I was shocked to read in the Sunday Times during September 2001 that the Gauteng Department of Education had not yet placed orders for textbooks for next year. Publishers were warning of the implications for schools. The likely scenario is that textbooks will certainly not be delivered to Gauteng schools in time for the start of the academic year, and probably not even by the end of the first term.
This will have a negative impact on teaching and learning in all grades, and particularly in Grade 5 and Grade 9, where C2005 is being implemented for the first time. If this is the situation in Gauteng, what is likely to happen in other provinces?
Special interventions were made in all provinces by the national Department of Education during 1999 and 2000 to ensure the timeous delivery of textbooks to schools. Why have these processes not been sustained and strengthened?
During August and September this year, I visited classrooms in Mashamba in the Northern Province and Thembalihle in the Free State. In most cases, there was only one copy of a textbook for the teacher and no textbooks at all for the learners. Most teachers complained that, though they had ordered textbooks for their learners, they still hadn’t received them. Inevitably this led to the teacher writing whole sections from the textbook on the board. In several cases, learners simply had to sit and wait while this was happening and were not even asked to copy the information into an exercise book.
Being forced to sit and watch their teacher copying information out of textbooks is wasting these children’s time. Not having any texts to read means that learners do not get to develop their reading skills, which in turn impacts on their ability to write. And, in the end, it is their ability to read and write effectively that the matric exam will be testing.
Although the quality of textbooks can and does vary, good textbooks play a critical role in supporting the implementation of the curriculum.
Put yourself in the shoes of Grade 5 and Grade 9 teachers in most provinces who will have to implement C2005 for the first time next year. They are probably feeling very confused about all the mixed messages they have been receiving about C2005.
What kind of training have these teachers received? Has the training clarified for them the status of the current policy in the light of the review that took place last year? How will this affect the approach they will be expected to follow next year?
One of the complaints that many teachers have expressed is that there is insufficient follow-up support once they get back to their classrooms. This is surely where the textbook can and should play a vital role in supporting the teacher.
An unfortunate problem is that the textbooks for Grade 5 and 9 for next year are based on the old form of C2005. This form of C2005 made the grave mistake of underplaying the importance of content knowledge in teaching and learning. As a result, every team of textbook writers has used different content for each learning programme in each grade. Many of these textbooks will have their limitations, but they will still be better than nothing. At the very least, most will provide a useful orientation to teaching and assessing in an outcomes-based way.
The issue of specifying content and concepts more clearly in the future is being addressed by the National Curriculum Statement. The next generation of textbooks should provide much clearer progression of content and concepts for each learning programme. However, the quality of the textbooks is only one part of the struggle to implement the curriculum effectively. In order to ensure that publishers produce high-quality textbooks, teachers need to be trained to evaluate textbooks.
Teachers need to become more critical consumers to avoid making a poor selection and condemning their learners for the next few years to living with this choice. The more discerning teachers become, the more pressure there will be on publishers to produce high-quality textbooks.
In the meantime, safety nets have to be put into place to assist teachers to make better choices. The review of C2005 recommended the following interventions:
Since provincial textbook approval processes are unreliable, the open list currently used in the Western Cape and Gauteng should extended to all provinces. This would mean that teachers in all provinces would be able to choose any textbook they liked.
To support teachers, a national recommended list should be compiled by an advisory panel for each learning area appointed by the minister of education. This panel should evaluate all learning materials as either not recommended, recommended or highly recommended. Such a panel should be made up of recognised curriculum and learning area specialists and teachers. The list should be published annually to assist teachers in making their choices.
But, in the end, what is of greatest political consequence is whether the textbook train is running on time. Systems need to be put in place and maintained in order to ensure that textbooks are delivered to schools on time to ensure that each academic year gets off to a good start.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, November 2001.