Part 2 - The Reconstruction and Development of The Education and Training Programme

Chapter 3

Transforming The Legacy of The Past

1. For the first time in South Africa's history, a government has the mandate to plan the development of the education and training system for the benefit of the country as a whole and all its people. The challenge the government faces is to create a system that will fulfil the vision to "open the doors of learning and culture to all". The paramount task is to build a just and equitable system which provides good quality education and training to learners young and old throughout the country.

2. This is a national task, acknowledged by the government as a fundamental priority of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Developing the human resources of the country is both a goal of the RDP and a requirement for achieving other RDP goals. Appropriate education and training can empower people to participate effectively in all the processes of democratic society, economic activity, cultural expression, and community life, and can help citizens to build a nation free of race, gender and every other form of discrimination.

   Past and future

3. In a democratically governed society, the education system taken as a whole embodies and promotes the collective moral perspective of its citizens, that is the code of values by which the society wishes to live and consents to be judged. From one point of view, South Africans have had all too little experience in defining their collective values. From another, our entire history can be read as a saga of contending moralities, which in our era has culminated in a historic agreement based on the recognition of the inalienable worth, dignity and equality of each person under the law, mutual tolerance, and respect for diversity. In the charter of Fundamental Rights and the schedule of Constitutional Principles, the 1993 Constitution expresses a moral view of human beings and the social order which will guide policy and law-making in education as in all other sectors.

4. The closing paragraphs distil the essential moral vision of the constitution-makers:

   "This Constitution provides the historic bridge between the past of a deeply divided society characterised by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence and development opportunities for all South Africans, irrespective of colour, race, class, belief and sex. "The pursuit of national unity, the well-being of all South African citizens and peace require reconciliation between the people of South Africa and the reconstruction of society. "The adoption of this Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge. "These can now be addressed on the basisthatthere is need for understanding but notforvengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation."

5. This vision has power because of its honesty and generosity. Frankly and without recrimination, it acknowledges past evils and conflicts, and in their place offers a national agenda of reconciliation and reconstruction, leading to national unity, well-being, and peace. The policy of the Ministry of Education takes its bearings from this vision.

6. When all South Africans won equal citizenship, their past was not erased. The complex legacies, good as well as bad, live on in the present. Diff icult as it may be to do so, South Africans need to try to understand each other's history, culture, values and aspirations, not turn away from them, if we are to make the best of our common future.

   Educational legacies

7. As with other basic services, the distribution of education and training provision in our country follows a pattern of contrasts and paradoxes. South Africa has achieved, by a large measure, the most developed andwell-resourced system of education and training on the African continent, withthe highestparticipation rates at all levels of the system. In the best- resourced, well staffed, highly motivated, elite sector of the school system, almost all students succeed in their senior certificate examinations, and an impressive proportion qualify for admission to higher education. The quality of South Africa's diploma, degree, postgraduate and research output has created and sustained the country's sophisticated modern economic and financial infrastructure, industrial, business and communications technology, medical, legal, media, cultural and other professional services. In these respects South Africa compares well with other industrialising countries and seeks to match itself with the world's best.

8. At the same time, millions of adult South Africans are functionally illiterate, and millions of South African children and youth are learning in school conditions which resemble those in the most impoverished states. In the large, poorly-resourced sectors for the majority of the population, a majority of students drop out prematurely or fail senior certificate, and a small minority win entrance to higher education. Access to technological and professional careers requiring a strong basis in mathematics and science is denied to all but a fraction of the age cohort, largely because of the chronic inadequacy of teaching in these subjects.

9. Gross inequalities in educational attainment, skills, employment opportunity, productivity and income have been typical of industrialising economies in the modern era, on all five continents. In that respect, South Africa resembles many other countries, and South Africans grapple with similar needs for social justice, employment creation, housing, primary health care, environmental protection, and educational services. Measured by international indicators of human development and economic competitiveness, South Africa's overall performance is poor because the achievements of its outstandingly well- developed elite sector are overshadowed by inadequate provision for the basic needs, including education and training, of the majority of the population. Low levels of life-expectancy, basic health and nutrition, skills and productivity are the result.

10. In these respects, our circumstances may be similar to those of many other developing or industrialising societies, but our circumstances are the result of our own history, not any other people's. The unique pattern of South African inequality and under-development has been laid down over the generations of minority rule and ethnically-based economic, labour and social development policies. The gradations between rich and poor, articulate and voiceless, housed and homeless, well-fed and malnourished, educated and illiterate, therefore mirror South Africa's complex racial and ethnic hierarchies. By every index, African communities, followed by Coloured communities, have the highest deficits in the provision of basic services, and lowest level of access to the means of providing a better quality of life.

11. The national and provincial Ministries of Education are dealing daily with the legacy of South Africa's historically separate education and training systems. The historic pattern of organisation has changed manytimes during acentury and moreof public educational provision, butfrom the viewpointof the majority of the population, it has always been the case that schools and colleges were ethnically segregated and ultimate control of funds and policy was retained by White central governments. From 1983, education was organised through the three separate "own affairs" services of the tricameral parliament, for Indians, Coloureds and Whites respectively (the latter being organised in four semi-autonomous provincial departments), with provision for the Black population being divided between six self-governing territory departments, a central government department administering education for Africans living in the "White RSA", and four nominally independent state departments. A "Department of National Education" controlled policy and budgetary allocations on behalf of the central government.

12. Until recently, all these separate systems have operated in more or less total isolation from each other, except at the level of top management. Mutual ignorance has therefore been the norm, even between teachers and administrators working virtually side by side in neighbouring systems within the same city, town or rural village. In 1995, as their educators and administrators are absorbed into new non-racial national and provincial departments, the pre-democratic ethnic departments will dissolve and their separate institutional cultures, personal networks and community relations, good and bad, face extinction.

    A transformative mission

13. The fact that South Africans have experienced different educational histories is therefore a significant factor in the transition to a single, national non-racial system. In this situation, a priority for the national and provincial Ministries of Education is to create a transformative, democratic mission and ethos in the new departments of education which can completely supersede the separate identities of the former departments. It is now the joint responsibility of all South Africans who have a stake in the education and training system to help build a just, equitable, and high quality system for all the citizens, with a common culture of disciplined commitment to learning and teaching. In this task the best expertise and experience from the old ethnic departments will be indispensable, just as all inefficient and reactionary administrative and professional practices from the past dispensations must be jettisoned.

14. Fortunately, the ministries have access not only to the best of the old departmental experience, but also to a wealth of innovative policy research, curriculum development, teaching, assessment and evaluation, in-service teacher education, educational materials production, textbooks, educational media, and practical experience in the delivery of education to neglected communities and sectors, which has been built up by educational NGOs, community-based organisations, research units, resource and training agencies, publishers, faculties of education, and schools and colleges outside the official system. These have worked foryears within a non-racial, non-sexist and participatory culture, developing alternatives and supplements to what prevailed within the old departments, and preparing for the day which has now dawned.

15. In recent years, with the national compass set towards the democratic future, unprecedented investigations of national educational and training needs have been undertaken with the participation of a wide range of stakeholder organisations and agencies, at times including departments of government. The findings and recommendations have been widely disseminated and discussed. In the process, a convergence of view has emerged on many issues of fundamental importance, even if there is still principled disagreement over others, and considerable debate over questions of implementation, including the priorities to be set in the light of the limits to our resources.

16. New education and training policies to address the legacies of under- development and inequitable development and provide learning opportunities for all will be based principally on the constitutional guarantees of equal educational rights for all persons and non-discrimination, and their formulation and implementation must also scrupulously observe all other constitutional guarantees and protections which apply to education.

    Acknowledgement and invitation

17. At the moment when the Ministry of Education in the first democratic South African government lays the foundations of the new system of education and training, it is appropriate to recall, soberly and without recrimination, that education has been a deeply contested terrain from colonial times and throughout the long history of minority rule. Language, cultural and education policies have always been closely allied to the main themes of state policy. It is not surprising, therefore, that major political movements in the country's modern history have frequently been stirred by struggles for educational, language and cultural rights, in the face of overbearing state ideologies.

18. In the post-World War II period, the struggle for equal educational rights and equal citizenship became completely identified, because the denial of equal educational rights constituted a direct attack on the human dignity and life chances of the vast majority of South Africa's peoples. As a result, schools, colleges and universities became part of the arena of political mobilisation and confrontation with the security forces. Casualties numbered in the thousands, thousands were detained, thousands fled into exile. Many were killed. These statements are true, and they loom so large in recent memory that they cannot be ignored.

19. It is fitting for the Ministry of Education to pay tribute to the generations of parents, students and teachers who were willing to risk their lives, personal liberty, family life, educational progress and careers in the cause of democracy, equal rights, non-racialism, and equal education.

20. It is also fitting for the Ministry of Education to acknowledge with gratitude the selfless service of generations of educators in all communities who have exemplified the best traditions of their calling by dedicating themselves to the interests of their students, especially those who have been called upon to do so under conditions of severe inequality, hardship and danger.

21. It is also true that the culture of resistance in educational institutions created massive tensions and divisions among students, teachers, and administrators from which the country is only now beginning to emerge. Even in recent times, with a democratic government elected by all the people, abuses have taken place in educational institutions in the name of liberation, which cannot be condoned.

22. It is time to declare that a new era has dawned. In publishing this document, the Ministry of Education opens not just a new chapter but an entirely new volume in the country's educational development. The efforts of all South Africans will be needed to reconstruct and develop the national education and training system so that it is able to meet the personal and social needs, and economic challenges, that confront us as we build our democratic nation. The Ministry of Education invites the goodwill and active participation of all parents, teachers and other educators, students, community leaders, religious bodies, NGOs, academic institutions, workers, business, the media, and development agencies, in bringing about the transformation we all seek.

23. For its part, the Ministry of Education undertakes to pursue an open and transparent process of policy-making, to tell the truth about the condition of the education and training system and the problems the government encounters, and to do everything in its power to assist those who bear the responsibility at all levels for turning the vision of a learning nation into reality.

    An Education and Training Charter

24. A significant step in this direction will be taken if, in the spirit of reconciliation and reconstruction, all parties in the government and key stakeholders and roleplayers can agree to a common statement of essential goals and principles for the reconstruction, development and protection of the education and training system.

25. The Ministry of Education will shortly invite a representative group of South Africans to prepare a draft Education and Training Charter. This draft will form the basis for a country-wide consultation, out of which a revised text will be developed and agreement negotiated. The Education and Training Charter is envisaged as a solemn pact, in its own way as significant for peace and progress in our country as the Constitutional Principles on which the new Constitution will be based.

Chapter Four

Values and Principles of Education and Training Policy

1. It is necessary to identify the values and principles which, in the view of the Ministry of Education, should drive national policy for the reconstruction and development of education and training.

2. Education and training are basic human rights. The state has an obligation to protect and advance these rights, so that all citizens irrespective of race, class, gender, creed or age, have the opportunity to develop their capacities and potential, and make their full contribution to the society.

3. Parents or guardians have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, and have the right to be consulted by the state authorities with respect to the form that education should take and to take part in its governance. Parents have an inalienable right to choose the form of education which is best for their children, particularly in the early years of schooling, whether provided by the state or not, subject to reasonable safeguards which may be required by law. The parents' right to choose includes choice of the language, cultural or religious basis of the child's education, with due regard for the rights of others and the rights of choice of the growing child.

4. Since countless South African families are fragmented by such factors as past unjust laws, migratory labour practices, and marital breakdown, and handicapped by illiteracy from participating fully in the education of their children, the state has an obligation to provide advice and counselling on education services by all practicable means, and render or support appropriate care and educational services for parents, especially mothers, and young children within the community.

5. The over-arching goal of policy must be to enable all individuals to value, have access to, and succeed in lifelong education and training of good quality. Educational and management processes must therefore put the learners first, recognising and building on their knowledge and experience, and responding to their needs. An integrated approach to education and training will increase access, mobility and quality in the national learning system.

6. The system must increasingly open access to education and training opportunity of good quality, to all children, youth and adults, and provide the means for learners to move easily from one learning context to another, so that the possibilities for lifelong learning are enhanced. The Constitution guarantees equal access to basic education for all. The satisfaction of this guarantee must be the basis of policy. It goes well beyond the provision of schooling. It must provide an increasing range of learning possibilities, offering learners greater flexibility in choosing what, where, when, how and at what pace they learn.

7. In achieving this goal, there must be special emphasis on the redress of educational inequalities among those sections of our people who have suffered particular disadvantages, or who are especially vulnerable, including street children, out-of-school youth, the disabled and citizens with special educational needs, illiterate women, rural communities, squatter communities, and communities damaged by violence.

8. The state's resources must be deployed according to the principle of equity, so that they are used to provide essentially the same quality of learning opportunities for all citizens. This is an inescapable duty upon government, in the light of this country's history and its legacy of inequality, and it is a constitutional requirement. There must be purposeful strategies for ensuring that the system protects the rights of teachers and students to equitable treatment. Fair opportunities for training and advancement in the education service, including an affirmative action policy, are essential, in order to ensure an effective leadership cadre which is broadly representative of the population they serve. The representation of women in leadership positions must be drastically increased.

9. The improvement of the quality of education and training services is essential. In many of the schools and colleges serving the majority of the population there has been a precipitous decline in the quality of educational performance, which must be reversed. But quality is required across the board. It is linked to the capacity and commitment of the teacher, the appropriateness of the curriculum, and the way standards are set and assessed. A national qualification framework will be the scaffolding on which new levels of quality will be built. Other quality assurance mechanisms will be developed to ensure the success of the learning process.

10. The years of turmoil have taken a heavy toll on the infrastructure of our education and training system. The relationship between schools and many of the communities they are expected to serve has been disrupted and distorted by the crisis of legitimacy. The rehabilitation of the schools and colleges must go hand in hand with the restoration of the ownership of these institutions to their communities through the establishment and empowerment of legitimate, representative governance bodies.

11. The principle of democratic governance should increasingly be reflected in every level of the system, by the involvement in consultation and appropriate forms of decision-making of elected representatives of the main stakeholders, interest groups and roleplayers. This requires a commitment by education authorities at all levels to share all relevant information with stakeholder groups, and to treat them genuinely as partners. This is the only guaranteed way to infuse new social energy into the institutions and structures of the education and training system, dispel the chronic alienation of large sectors of society from the educational process, and reduce the power of government administration to intervene where it should not. Representative governance structures do not exclude the importance of governments and institutions calling upon expert advice to supplement their own professional resources.

12. The restoration of the culture of teaching, learning and management involves the creation of a culture of accountability. This means the development of a common purpose or mission among students, teachers, principals and governing bodies, with clear, mutually agreed and understood responsibilities, and lines of cooperation and accountability.

13. The realisation of democracy, liberty, equality, justice and peace are necessary conditions for the full pursuit and enjoyment of lifelong learning. It should be a goal of education and training policy to enable a democratic, free, equal, just and peaceful society to take root and prosper in our land, on the basis that all South Africans without exception share the same inalienable rights, equal citizenship, and common national destiny, and that all forms of bias (especially racial, ethnic and gender) are dehumanising.

14. This requires the active encouragement of mutual respect for ourpeople's diverse religious, cultural and language traditions, their right to enjoy and practice these in peace and without hindrance, and the recognition that these are a source of strength for their own communities and the unity of the nation.

15. Education in the arts, and the opportunity to learn, participate and excel in dance, music, theatre, art and crafts must become increasingly available to all communities on an equitable basis, drawing on and sharing the rich traditions of our varied cultural heritage and contemporary practice.

16. The education system must counter the legacy of violence by promoting the values underlying the democratic process and the charter of fundamental rights, the importance of due process of law and the exercise of civic responsibility, and by teaching values and skills for conflict management and conflict resolution, the importance of mediation, and the benefits of toleration and co-operation. Thus peace and stability will become the normal condition of our schools and colleges, and citizens will be empowered to participate confidently and constructively in social and civic life.

17. The curriculum, teaching methods and textbooks at all levels and in all programmes of education and training, should encourage independent and critical thought, the capacity to question, enquire, reason, weigh evidence and form judgments, achieve understanding, recognise the provisional and incomplete nature of most human knowledge, and communicate clearly.

18. Curriculum choice, especially in the post-compulsory period, must be diversified in order to prepare increasing numbers of young people and adults with the education and skills required by the economy and for further learning and career development.

19. An appropriate mathematics, science and technology education initiative is essential to stem the waste of talent, and make up the chronic national deficit, in these fields of learning, which are crucial to human understanding and to economic advancement.

20. Environmental education, involving an inter-disciplinary, integrated and active approach to learning, must be a vital element of all levels and programmes of the education and training system, in order to create environmentally literate and active citizens and ensure that all South Africans, present and future, enjoy a decent quality of life through the sustainable use of resources.

21. Two operational principles-sustainability and productivity-are given strong emphasis in the Reconstruction and Development Programme. They need to be upheld in the development of plans and programmes for the reconstruction and development of the education and training system.

22. The expansion of the education and training system must meet the test of sustainability. The education and training system has not been given an open cheque book by the government. Development needs to be planned for, and balanced across the full range of needs, from early childhood to postgraduate study. Unsustainable development is not development at all, but a kind of fraud practised on the people. However, sustainability is not just a financial concept. True sustainability occurs when the people concerned claim ownership of educational and training services and are continuously involved in their planning, governance and implementation.

23. The system of education and training, taken overall, has developed many areas of inefficiency, where funds are wasted and staff are not well employed. The productivity of the system-what it produces in terms of personal learning, marketable skills, and examination results, in relation to what it has cost-is very low in much of the system. Improving efficiency and productivity is essential in order to justify the cost of the system to the public, to secure more funds for development when they are needed, to raise the quality of performance across the system, and thus improve the life chances of the learners.

Chapter Five

Developmental Initiatives

1. The government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is designed as an integrated, coherent socioeconomic policy framework. The main theme of the RDP's human resource development programme is the empowerment of people, through education and training, including specific forms of capacity-building within organisations and communities, to participate effectively in all the processes of democratic society, economic activity, cultural expression and community life.

2. All Ministries are expected to re-orient their programmes and budgets in accordance with RDP priorities. From one perspective, the entire work of the national and provincial Ministries of Education supports the objectives of the RDP, since education and training are by definition developmental. From another perspective, the education and training sector requires transformation like any other, because of the structural imbalances in provision, funding, quality and output, the need to deliver education services to neglected adult, youth and early childhood constituencies, to rewrite curricula and textbooks, link schooling and the world of work, restructure governance systems, upgrade the professional competence of teachers, gear learning outcomes to the country's reconstruction and development agenda, and much more.

3. These vast needs cannot be met all at once or satisfied in a short period. The Ministry of Education does not have a free hand, a clean slate, or a blank cheque with which to plan and implement the future. The need for a strategic plan, including both general and specific targets, is difficult to deny. In principle, a well-founded plan would enable efforts and resources to be concentrated, and would help prevent national and provincial ministries being swept along on a tide of immediate and perhaps unrelated or conflicting demands and crisis-management decisions.

4. Macro-planning exercises up to now have been focused primarily on the rationalisation of the system, organisational development, broad policy, and interim curriculum reform, since the entire organisational, institutional, financial and legal infrastructure of the national education system has been in flux since May 1994. Departmental capacity for strategic planning has been limited, and the new education information system and data base are still being constructed.

5. The developmental initiatives in this chapter, which together comprise a large part of the Ministry of Education's main policy agenda for the reconstruction and development of the system, will be brought within the scope of the strategic planning exercise. Here they are proposals, or descriptions of actions, on almost all of which the Ministry of Education is already engaged, without an attempt being made in this document to propose a comprehensive plan of implementation with time-frames.

6. Since the national Department of Education has no executive responsibility for the provision of education in schools and colleges, it is imperative that macro-planning should be undertaken as a collaboration between the national department and provincial Departments of Education (which are being established and staffed during 1995), and major providing systems including the universities and technikons. This is a task for the new Department of Education which will relate well to the government's requirement for a zero- based, multi-year budgeting process.

7. The developmental initiatives which are described below anticipate several important structural and institutional innovations. In a time of transition it may appear that change takes on a momentum of its own. The Ministry of Education is aware of the importance of continuity and the need to ensure that change takes place in a considered and orderly manner, within a coherent structure of accountability. Many of the inherited consultative bodies have been dissolved because they are unconstitutional or no longer serve a useful purpose. Other bodies have been substantially changed in membership, such as the University and Technikon Advisory Council (AUT), or restructured, such as the former ethnically-based Committee of Heads of Education Departments (CHED), now the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM). Such structures of advice and consultation fulfil a vital function, both in order to maintain the flow of decision-making, and as vehicles for managing change. In due course, partly as a result of the developmental initiatives described below, the permanent system of statutory advice will be brought into place.

   National Qualification Framework

8. National reconstruction and development demands that the knowledge and skills base of the working and unemployed population are massively upgraded, and that young people still at school have better opportunities to continue their education and training.

9. Our human resource development programme must therefore expand the ways in which people are able to acquire learning and qualifications of high quality. New, flexible and appropriate curricula are needed that cut across traditional divisions of skills and knowledge, with standards defined in terms of learning outcomes and appropriate assessment practices, in order to provide a more meaningful learning experience, and prepare them more effectively for life's opportunities.

10. An integrated approach to education and training will link one level of learning to another and enable successful learners to progress to higher levels without restriction from any starting point in the education and training system. Quality assurance will be maintained by duly registered accrediting bodies. Learning and skills which people have acquired through experience and on-site training or self-education could be formally assessed and credited towards certificates, in order to enable them to qualify for entry to additional education or training.

11. As discussed in chapter 2, the Inter-Ministerial Working Group of the Ministries of Education and of Labour has prepared draft legislation for the creation of a National Qualification Framework (NQF). The Ministries are satisfied that a very broad consensus has developed on the need for the NQF and its main principles of operation. The NQF is specifically endorsed in the Government's Reconstruction and Development Programme as a key element of human resource development strategy. Organised business and organised labour have been leading actors in undertaking the conceptualisation. The public response to the proposal in the draft version of this document was strongly positive in principle.

12. The NQF is a priority programme of the Ministry of Education, acting in consultation with the Ministry of Labour. The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), which will have responsibility for developing the NQF, will be brought into existence through legislation as a parastatal body, in the shortest possible time after the NQF Act has been passed. Since it is intended that the NQF be developed and maintained in a highly devolved and consultative manner, the SAQA executive office should not be large.

13. The Ministry of Education is aware that many vital interests need to be taken into account in the further development of this initiative. Through the National Training Board's National Training Strategy Initiative, a large number of organised constituencies have already participated in the development of the NQF concept. It is intended that the draft NQF Bill, together with an explanatory memorandum, be gazetted for consultation as soon as the Ministers of Labour and Education have approved its release. Comprehensive consultations will be invited with the provincial Departments of Education through HEDCOM, the university, technikon and college sectors, representative stakeholder organisations, professional institutes, private educational institutions, NGO providers and accrediting bodies, and the special educational needs constituency, so that the revised Bill reflects their advice and enjoys their confidence. Special consultations will be needed to clarify the future role of existing certification bodies.

14. SAQA will be charged with developing the National Qualification Framework, on a fully consultative basis, for the Minister's approval. Meanwhile, without prejudice to the outcome, the Department of Education is basing its forward thinking on a draft, provisional structure of the NQF comprising eight qualification levels, which can be listed schematically as follows:

    (1) Level 1: General Education Certificate (GEC), to be achieved by the acquisition of the required credits

    • at the end of the compulsory schooling phase: one year reception class (pre- school) plus nine years to Grade 9 (present Standard 7)
    • through Adult Basic Education and Training programmes, which may be sub-divided into three sub-levels

    (2) Levels 2-4: Further Education Certificate(s) (FEC), to be achieved by the acquisition of the required credits, which may comprise core units and optional units in different combinations, undertaken in a variety of modes, including

    • senior secondary school programmes, up to Grade 12 (Standard 10)
    • general and career-specific programmes offered in the college sector including those offered in the current Technical Colleges, Community Colleges, Intermediate Tertiary Colleges, other private vocational or academic colleges, and NGO providers
    • programmes offered in Regional Training Centres, through workplace training, etc

    (3) Levels 5-8: Higher Education diplomas and degrees, achieved by the acquisition of the required credits, undertaken in programmes offered by

    • professional colleges, both public and private - professional institutes
    • technikons
    • universities

15. The Ministry notes that strong representations have been made by organisations speaking on behalf of adult and young learners, to start Level 1 at the first ABET benchmark, which could be equivalent to the end of primary education, and that the term "sub-level" be abandoned for these learners. LSEN specialists also point out that adjustments may be required in respect of learners with special education needs. Such views will need to be given full weight by SAQA as it prepares its proposals on the NQF structure.

    Curriculum development

16. The advent of democracy in South Africa has made it both possible and imperative to undertake an overhaul of the learning programmes in the nation's schools and colleges. The Ministry of Education is committed to a fully participatory process of curriculum development and trialling, in which the teaching profession, teacher educators, subject advisors and other learning practitioners play a leading role, along with academic subject specialists and researchers. The process must be open and transparent, with proposals and critique being requested from any persons or bodies with interests in the learning process and learning outcomes.

17. The Ministry recognises that it is important to set up rapid processes for the production of new curriculum frameworks and core curricula. Much valuable work has been done already, within the Department of Education, in university curriculum projects, by subject associations, and by NGOs, alone and in networks. All curriculum change is a lengthy process, but strategic points of entry will be found so that a progressive transformation will take place on a phased basis.

18. Important developmental and coordination work at the national level has been done by the Curriculum Technical Sub-Commiftee of the National Education and Training Forum, in which the Department of Education plays a full part. The close involvement of national bodies of the organised teaching profession is a-major benefit of this process. The Interim Committee of Heads of Education Departments (ICHED), which links the national and provincial departments together, has now accommodated the NETF's role in bringing together the major stakeholders in the curriculum change process, by creating 41 National Curriculum Committees on which the national and provincial Departments of Education as well as other major roleplayers are represented. The work of these committees in developing national norms and standards for the curriculum is coordinated by a representative Coordinating Committee for the School Curriculum.

19. This extensive new structure of curriculum committees will formulate draft norms and standards for consideration by HEDCOM. When approved by the Minister of Education, they will be announced as national policy. Once the NQF has been developed and implementation commences, this process will have to link up with the SAQA procedures.

20. The formulation of national norms and standards necessarily involves the development of curriculum frameworks and core curricula. Within these national parameters, provincial Departments of Education have significant scope for defining learning programmes which express distinct provincial interests and priorities, should they wish to do so. Curricula which satisfy national norms may alsobe developed by other providing agencies. School-based "micro" adaptations can be an important means of professional development and INSET, as well as expressing particular interests of the school and its community.

21. Considerable interest has been expressed in the concept of a National Institute of Curriculum Development (NICD). In the light of the progress which has been made in establishing new National Curriculum Committees and a representative Coordinating Committee for the School Curriculum, the Department of Education will invite HEDCOM and the main stakeholders and roleplayers in education and training to participate in a study of alternative forms such an Institute could take, and the ways in which it could function. The department proposes that the NICD study should cover the relationship of curriculum, assessment and teacher education processes in all fields and phases of education and training, including early childhood learning, education support services and special educational needs.

22. The role of a NICD in the development and implementation of the National Qualification Framework should be a central element of the study. This will encompass the development of norms and standards for the General Education and Further Education levels, both in and out of school, and thus the implications of an integrated approach to education and training, the articulation of school and out-of-school curricula, the assessment and recognition of prior learning and experience, and the current and future requirements for national norms and standards for teachers and for "education, training and development practitioners" (a broad category introduced by the National Training Strategy Initiative which is meant to encompass a career path in formal and non-formal training).

23. The study should clarify the link between teacher education, especially INSET, and curriculum development, and the future role of the many NGOs working in the curriculum and INSET fields. It should consider the new demands for learning materials and well designed courses arising from the use of appropriate open learning approaches throughout the education system. The relationship between national and provincial curriculum processes should also be considered. Finally, the question of a binding code of conduct concerning the writing and approval of textbooks, needs to be investigated.

    National Open Learning Agency (NOLA)

24. The dimensions of South Africa's learning deficit are so vast in relation to the needs of the people, the constitutional guarantee of the right to basic education, and the severe financial constraints on infrastructural development on a large scale, that a completely fresh approach is required to the provision of learning opportunities.

25. Open learning is an approach which combines the principles of learner centredness, lifelong learning, flexibility of learning provision, the removal of barriers to access learning, the recognition for credit of prior learning experience, the provision of learner support, the construction of learning programmes in the expectation that learners can succeed, and the maintenance of rigorous quality assurance over the design of learning materials and support systems. South Africa is able to gain from world-wide experience over several decades in the development of innovative methods of education, including the use of guided self-study, and the appropriate use of a variety of media, which give practical expression to open learning principles.

26. The Ministry of Education is anxious to encourage the development of an open learning approach, since it resonates with the values and principles of the national education and training policy which underpin this document, and has applicability in virtually all learning contexts. For this reason, the Ministry will undertake an early investigation into the most useful structure and mission of a National Open Learning Agency (NOLA). This is envisaged as a small, flexible and responsive professional agency, with the mission of promoting the open learning principles wherever they can be most influential. NOLA would undertake research and development on open learning, help build a network of public and private open learning institutions and practitioners, and facilitate their efforts to translate open learning principles into effective practice. The NOLA and NICD concepts should be developed in close relationship with each other.

    Education Support Services and Education for Learners with Special Educational Needs

27. Education Support Services (ESS) encompass all education-related health, social work, vocational and general guidance and counselling, and other psychological programmes and services, and services to learners with special education needs (LSEN) in mainstream schools. Parents, teachers and students in both formal and non-formal sectors of the education and training system are beneficiaries of and participants within these services, which until now have tended to function separately, and to be administered separately with poor co- ordination. The Ministry of Education accepts that the demands of specialized education for severely handicapped learners are related to but should not be encompassed by ESS.

28. It cannot be said that Education Support Services or LSEN services have been comprehensive enough in any part of the former education and training system, but in general, the better resourced a department had been in the past, the more support services have been available to learners, and the greater the ease of access to that support. Where the need has been greatest the service has been poorest. Low levels of funding for Black education have relegated ESS and LSEN services to the periphery, with the result that ESS and LSEN provision for African learners is meagre in the extreme, whether through mainstream or specialised facilities.

29. Provision of these services is a matter for provincial departments. The Ministry of Education's interest in ESS lies in the necessity to take a national overview, through careful research and consultation, of the condition of these services, to consider the scope for national norms and standards, and minimum national standards of service, and to give direction on policy.

30. The Ministry of Education intends to explore a holistic and integrated approach to Education Support Services, in collaboration with the provincial Ministries of Education and in consultation with the Ministries of Health, Welfare and Population Development, and Labour. The inclusive, integrated approach recognises that issues of health, social, psychological, academic and vocational development, and support services for learners with special education needs in mainstream schools, are inter-related.

31. The term "Education Support Services" may tend to emphasise the auxiliary nature of "curative" services and to downplay the potential advantages of an approach which integrates and infuses ESS into the mainstream curriculum and the Lifeskills curriculum. In this vein, educational and career guidance specialists have argued strongly, in response to the draft document, that guidance is an integral part of the curriculum, not ESS. The Ministry fully accepts that guidance is an integral part of the curriculum and must be given its full scope in that sphere and in teacher education, but wishes to explore the advantages of conceptualising guidance services within an integrated ESS framework.

32. It is essential to increase awareness of the importance of ESS in an education and training system which is committed to equal access, non- discrimination, and redress, and which needs to target those sections of the learning population which have been most neglected or are most vulnerable. At the same time, there is every reason to believe that more effective infusion of ESS concerns within the mainstream, will by prevention reduce the risk of increasing the numbers of learners at risk.

33. One way to ensure visibility is to require the representation of ESS personnel, learners with special education needs, and their legitimate representatives, on all statutory or consultative bodies which deal with ESS matters, and to ensure representation on bodies dealing with general education policy.

34. The vast need for ESS, coupled with the extreme impoverishment and inequality in provision for ESS, the complexity of the professional fields involved, and the necessity for co-ordination across levels of government and different departments (as well as with NGOs), indicate that one or more special studies are required.

35. The Ministry of Education favours the early appointment of a National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training to undertake a thorough needs analysis and make its recommendations to the Minister. The Department of Education will seek advice from the LSEN constituency, the Heads of Education Departments, and the Department of Health and the Department of Welfare and Population Development on the Commission's terms of reference, before putting a firm proposal to Cabinet for approval. In view of the extreme importance of early identification of special educational needs, the scope of the enquiry will specifically include the early childhood phase, from birth to school entry, and the questions of prevention and support through effective ESS in the mainstream.

36. The Department of Education will propose to the Heads of Education Departments Committee that an investigation into the holistic and integrative concept of ESS be undertaken in parallel with the national commission and feed into its deliberations.

    Teachers, Trainers and Educators

37. The teacher education sector is a joint responsibility of the national and provincial governments, since the 100+ teachers colleges fall under the provincial Departments of Education, and teacher education conducted in universities and technikons falls under the national Department, whereas the many NGOs involved in teacher education may belong in either category. Teacher education belongs at present both within higher education and within the so-called "college/school" (CS) sector.

38. The Ministry of Education is strongly of the view that teacher education is a unified field and belongs in higher education. The Ministry will be expecting advice on this point from the National Commission on Higher Education which is discussed below.

39. This is not to say that the teachers colleges will or can cease to fall under the respective provincial departments, since the Constitution is clear on this matter. What is required is imaginative bridge building between the national and provincial levels, so that the planning and development of the sector can proceed in a purposeful, coherent and cost-effective way.

40. The Ministry regards teacher education (including the professional education of trainers and educators) as one of the central pillars of national human resource development strategy, and the growth of professional expertise and self-confidence is the key to teacher development. The responsibility of the national level of government is to provide facilitative and regulatory mechanisms under which the institutions and bodies responsible for programmes will have wide latitude to design and deliver them.

41. The Ministry of Education therefore requires appropriate advice on all aspects of teacher education policy. These encompass the structure and career paths in the teaching profession, demand and supply factors, initial teacher education, induction, in-service education and professional development, whether based institutionally or provided by distance education methods. The Committee for Teacher Education Policy (COTEP) will continue to provide this advisory function as a sub-commiftee of the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM). The desirability of a statutory National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), representing all higher education institutions, including teachers colleges, the teaching profession, and the provincial Departments of Education, will continue to be examined in the light of experience and such advice as the National Commission on Higher Education may render.

42. The provincial Departments of Education, and university and technikon faculties of education, will be responsible for the redesign of teacher education programmes in line with the new values, goals and principles of national education and training policy determined by the Minister. Such national policy will include a qualification structure expressed in terms of minimum criteria and competences, and will facilitate the qualitative improvement and developmental relevance of teacher education programmes. It will contribute to a new system of accreditation for teacher education and training institutions which accords with the NQF, and provides for quality assurance and the portability of credits. As a benchmark for the new policy, a national professionally-researched audit of teacher education capacity is being undertaken in the first half of 1995 underthe auspices of HEDCOM and with the support of the Council of Education Ministers.

43. Given the magnitude of the task of teacher education and development, and the cost factors, it is likely to be necessary to base as much teacher education work as possible on what, for South Africa, will be an entirely new approach to distance education, which will include strong professional support. It will be imperative for COTEP to coordinate the development of such distance education courses, given the high initial financial outlay involved, especially in preparing new learning materials, staff development and student support systems.

44. The Ministry believes that the most direct way of raising the quality of learning and teaching is through a comprehensive reform and re-direction of in-service education for teachers (INSET). The faculties of education in universities and technikons, the NGO sector, the more creative colleges of education, and some subject organisations of teachers, have been responsible for an array of innovative INSET programmes, many of which involve professional development and teacher empowerment within school settings, and cooperative work among teachers from different schools under specialised guidance.

45. There is a need for an evaluation of current INSET practice in these and other settings, and the role of Departments of Education, faculties and colleges of education, the NGO sector, and teacher organisations, in a revitalised, properly accredited INSET service from primary school through to the senior secondary phase. The audit of teacher education capacity will go some way to meet this need, but a specific INSET initiative has been urged on the Ministry in the course of the public consultation on the draft version of this document, and will be seriously considered by COTEP.

46. Special criteria will be needed to prepare students for subjects in short supply, particularly science, mathematics and technology. 'Second chance' opportunities should be extended to students who would not otherwise fulfil the admission criteria, and special support should be extended to them, for as long as the need persists. Well-functioning distance education programmes can play an essential role in increasing the productivity of the small science, mathematics and technology base, and providing opportunities to very large numbers of students in as flexible a way as possible.

    A student recovery programme In Science and Mathematics

47. Such interventions would be part of a comprehensive programme of special measures which are needed to enable many more students to follow science-based careers. Coordinated and certificated "second chance to learn" and recovery programmes for students in science and mathematics would offer alternative entry to higher education and employment, but should be part of a comprehensive package of measures, including new science and mathematics curricula linked to accredited in-service programmes at all levels of schooling.

48. The attrition of science and mathematics students in Black schools is a special case of the broader problems of student retention, teacher preparation, inadequate facilities and materials, inadequate guidance on curriculum choice, and examination strategy. For a variety of such reasons, only one in five Black students choose physical science and mathematics in Standard 8, and the trend of performance in the senior certificate examinations has been low overall, with a particularly dismal matriculation exemption rate among students taking these subjects at higher grade.

49. The consequence is a dearth of Black students with science and mathematics qualifying for normal entry to higher education, fewer still continuing in mathematics and science-based programmes, and a trickle entering mathematics and science-based professional and technological fields in the economy. Mathematics and science programmes in universities and teachers colleges therefore have a perennial shortage of high quality Black candidates in these subjects. In particular, the number of science and mathematics teachers graduating from colleges of education, is far too small to make an impression on the need in schools, and their subject knowledge and professional confidence is generally poor. A "cycle of mediocrity" perpetuates itself through their efforts in the classroom.

50. If this cycle is wasteful from an educational point of view, it is catastrophic from the perspective of national developmental needs. The Ministry of Education is committed to make its contribution to the broader field of national science and technology policy through its special responsibility for national standards in the fields of curriculum and teacher education. In particular, without derogating from the value of the many existing intermediate and academic development programmes in science and mathematics, from which much has been learnt, the Ministry of Education will give full support to a new intervention starting in 1995 to 'recover' science and mathematics students and upgrade both their knowledge and attitudes to these subjects, and link successful completers to a new diploma programme in selected colleges of education. This programme has the endorsement of the Interim CHED and will be undertaken in close cooperation with the national and provincial Departments of Education.

    Adult Basic Education and Training

51. The historic inadequacy of school education, especially for Black communities, has ensured that a majority of the adult population, both in and out of formal employment, has had no schooling or inadequate schooling. This situation must be redressed, because basic education is a right guaranteed to all persons by the Constitution, and because our national development requires an ever-increasing level of education and skill throughout society.

52. The Ministry of Education views Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) as a force for social participation and economic development, providing an essential component of all RDP programmes. The objective of policy is a national ABET programme, focused on particular target groups which have historically missed out on education and training, and providing an appropriate ABET curriculum whose standards will be fully incorporated in the National Qualification Framework.

53. To avoid becoming educational dead-ends for separate groups or individual learners, therefore, ABET programmes should be designed around a common core of fundamental concepts, knowledge and skills on which further learning, knowledge and skill formation could be built. The expected outcomes, or learners' achievements, should therefore be formulated in progressive steps which are appropriate to the learners' circumstances and experience, which should encourage a large measure of self-learning, and which enable learners to be assessed and credited with nationally recognised standards of attainment.

54. The main organisational principle of the national ABET programme will be the building of partnerships of all constituencies with a vital interest in the ABET enterprise, including organised labour and business, women's and youth organisations, civics, churches, specialist NGOs, learner associations, all levels of government, media and other stakeholders. The partnerships are expected to undertake planning, arrange public advocacy, sponsor research and development, and mobilise financial resources for the programme. A representative national ABET Council is expected to be established as the authoritative voice of the field, and to advise the Minister.

55. A professional directorate for ABET is being established in the new Department of Education, in order to provide a national focal point for the Ministry's commitment to the field, to undertake or sponsor research on structure and methods, to develop norms and standards, and to liaise with the RDP Office, the Department of Labour, and provincial departments of education. In the meantime, the Ministry of Education has established a national ABET Task Team, including provincial representatives, to carry forward the extensive preparatory work which has already been undertaken by the community of ABET stakeholders and practitioners and plan the RDP Presidential Lead Programme in this field, in conjunction with counterpart teams in the provinces. The Department of Education will work with the Task Team to help translate proposals into implementable policy.

56. In general, ABET programmes can make more cost-effective use of available educational facilities. They do not require major investments in new buildings. In addition, they can exploit opportunities for distance education where appropriate. One institutional innovation which the Ministry wishes to see investigated with some speed is the idea of Community Learning Centres. These can be envisaged as a network of facilities, usually pre-existing, which offers regular support and services to students of all varieties in pursuing their learning goals. They would call for a new type of learning facilitator, and have the potential to be connected electronically to almost unlimited data sources and networks. Such centres would form an essential part of the infrastructure required for the realisation of the open learning approaches throughout the education and training system.

57. Prototypes of such centres already operate in some South African communities. In collaboration with provincial Departments of Education, other government departments and the array of stakeholders in youth and adult learning, the Ministry of Education wishes to explore their potential for shifting supported self-study into a new gear.

    Further Education and Training

58. The key to a successful integrated approach to education and training lies at the Further Education level. The developmental task of the Further Education sector is to address the inadequacy of programmes at the senior secondary level and above, both in school and out of school, in the workplace, in other institutions, or by private study.

59. Success in the RDP requires a comprehensive human resource development approach. Global changes in the industrial and service sectors of the economy require an increase in the general education component of vocational training and a concomitant increase in the ability of those in full-time education to develop applied and problem-solving skills. So far, however, in South Africa, education and training tend to operate separately in terms of provision, curricula, examination and qualification structures.

60. The Ministry of Education considers that the Further Education level needs to be planned as a comprehensive, interlocking sector which provides a purposeful educative experience to learners at the post-compulsory (post-GEC) phase, irrespective of age, place and time of delivery. There is immense scope, within the flexible structure of the NQF, for a modular curriculum of great variety comprising core general education and optional vocational or academic subjects. The scope for well-functioning distance education is considerable. This mode of learning is well suited to the huge numbers of out-of-school young people and unemployed adults for whom conventional school- type instruction is unappealing and inappropriate.

61. Because the further education concept is not well developed in South Africa and touches many institutional, economic and professional interests, the Ministry of Education is of the view that a National Commission on Further Education is needed to undertake the research, consultation and planning required to set this level of learning on an energetic growth path. The Commission would be expected to advise on the new institutional forms and resources which will be needed to revitalise learning at this level, and to accelerate the articulation between General Education, Further Education, and Higher Education as components of lifelong learning.

62. The Department of Education will consult its provincial counterparts through HEDCOM, the National Training Board and the Department of Labour, in order to invite their participation in preparing for this important initiative. A wide variety of stakeholder organisations, including the representative bodies of the teaching profession, secondary school principals, school governing bodies, parents and students, organised labour and business, the college sector, and open learning, distance education and media specialists, will be invited to advise on the Commission and its modus operandi.

63. In undertaking these preparations, the Ministry will give full attention to the substantial volume of research and development work which has already been done in connection with the National Training Board's National Training Strategy Initiative, and the multi-stakeholder National Investigation into Community Education (NICE).

    Higher education

64. The national higher education system represents a major resource for national development, and contributes to the world-wide advance of knowledge. Important as its role is, the system faces several simultaneous challenges which require both short- and long-term policy responses.

65. The process of transformation out of the highly segmented apartheid mode is proceeding at different rates in different parts of the system and creating substantial stress. The system as a whole is dealing with the effects of rapid enrolment growth and simultaneous decline in the real value of subsidy from the state. Students are under chronic financial pressure, which is transferred to their institutions. The resulting actions and counter-actions have become a serious source of instability for the institutions and interrupted study for the students. The student body is increasingly representative of the broad population, and brings into the system the learning deficits accumulated in the Black schools.

66. The structure of higher education programmes is the inverse of what is required by the society and economy, with a small technikon sector, a relatively large university sector, and a poorly-developed and fragmented post-secondary college system, with inadequate articulation among the various parts. Higher education institutions are compelled to grapple with the consequences of poor secondary education among an increasing proportion of the students they admit, in particular the under-development of many students' language skills, science and mathematics, and the narrow range and often inappropriate combinations of subjects they bring to their choice of tertiary programme.

67. The 1993 Constitution has created uncertainty about how post-secondary education is to be planned, with universities and technikons being a national function and teachers, technical and other colleges being located under the provincial governments.

68. These and other significant issues which confront the sector are well known. The institutions are unable to resolve them on their own, individually or collectively, although substantial innovative and developmental work is being done.

69. The Ministry of Education is well aware of and upholds both the tradition and the legal basis of autonomous governance in parts of the higher education sector, especially the universities and technikons which fall within the sphere of the national government. The Ministry also has the responsibility to advise the government on whether this vast infrastructure of intellectual and professional endeavour, substantially supported by public funds, is yielding a good return to the nation, and how it might be assisted to do better.

70. No official enquiry into the whole of the post-secondary sector has ever been undertaken in this country. The new democracy needs to have confidence in its senior institutions of learning, especially given the massive influence which higher education exerts on the cultural, social, scientific, technological and professional formation of the country's leadership.

71. Accordingly, after a prolonged period of investigation and consultation, the government has approved the Minister of Education's proposal to appoint a National Commission on Higher Education, and the commission has been appointed and begun its work.

72. The commission's terms of reference cover the entire sector: its identity, goals, demography, structure, funding, governance, management, planning, programmes, size, qualification structure, articulation, intellectual and developmental role, and more.

    Early Childhood Development

73. Early Childhood Development (ECD) is an umbrella term which applies to the processes by which children from birth to nine years grow and thrive, physically, mentally, emotionally, morally and socially. ECD programmes include a variety of strategies and a wide range of services directed at helping families and communities to meet the needs of children in this age group. The care and development of young children must be the foundation of social relations and the starting point of human resource development strategies from community to national levels.

74. ECD is particularly crucial in the current context of reconstruction and development as impoverished families are not able to meet the developmental needs of their children without assistance. Many young children are at risk because their health, nurture and education cannot be provided for adequately from resources available within the community. RDP programmes which address the basic needs of families for shelter, water and sanitation, primary health care, nutrition, and employment, are therefore particularly vital, and their successful implementation will improve the life chances of young children, and enable families and communities to care for them more adequately. From this perspective, ECD depends on and contributes to community development, and the education of parents should go hand-in-hand with the education of children. Thus programmes for Adult Basic Education and Training and for ECD should be closely linked, and ECD programmes should help to empower parents with the knowledge and skills of effective parenting.

75. Since ECD is a multi-disciplinary field, the national and provincial Departments of Education need to establish formal inter-departmental committees on ECD with their counterparts in the Departments of Health and of Welfare and Population Development, and link these with RDP human resource development planning at national and provincial levels. The role of the inter-departmental ECD committees will be to develop and promote a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach to the welfare and development of young children from birth to nine years of age, and effective integration and promotion of ECD services for young children and their families. The committees need to work in full collaboration with the representative bodies of ECD practitioners, trainers and resource specialists, and with the large array of non-governmental organisations, development agencies and private sector bodies which have responded to the demand for ECD services, particularly in impoverished communities. At provincial level, the participation of local authority representatives will also be essential.

76. In the context of such multi-disciplinary collaboration, the Departments of Education have particular responsibility for the education components within an integrated ECD strategy. For this purpose, the national Department of Education has established a Directorate of Early Childhood Development and Lower Primary Education, and recommends that provincial Departments of Education do the same. Strong links between the national and provincial departments are essential in this as in all other fields.

77. Within an inter-departmental and inter-provincial context, the national Department of Education's role is the development of national policy frameworks for the education of the young child, including the structure of provision, the determination of financial responsibilities, and the establishment of national norms and standards for ECD curricula and training.

78. The Department of Education needs to be advised on these matters by an inclusive statutory consultative body which is fully representative of all sectors in the ECD field. The establishment of such a body is a departmental priority, and the department will consult widely on its composition and terms of reference.

79. There is virtually unanimous agreement in the early childhood sector that the developmental needs of the young child are continuous from birth onwards, and require appropriate, developmentally-based educational responses, with as much continuity as possible between the home, the educare and pre-school phases, and the early years of schooling. This has important implications both for policy and for the kind of support which national and provincial departments of education should provide, a few of which can be briefly indicated.

80. Firstly, the scope of ECD policy, and appropriate educational guidance and support for families and communities in need, should in principle cover the full early childhood phase from birth onwards, in collaboration with the other state departments with direct responsibility in this area, particularly Welfare and Population Development, and Health.

81. It is essential to avoid introducing the young child prematurely and abruptly to formal learning, and in particular to attempt to do so in a language which the child does not understand. The young child's learning, in educare centres, pre-schools and in the early school grades, must be entrusted to teachers who have specialised training in the educational needs of this age group. The new Directorate of Early Childhood Development and Lower Primary Education, acting through the appropriate National Curriculum Committee, will therefore be responsible for coordinating the reshaping of curriculum frameworks and related advice on teaching methodology for early childhood for the purpose of setting national norms and standards. As with all curriculum work, this will be undertaken on the basis of full participation by teachers and teacher educators in the field, with particular recognition forthe fact that major contributions in this area have already been made by ECD resource and training agencies in the NGO sector, who must continue to play a leading innovatory and advocacy role.

82. Thus the Department of Education, working with provincial departments in the Heads of Education Departments Committee and all stakeholder organisations, will have the major responsibility for developing national educational policy for ECD, including the reception year. Provincial departments would take up the massive challenge of spearheading the phasing in of the policy, in conjunction with NGO providers and accredited training agencies. However, it must be emphasised that the role of the small number of national and provincial officials in the ECD field will be mainly facilitative. The centre of gravity of professional innovation, and the major responsibility for provision, will not lie with government departments but with non-government, community-based and private providers, resource and training agencies, operating within appropriate national and provincial guidelines.

83. State funds have been allocated to mount the startup phase and attract other funders. This process needs to be driven through a partnership of local government, community, business, worker and development agency interests, in order to build public awareness and develop a funding strategy for a national ECD programme. (See also chapter 13, paragraphs 21-28).

    Partnerships for human resource development

84. A recurring theme throughout this account of selected developmental initiatives has been the need to build partnerships for consultation, advocacy, planning and resourcing. It is not possible to list all parties to such partnerships, but it is important to name the main categories.

85. The Department of Education will play its role in the Human Resource Development Task Team of the RDP, which has responsibility for facilitating such partnerships. There are significant ties to be established between the Department of Education and the Departments of Health, Welfare and Population Development, Labour, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the Public Service, in relation to the human resource development functions in which they have common interests.

86. As the whole of this document will testify, the Ministry and Department of Education are committed to strengthen working and consultative relations between themselves and their provincial counterparts, especially through the Council of Education Ministers and the Heads of Education Departments Committee, without intruding on the provincial domain.

87. In view of their constitutional position and national significance, the university and technikon sectors have a particular claim on the attention of the Ministry and Department of Education, which will be discharged through daily contact with the institutions and active cooperation with their representative statutory bodies.

88. The Department has a clear channel of communication with the teachers college principals through their national representative body and their participation in the Committee on Teacher Education Policy (COTEP).

89. The department has opened a constructive dialogue with the coalition of national organisations representing public, private and community colleges, including the technical college sector and organisations representing trainers and practitioners in the ABET field.

90. There is a continuous communication with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), in whose transformation process and restructuring the Department has a keen interest, particularly as it will affect the prioritisation of funding for research on education and education policy.

91. The organised teaching profession has a particularly important role as an indispensable partner in educational change, and the Ministry and Department of Education will do all they can, in the Education Labour Relations Council, in the development of policy, and through the sharing of information, to maintain a frank and open relationship with the national teachers' organisations.

92. In their different ways, the national organisations of school principals, students, parents, school governing bodies, independent schools, special education needs specialists, and subject or discipline specialists represent essential interests and sources of advice, and the Ministry and Department of Education intend to keep open the channels of communication with these bodies.

93. The organised business and organised labour constituencies have participated actively in establishing the National Education and Training Forum, and have been key participants in the National Training Board's National Training Strategy Initiative, and the Inter-Ministerial Working Group of the Ministries of Labour and Education. Their respective roles in the conceptualisation of the National Qualification Framework, and initiatives in ABET and Further Education, testify to their strategic importance for the policy process.

94. Many national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), religious organisations, development agencies, and research bodies have all expressed their wish to be associated with the process of transformation in the national education and training system. The Ministry and Department of Education welcome their cooperation with these bodies who between them represent such a significant part of the vital interests and human resources of civil society.

95. Finally, a new field of partnership in international development cooperation has opened up for the South African education and training sector. The Department looks forward to a pro-active, professionally-based and reciprocal relationship with external partners, for the benefit of the whole sector.