An alarmed publishing industry is up in arms over the threat of state involvement, reports Gaye Davis
A SHOWDOWN is looming between the book publishing industry and the Department of National Education over proposals for greater state involvement in producing learning materials for schools.
Bodies representing publishers, printers, paper manufacturers and booksellers met last week to discuss what they see as the threat of state publishing and its implications for the industry, including possible job losses.
At issue is the production of learning materials – teacher guides and worksheets as well as textbooks – for the new school curriculum, to be phased in over four years starting in January 1998.
While Education Deputy Director General Dr Ihron Rensburg, in charge of curriculum management, has dismissed the industry’s anxiety as “unnecessary”, saying no policy decisions had yet been taken and that textbooks would remain central among materials used in schools, the industry is taking the threat seriously.
“The threat originates with some senior provincial curriculum planners who appear to believe that the state’s intervention is required if the new 1998 syllabus implementation deadline is to be achieved,” said Publishers’ Association of South Africa (Pasa) chairperson Kate McCallum.
Publishers had committed themselves to having materials ready and available in time, she said. But with 15 months to go to implementation, there were no new curricula based on the new outcomes-based education system, no mechanisms in place for training teachers, and no clear policy statements regarding the provision of books.
Rensburg is on record as saying the relationship between publishers, the state and schools would have to undergo a major review.
The new curriculum marks a major shift from rote-learning to outcomes-based education. Rensburg said this demanded a range of learning materials, rather than textbooks only, and aimed at “empowering educators” to play a key role in developing curricula and learning materials.
The new approach meant the old system of publishers employing writers to draft texts could not continue. Rensburg said he had told publishers this.
“At the same time, I have made clear the need for a co-operative and collaborative approach with publishers. We have had a number of meetings with them, developing strategies for dealing with the pace of implementation. I am keen that as far as possible differences between us will be overcome but at the end of the day, we’ve got a job to do.”
McCallum said publishers raised concerns about the scale and pace for implementing the new curriculum with the department seven months ago. Publishers, paper suppliers, printers and booksellers all needed advance warning to plan for providing extra numbers of textbooks in the shortened supply-and- delivery period.
While committed to working with education departments to implement educational reform, publishers legs were “being chopped off at the knees in the process”, said McCallum.
In pointing out problems, publishers had been accused of not co-operating and were told that if they were unable or unwilling to provide books in January 1998, then education departments would do so themselves.
McCallum said if learning materials were largely produced by the state, long-term consequences for the book-publishing industry would include:
* loss of income for the country’s estimated 9 000 educational authors;
* fewer new books published as publishers would not be able to cross-subsidise less- lucrative areas;
* loss of skills; and
* a decline in business for printers, booksellers and other industry sectors.
The ultimate decision about what learning materials get used in schools lies with provincial education departments who will have to foot the bill. The job of the National Education Department is to set norms and standards, which will be secured through the new curriculum.
Materials policy was to be discussed this week between national and provincial education department officials. Rensburg told the Mail & Guardian he hoped a “collaborative approach” would result in a “common co- ordinated policy”.
The M&G has established that while some provincial education departments favour producing learning materials themselves, others are opposed on grounds that they do not have the capacity to perform the task.
Head of curriculum development in the Free State Frank Rumboll stressed that no decisions had been taken, but said what was being discussed was making learning more dynamic with dwindling financial resources.
However, a source involved in textbook development said while internally produced materials worked in countries such as Scotland and Holland, teachers there were highly trained and motivated.
“In a country where the education system is failing to a large extent because of the quality of teachers it would be a recipe for disaster to ask them to produce materials themselves,” he said.
Rensburg would not be drawn on the projected cost of internally produced materials, but said it would be “fairly dramatic”. National policy on the new curriculum and a resourcing strategy would be announced in late November.
However, he said about R1,1-billion would have to be spent on introducing new textbooks in 1998 for grades one (six books), four (10 books), and seven (14 books).