Ann Eveleth
PRESSURE is mounting in educational circles for a re-think on timeframes for implementing the new school curriculum as funding shortages, training backlogs and staff vacancies pile up.
Gauteng and Eastern Cape education officials this week called on the national government to scale down plans to put the new outcomes-based education system into effect in two grades – one and seven – from next January. They want implementation to be restricted to grade one.
“Among the problems we are facing is a lack of resources and understaffing in district offices which are expected to carry the bulk of curriculum work and teacher training. If we could spend more time making sure teachers understand the new curriculum we will be in a much better position to implement more changes in 1999,” said Gauteng’s curriculum and teaching development head, Haroon Mahomed.
The Eastern Cape faces similar problems. The province’s director of curriculum and policy development, Makhunga Njobe, said his department also favours a reduction of next year’s implementation goals – or even a complete delay to 1999.
“Even if the national department gives us the learning programmmes and exemplars by the end of May, we need time to run a pilot for at least one school term. That takes us to September, and then the publishers will have only three months to put new materials in teachers’ hands.
“Teachers must also be trained. I fear the less-trained teachers and their pupils are going to be left behind if we go too fast,” he said.
It was unclear whether other provinces would support this call, but fears about the pace of implementation appear to be gaining momentum.
Teams of national Education Department officials are visiting their provincial counterparts to assess capacity shortfalls. The Institute for Catholic Education – representing about 700 schools – this week also called on the department to confine next year’s implementation to grade one.
The national department had not responded to repeated queries on its position at the time of publication, but policy analysts say there is a growing realisation that many provinces – tasked for the first time with curriculum and materials development – may lack the capacity to meet current timeframes.
Centre for Education Policy Development analyst Moreka Monyokolo said this is not the first time national implementation plans have fallen foul of provincial logistics: “Earlier this year the national department dropped plans to implement in grades four and nine after pressure from the provinces. National officials have also had to step in and set up a partnership with provinces to speed up the development of learning programmes.”
He said the current problems were not surprising as many policy-makers had known the provinces, most of which had just set up skeletal curriculum departments, would not be ready in time.