The Department of Basic Education gathered stakeholders from far and wide at St George’s Hotel in Centurion for an intensive two-day Lekgotla dealing with the National Strategy for Learner Attainment (NSLA).
The Lekgotla brings together officials from the Department of Basic Education, Provincial Education Departments and other stakeholders to consolidate the interventions that various provinces had introduced to support underperforming schools.
The meeting provides a platform to share ideas and exchange best practices as the education sector as a whole moves closer to its goal of providing quality education for all.
Acting Deputy Director-General for curriculum in the Basic Education Department, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, expressed his hopes that the Lekgotla would provide a solid plan for education to implement the vision of Action Plan 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, in 2013 and beyond.
“As a sector we require a turnaround plan. Hopefully this Lekgotla will help. Strategic goals have been set, now we have to work to achieve these goals,” said Acting Deputy Director-General Mweli.
Acting Deputy Director-General Mweli also urged delegates to find a way to deal with quality within the system. “Many countries are grappling with quality and we are not the only ones. We must put our heads together to come up with a solid framework to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves in 2013.”
The department is aiming to achieve 60% for Literacy and Numeracy in the General Education and Training Phase and an overall pass rate of 80% in the Further Education and Training Phase.
Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, Head of Department at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education reminded the attendees that the Lekgotla deals with the core business of the education system and the responsibility they share to provide quality education. “The gap between policy and practice is what we need to deal with, urgently,” said Dr Sishi.
“We can spend lots of time debating grand ideas but if we can’t find the remedy for implementation we will not achieve our goals. Despite considerable investments, as a system, we are not achieving the impact that the country needs!”
Dr Sishi added that civil servants and bureaucrats need to be reminded of their responsibility to provide quality education to all learners and to be mindful of the fact that, in order for education to be a success, it requires buy-in from all sectors of society.
The intensive two-day programme saw report-backs on best practice from eight of the nine provinces. Delegates also participated in a number of commissions including Maths, Science and Technology and LitNum Implementation; Early Childhood Development and Inclusive Education; Workbooks; Textbooks and information and communications technology (ICT) and teacher development and curriculum coverage.
Going forward, the delegates agreed to:
- refine the NSLA framework with recommendations from the commissions to present to HEDCOM by 22 October 2012;
- refine the reporting template – quarterly;
- consider locating the NSLA Lekgotla to another province;
- organise provincial build-up to the Maths, Science and Technology Summit;
- find expression for key deliverables in National and Provincial APPs;
- increase utilisation of ICT;
- reprioritisation of budgets and
- prepare implementation plans.
