The Department of Basic Education wishes to inform all education stakeholders and role players that the closing date for submissions and comments on the draft Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025 has been extended to 29 October 2010.
The Action Plan for 2014: Towards Schooling 2025 is the first long term plan for the education sector. The plan will contribute in concrete ways to the realisation of a better schooling system. Long term education planning (of which Schooling 2025 is the first of its kind in South Africa) is necessary, in order to avoid ad hoc and fragmented interventions.
The Action Plan for 2014 marks a fundamental shift in education planning from an inputs focused approach to one that is focused on outcomes, as elaborated in the Presidency’s 2009 Green Paper: National Strategic Planning and is reflected in the move in the Medium Term Strategic Framework 2009-2014 towards an emphasis on learning outcomes for education. The focus on outcomes and long term planning for the education sector is also in line with the international framework for long range education planning.
The draft Action Plan sets out clear outcomes that are designed to improve schooling and, in particular, learner achievement within a specified number of years in terms of specific targets. The draft plan sets out around 38 indicators, with national and provincial targets, as well as milestone events in each year.
While the draft Action Plan will not completely reinvent the schooling system or to destroy what has gone before, it will provide a framework for organising national debates on how to improve schooling and to mobilise stakeholders. It will not be cast in stone but instead it provides a framework through which all education inputs can be organised and articulated, and therefore debated. At the same time, it aims to promote more rigorous monitoring of the schooling system and promote better research into the challenges faced by the sector.
Bringing about the changes needed so that schools will fulfil the vision of generations of South Africans who have struggled for a decent educational start in life is not something government can do on its own. Government has a key role to play in planning, ensuring policies are logical and well communicated and in financing schools, with a special focus on the schools serving the poorest. However, civil society, trade unions, business and other stakeholders have a crucial role to play too. A key aim of the Action Plan is to make it easier for the full range of stakeholders to participate in this exciting process.
All education stakeholders and role players are therefore urged to interrogate the document to be found on the Department of Basic Education’s website: http://www.education.gov.za/ and to make their submissions no later than 29 October 2010 to Mr PB Soobrayan, Director-General: Basic Education, for the attention of Mr P Njobe, you can post it to Private Bag X895 Pretoria 0001, Fax: 012 323 5837 or e-mail: njobe.p@dbe.gov.za.
Enquiries:
Granville Whittle
Cell: 072 148 9575
Source: Department of Basic Education
