Section 1 Evaluation of the opening of schools in January 2000
Section 2 Evaluation of the preparedness and the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7
Section 3 Evaluation of the province’s preparedness for the administration of the 2000 Senior Certificate Examinations
Section 4 Evaluation of the province’s progress with the procurement of learning support materials (LSM) for 2001
Section 5 Evaluation of the provinces preparedness for the implementation of Tirisano
Section 6 Financial matters
Section 7 Evaluation of progress with the implementation of national Policies
Section 8 Management matters
The second report, Mr President, is more comprehensive than the first report. A number of questions have had to be answered by the provincial departments of education regarding some of their activities. Some of the questions asked of the provincial departments may appear to have been asked and answered in the first cycle. However, we have to appreciate that some of the activities occur annually. Therefore some of the questions are repeated to ensure that activities are managed in a well planned and systematic manner.
It is my intention to ensure that processes and activities that occur at regular intervals are integrated into the activities of all the provincial departments of education to ensure the maintenance of a system of education that functions properly and is well managed. These include such activities as the preparations for the opening of schools, the procurement and distribution of learning support materials and, the administration of the Senior Certificate examination.
I launched the Tirisano implementation plan on 13 January 2000. This was done to ensure that the spirit of Tirisano flows throughout the education system, permeates all our structures in order to improve the work ethic and enables all of us to work towards our common vision of a South Africa in which all our people have access to lifelong education and training opportunities.
The responses to the request for information concerning the eight identified activities were uneven and not always cogent. In addition not all provinces have functioning administrative structures where telephone calls are answered or questions from members of the public are replied to speedily. These points will be developed in the next report.
It is my obligation to fulfill the requirements of the Constitution, the South African Schools Act and other education laws with a view to contribute towards improving the quality of education and building a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society.
It is in the Tirisano spirit and a commitment to fulfill my obligations that I present the second report to you, Mr President.
Professor Kader Asmal
Minister of Education
4 April 2000
I requested Members of the Executive Council responsible for education in the respective provinces to report on eight activities. I provided the following guidelines to assist the Members of the Executive Council in compiling their reports:
Evaluation of the opening of schools in January 2000
Evaluation of the preparedness and the implementation of OBE in Grades 3 and 7
Evaluation of the province’s preparedness for the administration of the 2000 Senior Certificate Examinations
Evaluation of the province’s progress with the procurement of learning support materials (LSM) for 2001
Evaluation of the provinces preparedness for the implementation of Tirisano
Financial matters
Evaluation of progress with the implementation of national policies
Management matters
The following sections give a brief summary of the report
Evaluation of the opening of schools in January 2000
Members of the Executive Council responsible for education visited selected schools in their respective provinces during the opening of schools in January 2000. Premiers of some of the provinces also formed part of the delegations that visited schools. The Free State and the North-West conducted the most extensive surveys of their respective schools during the first week of schools opening at the beginning of the year. Officials from the Department of Education also visited selected schools in six provinces. A general observation made during the visits and applies to all provinces, is that all schools which are well managed had made all the necessary arrangements for the opening of schools. Schools which had poor management on the other hand had not made any arrangements or very few, if any.
Most provinces completed approximately 80% of the admission of learners by November 1999 in accordance with the policy on the admissions of learners published on 19 October 1998 (Government Gazette Notice No 2432 of 1998). However there were cases of late registrations in all the nine provinces during the opening of schools in January 2000. The major reasons for late admission and registration of learners cited in provincial reports appear to be due to:
There have also been attempts to register children who are under-age and who would not be turning seven years of age during the year of admission. Most provinces have handled all the cases successfully. There have been isolated cases of admissions which were not handled appropriately. These were largely refusal to admit learners in certain schools on grounds that the school was already full, and school management failing to provide reasons for refusal in writing, as required by the South African Schools Act (1996). All the cases for which letters of complaint or appeal were received by the Minister of Education, were referred to the relevant Members of the Executive Council responsible for education.
Most provinces had supplied schools with more than 80% of learning support materials ordered by 31 January 2000. The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga had delays in distributing learning support materials to schools due to delays in the tendering processes in the respective provinces. As a result of this deliveries only commenced in January 2000. All provinces expected to complete remaining deliveries before the end of March 2000.
Attendance by learners varied from good to poor. In most provinces attendance in primary schools was reported to be good. Free State and North West reported the attendance to be above 80% in schools that were sampled while in the Northern Province attendance at secondary schools was reported to be less than 70% except in former Model C schools where attendance was reported to have been good. Attendance by educators also varied from good to poor in some provinces. The North-West province conducted a snap survey in eight of its twelve districts. 653 educators were absent on the first day of school. 504 of these had valid reasons for absence. No reasons were known for the absence of remaining 149. The Eastern Cape reported high absenteeism among its educators and plans to charge educators who were absent without valid reasons and will give them leave without pay. The Free State department of education plans, and in some instances has taken, disciplinary measures in cases of gross negligence of duty by some educators, e.g. a principal was suspended pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearing in Bethlehem. The remaining provinces have not reported any special measures that will be taken against educators that were absent on the first day. In most provinces lessons started on the first day in schools that are well managed.
The reports of, as well as snap surveys conducted by the provincial departments of education, confirm the observation of the Department. Since this was the first year we focused on getting the schools to start teaching on the first day, the situation is very pleasing. However, provinces will have to start now to prepare schools for next year. The Ministry will therefore ensure that provinces prepare adequately for the opening of schools in January 2001.
Evaluation of the preparedness and the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7
There has been much variation in the level of reporting on the preparedness for the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grades 3 and 7 during the year 2000. Comments contained in the reports suggest that there was uncertainty on the part of the departments on what to report on or on how much content could be included. This may in part have contributed to the variation in the level of reporting.
The strategies employed by provincial departments in preparing teachers for the implementation of Grades 3 and 7 vary from province from province. Five provinces (Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Northern Cape, North-West and Western Cape) appear to have planned and implemented the training of educators. It was not easy to assess the level of training received by educators in the Free State and Mpumalanga due to the inadequacy of reporting on plans and training strategies employed.
The level of preparedness in the Northern Province causes concern. It appears from the report of the Member of the Executive Council responsible for Education that the cascading model for the training of educators has not worked in this province. A few other provinces have made reference to the difficulties encountered with the model and have suggested alternative strategies that will be employed to influence improvements. However, in the case of the Northern Province there has been no clear report on what plans or strategies will be employed to improve the competency level of educators and support personnel in the regional or district. offices. There are clearly pockets of expertise in the province, particularly in urban areas. These could be exploited through intra-provincial discussions and exchange of information in order to raise the level of preparedness and capacity of educators and support personnel.
The level of preparedness, competency and commitment among educators in all provinces will be clearer during monitoring visits by the Department of Education during the course of the year or from the report of the Curriculum Review Committee which the Minister of Education established in February 2000.
Evaluation of the province’s preparedness for the administration of the 2000 Senior Certificate Examinations
An evaluation of the performance of the schools in the 1998 and 199 Senior Certificate examinations in the different provinces shows that the majority of the schools fall in two categories described by pass rate percentage groupings of 21 – 40% and 81 – 100% respectively. Provinces with the highest number of schools in the 20 – 40% pass rate grouping are, in descending order, NP (38%) EC (32%) MP (32%) KZN (26%), NW (26%) FS (23%), GAU (23%), NC (15%), and WC (7%). However in the 81 – 100% pass rate grouping this order is reversed. Overall the three largest provinces have more than 40% of the schools achieving pass rates of less that 40%. The Northern Province has 61%, Eastern Cape has 60% and KwaZulu-Natal has 43% of such schools which, taken together, account for 56% of all learners in the system.
There are a number of factors that have been cited in the provincial reports as influencing the success, or lack of it, in the performance of the schools. Most of these are related to the capacity of school management teams, the competence and commitment of educators and the commitment and discipline of learners. All these factors relate to activities within a school that are thought to contribute to a culture of learning and teaching, or lack of it.
There are also factors which are outside the school. One of these would be the environment in which the schools exist. A hostile environment would require a very capable and strong school management team if the school is to perform its functions in a satisfactory manner. There are examples of this cited in the reports. A geographical-plot of the schools that under-perform suggests that socio-economic factors influence the performance of the schools. Last but not least in the factors is the history of the provincial departments of education. Those that appear to perform badly have had to incorporate former homelands and other apartheid education systems with different educational cultures. Those that seem to perform better are in Gauteng, Northern Cape and Western Cape, provinces that did not have homelands even though they had to incorporate other educational systems.
Most provinces are succeeding in bringing a halt to the decline in the performance. An example so far is the Northern Province which, although it appears to have the highest number of under-performing schools, has nevertheless shown some progress towards improvement. There will be lessons to be learnt from the strategies employed in the province, if it can sustain the improvement.
Although all provinces have improvement plans for the improving the Senior Certificate examinations it however appears from provincial visits to approximately 45 schools, conducted by the Department of Education, that the plans are not getting off the ground. The reasons for this are attributed to the capacity of the regional/district to cope with:
At school level there is:
All provinces made arrangements for administering the 2000 Senior Certificate supplementary examinations. In eight of the nine provinces, except KwaZulu-Natal, supplementary examinations commenced at the beginning of February and finished towards the end of March. The results were scheduled for release during April 2000. In KwaZulu-Natal supplementary examinations will only commence on 15 May and will conclude on 6 June. The results will be released on 28 July 2000.
All provinces are on schedule with preparations for the final Senior Certificate examinations at the end of the year. Results will again be released before the end of the year. A tentative date for the release of the results is 28 December 2000.
The Department will continue to monitor progress made by provincial departments to prepare for the examinations. In addition the Department has embarked on an initiative to raise the credibility and quality of the examination The initiative includes setting norms and standards for continuous assessment, setting common papers in certain key subjects, and, in collaboration with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, bench-marking key higher grad subjects. This will contribute towards international comparability of the Senior Certificate examination.
Evaluation of the province’s progress with the procurement of learning support materials (LSM) for 2001
The delivery of learning support materials to schools before the opening of schools in January 2000 showed a marked improvement compared to the situation at the beginning of 1999. Most provinces put much effort in ensuring that there was an improvement in their systems of procurement for delivery of learning support materials. There are provinces which experienced severe problems, in particular Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga. This affected timely delivery in the three provinces. In addition to the effort put by provincial authorities the intervention of the Minister of Education in collaboration with the Minister of Ministers of Finance with their provincial counterparts played a major role in ensuring that the LSM budget improved compared to the previous two years. The Ministries of Education and Finance also established a joint task team consisting of senior officials of both departments which monitored and offered assistance to provincial officials, especially in provinces with severe problems.
All the provincial departments of education have commenced with arrangements in preparation for the delivery of learning support materials in January 2001. Provincial management plans for the LSM procurement indicate that departments are still on target at this stage. This situation will be closely monitored again this year by the joint task team from the Departments of Education and State Expenditure.
There is a gradual shift in the procurement processes in most provinces from central control of the procurement of LSM to school based procurement. This shift is influenced by the provisions of the South African Schools Act, 1996, and the implementation of the Norms and Standards for Funding Schools which came into effect in January 2000. The Western Cape and Gauteng are advanced down this track compared to the other provinces. KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape are phasing in the process of school based procurement. The Department of Education will be monitoring progress in this regard.
The new curriculum will be phased in at the beginning of January 2001 in Grades 4 and 8. This has implications for the LSM budget allocation. The total amount allocated by the provincial departments of education in the financial year 1999/2000 for textbooks and workbooks for the opening of schools in January 2000 was R579.3 million. While this amount fell far short of the amount required it nevertheless was an improvement and was more than double the amount available in the previous financial year.
It should be expected, with the phasing-in of Grades 4 and 8 at the beginning of 2001, that the expenditure on LSM should increase beyond the R579 million. Information currently available and reflected in the report does not indicate that this will be case. Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and Northern Cape have reported an increase in their allocations. Mpumalanga, Northern Province and North-West have reported a decrease. The allocations for KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape have still to be worked out. An increase in the budget allocation for LSM, as progress is made with phasing in the new curriculum, can be controlled by improving book retrieval systems at school level. The joint task team from the Departments of Education and Sate Expenditure will continue to monitor and offer assistance to provincial departments of education with procurement and distribution of LSM where possible.
Evaluation of the provinces preparedness for the implementation of Tirisano
Eight of the nine the provinces have interrogated and drafted their plans using the Tirisano Implementation plan released by the Minister of Education. The only exception is the Northern Province. While the province has not developed its final plans there is progress in that direction. The report shows that there are, within the current work of the department, activities which are in line with the priority areas identified in the Tirisano implementation plan. In the case of the Western Cape, the focus is on six priorities which the department had identified before the launch of Tirisano implementation. The six priorities appear to blend with the Tirisano implementation plan. The plans in the other provinces are to a large extent consistent with the implementation plan of the Department of Education.
The provincial departments have assessed their human resources in relation to the amount of work that has to be accomplished. Four of the provinces (Gauteng, Northern Cape, North-West and Western Cape) have sufficient human resources within existing personnel to proceed with the implementation plans. Two provinces, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, have given no clear indication of their current personnel levels. The only assumption to make at this stage is that they too will be using existing personnel. Free State and the Northern Province have human resource shortages at different levels of their establishments. In both cases a large number of posts remain vacant at senior levels among CS educators. Both provinces have financial constraints which prevent the filling of the vacant posts. Current indications are that these posts will not be filled during the 2000/2001 financial year.
Eastern Cape, Free State have set aside approximately R50 million each towards the implementation of Tirisano. However the situation in the regarding the filling of senior posts in the next financial year in the Free State might change, as a result of budget constraints already referred to, should there be a change in the departmental priorities. Gauteng has set aside R20 million. Northern Cape, North-West and Western Cape have financial resources within the normal budget allocation to their respective departments.
KwaZulu-Natal has very limited funds due to problems with under-funding of education in the province. Mpumalanga has not given an indication of its financial resources. It can only be assumed that all its projects will be funded from the regular budget allocation. Northern Province has also not given an indication of the financial resources. Like the Free State, the Northern Province has many vacant posts which cannot be filled because of budget constraints.
Financial matters
Eight of the nine departments reported positively on the provincial budgetary process, while only the Northern Province reported that the provincial Treasury decides on the guideline amount without the participation of Education. Our own observations suggest that the relationship between provincial Education and Treasury Departments varies across provinces. In some provinces this relationship is constructive and reflects a mutual appreciation of policy, delivery and budgetary concerns. However, in other provinces the relationship in past years has been one of distrust and was not conducive to maintaining an effective budget process. This situation has improved considerably in all provinces except the Northern Province. We believe that Education and Treasury have both contributed to the problems in the budgetary process in this province.
Most of the provinces ring-fence part of their respective budgets. The major item, though not quoted by most reports, is the expenditure on salaries. Provinces also ring-fence conditional grants, allocation for HIV/AIDS, transfer payments and funds for training. The list of ring-fenced items however varies in the different provincial departments.
Section 100 of the Constitution has been invoked for four provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. It appears that these provinces have been successful in improving financial management, which was the main reason that Section 100 was invoked.
The implementation of the Norms and Standards came into effect on 1 April 1999 and all provinces were expected to commence implementation in January 2000. Eight of the nine provinces have commenced with implementation. The process of implementation is considered to be satisfactory in all of these provinces although the scope and effectiveness of implementation varies. The Eastern Cape has not made effective progress mainly on account of capacity and budget problems in the Department. The Minister will continue to monitor progress in this province.
All provinces have taken steps to notify schools and parents about the regulations and conditions for exemption from fees. This has been achieved through circulars or workshops. However the Minister is extremely concerned about the extent of implementation of these regulations at school level. There have been numerous reports in the press and directly to the Minister about cases where learners have been excluded from schools in violation of the fee exemption regulations. The Minister is extremely concerned about this matter and intends to work with his provincial colleagues in an effort to ensure that the regulations are properly applied.
Evaluation of progress with the implementation of national policies
Seven of the nine provinces have not made any significant progress towards the completion of agreements between the MEC and owners of private property on which their respective public schools exist even though the Act has been effective for four full years. Four provinces have signed agreements as follows: Free State (19%), Gauteng (4%), Mpumalanga (2%) and Western Cape (26%). The remaining provinces, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Northern Province and North-West have not signed any agreements. The reasons for this vary from province to province. Some of these are: shortage of personnel to handle the process of completion of the agreements; the unwillingness of the owners of private property to enter into agreements even after lengthy negotiations; exorbitant rentals charged by owners who are unwilling to settle for less rental and legal wrangles about the terms of the agreements. This is completely unacceptable, as it is a violation of our laws. My own attempts at trying to find out what exactly is the problem have not yielded satisfactory responses from the provinces. I have taken steps to ensure that these agreements are expedited.
Only Free State and Western Cape have made some progress with 19% and 26% agreements signed. Even then the percentages are still very low considering the period of four years. Gauteng and Mpumalanga have each 4% and 2% agreements signed. What this means is that only 12% of the potential agreements have been signed.
All the provinces are on target with preparations for the election of school governing bodies including the election of members of learner representative councils. Programmes have been prepared in all provinces for the training of newly elected members of school governing bodies. In some cases training of school governing bodies has commenced, particularly those that have been granted the allocated functions provided for in section 21 of the South African Schools Act, 1996.
Management matters
Five provinces have vacant positions in their respective management echelons. In the Eastern Cape two posts at Deputy Director-General level are still to be filled. In Gauteng, the post of Superintendent-General has been filled at the time of reporting, in KwaZulu-Natal a few Directors posts are still to be filled. Mpumalanga has 54% vacant post to be filled (7 vacant out of 13). The vacant posts include the post of Head of Department. The recent settlement reached between the Department and the former Head of Department will now pave way for the finalisation of a permanent appointment, which must be done by June. In the Northern Cape the post of Head became vacant in February due to the tragic death of the Head of Department. There is also one Director's post to be filled.
Northern Province has three Chief Directors’ posts and five Regional Directors' post to be filled. No information was supplied in this regard by the North-West and the Western Cape.
The Ministry continues to support provincial departments of education through the Education Departments Support Unit. This support will be strengthened further through the Tirisano programme on organisational effectiveness of the national and provincial departments.
Scope of the second report
The report has been compiled from contributions from Members of the Executive Council responsible for education in their respective provinces. The contributions were based on guidelines provided by the Minister of Education to enable provincial authorities to report to report on the following eight topics:
Evaluation of the opening of schools in January 2000
Evaluation of the preparedness and the implementation of OBE in Grades 3 and 7
Evaluation of the province’s preparedness for the administration of the 2000 Senior Certificate Examinations
Evaluation of the province’s progress with the procurement of learning support materials (LSM) for 2001
Evaluation of the provinces preparedness for the implementation of Tirisano
Financial matters
Evaluation of progress with the implementation of national policies
Management matters
Section 1 of the report is devoted to an evaluation of the opening of schools in January 2000. Not surprisingly questions that had to be answered revolve around activities at the school regarding the admission of learners, the attendance of learners and educators, the distribution of learning support materials and the start of lessons.
Section 2 is devoted to an evaluation of the performance of schools in the 1999 Senior Certificate examinations. An analysis of the performance of schools is presented in graphical form by province and compared to the performance in the year 1998. The analysis is accompanied by improvement plans for each province.
The report contains in Section 3 detailed accounts of the state of preparedness of the provincial education departments in phasing in the new curriculum in Grades 3 and 7 this year. Plans adopted for training and support given to educators to cope with the implementation of outcomes-based education (OBE) are describe in this section by province. Since the commencement of the new curriculum in 1998 only one grade was phased in per year. However during the year 2000, the pace has increased with the phasing in of the two grades.
Section 4 is devoted to a review of the performance of provincial education departments regarding the procurement and distribution of learning support materials and the state of preparedness for the year 2001. The question of the budgets for LSM and management of the process is explored in the section
The implementation plans for Tirisano are elaborate and are presented in Section 5 by province. The system has to embrace its work with more determination to effect education transformation. True to the spirit of Tirisano the national Department all work together in rhythm to ensure that both national and provincial plans are synchronised. The report details the human and financial resources required to support the implementation of the programme.
Many national policies were determined during the first five years of our democracy. Section 6 presents an account of the success, or lack thereof, in implementing some of the national policies. Progress with the implementation of section 14 of the South African Schools Act (1996), the implementation of the Norms and Standards for Funding Schools is described. Preparations for the election of school governing bodies and capacity-building plans for the new school governing bodies are also presented in this section by province.
Section 7 is devoted to financial issues including an account of the participation of the provincial departments in budgetary processes and the implementation of section 100 of the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996). Section 8 explores management issues including the filling of posts and details of disciplinary actions taken against employees of the provincial departments.
The report has been kept as close as possible to the contributions submitted by the Members of the Executive Council. However, since this is the Minister's report to the President and not merely a report by provinces, a critical evaluation of the provinces’ performance is included where necessary. Some material may not have been included in full due to the number and length of contributions provided. Some material has been rearranged for self-consistency and hopefully easy reading. The Department of Education also prepared additional material to enhance some of the sections in the report.