The revised Human Resource Development for South Africa (HRD-SA) strategy, which government wanted to implement by April 2009 to ensure the coordination and integration of the provision of scarce and critical skills in the country, has been gazetted for public comment, the Department of Education (DoE) said on Wednesday.

Speaking about the department's priorities and plans for 2009, DoE DG Duncan Hindle noted that the HRD-SA strategy had been "substantially revised".

The department noted that the strategy was an update of the 2001 strategy and would be implemented to ensure the provision of scarce and critical skills in especially priority sectors.

The revised strategy would take into consideration each individual's contribution to the country's development agenda, with "almost the entire population" being the target of the strategy.

Government's Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition would also be incorporated into this strategy.

Meanwhile, Hindle stated that the National Policy for School Infrastructure and the National Minimum Norms and Standards for Infrastructure, which had been published in November, would give guidelines for the equitable provision of infrastructure in the education sector.

The DoE noted that this would ensure equity in provision of infrastructure, would assist in improving the quality of teaching and the learning environment, as well as ensure the efficient use of resources.

Hindle said that the guidelines would include, for example, that schools should have a minimum of 100 pupils and no more than 1 200 to 1 300 pupils.

It would also include norms and standards for basic services, as well as for sports facilities, among other things.

Hindle asserted that these objectives could not all be achieved in the short-term, but was something the department and its stakeholders had to work towards.

He noted that the Department of Minerals and Energy had also requested that some provision be made for "green schools", where schools would implement environmentally building practices, where possible.

MATHS AND LANGUAGES

Further, the DoE announced that all grade 9 pupils would, from 2009, participate in the pilot of the assessment processes of a general education certificate (GEC), which would emphasise the need to be competent in mathematics and languages.

The GEC would be issued from 2010, but should not be seen as an exit certificate, said Hindle.

He noted that the certificate would "affirm the knowledge and skills" a learner had acquired, as well as assist pupils in deciding which subjects to take in grade 10 onwards.

Hindle said that learners could continue with the standard schooling system, could choose to move on to a further education and training college or could move to a focus schools, such as a Dinaledi school, which focused on maths and science.

Continuous assessment of mathematics and languages would be done in the classroom for 60% of the learner's final mark, while an externally set exam in these two areas would account for the other 40%.

Continuous assessment in the classroom would account for 75% of the final mark in all other learning areas, while 25% would come from an externally set exam.

The DoE noted learners who did well in literacy and numeracy often achieved higher success in grades 10 to 12.

Meanwhile, Hindle said that its Foundation for Learning Campaign, which guided teachers and schools in the outcomes based education system, was already bearing fruit.

He said that grade 3 learners had, in 2001, achieved an average of 30% in the areas of mathematics and languages.

This had already improved to between 35% and 36% by 2007.

Hindle stated that the DoE's aim to have all pupils in grades 1 to 6 achieve higher than 50% in these two areas by 2011 was achievable.

TEACHER SHORTAGES

Meanwhile, Hindle emphasised that South Africa would not face a shortage of 94 000 teachers by 2015, as highlighted in recent media reports.

He confirmed that about 12 000 teachers either retired or left the profession each year, but said a similar amount of trained teachers would graduate each year.

Hindle said that while there was a shortage of teachers in some subject areas and in some provinces, there would be "no overall shortage".

Further, the DoE's Funza Lushaka Bursary programme had been oversubscribed this year, which Hindle noted was a sign that many young people wanted to become teachers.

In addition, the DoE said that if no qualified teachers could be found to fill certain vacancies in South Africa, it would recruit these skills from other countries, with a special emphasis on maths, science and technology.