Education in South Africa currently stands at a crossroads. The curriculum we inherited in 1994 as part of a fragmented and dysfunctional educational system limped along — outdated and irrelevant — until the new government proposed significant changes to it at the turn of the millennium.
These sweeping changes, under the umbrella philosophy of outcomes-based education (OBE), were noble in intent. OBE is fundamentally a sound pedagogy. But implementing it in South Africa as the government proposed was always ambitious. From the outset, OBE was obviously not practically possible, given the lack of support structures and expertise to aid in its implementation.
The result was a patchwork nod to a new philosophy, poorly trained and administratively burdened educators, who were frustrated and powerless over a steep decline in standards, and a generation of ill-equipped youngsters cast out into the working world and the tough competition for university places.
Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, has said: “We have chosen the worst curriculum policy that you could ever imagine.”
In July last year, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga finally admitted that a rethink was needed. So, more than 10 years into a new curriculum that clearly has failed dismally, it is clear that the path we choose to follow at this crossroads is critical to the country’s future.
The education department has already charted a new course under the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements. Whether this represents a significant enough change remains to be seen.
Maths and science are often touted as the key subjects in the curriculum. Why these subjects?
In South Africa’s drive to compete in the global economy alongside other emerging markets such as Brazil and India, these subjects have been identified as crucial requirements for qualification in careers that support this drive. But these subjects seem to be the ones needing greatest attention in our schools. In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2001 and 2003 (which included some developing countries), South African learners came last. Compared with learners in the rest of the world, South Africans have clearly dropped off the pace.
The department of education seems to have recognised how vital these particular subjects are and has responded with a number of initiatives to bring about change, such as the Dinaledi School Project, which emphasises the development of mathematics, science and technology.
Schools that specialise in maths and science, such as the Centre of Science and Technology in Khayelitsha, draw on promising young students from disadvantaged backgrounds and accelerate them through a curriculum weighted to favour these subjects. However, these projects benefit relatively few learners and what is clear is that a fundamentally different approach is needed.
As in many other countries, the pace of change in the workplace and in our social relations is ever increasing. Technology is advancing and adapting to meet these changes, often even driving them. South Africa now has 3.8-million Facebook users, 800 000 Twitter users, 10-million people on MXit, and 6.8-million people who access the internet with their cellphones, so it is clear that the digital medium is significant in South Africans’ daily lives.
Enver Surty, the deputy minister of basic education, seemed to recognise the future direction of education when he said: “We need to focus on how best we can prepare our young people to meet the challenges of a world in which they need to be creative, innovative, digitally adept and adaptable.”
What better way to do this than by using technology itself? From now on, technology has to play a central role in education, even if only to compete with the other current digital stimuli that occupy learners’ time, such as cellphones, home entertainment systems, computers and video games.
The first stage in introducing technology into the curriculum is to provide online content. In this way, it is possible to access a huge audience at very low cost. Online learning enables education to happen anywhere, any time.
It enables one-on-one individualised tuition at the learner’s own pace, and with instant feedback. However, because the initial setup is expensive, the uptake has been slow as a result of the shortage of funding to equip schools with facilities that allow learners and educators alike to access online material.
As the need becomes more desperate, though, this may well happen as a matter of course. In the long term, digitisation will, in fact, make the infrastructure expenses of mass education — such as school buildings — redundant.
In the meantime, a number of exciting projects are already under way from service providers who are producing an amazing wealth of online resources, both locally and abroad. As they become increasingly popular, we can look forward to a critical mass of education taking place primarily by this means.
Paul Carter is the course convener of the Cambridge University Press Grade 12 maths course, presented online throughout South Africa by GetSmarter. Contact Lyndsay on 012 447 7556 or visit www.getsmarter.co.za for more information