Since January 2001, a ministerial project committee, about 150 educationists representing all stakeholders and a team of administrative staff have been involved in the production of a National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Grades R to 9 (General Education and Training).
The NCS specifies learning outcomes and assessment standards for each learning area on a grade-by-grade basis. It is designed to give teachers a clear sense of the minimum knowledge and skills they should be covering in each learning programme in each grade.
The final version of the overview, or introduction, to the NCS was released in Pretoria on April 15 2002. It outlines the principles that inform the NCS, provides a definition for each of the eight learning areas and presents the learning outcomes for each learning area. These learning outcomes will eventually replace the existing specific outcomes. It does not, however, include the assessment standards that have been specified for each grade.
Publishers are first in line in the chain of service providers that will be involved in delivering the NCS to schools through the textbooks they produce. While the overview provides clear policy for learning programmes in the Foundation and Senior Phases, there is likely to be some confusion about how many learning programmes there will be in the Intermediate Phase.
The overview states that Languages and Mathematics are distinct learning programmes in the Intermediate Phase. It also indicates that, in this phase, the prescribed outcomes for each learning area need to be covered ‘”effectively and comprehensively” and that “schools may decide on the number and nature of learning programmes based on the organisational imperatives of the school”.
Decentralising the decision regarding the number of learning programmes a school will offer has merit. It allows schools to organise the curriculum based on the qualifications and preferences of the teachers who will be delivering the curriculum. However, it poses difficulties for publishers as they cannot anticipate what combinations of learning areas different schools or different provinces might choose.
It is therefore important that the DoE communicates textbook requirements for this phase to publishers as a matter of urgency. Most publishers are already commissioning textbooks for the Foundation Phase (to be implemented in 2004) as well as the Intermediate Phase (to be implemented in 2005).
Understandably many publishers are planning eight different textbooks for the Intermediate Phase – one for each learning area. One hopes that this is in line with the thinking of the DoE and its provincial counterparts. If not, there needs to be unambiguous communication on this matter between the relevant role players in the next month or two.
The education community is now eagerly awaiting the release of the final version of the learning area statements for each of the eight learning areas. These learning area statements will specify the assessment standards for each learning area for each grade.
Some publishers have managed to access the February 15 2002 versions of these learning area statements via the back door. Because of legalities and other technical aspects that need to be addressed, the final version of the learning area statements is unlikely to be in the public domain until the end of May or the middle of June 2002.
It would help to ensure alignment between the final version of the NCS and the textbooks that are produced, especially for the Foundation Phase, if the Publishers’ Association of South Africa were sent electronic copies of the latest version of the learning outcomes and assessment standards for the Foundation Phase as soon as possible. The tightness of the writing and production deadlines, particularly for the Foundation Phase, means that every week counts.
Information is empowering. The DoE needs to keep the momentum of streamlining the curriculum going by communicating regularly with all stakeholders. In particular, publishers, provincial officials, schools managers and teachers need regular updates about the implications of the NCS for their work.
The deputy director general for General Education and Training, Duncan Hindle, who is responsible for the implementation of the NCS, has promised that there will be “no short supply of information”. Provincial and school managers in turn need to ensure that this information is disseminated to all those who need to know.
In this respect, the curriculum community – including policy-makers, publishers, teachers’ unions, provincial officials, school managers, teachers and parents – needs to be treated with kid gloves. They are at risk of burn-out because of the prolonged process of curriculum change the school system has been undergoing since 1996.
The overview or introduction to the NCS released on April 15 2002 is available on the government website.