational and social desirability and legal
implications of single-sex schools
- propose guidelines to address sexism in curricula,
textbooks, teaching, and guidance
- propose affirmative action strategies for increasing the
representation of women in professional leadership and management positions, and for
increasing the influence and authority of women teachers
- propose a complete strategy, including legislation, to
counter and eliminate sexism, sexual harassment and violence throughout the education
system
- develop close relations with the organised teaching
profession, organised student bodies, the Education Labour Relations Council, national
women's organisations, and other organisations whose cooperation would be essential in
pursuing the aims of the unit.
- The Gender Equity Commissioner will be expected to establish
close working relations with the national Commission on Gender Equality.
- These proposals have been strongly supported by the public
in their submissions on the draft of this document. The Ministry of Education intends to
put them formally to the Council of Education Ministers without delay, to request their
support for cooperative action on gender equity, and their consideration for a similar
line of action within the provincial ministries. Similar requests will be made to the
representative bodies of technikons and universities, and to the organisations
representing teachers and students.
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National and Provincial Powers In Education and Training
Introduction
1 The new system of education will be a single national
system which is largely organised and managed on the basis of nine provincial sub-systems.
The Constitution has vested substantial powers in the provincial legislatures and
governments to run educational affairs (other than universities and technikons) subject to
a national policy framework. The essence of the relationship between the national and
provincial governments is co-operative.
2 That being so, the Ministry of Education is acutely
sensitive to the need for the closest possible co-operation between the national
Department of Education and each of the provincial education departments on matters
relating to the formulation of national education policy and the effective management of
the system.
3 This chapter describes how the co-operation between
national and provincial governments in the field of education will be managed. It then
explains how the Constitution assigns legislative responsibility for education and
training matters between the national and provincial levels. The chapter concludes with an
account of the national Department of Education's role in shaping the new system.
The Council of Education Ministers and the Heads of
Education Departments Committee
4 Two bodies have been created to enable the ministries and
departments to share information and advice, and to collaborate on plans for the
transition to provincialisation and the future direction of the national system.
5 The first of these is a Council of Education Ministers
(CEM), which comprises the national Minister of Education, the national Deputy Minister of
Education, and the nine provincial Ministers of Education. It has met monthly since May
1994, and will continue to meet regularly to ensure an optimum level of dialogue between
the persons who have responsibility for the education portfolio throughout the country.
The CEM will be an important forum for clarifying the constitutional division of
responsibility for education between the national and provincial legislatures. It will
also provide a unique and invaluable inter-provincial perspective on the development of
national education and training policy.
6 The second structure is a Heads of Education Departments
Committee (HEDCOM), which from January 1995 consists of the heads of the national and the
nine provincial Departments of Education. This body will advise the national Minister of
Education and the Council of Education Ministers, and will provide a regular forum for the
administrative heads of education departments to consult and collaborate in the interests
of the system as a whole. Significant investigative work will also be undertaken on policy
matters referred to HEDCOM by the national Minister of Education and the CEM.
7 The new HEDCOM replaces the Committee of Heads of
Education Departments (CHED) which, in the past, brought together the heads of the
ethnically-based executive departments and the former Department of National Education. To
provide a bridge to the new HEDCOM, to enable essential planning to be done for the
establishment of provincial departments, and to prepare for the 1995 school year, the old
body was expanded with representation from the national Minister's and nine provincial
Ministers' offices.
8 The Ministry of Education intends to table legislation
during the 1995 Parliamentary Session which will provide a statutory basis for the Council
of Education Ministers and the new Heads of Education Departments Committee, and the small
secretariat they will require. These structures are important vehicles of cooperation
between the national and provincial levels of government. The conceptualisation and
drafting of the legislation will need to be done collaboratively, and must express without
ambiguity the respective competences and functions of the national and provincial
authorities, and the terms of their co-operation.
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Legislative powers in education
9 Education at all levels, excluding university and
technikon education, is listed in Schedule 6 to the Constitution as one of the
"functional areas" in which provincial legislatures are competent to make laws,
subject to a rather complex set of rules. (section 126) There is no doubt that the
intention of the Constitution is to empower provincial governments with executive
responsibility for education within their provinces (other than universities and
technikons), subject to the national government's responsibility to protect essential
national interests.
10 The following propositions attempt to interpret the
effect of the constitutional provisions concerning legislative competence and executive
authority as they apply to the field of education. (sections 37, 126 and 144)
(1)Provincial legislatures may make laws on any aspect of
education except universities and technikons, in accordance with the Constitution. A
provincial law may apply only in that province, unless an Act of Parliament determines
otherwise.
(2)The national Parliament may make laws on any aspect of
education, in accordance with the Constitution. Its laws apply throughout the country.
Only the national Parliament is competent to legislate on universities and technikons.
(3)Where both a provincial law and a national law deal with
education other than universities and technikons, the provincial law will prevail except
in so far as the national law
(a)applies uniformly throughout the Republic
(b)deals with a matter which cannot be regulated
effectively by provincial legislation
(c)deals with a matter which requires uniform national
norms or standards in order to be performed effectively
(d)is necessary to set minimum national standards for
rendering public services
(e)is necessary for the maintenance of economic unity, the
protection of the environment, and the protection of the common market between provinces
in respect of the mobility of goods, services, capital or labour.
(4)A national law on education, other than universities and
technikons, will prevail over a provincial law to the extent that the latter materially
prejudices the economic, health or security interests of another province or the country
as a whole, or impedes the implementation of national economic policies.
(5)A provincial and a national law dealing with education
other than universities and technikons will be construed as being consistent with one
another except in so far as part or all of one law is "expressly or by necessary
implication" inconsistent with the other.
(6)A provincial legislature may recommend to Parliament the
passing of a law on a matter
(a) in which it has no competence, such as universities or
technikons, or
(b) in respect of which a national law prevails over a
provincial law in terms of the circumstances outlined at (3) and (4) above.
Parliament need not comply with the recommendation.
(7)Training is not referred to as such in the body of the
Constitution or listed in Schedule 6. (The national Ministries of Education and of Labour
are consulting each other over the identification and location of training functions.)
(8)The national Parliament may make laws which delegate
certain education or training responsibilities to provincial governments.
(9)In the event of a dispute of a constitutional nature
between organs of state at any level, including a dispute between the national Parliament
and a provincial legislature concerning the exercise of legislative competence, the
Constitutional Court has jurisdiction to determine the matter.
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11 The Ministry of Education is determined to help make
these provisions work effectively, for the benefit of the entire national system of
education. The Council of Education Ministers is the forum which will permit regular
reviews of the common interests of the national and provincial Ministers. Any difference
of interpretation with respect to their respective powers and responsibilities can be
examined and, in principle, resolved by that body.
12 There is an obvious advantage in reconciling both the
views and the proposed legislation of the national and provincial Ministers of Education.
All draft legislation prepared by the national Department of Education which bears on the
competence of provincial Ministers will be submitted to the Council of Education Ministers
for advice. The Ministry of Education would welcome a reciprocal arrangement by the
provincial Ministries of Education.
13 Close co-ordination will be required in another sphere:
between the Department of Labour on the one hand, and the national and provincial
education departments on the other, with respect to their common interests in the training
function. A permanent inter-Ministerial Working Group has been proposed, to manage all
aspects of the relations between the two sectors.
14 The overall management of training policy is of the
greatest strategic importance for the human resource development programme of the RDP. The
Ministry of Education looks forward to concluding its discussions with the Ministry of
Labour and key stakeholders (organised business, organised labour and the National
Training Board) on the National Qualification Framework Bill, and the practical
implications of the constitutional assignment of functions for the implementation of an
integrated approach to education and training.
15 There is urgent need for both Ministries to clarify the
practical implications of the constitutional assignment of functions for the
implementation of an integrated approach to education and training. In particular, all
parties concerned need to decide how education and training programmes falling under
provincial education departments (in particular, secondary, adult, technical, community
and teacher education) will engage with the labour-market related training services for
which the national Department of Labour has portfolio responsibility.
Role and functions of the national Department of Education
16 Since legislative competence in education (other than
technikons and universities) has been assigned to provincial legislatures, the Ministry of
Education wishes to state its views on the education functions which must be undertaken at
the national level.
17 The Minister will uphold the Constitutional Principle
which requires that the allocation of powers to the national and provincial governments in
the new Constitution be made on a basis
"which is conducive to financial viability at each
level of government and to effective public administration, and which recognises the need
for and promotes national unity and legitimate provincial autonomy and acknowledges
cultural diversity."
In particular, the Minister is sensitive to the criterion
that decision-making and rendering of services should be assigned to the level of
government where they can be undertaken most effectively. (Schedule 4, XX)
18 The national functions described below, therefore, do
not impair or infringe upon the legislative or executive competence conferred on the
provinces by the Constitution. One of the main duties of the national Department of
Education is to facilitate and support the work of the provinces.
19 Education matters at national level are dealt with by
the Minister of Education and his Deputy Minister, assisted by the Department of
Education.
20 A national Department of Education has the
responsibility to make a definite impact on education in the country as a whole. It does
so in part by preparing the general policy of the government on education. Policy must
underlie the preparation of the norms and standards in education for which the department
is responsible, and the department's advice on budget allocations for all education
services, national and provincial. Relations with provincial departments of education must
be guided by the national policy on education within which the provincial departments
develop their own policies, set their priorities and implementation programmes. The
department's interaction with the Reconstruction and Development Programme is undertaken
in terms of its general policy on an integrated approach to education and training.
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21 With these considerations in mind, the role of the
Department of Education, in terms of the functions assigned to it, will be:
To promote the translation of the education and training
policies of the Government of National Unity (including the Reconstruction and Development
Programme), and the provisions of the Constitution, into a national framework within which
higher education institutions and provincial education departments can make the most
effective contribution to the development of the nation's human resources.
22 In undertaking its role, the Department of Education is
empowered by the Constitution, either specifically or by inference, to:
(1)Promote compliance with the constitutional guarantees
relating to education: basic education for all persons; equal access to educational
institutions; non-discrimination in the system; protection of linguistic, cultural and
religious diversity; protection of academic freedom; equitable funding;
(2)Establish and maintain a national Education Management
Information System (EMIS), collaborate with the Department of Labour and other departments
in extending the system to cover information on training provision and performance, and
manage an appropriate research and development programme, in order to determine national
needs, encourage and evaluate innovation, and monitor delivery and performance;
(3)Establish norms and standards with respect to curriculum
frameworks, standards, examinations and certification;
(4)Establish a National Qualification Framework to ensure
uniformity of standards and compliance with minimum standards across all fields of
learning, and to promote access and mobility of learners within the education and training
system;
(5)Establish norms and standards for equitable funding of
educational provision, and for the employment and deployment of educators;
(6)Advise the Financial and Fiscal Commission, in
consultation with the provincial governments, on the requirements for equitable financing
of education in the provinces and among provinces, including the resource implications of
the maintenance of national norms and standards, and the provision of conditional or
unconditional financial allocations to the provinces from national revenue, in line with
national and provincial needs and priorities;
(7) Provide assistance to the provincial governments, where
required, for the maintenance of minimum standards of public service in education;
(8) Establish co-operative relationships with other
departments with which the Department of Education shares common interests, particularly
the RDP Office, the Department of Labour (in respect of training, career guidance and the
NQF), the Departments of Health, and Welfare and Population Development (in respect of
school nutrition, early childhood development, education support services, AIDS education,
population education), the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (in respect
of Library and Information Services, the educational role of museums, school art and
culture programmes, language development, the promotion of science and technology, and
research funding policy), the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (in respect
of environmental education), the Department of Sport and Recreation (in respect of sport
development in educational institutions);
(9)Conduct international relations in the education field,
in cooperation with the Departments of Foreign Affairs, the RDP Office and the Department
of Finance in the case of external financial assistance, and other departments in the case
of shared international professional interests;
(10)Maintain co-operative relations with provincial
Departments of Education with respect to all of the above functions;
(11) Maintain close co-operation with the university and
technikon sectors, for which the Department of Education has direct responsibility.
23 The process, specified in the Constitution, by which the
new national and provincial departments of education are being constructed from the former
structures, is described in the following chapters.
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The Transition To New National and Provincial Departments
Introduction
1 The public management of education in South Africa is in
the throes of massive change. This chapter describes the process of provincialisation of
the system, which is taking place alongside the creation of a new national Department of
Education. The establishment of new provincial departments means assembling nine different
jigsaw puzzles from the pieces of ethnic administration located in those provinces, and
connecting different personnel and other vital systems together so that single coherent
provincial education departments can function.
2 This chapter describes how this process is being managed,
identifies the risks and the opportunities involved, and sets out how the Ministry of
Education believes these can be responded to. The chapter concludes with an account of
what is being done to prevent serious disruption of the delivery of educational services
while the new national and provincial departments are being established.
3 Budgetary and financial matters are reserved for
discussion in Part 4.
The rationalisation process
4 The government is committed to the establishment of a
lean yet effective system of educational administration. In terms of the 1993
Constitution, the ethnically-based education departments or services responsible for
providing education under the previous Constitution are being dissolved and their
functions and personnel rationalised into nine new non-racial provincial education
departments. Once the provincial departments have been consolidated and their staff
establishments rationalised in line with the government's policies, the new structure of
organisation will be considerably less complicated and should be more cost-effective than
the one it replaces.
5 At the national level, the education functions of the
former Department of National Education, which had been responsible for education policy
(including norms and standards), information and budgets, have been absorbed into the new
national Department of Education. The new department has taken over the functions of the
Education Co-ordination Service, whose mandate was to make technical preparations for the
provincialisation of education services. The new single Department of Education has been
redesigned, in consultation with the Public Service Commission, to make it more suited to
meeting the national need for a reconstructed education system.
6 The process of amalgamating existing ethnically-based
departments into new provincial education departments is extremely complex. It is perhaps
one of the larger and more difficult exercises in organisational change to have been
attempted anywhere in so short a time. Structural disparities and inequities between the
existing departmental organisations have to be eliminated in the new provincial
departments. Uniform payroll, personnel, accounting, logistical and information systems
must replace the variety of management systems which the present departments employ.
7 While the unification process is proceeding in each
province, the management and staffing of the education system must continue to function,
and schools and colleges must do their work, with as little interruption as possible.
8 The Ministry of Education is convinced that until
structural amalgamation has taken place it will be impossible to ensure the development of
an equitable, accessible and effective education system. The creation and smooth operation
of a new national Department and nine new provincial Departments of Education, working in
close liaison with each other, is therefore a fundamental policy objective of the
Ministry.
9 Provincial Ministers of Education, with political
accountability for education other than university and technikon education in their
provinces, have been in post since May 1994. In the absence of single provincial
Departments of Education, each minister has been obliged to work with the inherited
ethnically-based education departments or part-departments operating within their
provinces, and have set up suitable transitional structures and strategic management teams
to handle liaison and forward planning.
10 The Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the
Public Service Commission, has facilitated the assignment of political responsibility for
existing education laws to political office-bearers in the provinces. The appointment of
permanent provincial heads of education departments, together with key financial,
administrative and personnel staff, is now extremely urgent, both to provide advice to
provincial ministers and to assume responsibility for the creation and management of
provincial departments. Such appointments are a prerequisite for the development of an
education system which is free from discrimination on any grounds whatsoever, which is
fully accountable and efficiently organised, and which is recognised as legitimate by the
public it serves.
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Creating a new national education department
11 The legislative basis of a national Department of
Education has been laid by Presidential Proclamation, and a Director-General has been
appointed. The education functions of the former Department of National Education (which
has ceased to exist) have been phased into the new department. National-level functions
(notably accountability for university and technikon matters) previously held by other
education departments have been transferred to the Department of Education.
12 The Department of Education will have the necessary
infrastructure to enable it to play its essential role in the reconstruction of the
education system in South Africa. The Ministry is committed to the finalisation of the
process of restructuring and rationalising the new department in the shortest possible
time. Affirmative action principles are being applied in making appointments and
promotions in the new department, in accordance with the policy of the Public Service
Commission for the rationalisation of the public service and the improvement of
representivity. Employees' constitutional and statutory rights will be fully upheld.
13 These measures comply with the constitutional
requirements to
"promote an efficient public administration broadly
representative of the South African community (section 212 (2) (b)),
and to take into account
"the qualifications, level of training, merit, eff
iciency and suitability of the persons who qualify for the appointment, promotion or
transfer concerned. . . ." (section 212(4))
14 The organisational structure of the new department was
proposed to the Public Service Commission and agreed. It reflects its responsibilities
under the 1993 Constitution and accommodates many of the Ministry of Education's policy
imperatives, but not all. The structure is not final. It marks a stage in a developmental
process.
15 The new department will soon reflect a wider range of
perspectives as it becomes more representative of the broad population. New needs will
become apparent as it responds to the challenges of educational reconstruction. The
department's responsibilities in the field of training will be re-assessed once the
agreement between the Ministers of Education and Labour on this matter has been approved
by the Cabinet. Adjustments may be needed when the rationalisation process ends and the
new provincial departments become fully operational. The structure of the department will
therefore be kept under review, and changes will be made when necessary in the interests
of better policy development and implementation.
16 For the time being, the new Department of Education will
be organised in three branches: Education and Training Systems and Resources, Education
and Training Programmes, and Education and Training Support, which will work in close
cooperation with each other.
17 Education and Training Systems and Resources. This
branch will be responsible for researching, planning and evaluating the overall design,
coordination and performance of the education and training system, and providing
leadership in the policy applications of innovative solutions to national learning needs,
such as open learning. This branch will service the Council of Education Ministers, the
Heads of Education Departments Committee and other consultative bodies established by
statute or otherwise. It will co-ordinate the relations of the national and provincial
departments with the Reconstruction and Development Programme. It will manage
international co-operation in education and training within the Department's competence,
including development co-operation, and relations with international organi- sations in
education and training. It will develop and maintain the Education Management Information
System in collaboration with provincial departments of education, undertake human resource
develop- ment planning to assess demand for education and training services, and will be
responsible for national financial planning and budget development.
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18 Education and Training Programmes. This branch will be
responsible for coordinating preparatory work on the draft legislation for the National
Qualification Framework (in collaboration with the Inter-Ministerial Working Group and
with the Ministry of Labour). It will be responsible for the research and development of
national norms and standards for educational programmes across the spectrum at all levels.
The co-ordination of new developmental initiatives will be done in this branch, in areas
like Early Childhood Development, Adult Basic Education and Training, Vocational and
Community Education and Training, Distance Education, and the educational applications of
Electronic Media and Telecommunications. The feasibility study for a National Institute
for Curriculum Development, and preparations for the National Open Learning Agency will be
launched here. With regard to universities and technikons, the branch will deal with
programme policy and provide management support services, including with respect to the
execution of financial policy. It is also the responsibility of the branch to develop
standards for educator programmes.
19 Education and Training Support. This branch will be
responsible for all service matters affecting educators, and for managing labour
relations, including the department's dealings with the Education Labour Relations
Council. The branch will also be equipped to deal with the department's internal and
external communication needs, and its administrative, legislative and financial
requirements.
20 The modus operandi of the relationship between the
national and provincial education departments is of vital importance. Since all of these
structures will be new, it is to be expected that management and communication systems
will evolve over time with a certain amount of trial and error. However, the working
relationship between the two levels will need to be as thoroughly planned as possible. The
Heads of Education Departments Committee will provide the appropriate forum for this to be
arranged.
Creating new provincial education departments
21 Planning for the establishment of new provincial
education departments is being undertaken by the provincial Ministries of Education in
close liaison with the national Ministry and Department and heads of the former executive
departments, both by direct consultation and through the Council of Education Ministers
and the Heads of Education Departments Committee.
22 Since the creation of provincial education departments
is part of the even broader process of establishing provincial administrations and
rationalising the public service, the Public Service Commission, the offices of the
Provincial Premiers, Provincial Service Commissions (where these are in place), and the
Commission on Provincial Government, are important partners in the process.
23 Each provincial department will be a completely new
structure. In principle, none of the formerdepartments operating in a province should
dominate or absorb the others. Bringing the new provincial education departments into
being will require:
- The amalgamation of all the existing education departments
or part- departments, operating within the boundaries of a province, into a single
provincial departmental structure.
- The disestablishment of the head off ices of the former
Department of Education and Training (DET) and the three Education and Culture Services
(ex Assembly, Delegates and Representatives), and the assignment of relevant posts to the
nine provincial education departments.
- The combination of the head offices of the education
departments in the former SGTs and TBVC territories with part-departments operating within
a province.
- The disestablishment of the head offices and regional
offices of departments which formerly operated across the borders of new provinces
(Bophuthatswana, Transvaal Education Department, Cape Education Department, and the DET
Regional Offices) and the assignment of the relevant posts to the new provincial education
departments.
- Once the process of assigning posts to the new departments
has been completed, the rationalisation of posts will be undertaken by the provincial
authorities concerned, in consultation with the Commission on Provincial Government and
Provincial Service Commissions, where these are already in place.
- The reorganisation, over a period of time, of all education
structures within a province at the regional and sub-regional level into a new system of
sub-provincial management.
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24 The Ministry of Education is aware that the 1993
Constitution gives national departments no locus standi with respect to the process of
departmentalisation at provincial level. These matters are the responsibility of
provincial governments, the Provincial Service Commissions where they exist, the Public
Service Commission and the Commission on Provincial Government. However, the Ministry of
Education has a clear interest in the departmentalisation process, and has established a
provincialisation task team to work in collaboration with the new provincial departments
in order to facilitate the winding up of the old ethnic departments, the efficient
transfer of functions, staff and assets, and the establishment of effective administrative
systems. Agreements already concluded between the national and provincial Ministers of
Education will enable agency services to be provided on request should these be needed.
25 In undertaking this process of amalgamation and
rationalisation, the constitutional requirement, to promote a non-partisan, efficient, and
broadly representative public service, will be upheld. The Ministry of Education
appreciates that the process of creating new departments will affect very large numbers of
staff members. Their rights in law, subject to the provisions of the Constitution, will be
fully recognised.
Staffing the new departments
26 The reallocation of education functions between the
national and provincial levels of government will require that personnel establishments
and organisational structures of education departments be totally revised.
27 Past discrimination has led to serious inequities in the
distribution of education managerial capacity both within and between provinces. In the
process of disestablishing former central departments of education, it is important to
ensure that as far as possible the available managerial capacity is equitably distributed.
28 The administrative structures of the previous
departments will not apply. At every level beyond the school-whether in circuits,
districts or areas-new structures will be needed, including new head offices.
29 The Ministry recognises that the location of provincial
capitals could in certain instances place the personnel of some former education
departments at an advantage when new head offices are established. The structuring of new
head offices and the staffing of sub-structures in the province should as far as possible
draw personnel from all previous departments within the province.
30 While the processes of creating provincial education
departments are a primary responsibility of the provincial governments, the Ministry of
Education believes that the new single provincial education departments (like the new
single national department) will fail the test of public acceptability if there is not a
demonstrable equity in the recruitment and placing of personnel.
31 The staffing of the new education bureaucracy must be
guided by the constitutional principles of representivity, non-partisanship, and
expertise. With sensitivity to previous discrimination, qualified people who were
previously unable to gain access to the education public service must be recruited. The
representation of Black people and women, especially in senior and middle management
echelons, must be improved by a deliberate programme of staff development, affirmative
action and the encouragement of lateral entry.
32 The Ministry of Education is convinced that re-training
of present education off icials will be necessary once they have been placed in new
national and provincial departments, and attaches a high priority to initiatives which
will develop unified management teams at various levels within the new education
bureaucracy as soon as possible.
33 The establishment of new education departments will not
affect the position of educator personnel in broad terms. The Ministry of Education is
highly sensitive to the need for as many well-qualified teachers as possible.
[ Top ]
Replacing old legislation with new
34 Education legislation in South Africa has been
essentially of two kinds-that which has regulated education policy formulation at the
central level, and that which has regulated the provision of education in schools or other
institutions. The former did not apply to all the education systems operating in South
Africa prior to the elections, while the latter reflected the fragmented nature of South
Africa's education system.
35 Existing education legislation is therefore wholly
inappropriate to the new national and provincial systems, and must be replaced with new or
revised legislation as a matter of urgency.
36 The Ministry of Education will introduce legislation in
1995 for the efficient management of the new system and the declaration of new policy.
Among other matters such legislation will deal with the establishment of coordinating
bodies such as the Council of Education Ministers and the new Heads of Education
Departments Committee, new statutory consultative bodies, curriculum policy, the
establishment of a National Qualification Framework, and educator personnel.
Consultative bodies
37 The Ministry of Education is committed to openness and
consultation in the management of education. However, it has inherited in existing laws a
fragmented system of education consultation which reflects the racially- divided nature of
the former South Africa. These must be replaced by a representative body or bodies which
can provide effective channels for debate on and communication of public concerns on
education and training policy and its implementation, which will provide advice to the
Minister and be available for consultation by the Minister on matters within his or her
competence. (The Ministrywill support similar legislative steps at provincial level.) In
preparation for setting up the new structures, the Ministry will seek the advice of a wide
range of stakeholders in education and training, including especially the organised
teaching profession, organised students, parent organisations, and the National Education
and Training Forum.
Maintaining delivery of educational services during the
transition
38 The provincial education departments are new structures
on which exceptional demands are being placed, especially since the start of the new
school year in January 1995. Political responsibility for the provision and maintenance of
services, other than technikons and universities, now rests with the provincial
governments, but the national Ministry of Education will give whatever support it can to
the provincial ministries, including (on request, and by agreement) the provision of
services on an agency basis, in order to ensure that educational services are as well
maintained as possible during the period of transition. The rapid-response mechanism
established by the Department (see paragraph 24) will keep channels of communication open
between the relinquishing departments and the new provincial departments, and provide
immediate technical assistance to the latter on request. These measures are in addition to
the planning undertaken by the Heads of Education Departments Committee at the request of
the Council of Education Ministers.
39 For a short period an increase in the number of persons
employed in the education administration sector will be unavoidable, since new management
systems must be put in place while existing services are maintained. The number of
education administration personnel can be reduced as soon as the full rationalisation of
provincial education departments has taken place.
40 The Ministry of Education is committed to fostering
additional managerial capacity in the education system so that the quality of educational
services can be enhanced, even if additional financial resources may not be available as
rapidly as government would wish.
41 While the transition to single national and provincial
departments of education is in process, it will be difficult to improve the quality of
educational services quickly, especially as departments are coping simulta- neously with
reorganisation and a rapid increase in school enrolments. However, provincial Ministries
of Education are planning priority projects under the Reconstruction and Development
Programme which will target those communities whose basic educational services are
critically lacking or totally inadequate.
42 The understanding and co-operation of the people served
by our schools and other educational institutions will be a major asset in assisting the
education system to come successfully through the process of transition. The government
accepts the obligation to keep the public, especially parents, fully informed of what is
happening.
43 The establishment of active Provincial Education and
Training Forums, and similar forums at local levels, provide a vital channel of
communication and advice between provincial education departments and the people they
serve. In the same vein, well-informed, representative school governing bodies are an
essential asset in helping schools to manage the changes which provincialisation and new
policies have brought. They are able to prepare both the school communities and the wider
communities they serve to take advantage of the opportunities and challenges which the
new, non-racial provincial education system offers.
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Chapter Ten
Transition In The Education Budget Process
Introduction
1 Like all other aspects of public administration, the
process of budget preparation is in transition from the old pattern to the new.
2 This chapter provides information on these matters. It
discusses the prospects for education in the 1995/96 budget, and indicates the direction
of the Ministry of Education's thinking on relations between the national and provincial
departments of education in the present and future budgetary dispensation.
The 1995/96 budget process
3 The budget for 1995/96 is truly transitional, in that its
process has spanned both the old system and the new provinces, and it has not incorporated
all the budget arrangements laid down in the 1993 Constitution.
4 The budget cycle for 1995/96 began in February 1994. In
April 1994 a general estimate of the minimum amount needed for education for 1995/96 was
submitted by the inter-departmental function committee on education to the Department of
State Expenditure. Cabinet decided on a guideline amount for education in August 1994.
This provisional amount was divided among the provinces, the universities and technikons
by the Ministry of Education. The final amount for education for 1995/96 was determined by
Cabinet at the end of November 1994. The Minister of Education then made the final
allocation to universities and technikons and the provinces.
5 The final allocations are not necessarily to the liking
of the university and technikon authorities or to the provincial authorities, or (for that
matter) to the national Ministry of Education, since the overall budget allocation for
education falls considerably short of the country's educational needs. Moreover, the
necessity to shift budgetary allocations on to an equitable basis of provision, has
undoubtedly created severe pressure, especially in some provinces.
or by a top-down, non-participatory process. The provincial
authorities have been consulted at all stages of this process. The issues and the possible
solutions have been workshopped collectively before deliberation in the Council of
Education Ministers. An intense effort has been made by all concerned to achieve a result
which does justice to the complexity of funding educational transformation against the
inheritance of extreme disparity of provision, and within a funding envelope which
necessarily compels the education authorities at both national and provincial levels to
make extremely painful choices.
7 As previously announced by the Minister of Finance, a
figure of R5 billion to finance the RDP Fund was deducted from the total government
expenditure guideline for 1995/96 before departmental guideline figures were allocated.
The government's intentions in applying the RDP Fund mechanism are to leverage government
spending to the new priorities of the RDP, to re-deploy civil servants in line with the
new priorities, to launch Presidential Lead Programmes (such as the programmes for Primary
School Nutrition, ABET and the Culture of Learning) and long-term development programmes,
to help shift government spending from consumption to capital investment, and to change
the budgeting process. Faced with budgetary shortfalls in carrying out their RDP
obligations, departments are at liberty to apply for "bridging finance" from the
RDP Fund, submit strategic management plans and business plans for consideration by the
government's RDP Allocation Committee, and indicate how they propose to incorporate in
their succeeding years' budgets the downstream recurrent costs of programmes assisted by
the RDP Fund. Since virtually all educational investments involve substantial recurrent
personnel and other operational costs, the implications of these measures for education
programmes, are evidently serious.
8 The 1995/96 guideline figure for Education is roughly 1,5
per cent more in real terms than the 1994/95 budgetary appropriation for Education. This
is substantially less than the annual rate of increase of the learning population served
by the education system. The fact that education is a major spending priority of the
government emphasises the severity with which overall state spending targets are being
applied, and the necessity for strategic analysis of education spending so that the system
is able both to cope with its present obligations, including major reorganisation, and to
meet its developmental targets.
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Constitutional provisions on the budget process
9 At current levels of allocation, without possible
adjustment according to new policy priorities, around 85 per cent of the total public
funding of education will be spent by the provincial Departments of Education. The 1993
Constitution specifies in broad terms the procedures which will apply in due course to the
construction of provincial budgets.
10 Each province has a Provincial Revenue Fund, into which
will be paid the proceeds from provincial taxes, levies and duties, and loans raised by
the provincial government for capital projects, and also the funds allocated to the
province from revenue collected nationally. The latterwill be constructed from percentages
(fixed by Parliament) of personal national income tax, national VAT revenue, any national
fuel levy; the total proceeds of nationally collected transfer duties on property deals in
the province concerned; and "any other conditional or unconditional allocations out
of national revenue to a province". (section 155 (2)(e))
11 The Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) is charged
with advising on the respective percentages which are to be applied to national revenue
sources to make up the appropriation for each province, and the conditions to be applied
to the conditional or unconditional allocations out of national revenue. The percentages
and conditions are to be fixed "reasonably in respect of the different provinces
after taking into account the national interest" and FFC recommendations. In arriving
at the allocations to provinces, the government (advised by the FFC) is required to pay
due regard to the national interest and national needs, and ensure that the provincial
shares are equitable and reasonable, taking into account the province's developmental
needs, capacity to spend, fiscal discipline, and its relative economic disadvantage
compared with other provinces. (section 155(4))
12 Provincial governments will construct their own budgets
in relation to their total revenue estimates and spending requirements. Education will
almost certainly claim the largest share of provincial budgets, but the question is how
adequately the various financial needs and priorities of the provincial departments of
education will be assessed under this complex revenue-sharing and priority-setting
arrangement.
13 Since the national Department of Education will not be
responsible for allocating funds to the provincial departments once the constitutional
provisions are fully implemented, it is clearly important for close consultation to take
place between the national and provincial departments on the detailed inter-locking
relationships of many components of the education budget, including the financial
implications of norms and standards set at the national level, and strategic planning
decisions in relation to national human resource development goals.
14 It is likely that the new budgetary system will come
fully into operation in the preparation of the 1997/98 estimates. However, the national
and provincial Departments of Education will need to make adequate preparations in order
to ensure that the new system is used to the best advantage of the nation's learners, and
the specific interests of the respective national and provincial departments. The
following steps are considered essential:
(1)The Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM)
will need a professionally serviced Finance Sub-Committee in order to plan collectively.
The budget process is inherently competitive, but the provinces and the national
department have a mutual interest in ensuring that the claims of the education and
training sector as a whole are well-argued.
(2)The new national Education Management Information System
(EMIS) must be set up on the basis of new and functioning provincial EMIS as soon as
possible, subject to agreement in HEDCOM, in order to provide relevant data for analysis
and planning.
(3)Agreement must be reached between the HEDCOM Finance
Sub-Commiftee, the Education Function Committee (see paragraph 16 below) and the FFC on
the categories of information and indicators of need which the FFC will take into account
in establishing its criteria.
(4)The national Department of Education should be ready and
able to provide technical support, if required, to provincial Departments of Education in
preparing their budget submissions.
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The 1996/97 budget process
15 The above measures will also need to be harnessed to the
processes of the 1996/97 budget, preparations for which have already begun.
16 The national budget process within a
"function" such as education will be undertaken through "function
committees". The process starts with the development of policy (as in this document)
through collaboration between national and provincial levels. It proceeds to the
development of strategy, based on defined RDP and sectoral criteria, the capacity of the
sector, an assessment of affordability, and the identification of performance indicators
which can be used to measure progress in achieving targets.
17 Departments are then required to rebuild their budget
votes from a zero base, translating the new strategy into appropriate programmes,
sub-programmes and activities, with appropriate resources and personnel. A process of re-
prioritisation across functions is then to take place, involving the development of
long-term expenditure guidelines which must meet the tests of affordability and
sustainability, and the weighting of functional priorities by the government in the light
of the RDP. At this point decisions will be taken on whether expenditure on particular
functions should go up or down.
18 This ambitious procedure compels departments to
undertake highly technical work of extreme importance within very tight deadlines. The
Ministry of Education is aware of the danger that the process could become insulated from
necessary consultation. Since the work requires a fundamental re-assessment of budget
priorities and sectoral allocations, and will involve diff icult choices, it needs to be
undertaken by the national Department of Education in the closest collaboration with the
provincial departments through HEDCOM and the CEM, and with the university and technikon
sectors through their representative bodies and the AUT. The engagement in the process of
representative bodies of other education and training sectors, including the schools, ECD,
ABET, the colleges, and teacher education will be extremely important. The Ministry of
Education will also require the services of specialist advisers and international
expertise.
19 It is clear that the developmental initiatives and other
programmes discussed in this document will be subjected to rigorous analysis in this
process of strategic planning, and the performance targets will need to be spelled out
over the five-year planning period and beyond, in relation to the state's capacity to
fund, and the potential of other funding partnerships.
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Budget Reform and Funding Requirements of The Education
System
Introduction
The main function of the national and provincial education
budgets is to maintain fully functional, cost-effective services and institutions in line
with the policies of the Government of National Unity, the national Ministry of Education,
and the provincial Ministries of Education, respectively. As the previous chapter made
clear, the restructuring of the national budget is an urgent priority of the government.
The restructuring of the education budget will therefore be undertaken according to the
national process. Several linked pressures are operating simultaneously:
(1)The provincialisation process means that the procedure
and decision structure of education funding are being transformed.
(2)The education budget structure, which is still
essentially a legacy of the past, must be reconceptualised for the new democratic
education and training system.
(3)Constitutional requirements, reinforced by government
policy, require that equity becomes a basic principle of budget strategy.
(4)The government's development programme in education and
training makes substantial claims for a re-ordering of budget priorities and a significant
number of new initiatives.
(5)The education budget is under severe pressure from
government's overall fiscal policy.
(6)The national and provincial Departments of Education
must continue to develop their strategies for effective access to the RDP Fund.
(7)All government departments and provincial
administrations are required to re-orient their strategies, improve their efficiency,
enhance their use of resources consistent with the RDP, and in particular re-conceptualise
their budgets from a zero base, and their priorities in terms of multi-year performance
targets.
2 This chapter marks the beginning of the analysis, which
must be deepened, broadened and quantified before the end of 1995. The Department of
Education is not yet in a position to give guidelines on re-allocation between programmes
or sectors, although some are implied in the analysis of cost factors.
3 Instead, the analysis here puts the entire education and
training budget in a developmental perspective, examines the nature of the demand factors
operating upon it, the extreme importance of budget reform and its implications, the scope
for off-budget funding of the sector, and the case for a temporary increase in public and
other sources of support.
4 The analysis treats the education budget globally. In
carrying the discussion forward, the provincial education departments are key players.
Background
5 Education is a key to the realisation of the personal
aspirations of individuals and the socioeconomic programme of the government.
6 The people of South Africa rightfully entertain high
expectations that their long-standing education and training needs will be recognised and
acted upon by their government. They also have a highly realistic appreciation of the
constraints operating upon the new Government of National Unity, and equally the necessity
to deliver tangible results in the short-term, and set up credible, participatory
processes for phasing in the longer-term achievement of development targets.
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7 The Constitution requires the government to make adequate
provision to satisfy the fundamental right of all persons to basic education and to equal
access to educational institutions. A better educated and skilled workforce is a
prerequisite for enhanced productivity in the domestic economy and competitiveness in
international markets, and significant growth in entrepreneurship and small-business
development. As the RDP White Paper puts it:
"Human resource development, education and training
are key inputs into policies aimed at higher employment, the introduction of more advanced
technologies, and reduced inequalities."
8 A better educated and skilled child, youth and adult
population is the only sure guarantor of democratic freedoms, environmental protection,
public health, and reduced crime and violence.
Demand factors
9 The current pressure for additional spending on education
arises from four sources:
(1)Redress and rehabilitation. The shortfall of school
classrooms at the end of 1994 is estimated in the range 50,000 to 65,000. These are merely
to provide for the current enrolment. Rehabilitation costs (arising from underfunding for
maintenance, violence, and vandalism) are being investigated through the School Index of
Need exercise, and are expected to be high.
(2)Extended and new services. The government's human
resource development programme involves major extensions of educational services and new
services. Among the most important of these are: the phased introduction of free and
compulsory general education (to Std 7), the Culture of Learning programme, launching the
national Adult Basic Education and Training programme, launching the Early Childhood
Development programme, expanding training capacity in technical colleges, community
colleges and technikons, an adequate special education needs programme, enhanced
pre-service and in-service teacher education to cater for the foregoing, enhancing the
quality of university and technikon programmes, and a tertiary student loan/bursary
facility.
(3)Demographic factors. The total population is currently
growing at around 2,0 per cent p.a., though the rate of growth of the school-entry cohort
may be somewhat less. Urbanisation and improved access to schools increase demand in
excess of the normal growth rate in impact areas. More than a million new learners have
been entering the system at Grade 1 annually, without a concerted effort to implement free
and compulsory education. Nevertheless, the estimated backlog in provision amounted to 1,8
million children aged 6-18 who were not enrolled in 1994. Enrolment figures for 1995 were
not available at the time this document was prepared for publication.
(4)Rationalisation. Reorganising the previous 14
ethnically-based departments and services into nine provincial departments involves
massive management and service changes. This creates costs for infrastructure and
logistical support, plus an element of redundancy payments. Estimates of such costs are
inherently unreliable but are becoming less so as the provincialisation process gathers
pace.
The rationalisation process also involves disposing of
accumulated debts on educational services rendered by the DET to some former TBVC and SGT
administrations, and paying off interest on the current bank overdrafts incurred by the
same administrations.
By 1996 it will be possible to undertake a thorough
analysis of personnel requirements in the administration, with a viewto reducing the
number of posts to a sustainable level. This is a requirement of government policy, and a
key strategy of the RDP.
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Current budget level
10 There were in 1994 nearly twelve million students, at
27,500 educational institutions, including 330,000 students at the 21 universities and
137,000 students at the 15 technikons. These learners were served by a staff complement of
about 470,000 of whom 370,000 are educators.
11 The budget forthis service for 1994/95 amounted to just
under R30 billion, which represented 22.5 per cent of the government's budget and nearly 7
per cent of the estimated GDP.
12 It is well known that this level of public funding for
education is at the high end by international standards. Under normal circumstances it
would be expected to stabilise at lower proportions of national budget and GDP. However,
the circumstances are not normal.
Essential budget reforms
13 The education budget must be radically reformed, in four
dimensions.
(1)Equity. The South African education budget has always
been inherently inequitable. This presents two problems. The first is to achieve equity,
especially in respect of educator/pupil ratios on which staff provision scales are based.
This is being done, starting in 1995. Moreover, all educational administrative and
professional services will be deployed for general, not sectional, benefit from 1995, as a
consequence of provincialisation.
The second problem is to deal with the skewed profile of
teacher qualifications, which is itself the historic legacy of past inequity, and which
perpetuates a skewed distribution of teacher costs. Most white teachers are better
qualified, and therefore more expensive, than other teachers. This is more complicated to
deal with but it must be tackled in close consultation with the organised teaching
profession.
(2)Unit costs and productivity. Much expenditure on
education is wastefully used and yields poor, if not abysmal returns. New educator/pupil
and class size norms must ensure both effective learning and efficient use of teaching
staff. Space utilisation (occupancy rates) must be improved in order to make optimum use
of expensive learning facilities. Systematic preventive maintenance of buildings and
equipment must become routine. Absenteeism of students and staff must be cut to negligible
levels. Full working hours must be observed throughout the system. The causes of student
dropout and excessive repetition of grades must be identified and vigorously tackled.
Less labour intensive teaching and learning strategies must
be systematically and vigorously introduced, where their educational value can be
demonstrated.
It is also of the utmost importance that the structure of
teachers' remuneration is radically changed, in order to prevent an unsustainable spiral
of salary costs. The number of salary grades must be compressed, the lowest salary levels
must be raised, and the automatic link between salary level and qualification-acquisition
must be broken. These are clearly matters for negotiation.
The second stage in the rationalisation process, beginning
in 1996, will result in lower unit costs for administration, as the new national and
provincial departments trim their establishments to sustainable levels.
(3)User charges. The system inherits a completely
unsystematic pattern of user charges, from school through to university, which is linked
to the former ethnic organisation of provision. This must be reviewed from top to bottom
and re-designed in an equitable, sustainable, market-related and publicly acceptable way.
The urgent priority has been to begin meeting the commitment to free and compulsory
general education in a way that is seen by the people as both fair and necessary, even if
this involves the encouragement of voluntary contributions by parents to school
development funds to supplement the state provision.
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(4)New funding partnerships. The immense goodwill towards
the RDP expressed by all organs of civil society, including organised business,
community-based and non-governmental organisations, development agencies, and religious
bodies, offers scope for new funding partnerships for human resource development,
especially in such fields as: Adult Basic Education and Training, Early Childhood
Development, Special Education Needs, school rehabilitation, community colleges, and the
tertiary students' loan/bursary fund.
International development assistance agencies have already
expressed their wish to participate in these areas. While very welcome and potentially
strategic in some areas, this source cannot provide more than a very small proportion of
national requirements.
These opportunities for establishing new funding
partnerships are being vigorously explored with a view to giving them a proper
institutional form. It is essential to be able to anticipate, if not plan, the level of
extra- budgetary support which will enhance the provision of essential human resource
development services
Implications of budget reform for funding levels
14 All these measures are of major significance for the
level of budget support required by the national education and training services, as well
as for enhancing the quality, coverage and effectiveness of these services. Quantification
exercises will be undertaken and revised as the provincial database improves, especially
in relation to ex-TBVC and SGT areas.
15 However, even in the absence of figures, some budgetary
consequences of the above measures can be anticipated with confidence. These are presented
for analytical purposes, not as a prediction of government decisions.
(1) Equity. The equitable educator/pupil and class size
norms which will be phased in will be significantly above the historic norms in the former
HOA, HOR and HOD systems, but below the former DET and homeland norms, so that a definite
increase in the quality of service for the majority of learners will be made possible.
However, the budgetary effect of reducing unit costs in the smaller ex-HOA, HOR and HOD
systems will be more than offset by the effect of reducing class sizes (and therefore
increasing the requirement for teachers) in most of the Black system.
Making administrative and professional services (subject
advisers, inspectors, administrators) available across the board within provinces will be
far more cost-effective. However, it will not reduce budgetary outlays in the short- term.
Achieving more equitable non-salary expenditure for
essential items such as teaching materials, upkeep and maintenance, requires increased
budgetary provision in the largely Black parts of the system.
(2) Unit costs and productivity. The equity measures
described above will reduce unit costs overall and should significantly increase
productivity in terms of educational outcomes. Eff iciency measures, such as curbing
absenteeism of students and teachers, reducing dropouts, and achieving higher professional
standards of teacher conduct, will dramatically increase both qualitative outcomes and
numerical outputs (more matriculants, better results). However, none of these measures is
likely to reduce budgetary requirements, especially in the short term.
Five measures will achieve significant savings over time:
- Reducing the repetition of grades to educationally
acceptable levels.
- Moving toward eliminating over-age students and shifting
them into more appropriate, more cost-effective learning environments. (Both measures will
lower student enrolments in schools.)
- Phasing in guided self-study and distance education
programmes and strategies wherever appropriate, which will replace labour-intensive
traditional teaching formats.
- The fourth is most significant. Restructuring teachers'
remuneration will slow the built-in rate of increase of the salary bill. This measure, to
be worked on jointly with the organised teaching profession, is in line with the
government's policy for the restructuring of public service grading structures and career
paths. Of necessity, such changes will take time to effect, and will require negotiation
in the Education Labour Relations Council.
- Rationalising the education administration, which should
result in a reduction in costs from as early as 1996.
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(3) User charges. The rationalisation of user charges will
increase public confidence in the system but in itself may be of valuable but limited
budgetary significance. This does not imply that they should be subject to uniform
controls, but that the regulations under which they are applied should be transparent,
equitable and adopted after full consultation.
Internationally, user charges offset a small proportion of
the public cost of total educational provision, exceptin highereducation.
Thegovernment'scommitmentto phasing infree and compulsorygeneral education ensures that
parents of students in state schools will not be required to pay for the basic acceptable
provision for which the state is responsible, but will be encouraged, through legitimate
school governance structures, to contribute what they can to the school development funds.
Fees in the post-compulsory system will need to be modest
at senior secondary level and substantial at higher levels. However, public subsidy in the
form of income-related bursaries for high school students and a national student
loan/bursary scheme for tertiary students (capitalised partly by the state) will be
essential on equity grounds.
(4) New funding partnerships.The new sources of off- budget
revenue which will become available will apply largely to new services, but could offer
valuable marginal budgetary relief in some currently under-funded areas such as school
rehabilitation and tertiary student funding.
16 The following conclusions can be drawn. The
restructuring of the education budget will be highly beneficial in terms of public
acceptability and educational performance, with major payoffs into the quality of the
workforce and social well-being.
17 The benefit in terms of public finance and planning will
be a rational and defensible educational cost structure, with tremendously improved
efficiency, cost-effectiveness and productivity levels.
18 However, the net effect of these measures will not be to
reduce budgetary outlays, even on present services, in the short term. There will be
significant gains in terms of unit cost reduction in the medium to long term. Thus the
rate of increase of the education budget per unit of input (student enrolment) will have
substantially reduced, even as productivity rises. The cost of expanding the system will
therefore be substantially less burdensome to the budget than would otherwise have been
the case.
Findings and implications
19 The findings of this analysis are that:
(1)Essential budgetary reforms, linked to the enhancement
of systems and institutional management
and the improvement of professional practice, will bring
major equity, efficiency and productivity gains, amounting to a massive improvement in the
effectiveness of the public investment in education services, but no net reduction in
budgetary requirements, especially in the short term.
(2)Rationalisation of the education departments will
require increased budgetary provision in the short term, but will bring significant
infrastructure and personnel savings in the medium term (2+ years).
(3)Population growth, urbanisation, and mobility exert a
strong upward demand on education services, which the government's commitment to phasing
in free and compulsory general education will accelerate.
(4)The commitment to redress past inadequacies, including
rehabilitation of school infrastructure, entails additional budgetary provision.
(5)The new services required in terms of the government's
commitment to human resource development, will need additional budgetary provision, though
strongly linked to the RDP Fund and off-budget support through new funding partnerships.
(6)The increased social and economic benefits of the above
improvements will have a dramatic indirect and direct effect on the budget (since crime,
prison, health and welfare caseloads should reduce) and the fiscus (in terms of enhanced
economic growth arising from improved educational, motivational and skill levels, and a
stabilised social environment).
[ Top ]
20 The most serious implication of the analysis is
thatwhile there is massive scope for restructuring the budget and improving efficiency and
productivity in the system, which must be done, these measures will not reduce absolute
budget requirements in the short term. The short and long-term demand factors are
unavoidable, given demographic realities, constitutional obligations, and government's
public commitments to phase in free and compulsory general education, launch a national
adult basic education and training programme, and in general radically improve the quality
of the nation's human resources.
21 A major capital works programme in education is
essential, to meet the government's constitutional and RDP commitments. It is needed to
cover the most serious requirements for school and college rehabilitation. Learning space
of acceptable quality must be provided, based on a thorough survey and systematic mapping
of requirements, so that significant progress can be made towards free and compulsory
education, and new service requirements for human resource development. Costs must be
carefully controlled through tight design specifications for new construction, and by
carefully planning the multiple use of facilities. Elements of this programme have already
drawn support by the RDP Fund in the form of the Presidential Lead Programme on the
Culture of Learning. Other funding partnerships with local and international agencies will
be sought. The specific requirements of the higher and further education sectors will be
reported by the respective national commissions.
22 Most capital investments in the education sector have
associated recurrent cost implications, particularly personnel costs. In principle, the
education budget can absorb these only up to the limit set by minimum national norms and
standards for the maintenance of a service of acceptable quality.
23 While ways must be found to reduce government
consumption expenditure in the education sector, as in others, it is important to
emphasise that educators are the vehicles for the public investment in human resource
development. Just as investments in labour force training in the general economy must be
lifted if workplace productivity and national competitiveness are to rise, the state as
the monopoly employer of teachers and other educators must invest in their professional
development if any improvement in education and training quality is to be achieved.
24 There is an unanswerable case for investing in research
and development on the appropriateness of distance education strategies for different
learning goals, including the use of study guides, videos, computers, newspapers,
audio-casseftes, experimentation kits, broadcasting, charts and resource packs, coupled
with student support services. There is a vast potential demand among educators, youth,
women, workers, self-employed persons, and students in institutions. The unit cost and
cost-benefit factors are highly favourable as demand grows and development costs are
absorbed.
25 The Ministry of Education recognises that the most
secure source of additional public funds for education will accrue from real economic
growth and increased revenues. There are two other potential sources. One is internal
savings and re-allocations, which the government's RDP strategy requires. This chapter
examines these options seriously, and explains their limitations. The second is
re-allocations from other functions to education. This is a matter for Cabinet's decision
on developmental priorities.
26 The Ministry of Education, in the face of extreme
budgetary pressure, requests recognition:
(1)of the significant social and economic payoffs accruing
from a well- functioning education and training system which is responsive to social and
economic demands
(2)for its goal of budget restructuring and associated
reforms in education management and professional practice: to stabilise overall capital
and recurrent cost factors in the system at lower levels in the shortest possible time,
while substantially improving equity, productivity and quality, in order to achieve a
sustainable long-term basis for growth and development in the education and training
sector
(3)for the conclusion that the education budget f rom all
sources needs to increase by a suff icient margin in real terms over the population growth
rate for two to three years, in order to absorb the bulk of the essential capital cost
programme for rehabilitation and development, the consequent operational expenses, and the
costs arising from rationalisation, and that strategic, "cufting edge" parts of
the programme for human resource development be planned and executed by the government in
conjunction with local and international funding partners.
27 This preliminary analysis will be critiqued and deepened
as the Department of Education, in consultation with the provincial departments and
stakeholder organisations, makes preparations for the multi-year transformation plans
which the RDP Office has requested.
Summary and conclusions
28 Education is a key element in personal aspirations, in
satisfying fundamental human rights, and in national reconstruction and development. The
anticipated demand for increased short-term and long-term funding for education involves
four components: redress and rehabilitation, extended or new services, demographic
factors, and rationalisation.
29 The current level of budget provision for education is
high, but it is skewed inequitably, and the productivity of the system is unsatisfactory.
The education budget must be restructured (1) to achieve equity, (2) to reduce unit costs
and enhance performance, (3) to rationalise user charges, and (4) to develop new funding
partnerships. These measures, while significant, will not generate sufficient budget
capacity to cover additional funding needs in the short term.
30 The national education budget from all sources must be
enhanced for the next few years, until demand stabilises, rationalisation costs are
absorbed, and other measures generate significant structural savings or new revenue.
Return to Contents
[ Top ]
Chapter Twelve
School Ownership, Governance and Finance
Introduction
1 In adopting a Constitution based on democracy, equal
citizenship, and the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, South Africans
have created a completely new basis for state policy towards the provision of schooling in
the future. Unavoidably, because inequality is so deep-rooted in our educational history
and dominates the present provision of schooling, a new policy for school provision must
be a policy for increasing access and retention of Black students, achieving equity in
public funding, eliminating illegal discrimination, creating democratic governance,
rehabilitating schools and raising the quality of performance.
2 The equality guaranteed by the Constitution provides the
moral and legal basis of schools policy, but other constitutional guarantees and
prescriptions are no less important in laying down the new foundations of policy or
influencing how it may be designed and executed.
3 This chapter is concerned with the pattern of ownership,
governance and finance of schools. It will first examine what the Constitution has to say
about these matters. It will then describe the main features of the present arrangements,
and the most urgent issues of transformation and redress that must be tackled. The chapter
concludes with the Ministry of Education's proposed line of action.
Constitutional provisions affecting school ownership,
governance and finance
4 In the first place, provincial governments have
constitutional responsibility for establishing, running, regulating and financing schools,
but they will do so within the f ramework of national policy on matters such as the legal
status of different types of school, and the norms and standards by which they should be
governed and financed.
5 Secondly, the provisions on fundamental rights which
guarantee equality, non- discrimination (except for purposes of redress), and equal access
to educational institutions, set the standards which all levels of government are bound to
observe in legislation and administrative action relating to school ownership, governance
and finance.
6 Thirdly, the fundamental rights chapter explicitly
protects cultural, language and religious rights, both in terms of personal observance,
and as a basis for school ownership. The latter is the only constitutional provision
directly relating to school ownership. It gives every person the right
"to establish, where practicable, educational
institutions based on a common culture, language or religion, provided that there shall be
no discrimination on the ground of race" (section 32(c))
This right applies also to legal persons (for example,
trusts, and governing bodies established by law), and it affords protection to the owners
of schools of this kind which may already be in operation, so long as they do not
discriminate racially.
[ Top ]
7 Fourthly, the Constitution includes some 'special
provisions' about the governance of educational institutions. These provisions apply
specifically to the rights, powers and functions which the governing bodies or similar
structures of departmental, community-managed or State-aided schools possess under laws
existing immediately before the Constitution came into effect. (Identical provisions apply
also to universities and technikons.)
8 The national and provincial governments are required to
reach agreement "by bona fide negotiations" with the respective governing
bodies, and give reasonable notice, before altering the rights, powers and functions of
such bodies. If agreement is not reached by negotiation, a government may nevertheless
proceed to make the alterations it wishes. If it does so, however, the Constitution gives
"interested persons or bodies" a specific entitlement to mount a legal challenge
to the validity of such alterations in terms of the Constitution.
9 Fifthly, another "special provision" requires
the "responsible government", national or provincial, to provide funds to
departmental, community-managed and state-aided schools on an equitable basis, in order to
ensure an acceptable quality of education. (section 247)
10 The complexity of the provisions relating to school
ownership, governance and finance indicates the sensitivity of the interests which the
Constitution has accommodated. Both the governments and the governing bodies of the
schools concerned, are required to act with a high degree of responsibility in fulfilling
their obligations in these matters.
11 All governments are bound to uphold all the
constitutional guarantees, and (within their competence) to require schools to do the
same. This includes upholding the rights to personal equality, equal access to schools,
protection of cultural, linguistic and religious rights, prohibition of all unfair
discrimination, and protection of the right of redress, which may include differential
treatment if this is required in the interest of the child and to uphold equity.
12 School governing bodies which have discriminated
unfairly on whatever grounds in the past are required in terms of the Constitution to
change their practices. If a governing body is challenged in court on the basis of prima
facie evidence of discrimination, the onus of proof of non-discrimination rests with the
governing body. (section 8)
The present pattern of school ownership, governance and
finance
13 On the eve of the creation of unitary provincial
education departments, the pattern of school ownership is still defined in most provinces
by the laws and practices of the previous ethnically-based departments which are about to
disappear.
14 It is generally assumed that schools are organised in
three categories: state, state-aided and private. However, the situation is not that
simple. Some of the previous departments had more than three categories of schools.
Different departments used different terms to describe the same thing
("government", "state" and "public" schools). The same term
("state-aided") used in different departments covered a variety of school types,
including schools owned or managed by parent bodies, by traditional authorities, and by
farmers. "State aided special schools" are another category with different
organisational and funding principles. Some private schools received state subsidies of up
to 50 per cent of the per capita running cost of schools in the former departments where
they were registered, but were not classified as "state-aided".
15 There are substantial differences among the former
ethnic departments in the proportions of children enrolled in state and state-aided
schools. This means that the basis of state funding of schooling has differed from
department to department, and so has the magnitude of financial contributions to schooling
made by parents or the community. For example, using figures for 1992 or 1993:
- In the former Self-Governing Territories, community schools
(a class of state-aided school) accounted for 87 per cent of all schools and all
enrolments.
- In the Department of Education and Training, state-aided
schools (mainly farm schools) accounted for 70 per cent of all schools but 19 per cent of
all enrolments.
- In the former House of Delegates, state schools accounted
for over 90 per cent of both enrolments and schools.
- In the former House of Representatives, state-aided (mainly
church) schools accounted for 44 per cent of all schools.
- In the former House of Assembly, state-aided (Model C)
schools accounted for 94 per cent of both schools and enrolments.
- Private schools accounted for less than four per cent of
schools and enrolments in the former House of Assembly, and no more than one to two per
cent elsewhere.
[ Top ]
The need for a managed process of change
16 The present pattern of organisation, governance and
funding of schools is a patchwork from the past. It contravenes the rights to equality and
non-discrimination which the Constitution guarantees. As a basis for a national system in
a democratic South Africa it is dysfunctional and cannot continue unchanged.
17 The Ministry of Education is keenly aware of the need
for a clear strategy to defuse the tensions surrounding the issues of school governance
and funding. The Ministry is required to send a clear signal to the people of South Africa
that the school system is being democratised. The parents, teachers, students, managers
and other stakeholders who are seeking an equitable and democratic solution which will
best serve the educational needs of all communities, need a lead from the national
Ministry of Education which will encourage them in their efforts.
18 Many schools already reflect good, accountable
management, with high levels of community participation, despite the inequalities and
distortions inherent in the apartheid-based organisational and funding structures. The
task facing educational leadership is to recognise the best experience from all parts of
the system and, where necessary, enable communities to reshape their structures of
governance so that they reflect constitutional principles including democracy,
non-racialism and non-sexism.
19 It is understandable that many parents, school
principals, teachers and students are uncertain about what the changes in the system of
education will mean for their schools and themselves. Those who are accustomed to stable
schools, which have close links with the social, cultural and religious life of their
communities, and honoured traditions, may feel that what is precious to them is threatened
by unknown changes they may be unable to influence or control. Communities which have been
favoured by the past political dispensation, and who know that a democratically elected
government, representing an overwhelmingly poor electorate, cannot be expected to fund
their privileges, may be particularly apprehensive about what is in store.
20 Equally, parents, teachers and students who have had to
cope with appalling conditions, the result of decades of under-resourcing, instability,
wasted human potential and low morale, have high expectations from a government they
believe rightly is committed to redress.
21 In many of our schools, principals and teachers have
been grappling with the challenges of educating students from different historical,
cultural and language backgrounds. The students and parents concerned have willingly borne
the brunt of these changes, which will now accelerate in schools throughout the country.
The government believes, and this was confirmed in the public response to the draft
version of this document, that the overwhelming majority of South African parents in all
communities accept that schools should not and must not be racially exclusive, that they
must be democratically governed, and that state funding of schools must be equitable.
22 In all spheres of economic, social, religious and
political life, South Africans are learning to live, work and plan together. Events in the
sphere of local government are potentially important for education. The success of
negotiating forums in achieving agreed local government boundaries and preparing for the
election of democratic, non-racial councils in cities, towns and rural areas, should
assist in creating a new social context for the local organisation and governance of
schools.
23 The Ministry of Education is not suggesting that local
governments should be assigned powers to run educational services. That is a matter for
the education departments and provincial legislatures to consider when new local
government councils have been elected and have stabilised. The point is that the moral
climate of non-racial local government negotiations is likely to influence, hopefully for
the better, a similar process in local (or district) school governance. Local Education
and Training Forums can make an important contribution to the process of transition, until
decisions on permanent governance structures have been taken by provincial governments and
enacted by their legislatures.
24 Change must now be managed by the new education
authorities in a systematic, inclusive and fully participatory way. Education departments
must lead but not dictate. If radical change is imposed on schools by top-down direction
in the absence of participation by those whose interests and identities are at stake, the
result will be predictably disastrous. The Ministry of Education accepts that change will
not be an overnight process but continuous over a period of time. In many parts of the
country, local organisational capacity among stakeholder groups has been poorly developed
and in some cases actively discouraged by previous authorities. It will take time for
local leadership to emerge and engage with the new Departments of Education. The
departments should be prepared to act flexibly while local capacity is being built, and to
aid and facilitate that process.
25 The issue is not whether the organisation, governance
and funding of the education system will change. Change is inevitable and cannot be
delayed. The issue is whether a new and just ispensation in t e schools will be brought
about in the new South African way, by negotiating peacefully, according to the spirit and
letter of the Constitution, in the service of both national unity and cultural diversity.
26 For its part, the Ministry of Education is convinced
that peace in the schools is a prerequisite for democratic transformation in education.
All the educational goals and programmes of the government depend upon achieving and
maintaining a disciplined and purposeful school environment, dedicated to the improvement
of quality throughout the system. The Ministry of Education is therefore committed to an
inclusive process of negotiated change toward the full democratisation of school
organisation and governance, and the following proposals are made in that spirit.
[ Top ]
Establishing a new pattern of school ownership,
governance and funding
27 A new national policy framework for school organisation
is essential to provide a firm basis for action by the provincial Ministries of Education
in the full exercise of their legislative competence. The framework must clarify the legal
status of different categories of schools, and establish national norms and standards for
school governance and finance.
28 The framework must be developed on the basis of
principles which are in full accord with the Constitution, consistent with the best South
African experience, easily understood, and likely to raise the quality and effectiveness
of schooling where it is most needed.
29 The Ministry of Education proposes the following
principles as the basis of the new policy framework for school ownership, governance and
finance:
(1) Legal categories of schools
(a)The categories of schools recognised in law should be as
few as possible.
(b)The categories should be based on clear criteria such as
ownership, funding, and relationship to departments of education.
(c)The categories should be uniform across the country.
(d)The categories should assist the elimination of
inequitable and outmoded divisions between the inherited categories of schools.
(e)The categories should include, but need not be confined
to: state, state- aided, and independent schools.
(f)The circumstances of special schools should be given
particular attention.
(g)The categories should accommodate the constitutional
provisions affecting school ownership.
(h)There should be clearly stated conditions under which a
school or group of schools might be permitted to change their category.
(2) Governance
(a)The term "governing body" should be used as
the general term to describe school governance structures in all categories of schools.
(b)The principle of an articulated provincial system of
schools needs to be upheld. Therefore, the relationships of school governing bodies to
education governance structures within provincial education systems, need to be defined.
(c)School governing bodies should be representative of the
main stakeholders in the school. Parents have the most at stake in the education of their
children, and this should be reflected in the composition of governing bodies, where this
is practicably possible. The head or principal of a school should be a member of the
governing body ex off icio.
(d)In primary schools, the main stakeholders for purposes
of governance comprise the parents and teachers.
(e)In secondary schools, the main stakeholders for purposes
of governance comprise parents, teachers, and students. It is recognised that these
stakeholders can play different roles with respect to different elements of school
governance.
(f)The composition of governing bodies should be sensitive
to racial and gender representation, and (in the case of special schools especially) to
citizens who can best represent special education needs.
(g)State involvement in school governance should be at the
minimum required for legal accountability, and should in any case be based on
participative management.
(h)The decision-making powers of governing bodies should
reflect their capacity to render effective service.
(i)A capacity-building programme should go hand-in-hand
with the assignment of powers to governing bodies. This should be supplemented by
management programmes for principals and inspectors, to ensure a smooth transition to the
new school governance system.
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(3) Finance
(a)The basis of financial allocations to different
categories of state and state-aided schools must be equitable and transparent, aimed at
eliminating historical disparities based on race and region and ensuring an acceptable
quality of education.
(b)In particular, an equitable staff provision scale or
scales, must be phased in at state and state-aided schools as rapidly as possible, in full
consultation with the representative organisations of the teaching profession.
(c)The phasing in of an equitable staff provision scale or
scales should be based on acceptable educational planning principles, with attention to
the requirements of the curriculum, the quality and effectiveness of educational delivery,
financial capacity, the physical size of classrooms, the number of students per class, the
number of children with special educational needs, and personnel implications.
(d)The question of the eligibility of independent schools
for state subsidies must be determined using clear and equitable criteria based on the
public interest, and the observance of constitutional guarantees.
(e)Appropriate periods of notice must be built in to any
significant changes in funding patterns.
30 These principles involve extremely complex legal,
financial, administrative, educational and political issues. With the advice and support
of the Council of Education Ministers, and in consultation with the National Education and
Training Forum and national organisations of teachers, students, parents and school
governing bodies, the Minister of Education will without delay appoint a Committee to
Review School Organisation, Governance and Funding.
31 The Review Committee will be asked to analyse the
current situation of school organisation, governance and funding in terms of existing
legislation, the 1993 Constitution, to undertake suitable research, including research on
relevant international conventions and comparative experience, to receive oral and written
submissions in all provinces, and on the basis of its findings, and the Ministry of
Education's Statement of Principles above, to recommend to the Minister:
a proposed national framework of school organisation and
ownership, and norms and standards on school governance and funding which, in the view of
the committee, are likely to command the widest possible public support, accord with the
requirements of the Constitution, improve the quality and effectiveness of schools, and be
financially sustainable from public funds.
The Review Committee will be asked specifically to advise
on the process by which these matters should be negotiated, in terms of section 247 of the
Constitution.
32 The Minister will appoint to the committee specialists
nominated by stakeholders on the basis of their knowledge of the school system, expertise,
experience and wise judgment. Members will serve in their personal capacities. The overall
composition of the committee will reflect the principle of representivity, and be such as
to command the confidence of the widest possible cross-section of the public. The
reporting date of the committee will balance the need for early decisions with the
undoubted complexity of the issues and the need for widely acceptable, educationally
progressive and constitutionally sound solutions.
33 The Ministry of Education is aware that a transformation
of this magnitude, which evokes expectations, uncertainties and fears, can be facilitated
by techniques and processes of change management. The Department of Education will consult
with the Heads of Education Departments Committee to establish how best to assist
education managers at all levels to respond professionally and with creativity to the new
environment. Their leadership is an essential factor in success.
[ Top ]
Meeting The Commitment To Free and Compulsory General
Education
Introduction
1 Education provision during a basic phase is now
recognised as a fundamental human right in many countries, including both industrialised
and developing nations. In these countries, state provision of education during the basic
phase is usually justified on equity grounds, that is, the provision of free and
compulsory education during the basic phase is meant to ensure that all citizens have
access to education of equal quality.
2 The government is committed to the goal of providing
access to general education for all children from a reception year up to Grade 9 (Standard
7), funded by the state at an acceptable level of quality, and to achieve this goal in the
shortest possible time. This goal is often referred to as the provision of "ten
years' free and compulsory general education for all". Achieving this goal is central
to the national development strategy but it will require hard work, cooperation and
compromises from all the education role players including government, educators, parents
and students.
3 The implementation of the commitment to the provision of
general education for all must be based on two sets of principles. One is a set of broad
policy principles, while the other is a set of compatible but more detailed operational
principles which underpin the implementation strategy.
Broad policy principles
4 Access. Extending access into the education system has
two main components. First, capacity must be expanded. The number of schools and
classrooms has to be increased so that there are sufficient places for all children. There
is a need also to ensure that these schools are adequately staffed, that they are located
where they are needed, and that they are in fact accessible to learners in their areas. It
is a waste of resources to have underused buildings in one place and overcrowded
classrooms in another. Most importantly, it is necessary to ensure that current capacity
is fully utilised.
5 Second, there is a need to understand and, where
possible, address the barriers that prevent some children from going to school. Distance
and lack of transport, hunger, disability, looking after younger siblings, herding,
household tasks, lack of parental guidance, homelessness, having to find work, and
inability to pay for uniforms, are all factors which may prevent children enrolling for
school or remaining in school for the duration of the programme. Only some of these
matters fall within the competence of the education departments to alleviate, but most
will be affected for the better as the Reconstruction and Development Programme takes hold
at grassroots level.
6 Equity. The constitutional right of equal access to
educational institutions was discussed at length in chapter 7. In addition to ensuring
that this right is understood, respected and protected, within the framework of rights
relating to education, the government has an obligation to facilitate equitable access to
schooling and its benefits. Despite impressive increases in enrolments during the past two
decades, significant numbers of children of school-going age have remained out of school.
The vast majority of them come from one or more of the traditionally disadvantaged groups
in society: they live in a rural area, or in a high-density urban settlement, they are
poor, and they are most likely to be Coloured or African.
7 To achieve equitable access, expanded access is itself a
necessary first step. The fact that many children have remained out of school altogether
casts a shadow over the efforts of the education departments to improve the quality of
education of those who are enrolled. It is equally unsatisfactory that many students leave
school after one or two years. Making sure that there are enough schools and classrooms
for all children, competent teachers to teach them, and a supporting environment to
encourage students and their parents to value regular school attendance for the duration
of the cycle, is therefore the foundation for constructing an equitable education system.
[ Top ]
8 To reduce the inequalities of the past requires
affirmative action. It is not sufficient simply to announce that discrimination by race or
gender is now illegal. The discrimination that was introduced in the past was not just a
matter of the allocation of resources and of everyday practices.
9 It is essential, therefore, to redress imbalances
generated through historical inequalities in provision, and at the school level this is
now being done. Ways have been found to encourage children to attend schools that formerly
excluded them. Parents and their children have been encouraged to seek out education
opportunities that were previously denied them, and schools have opened their doors and
where necessary expanded their educational programmes to accommodate them. Imaginative
solutions, even if temporary, have been found to accommodate the large numbers of students
who are claiming their right to attend schools in both rural and urban areas. In these
respects, despite the inevitable difficulties, a giant stride forward toward access,
equity, mutual cooperation and the negotiation of differences has been taken in 1995 by
school communities all over the country, and by the provincial authorities. There is still
a long way to go, but an encouraging start has been made.
10 Affirmative action means providing special encouragement
and support for those who experienced discrimination in the past. Clearly, not everyone
needs or should receive that special assistance. Thus, to achieve equity, it may be
necessary to pursue policies that treat different groups of people in somewhat different
ways. For example, if girls have been systematically discouraged from selecting subject
combinations that emphasise mathematics and science, then achieving equitable education
requires that new ways be found to encourage more girls to select those subjects.
11 One way of measuring the success of the system in
achieving the removal of injustices and obstacles in access to school will be measured by
analysing which children are being admitted and are continuing to attend school, and under
what conditions. For example, the implementation of pre-school programmes needs to be
targeted at those communities where this facility has never been provided. We should not
be satisfied by enrolment and promotion rates in basic general education that vary
significantly from one district to another. Nor should we be satisfied by a system in
which some children have sufficient textbooks in every subject and well equipped libraries
and laboratories, while other children sit on the floor in large classes, in tents or
under trees, and lack books, furniture, libraries and laboratories.
12 Not only should measures of access be monitored, but it
is vital to measure and monitor results or outcomes, in order to ensure that the current
disparities in learners' opportunities to achieve an acceptable level of learning are
regularly monitored so that appropriate remedies can be planned and implemented. For
example, do girls stop their schooling sooner than boys, or vice versa? Are pass rates
systematically and consistently higher in some provinces and circuits or districts than in
others? Achieving equity in results is complex and difficult but the education system will
fail the children if we aim at anything less.
13 Quality. The achievement of general education for all
has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. Any suitable definition of basic general
education needs to embrace not merely the proportion of eligible children attending
school, but also the nature and quality of schooling offered. The implementation of the
compulsory phase implies not merely securing formal attendance at school but also ensuring
that the material and human resources made available to schools from state funds are
sufficient to allow an acceptable quality of learning to proceed.
14 Perhaps the most important challenge in improving the
quality of our education system is to ensure that our teachers are well prepared for the
major responsibilities they carry. It is essential that teachers are helped to develop the
expertise and skills that will enable them to stimulate learning. It is necessary to
ensure that children have sufficient textbooks and instructional materials. The physical
facilities of schools must provide a decent environment for learning. Many of our schools
are in a state of disrepair. Many are in ruins. Furthermore, many lack basic furniture,
storage space, electricity, a safe water supply, toilets, a school library, laboratories,
workshops, and recreational facilities.
15 Education financing policies must direct the
distribution of the limited public resources so that the goals of universal provision and
equalisation are attained, but in such a way that educational inputs which are known to be
strategically necessary for improved quality are both safeguarded and enhanced. Access
without quality improvement in basic general education is a recipe for disappointment, and
perpetuates an inevitable loss of productivity higher up the education system, in training
and in the work- place. The early years of learning must be a special priority for
targeted expenditure, so that the best possible foundation can be laid consistent with our
means.
[ Top ]
16 Efficiency and sustainability. Educational efficiency is
linked to quality of provision. Achieving or improving efficiency in the education system
will require us to reduce repetition and drop-out rates and increase the quantity and
quality of output from the system.
17 However, an efficient, outcomes-oriented system of
state-provided general education for all can take place only within a context of financial
sustainability. Currently, nearly a quarter of the government's expenditure is allocated
to education, which has to compete for resources with other sectors such as health, social
welfare and housing, where the needs are also substantial. Within the education sector,
the requirements of the general education phase must respond to justifiable pressures for
greater access, quality, equity and sustainability in all other phases of the system.
18 The large gaps that need to be closed between schools
and communities with the highest and lowest spending per pupil, as well as the resourcing
needed for the education of teachers and the construction of schools, will consume a large
proportion of the education budget each year. Providing ten years of fee-free education
for all in state schools will mean increasing expenditure year on year as more children
are brought into the system and stay longer. Moreover, if economic growth is sluggish, the
budgetary resources available to education will be seriously constrained. Thus the
restructuring, expansion and qualitative improvement of the school system must be handled
in a manner which ensures its financial sustainability.
19 Democratic governance. The sustainability of a policy of
general education for all is not just a financial concept. It is a profoundly important
attribute of the value the community, particularly the parent community, places upon the
educational services for its young people. Without a democratic governance structure
representing the principal stakeholders of the school, there is no prospect that the
provision of an acceptable level of general education for children from state resources
can be properly managed, sustained, and enhanced. The principle of ownership of the school
by the community it serves is therefore a foundation for the successful implementation of
the policy and the provision of quality basic general education for all.
Operational principles
20 A number of operational principles will facilitate the
implementation strategy for achieving access to general education for all, or "ten
years free and compulsory education". These fall into three categories, dealing with
the separate components of "ten years", "compulsory" and
"free".
Ten years: the reception year within the General
Education cycle
21 The Ministry of Education is in agreement that the
General Education level within the school system under the National Qualification
Framework should comprise a reception year and nine school years from Grades 1-9 (Sub A to
Standard 7). Since at present the reception or pre-school year is not included in the
basic education phase, the effect will be to add a year at the bottom end of the
demographic pyramid. The implementation of the reception year will take place over a
period of years when there is also significant growth in participation rates from Grade 1
upwards. The consequences for the capacity of the system are therefore considerable, and
the following operational principles are necessary to enable the national and provincial
departments to approach the goal in an affordable and sustainable manner.
22 Reception year state-supported but not compulsory in the
first phase. In order to permit the system to expand to accommodate the increased demand,
attendance in the reception or pre-school year should not be mandatory except in areas
where capacity exists.
23 A variety of institutional forms of reception year
provision to be supported. Considerable capacity already exists in non-state pre-schools,
although nowhere near enough for all children. The tradition of community provision of
pre-schooling is an appropriate and valuable asset which should in no way be undermined
but on the contrary should be encouraged and supported. The role of non-governmental
organisations, including religious and other community-based structures, has been
strategically important. Private provision has a long history in more affluent
communities.
24 In the first phase, therefore, the implementation of the
reception year must ensure that all the available capacity is fully employed and enhanced,
subject to a proper regulatory framework to ensure children's safety and well-being and
safeguard against fraud and exploitation. State per capita grants should be available to
community and private institutions which meet reasonable and acceptable standards, and the
capacity in state and state-aided schools must be fully utilised wherever it exists.
[ Top ]
25 Priority for under-resourced areas. The phasing-in of
the state-supported reception year must be done in a manner which accords priority to
those areas of greatest need and least financial capacity within communities.
26 Teacher education for the reception year. It is
essential to ensure that the reception year does not simply constitute a lowering of the
age of admission to school, with inappropriate or harmful teaching methods and curriculum.
The phasing-in of state support must therefore follow or run parallel with the preparation
or up-grading of adequate numbers of teachers with the specific skills required for
reception or pre-school education. This would be facilitated by approving an accredited
set of appropriate qualifications for teachers in the early childhood and foundation
learning phase, and enabling accredited training agencies to enrol increasing numbers of
candidates for certificated courses. Teachers of early learners need the incentive of a
recognised and respected career path.
27 Support services for the reception year. It is equally
essential to ensure that the phasing in of the reception year is accompanied by an
appropriate curriculum, the availability of inexpensive and appropriate learning and
teaching materials, and appropriately trained, mobile professional resource staff, and
resource centres for the use of teachers.
28 Rigorous enforcement of the minimum admission age.
Primary schools and reception or pre-school classes must not become creches for children
who require a different kind of nurturing environment. The minimum age of admission to the
reception year must therefore be rigorously applied.
Compulsory education
29 The basis for the state's commitment to compulsory
general education is to be found in the fundamental right of all persons to basic
education (see chapter 7, paragraph 1 1), and the Ministry of Education's policy for
compulsory education therefore provides one of the necessary elements of the framework
within which the constitutional rights of the child can be assured. Compulsory education
will also provide a legal instrument to prevent the exploitation of child labour at the
expense of the child's education. The Constitution obliges the state, parents and others
who might have such authority to uphold the rights of the child to education.
30 Compulsory education comprises two elements: compulsory
provision, and compulsory attendance. The following operational principles should underlie
the implementation strategy.
31 Compulsory provision. The state is required to ensure
that educational opportunities of acceptable quality are available to every child for the
General Education period. This means that no child can be denied access to schooling for
the compulsory period. It does not mean, as has been discussed in chapter 7, paragraphs
18-52, in relation to the constitutional right of access and other fundamental rights
concerning education, that every child has the right of access to any school whatsoever.
The operational principle is thatthe right of access applies to publiclyfunded schools
nearest the child's home, subjectto the provisions of the Constitution referred to above.
A second operational principle is that if a child for good and sufficient reason cannot be
accommodated at the nearest school or a school in the neighbourhood, the education
authorities are obliged to assist the parents and the child concerned to find a suitable
alternative.
32 Compulsory attendance. A law providing for compulsory
attendance places a legal obligation on the parents of children covered by the compulsory
education period to ensure that children attend school for that period. All systems of
compulsory attendance in other countries make appropriate provisions for exemption. A
child's parents cannot be required to ensure the child's attendance if no educational
facilities are available to them. There are other circumstances where the hnterests of the
child might be compromised by compulsory attendance at a school, and here the guiding
principle would ensure a due process of determination of the child's best interests, and
due recognition of the rights both of the parents and of the child.
33 Compulsory school attendance age range. The enforcement
of compulsory attendance by law can be phased in only when it is clear that the capacity
for each successive age group exists, and when the ground has been prepared in the
affected communities so that the full implications of compulsory attendance are
understood. Compulsory birth registration is an essential precondition for regulating
admissions to school and, over time, eliminating under-age and over-age enrolment.
[ Top ]
34 In view of the capacity problem, the Ministry of
Education, through the Council of Education Ministers, will review possible legal
enforcement measures in respect of the designated age-group, taking into account the
availability of school facilities, the appropriate preparation of parents for the
implementation of compulsory attendance, and the availability of an appropriate service to
deal with non-attendance.
35 In time, the social acceptance of compulsory birth
registration and compulsory school attendance should be at a sufficiently high level, and
the participation rate in school sufficiently high, that, with appropriate notice being
given, the policy can be legally enforced by the provincial Ministries of Education for
the designated age group, on the basis of designated magisterial districts, until by
stages the whole country is covered.
36 In due course, the Ministry of Education will take
appropriate advice from public bodies and its statutory consultative structure, consult
the Council of Education Ministers and determine where the compulsory attendance age range
should be established, for instance at 5-14 years or 6-15 years. For the time being, the
operational principles should be that the minimum age of enrolment in the reception year
be rigorously enforced, that so far as practicably possible, alternative educational
provision, such as in Community Learning Centres, be made for over-age young people who
are following the General Education curriculum, and that a Grade 9 or Standard 7 level of
attainment be regarded as the appropriate cut-off for the compulsory period.
Free education
37 It is well understood that all public education is a
service which costs, that the costs must be paid for from public funds via the tax-payers
and other revenues, or by the parents, or by the community. In this sense there is no free
education.
38 The Ministry of Education considers the provision of
General Education of acceptable quality in the compulsory phase as a public
responsibility, to be funded by the state at an affordable and sustainable level. The
following operational principles provide guidance for an implementation strategy.
39 Provision by the state of teachers at an agreed ratio.
The major resource in the schooling process is the provision of a qualified teacher. In
terms of this principle, the state should undertake to fund teaching posts at affordable
and educationally viable ratios at all state and state-aided schools.
40 Provision at state schools of basic physical plant and
equipment. The principle here is that the state has an obligation to provide the basic
physical facilities and equipment to all state schools. The parameters of this provision
will be negotiated with stakeholders and in the Council of Education Ministers in the
light of the resource constraints. It should include access to classrooms of an agreed
standard at an agreed ratio, the provision of basic services and infrastructure such as
water, toilets, electricity, and an administration block, as well as educationally
necessary facilities such as a library, laboratories and workshops where appropriate, and
recreational facilities.
41 Prioritisation of physical provision. The provision of
these facilities will need to be made on a prioritised basis according to an Index of Need
for each school, which the national and provincial Departments of Education are in the
process of preparing, taking into account the possibilities of optimising resource
utilisation through the sharing of facilities between schools, where this is physically
feasible.
42 Provision of basic learning materials. The state has an
obligation in terms of this policy to ensure that students have access to basic learning
materials such as textbooks and stationery, and teachers have access to basic teaching
materials such as syllabuses, teachers' guides, and an appropriate range and level of
other resources including reference materials. Where schools or parents choose to make
available a higher level of provision than is deemed affordable by the state, the
principle should apply that they may provide the additional resources out of school
development funds.
43 School development funds. School development fund
contributions are voluntary contributions made by parents and others, and administered by
school governing bodies, to assist with improving the facilities and educational resources
and other development activities of the school. Such contributions are not required by
law, unlike the school fees which the governing bodies of state-aided or state-subsidised
schools are empowered to charge under current legislation, in order to supplement the
state subsidy they receive. Since the Minister of Education's Review Committee on School
Organisation, Governance and Funding will examine such matters in order to propose an
equitable and educationally acceptable school governance and finance policy for the
future, it is unnecessary to comment further on the distinction between legally- required
school fees and voluntary school development funds.
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44 It need only be said that the Ministry of Education
strongly supports the principle of voluntary school development funds, managed and
accounted for by the school governing bodies, and controlled and audited by the education
authorities in order to ensure that fraud is not committed and funds are used for purposes
of educational development. The principle of voluntary subscription by parents, and
responsible, collective decision-making by the school community as to the way in which
school improvements should be made, is and will remain a very important part of the
national strategy to achieve basic general education for all.
Implementation of ten years general education for all
45 The implementation of the "ten years free and
compulsory education" policy began on 1 January 1995 with the enrolment of all six
year olds in Grade 1, as announced by the Minister of Education. This is only the first
step. The policy will be phased in over a number of years.
46 It is essential for the Council of Education Ministers
to consider and approve a clear implementation programme based on the operational
principles described above, with targets, target dates, and a monitoring and reporting
mechanism. Individual provincial authorities face very different educational needs, and
have different financial and infrastructural capacities, though these should move towards
equitable provision in terms of the requirements of the Constitution. In the mean time,
provincial Ministries of Education may wish to set targets and target dates appropriate to
their circumstances, but within limits or parameters set by the Minister of Education
after due investigation and consultation.
47 When the situation in schools has largely stabilised,
the data on the 1995 school year have been assessed, and provisional targets and target
dates have been established, it will be appropriate to mount a national schools campaign.
The campaign, which could be linked appropriately to the RDP Presidential Lead Programme
on the Culture of Learning, could encourage parents and communities to assess their
obligations to their children's schools, ensure that school governing bodies are
functioning in the best interests of the children's education, and increase their moral,
financial and practical contributions to their schools'development.
School costs at post-compulsory level
48 It is necessary to allay fears that the introduction and
implementation of "free and compulsory general education" implies a complete
absence of state subsidisation of students in Grades 10-12 (Standards 8-10). This is
emphatically not the case. State subsidisation of senior secondary education is crucial to
ensure that a significant proportion of students from all South African families,
particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, are able to proceed
to and beyond the matriculation level.
49 The level of state subsidisation of senior secondary
education will depend most obviously on the level of per capita expenditure that is
allocated to the general education sector in the compulsory phase and the priority the
government attaches to sustaining good quality schooling in the post- compulsory phase.
The levels of state subsidy will also be related to the extent to which students and their
families can be expected to contribute to the cost of provision, quite apart from whatever
voluntary contributions they might make.
50 It would be appropriate for the Department of Education,
in conjunction with its provincial counterparts, to give serious consideration to the
creation of an equitable funding system for senior secondary education which reflects the
strategic importance of this level of education, the weight to be attached to subsidy from
public resources, the proportion of funding to be expected from fee payments according to
a family income-related scale, the necessity and scope of bursary provision, and the
extent of additional funding which schools might be expected to raise from other sources
according to their circumstances.
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1 This document represents the first steps along the long
road of restructuring education in South Africa. The educational problems of our country
run deep and there are no easy or quick-fix solutions. Even when educational changes enjoy
wide support they necessarily take several years to work their way through the system
because educational cycles tend to be very long.
2 The policy framework set out in this document does not
constitute the Ministry of Education's final blueprint for educational transformation. The
policy proposals address the areas which require urgent direction as the new government
seeks to transform the fragmented and ethnically-based system into a non-racial system of
education and training.
3 The Ministry of Education will be developing further
policy in the future, and is committed to do so in consultation with all stakeholders and
roleplayers.
4 The policy proposals set out in this draft document are
directed at initiating fundamental change in the character and content of our education
and training system. They are designed to ensure democratisation, a clear framework for
redress, equity, and the transformation of our educational bureaucracy. It is a challenge
which we can only meet collectively and in a partnership of all sectors of South African
society.
5 The Ministry of Education is mindful that the struggle
for a democratic education system has played a central role in defining the parameters for
change. The gains from this struggle have been obtained at an exorbitant human and social
cost. We acknowledge those who fought so hard for the human right to a free and equal
basic education.
6 We owe it to them, to ourselves and future generations to
make a sharp break from the educational inequity and deprivation of the past. The Ministry
of Education invites all South Africans to join the project of establishing a democratic
education and training system, which will open the gates of learning and culture to all,
and ensure that our nation's human resources and potential are developed to the full.
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Last modified: 23 April 2008 12:54:05. |
