STAFF REPORTER

BASIC Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, shared South Africa’s experience on the curriculum recovery plan for rebooting and rebuilding the schooling system during the Education World Forum (EWF) in London during the plenary session.

Such platforms create an opportunity to share lessons from South Africa, learn from what others are doing, and benchmark one’s country with the rest of the world.

Minister Motshekga, supported by Director-General, Mr Matanzima Mweli, attended the EWF in London in the United Kingdom from 7 – 10 May 2023. The theme for 2023 is, “Nurturing learning culture, building resilience and promoting sustainability for stronger, bolder, better education by design” to build on the work done around the COVID-19
recovery.

The Forum included key areas such as foundations for early learning; skills development; digital skills and technology; and Coding and Robotics. The Minister addressed delegates during the official opening ceremony under the sub-theme: “What must we change in order to develop stronger, bolder and better education and learning opportunities, and how can working together help?”

“It is an honour for us to come to share our experiences and learn from other nations about innovative and effective ways to improve education outcomes for all. We must build a brighter future for the next generation and create a world where education is equitable, accessible and inclusive to all.

“We believe that collaboration amongst stakeholders is crucial in achieving these goals and we must prioritise working together to ensure that all children have access to high quality education that prepares them for the future. We have made significant progress in transforming our basic education sector in respect of the six social justice principles of
access, redress, equity, quality, efficiency and inclusivity and we are proud that we haveachieved near-universal access to schooling, with attendance rates above 98% for children aged 7 to 15 years. Access to early learning opportunities has also increased significantly, with almost 90% of 5-year-olds attending educational institutions, compared to only 40% two decades ago. Despite these advancements, we still face challenges, especially unacceptably low and unequal early learning outcomes,” said Minister Motshekga in her address.

Minister Motshekga praised the resilience demonstrated by the South African basic education system: “Rather than observing an increase in the number of children dropping out of school during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen more learners staying in the system and successfully completing their secondary school-leaving examination, the National Senior Certificate. We have streamlined our annual teaching plans during 2020 and
2021, leading to an ongoing process of strengthening of the curriculum. We are leveraging new technologies to provide children with access to 21st Century skills, whilst prioritising literacy and numeracy.

“We have developed a Coding and Robotics curriculum for nationwide roll-out during the next few years, whilst remaining committed to harnessing the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), enhancing the use of technology for curriculum delivery, adapting education in response to global changes and cultivating partnerships to promote sustainable development”.

Minister Motshekga attended a side line meeting with the Global CEO of the British Council, Mr Scott McDonald, and the Country Director for the British Council in South Africa, Ms George Barrett, on 9 May.

The Minister also attended a bilateral meeting with the Minister of State for Schools, Mr Nick Gibb on 10 May. EWF is supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Department for Education (DfE), the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the British Council and industry partners. EWF is a gathering of ministers responsible for education in their respective states.

INSIDE EDUCATION

PHUTI MOSOMANE

THE Department of Basic Education (DBE) highlighted several challenges affecting students’ reading comprehension in schools during a parliamentary session on Tuesday. These challenges include a lack of reading culture in many households, under-resourced schools, and inadequate emphasis on reading during early childhood development.

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education received a detailed briefing from the DBE regarding the recently published Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) for 2021.

According to the PIRLS 2021 study, learners’ ability to read for comprehension significantly lags behind as they reach the age of 10, indicating low performance levels.

Reading comprehension involves the capacity to read text, process it, and grasp its meaning. It relies on two interconnected skills: word reading (the ability to decode symbols on the page) and language comprehension (the ability to understand the meaning of words and sentences).

Proficient readers who possess a strong understanding can draw conclusions and make inferences from the text they read.

The DBE utilizes three distinct national assessments to gather data: Early and Emergent Literacy Skills (ELNA), Foundational Reading Comprehension (Systemic Evaluation), and International Reading Comprehension Benchmarks. The DBE states that the results from ELNA and the Systemic Evaluation assessments are more favourable compared to the outcomes of the International Reading Comprehension assessment.

South Africa has been participating in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) since 2006, with subsequent cycles in 2011, 2016, and most recently in 2021.

The assessment covered 12,426 Grade 4 learners from 321 schools and 9,317 Grade 6 learners from 253 schools. Grade 4 learners represented all 11 official languages and nine provinces, while Grade 6 learners only represented Afrikaans and English.

South Africa achieved a participation rate of 97% for Grade 4 and 98% for Grade 6 after accounting for replacements.

In comparison to 2016, South Africa’s trend score dropped significantly from 320 to 288, reflecting a difference of 32 points. The data revealed that 81% of Grade 4 learners and 56% of Grade 6 learners did not reach the low benchmark of 400 points.

For Grade 6 learners, the average score was 384 points, with Afrikaans learners scoring an average of 456. Afrikaans emerged as the best-performing language with a score of 387, while Setswana had the lowest score of 211.

Among the provinces, the Western Cape achieved the highest scores with Grade 4 learners scoring 363 and Grade 6 learners scoring 460. This was nearly 131 points above the Grade 4 score of North West, which achieved 232. Nationally, Grade 4 girls scored 317 points, surpassing Grade 4 boys by 57 points (260).

Committee Chairperson Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said the committee is concerned about the results, but noted the societal issues that impact on South Africa’s results, including the days of learning lost during Covid-19. 

“We took to heart some of the suggestions and strategies mentioned, like placing more emphasis on access to books and reading corners in classrooms, thereby inculcating a love for reading and being able to read with meaning and understanding,” Mbinqo-Gigaba said. 

Concerns have been raised by committee members regarding the PIRLS assessments being conducted in English, which poses a challenge for learners who do not have English as their language of instruction during the early developmental phase.

Equal Education, an advocacy group, has expressed deep disappointment in the outcomes of the literacy study, seeing it as another distressing indication that the education system in South Africa is in a state of crisis that has persisted for a significant period.

The group criticized the government, particularly the national and provincial education departments, for their failure to effectively address the fundamental flaws in the education system, which continue to negatively impact learners.

“It is unfair to expect learners to master a foundational skill like reading when most of them lack important infrastructure relevant to reading, such as libraries. DBE statistics show that over 17 000 (70%) of our public schools do not even have libraries, and of those that do, over a third (2 133) are not stocked. It is clear that education departments are likely to miss the 2023 Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure deadline, requiring that all schools be provided with libraries,” both Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) said in a joint statement.

INSIDE EDUCATION

EDWIN NAIDU

UNIVERSITY of South Africa Vice-Chancellor Professor Puleng LenkaBula is standing firm amid growing calls for her and the councils sacking over claims in a damning report about the state of governance at the institution.

A 309-page report by Independent Assessor, Professor Themba Mosia, was critical of Professor LenkaBula, the performance of both management and the council, financial management, upgrades to the vice-chancellor’s home, claims of intimidation and bullying, relations with the labour movement, and the leaking of confidential reports.

On Sunday, Prof LenkaBula had not bowed to pressure and told Inside Education: The Independent Assessor process is not yet complete. Council needs to respond to the Minister. I will only address the media afterwards.”

The vice-chancellor said she did not want to be at odds with statutory processes as legislated by speaking about goings-on.

On 22 September 2022, the Minister of Higher Education Dr Blade Nzimande appointed University of Pretoria Principal and former Council on Higher Education Chairperson Professor Themba Mosia as Independent Assessor to probe UNISA.

The investigation was concluded within the period stipulated; however, at the request of Prof Mosia, the Minister agreed that the report be submitted by 31 March 2023.

Within 90 days of receiving the report, Nzimande must provide a copy of the report to the council concerned, table the report before the National Assembly and publish it in the Government Gazette.

Amid reports that two members of the council have quit over the saga, it has emerged that a copy has been distributed to council members last week. They have reportedly asked for an extension before responding to Nzimande.

The Sunday Times, reported that Belinda Mapongwana- chair of council’s social and ethics committee, and Sedzani Mudau, both resigned at the weekend.

Nzimande is preparing to publish the report it in the Government Gazette. He will then submit the report to the Speaker, Hon Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for tabling before the National Assembly.

“I am currently studying the report and will contemplate the way forward regarding the implementation of the recommendations, after due process as guided by the prescripts of the Act,” Nzimande said, thanking Professor Mosia for the hard work in conducting the assessment.

Among the proposals on the table for Nzimande in the report is the dismissal of the vice-chancellor and the entire council – which would result in an administrator being put in place.

In March, Mosia recommended that Nzimande should consider placing Unisa under full administration, in line with section 49F(1) of the Higher Education Act.

Another recommendation was that Nzimande should consider changing legislation for institutions of higher learning to be subject to the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act.

This, Mosia said, was because of financial irregularities and supply chain management problems which include fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Asked to comment on Sunday, Prof Mosia said he was not permitted by law to engage on UNISA matters.

“My job ended when I submitted the report to the Minister’s office,” he said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

AT a high school in rural northern South Africa, more than 300 students and their teachers share three toilets, and that woefully lopsided figure isn’t the worst problem.

The three toilets are pit latrines, effectively 10-feet-deep holes in the ground that students line up during a lunch break to use.

The pit toilets at Seipone Secondary School in the village of Ga-Mashashane at least are covered by white toilet seats and enclosed by brick structures. Some of the pit toilets still used at more than 3,300 schools in poor, mostly rural areas across South Africa aren’t.

It’s a shameful situation for a country referred to as the most developed in Africa, and an indicator of its profound problems with poverty and inequality, say human rights groups pushing the South African government to do away with the sub-standard facilities in schools forever.

Unhygienic, the latrines also present a much more direct danger. The sight that greeted James Komape one day in January 2014 at the nearby Chebeng village is horrific by every measure.

He’d received a phone call asking him to rush to his 5-year-old son’s pre-school.

The little boy, Michael, was found dead, drowned at the bottom of a pit latrine. Michael’s body hadn’t even been removed from the pool of water mixed with feces and urine at the bottom of the pit he fell into when his father got there.

“What hurt me a lot about Michael’s incident is that the people who were there saw that he had fallen in the toilet, but they did not remove him,” said James Komape.

“They said they were waiting for the responsible authorities to come and remove him. I told them that if they had removed him quickly maybe he could have survived.”

It was Michael Komape’s first week at a new school and his dreadful death incensed many South Africans. His family took the Limpopo province’s education department to court and won their case seeking damages. Later, court orders compelled the South African government to urgently address the issue of pit toilets in schools.

But the tragedy of Michael Komape has not been unique. Other small children have also drowned in pit latrines in the near-decade since, one girl as recently as last month, another boy in March. There are no reliable figures to say how many children have lost their lives in pit toilets.

The latrines, which have an outlet that is used to drain them periodically, are cheaper and more practical for poorer schools because they don’t rely on a constant supply of running water.

At the Jupiter Pre-School and Creche in the same Limpopo province where Michael died, children as young as 3 are still using pit toilets that have no proper seat but rather a hole carved out of a concrete slab that opens to the pit below.

“These are not good because of possible accidents of children falling in the toilet,” the school’s manager, Florina Ledwaba, said. “We have to follow them (the children) every time. What if they go without you seeing them? They are not safe at all.”

The Equal Education human rights group has been inspecting pit toilets in South African schools.

Tiny Lebelo, an organizer with the group, expresses frustration over an issue that should be a top priority for government — the safety of children at their schools — and still hasn’t been resolved.

The South African government promised to replace all pit toilets at schools nationwide by March 31 this year.

It hasn’t happened. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said there are still 3,398 schools using pit latrines and the deadline to eradicate them has been shifted to 2025.

Lebelo said “it speaks about how we perceive people in rural areas.”

“What we are saying about them is that they don’t deserve dignity, that’s why we’re not going to provide you with a basic toilet. We’re not going to give that to you because already you’ve been using it (pit toilets),” she said.

“So, what’s another year, or two years, or 10, or decades? We’re saying to them you’re not worthy of dignity.”

Section27 is another human rights group pushing for the pit toilets to be eradicated for “safe and decent sanitation facilities.”

Section27 supported Michael Komape’s family in their legal action against the local and national education departments and they succeeded in getting a court ruling that authorities must provide updated information every six months on schools in the Limpopo province using pit toilets and the plans to replace them.

Section27 called its system to track the government’s work The Michael Komape Sanitation Progress Monitor and it is able to use the information to hold the education department accountable.

The department has made some progress by reducing schools using pit toilets in Limpopo from 363 in 2021 to 210 schools now. But James Komape said the government hasn’t kept its side of an agreement to remove pit toilets and “many children are still in real danger.”

At the Seipone Secondary School, the pit toilets are officially called ventilation improved toilets, and known as “VIP toilets.” They are anything but. There is anger and now pushback from students, too.

“Our health also matters, (we) cannot use toilets like these,” said Tebogo Makgoka, a 17-year-old student representative.

AP