Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Mr Enver Surty
Director-General of Basic Education, Mr Bobby Soobrayan
Representatives of the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector
Esteemed guest Speakers
Our Officials present
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
Introduction
It is indeed a great pleasure to be with you at this essential roundtable on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Support for Teaching and Learning, convened by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
I must say from the very onset that without the participation of and engagement with key stakeholders in the ICT sector, any exploration of technology as an enabler of quality teaching and learning in the classroom would be an exercise in futility.
It is for this reason that we’re very honoured by your presence in spite of your busy schedules, and on a Saturday. Once more, welcome and thank you for coming.
Aim and context
We have enlisted your brain-power and specialised skills because we are in a process of developing an effective strategy for using ICT as an enabler in our classrooms.
The aim of this roundtable discussion is therefore to explore together how best we can use ICTs effectively and efficiently to support teaching and learning in the classroom, the fundamental aim being to improve the quality of our education.
This approach is in keeping with the new system of governance adopted in 2009. Thus we said in the Delivery Agreement (October 2010, p. 6) for Outcome 1 of the 12 outcomes agreed upon by government as a key focus of work until 2014:
“Improving learning outcomes requires leadership and vision on the part of government, but international experience has shown that this is not enough. There must be enough degree of agreement and commitment among the various stakeholders. Plans must be widely consulted and all stakeholders should be involved in interpreting the data emerging from the monitoring systems.”
Outcome 1 of government on which we are expected to deliver as the education sector is “improved quality of basic education”.
I speak on behalf of the government’s Human Development Cluster when I say that whilst the democratic government has over the years prioritized education, the current administration has gone further to commit to improving the quality of basic education as a defining hallmark of its success.
You would know that an improved quality of basic education is a fundamental condition for delivering on South Africa’s human resources development goals and for meeting our targets for economic transformation and inclusive growth.
Education as a driver of change underpins all our efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals, in particular Goal 1 on reducing poverty in the world.
This is why we have said in the Delivery Agreement (October 2010, p. 4) that:
“In the South African context of high unemployment coupled with a widely recognised skills shortfall, reducing poverty is to a large extent a matter of giving South Africans a better educational start in life.”
Challenges
There’s a set of challenges and complexities currently facing the education system.
The most daunting obstacle is that of a high percentage of learners who exit the school education system without having mastered the necessary knowledge and skills for self-fulfilment.
Systemic evaluation 2004 and international testing programmes, the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), speak to the underperformance of our learners in Mathematics, Science and English.
Of particular concern is the observation that this underperformance is more prevalent among learners from poor disadvantaged rural communities.
A prominent feature of many schools in rural areas is the phenomenon of teaching of more than one grade at the same time in the same classroom by the same teacher, that is, multi-grade teaching.
The Report on the Annual School Survey (2010) has revealed that in 2008, more than 6000 schools in the country (26,4%) had multi-grade classes.
Our strategy will therefore have to incorporate the use of ICTs in supporting teaching and learning also in these schools.
White Paper on e-Education
Our work in this area of ICTs in education will have to be guided also by the 2004 White Paper on e-Education, which presents six strategic objectives, namely:
- ICT professional development for management, teaching and learning
- electronic content resource development and distribution
- access to ICT infrastructure
- connectivity
- community engagement
- research and development.
Action Plan
In August 2010, we gazetted a sector plan for schools – Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025 – which aims to address deficiencies in the education system some of which I have already highlighted.
This Action Plan sets out the critical role to be played by the e-Education strategy. It emphasises the need to enrich education by increasing access of learners to a wide range of media, including computers and the Internet.
Through your help, we hope to exploit the potential of ICT mainly as an ‘enabler and equalizer’ in our education system. This is one way of addressing inequalities arising from the apartheid legacy.
Feasibility Study on ICTs in Education
Steps we have taken so far to expedite the attainment of the six strategic objectives of the White Paper on e-Education include commissioning a Feasibility Study on ICTs in Education (KPMG 2009).
It was aimed at providing possible options, funding models and implementation plans of ICTs in education.
However, there is still an urgent need further to explore various ICT solutions to support administration, teaching and learning in schools. These may include using educational programming, the Internet, radio and TV broadcasting of lessons.
The choices we make will depend on the solution’s viability, cost-effectiveness, relevance and appropriateness to the South African context.
We are looking for ICT solutions that will help us address teacher training and professional development and provide complementary teaching and learning resources so as to improve the quality of classroom teaching especially in under-resourced schools with poorly trained teachers.
Benefits of using ICTs
As a department, we believe that ICTs have a potential to enhance the quality of education by supporting teaching and learning in the classroom. This is informed by their ability to:
- support blended learning, combining traditional classroom practice with e-learning solutions
- create learner-centred learning environments
- increase access among learners to a wide range of multimedia, including computers
- increase access to learning opportunities beyond the classroom
- expose learners to practical ict skills that are transferable to the workplace
- encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning
- deliver quality lessons and teacher training programmes
- generally enable us as a country to bridge the digital divide.
Expectation
‘It takes a whole village to raise a child’. It is in this context that we seek your counsel on how best to achieve the following strategic outcomes:
- ICT solutions to support administration, teaching and learning in schools;
- ICT solutions to support teaching and learning in rural, small, farm and multi-grade teaching schools; and
- Teacher training and professional development in ICTs.
Conclusion
We are grateful for the enormous support from our private sector partners. Many have assisted us through various corporate social responsibility initiatives. But yet again, as we tried to do through the Breakfast with Business we hosted in 2010, we’ve got to find a way to pull these initiatives together for maximum impact.
I trust that this roundtable will yield practical and workable solutions that we can implement in the classroom to support quality teaching and learning and improve on gateway subjects.
Next month, on 13 April 2011, we plan to give more detail on this area of our work during our Budget Vote in Parliament. That’s why this engagement is so vital.
Together we can do more to improve the quality of basic education through ICTs. This is how we can ensure that every child is given a chance to reach full potential as part of our duty to facilitate optimal learning for all children.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Basic Education
