Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Basic
Education
Basic Education Shadow Report: A Review of the
Department of Basic Education’s performance in 2010/11
and 2011/12
16 October 2012
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Who Are We?
 EE is a movement of learners, parents, teachers and
community members
 We seek to address poor quality and inequality in the
education system
 Involved in evidence- based activism, community
organising and youth development
 EE’s Head Office is based in Khayelitsha. We have
members in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Gauteng,
Kwazulu-Natal, the North West and Limpopo provinces.
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Introduction
 EE acknowledges that there are areas in which the Department of Basic
Education (DBE) has made progress with regard to the provision of
education
 However, there are also important weaknesses that affect the quality of
education provided for South African Learners
 The EE Shadow Report focuses on specific programmes and activities
undertaken by the DBE
 For the purposes of this presentation, we will confine ourselves to the
following areas
 Regulations for School Infrastructure
 Workbooks and Textbooks
 School Libraries
 Annual National Assessments
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 Most schools in South Africa either lack necessary resources or only
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have access to inadequate facilities that render them incapable of
providing learners with quality education to which they are entitled by
law.
According to the National Education Infrastructure Management
System (NIEMS) Report, published in 2011, of the 24 793 public
schools:
3 544 schools have no electricity supply, while a further 804 have an
unreliable electricity supply
2 402 schools have no water supply, while a further 2 611 have an
unreliable water supply
913 schools still do not have ablution facilities and 11 450 schools still
use pit-latrine toilets
Only 7% of schools have stocked and functioning libraries and only
10% of schools have stocked computer centres
Only 5% of schools have stocked laboratories
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 The DBE has made provisions to address the issue of inadequate
infrastructure, in the form of grants.
 The Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI),
seeks to eradicate 496 inappropriate schools and make provision
for water, sanitation and electricity at schools, between the
2011/12 and 2013/14 financial years.
 However, progress has been extremely slow, especially with
regard to the completion of the first batch of schools in the
Eastern Cape.
 Of the 49 schools in the EC earmarked for construction this year,
only two have been completed thus far.
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 The Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) is meant to assist in:
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“[accelerating] the construction, maintenance, upgrading and
rehabilitation of new and existing infrastructure in education…”
This grant is provided to provincial departments of education to
implement the targets.
The DBE monitors progress made on the targets in order to provide
provinces with payment
Although there is sufficient information in the public domain, on the
manner in which Provinces have utilised funds, there does not seem to
be any information on progress made with regard to targets i.e. we do
not know the number schools built from the EIG
There is also been no evidence that the DBE has briefed Parliament on
the progress around the EIG
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 The 2011/2012 DBE Annual Report records some of the challenges in the
delivery of school infrastructure as follows:
 “substantial variances exist in the cost of building schools across
provinces, which is compounded by a lack of uniformity provincial
planning, budgeting, design, procurement processes and
implementation procedures to meet infrastructural targets.”
 EE contends that, the provision of binding minimum norms and
standards for school infrastructure would do a great deal in alleviating
the lack of uniformity in provincial school infrastructure planning and
implementation.
 Regarding the adoption of regulations relating to minimum norms and
standards for school infrastructure, the DBE Annual Report 2011/2012
reads:
“The regulations in terms of Section 5A of SASA were drafted. HEDCOM adopted a resolution
to the effect that the draft regulations should only be published as guidelines. The Minister
then referred these regulations back to the CEM for further consideration, where it was
resolved that the draft regulations should be reserved as guidelines. The regulations were
thus published as guidelines…”
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 EE argues that there is a distinct difference between regulations
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and guidelines.
Regulations would set an enforceable standard by which all
Provinces would be legally bound to adhere.
It is for this reason that Section 5A clearly contemplates
regulations prescribing minimum norms and standards for
school infrastructure.
SASA sets out mechanisms to ensure provincial compliance in
regard to these regulations.
These mechanisms cannot kick-in in the absence of binding
minimum norms and standards contemplated by the legislation
Since it was clearly Parliament’s intention that regulations were
required to address poor school infrastructure, it should indeed
be Parliament that takes the lead in ensuring the DBE fulfils this
obligation.
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Regulations for School Infrastructure
 EE would like the Committee to note that, the DBE’s 2010/11
Annual Report refers to the development of “regulations relating
to equitable provision of enabling physical teaching and learning
environment at public schools,” which are recorded as a highlight.
Yet, as indicated above, such regulations do not exist
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Workbooks and Textbooks
 The DBE is commended for its provision of workbooks to
learners in primary schools
 However, workbooks must be supported by textbooks
 The Delivery Agreement signed by the Minister in 2010 states
that
“...the intention is not that workbooks should constitute the only
reading material...It is expected that teaching and learning will
occur beyond the scope of workbooks and supported by
textbooks.”
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Workbooks and Textbooks
 The textbook is one of the most effective tools through which to
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deliver the curriculum and support assessment
It can ensure curriculum content and assessment coverage, and it
can also offer appropriate pacing and weighting of content
Textbooks can assist teachers with lesson and year planning.
A study conducted by Social Surveys and the Centre for Applied
Studies, found that half of learners aged 16-18 were forced to
share textbooks with other learners.
This means that learners cannot do their homework and rely on
class notes as a source of reference.
The impact this situation has on learners, with regard to
examinations and mid-year tests is profound.
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Workbooks and Textbooks
 It was with great disappointment that EE learned of the DBE’s
failure to complete the delivery of textbooks for learners in
Limpopo.
 EE supports the Presidential Task Team recommendation that:
“to efficiently manage the budget and to have credible information
that will serve as the basis for both costing and procurement [of]
Learner Teacher Support Material, a headcount for both learners
and teachers in the province should be conducted.”
 This should assist the DBE with planning for the 2013 academic
year, and hopefully ensure that a similar situation does not arise
again.
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School Libraries
 Research has shown that school libraries are beneficial to the
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progress and academic development of learners
Other than the direct academic benefits, libraries offer social
advantages too
Currently, 93% of public schools in South Africa do not have
functioning libraries, a trained and qualified librarian or teacher
librarian and sufficient library materials
The DBE has stated, as one of its goals, the establishment of
norms for school libraries
The Department has published a document that outlines
information on the provision of school libraries and information
services
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School Libraries
 The National Guidelines for School Library and Information Services,
published in March 2012, propose to:
“…pave the way to full library and information services provision in all
schools in South Africa and ensure that all South African learners have
access to adequate library and information services.”
 Such as the case of regulations around school infrastructure norms and
standards, the same argument applies with the National Guidelinesthey are not binding.
 The document does not refer to the provision of resources, which
brings into question, how the guidelines will be implemented
 The 2011/12 DBE Annual Report, does note that an implementation
plan has been developed in collaboration with provinces- however, this
is yet to be made publicly available.
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Annual National Assessments
 One of the challenges of using only Grade 12 pass rates as an indicator of the
education system’s performance is that many learners do not get as far as grade
12
 Grade 12 examinations only measure performance at the end of secondary
school, meaning that the examinations do not show were interventions are
needed.
 The DBE in introduced the ANA because it recognised the problem of using
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Grade 12 results as the main indicator of system quality.
As a monitoring tool, the ANA is meant to identify districts and schools most
in need of interventions and assistance
It is unclear whether the DBE has put interventions in place following the 2011
ANAs.
It is imperative that a plan is established to improve numeracy and literacy
results
It is also concerning that teachers only receive a short manual that explains
how administer the ANAs, and yet do not receive assistance in how to analyse
and use the results. Teachers must also play a role assisting learners to
overcome their challenges
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Annual National Assessments
 The National Development Plan recommends that the:
“ANA results should be made accessible to parents and the
community in a way that makes the data easy to interpret”
 This is in line with the Minister’s foreword to the report on the
Annual National Assessments (2011) in which she invites:
“all stakeholders and the broader public to view the ANA results
with a sense of ownership.”
 EE welcome’s the NDP’s call to make the ANA’s publically
accessible-however, as the DBE is yet to make the 2011 ANA
results (per school/per district) available to the broader public
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Conclusion
 The EE Shadow Report assesses the DBE’s performance against
its own stated policies, goals and targets as set out in official
documents
 EE acknowledges the appropriateness of many of these policies,
goals and targets, as well as progress in some.
 However, in some cases the achievements remain largely on
paper, which affects the quality of learning for South African
learners.
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