MEC , Yousuf Gabru, with teachers and principals

The MEC for Education in the Western Cape, Yousuf Gabru

The MEC for Education in the Western Cape, Yousuf Gabru, met with teachers and principals in Kuils River on 6 November 2008

The meeting was held at the Western Cape Sports School, from 3 to 5 pm.  It was chaired by Mr Brian Schreuder DDG: Curriculum Management, with Dr Sigamoney Naicker and Professor Pam Christie in attendance. 

Context of the meeting

Since taking office in August, MEC Gabru has had several meetings with teachers and principals as well as visits to schools, where problems with the curriculum were raised, and in particular the overload of the paper work involved in assessment, recording and reporting.

Consequently, the MEC raised this as a matter of concern at the October meeting of the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) chaired by Minister Naledi Pandor.  The matter is now being investigated nationally by CEM.

The meeting at Kuils River was called by MEC Gabru to discuss with principals and teachers the challenges faced in implementing the curriculum; to share successes and best practice stories; and to discuss how best to achieve the objectives of the curriculum.

Discussion at the Kuils River meeting raised a number of different issues.  The comments raised by individuals are are summarized in broad themes below. 

MEC Gabru encourages open communication on these issues on a dedicated email address: mecedu@pgwc.gov.za

Summary of issues raised

Curriculum

• Teaching is becoming task orientated instead of learner orientated
• Completing portfolios is becoming more important than actual teaching
• There are too many assessment tasks and they take attention away from teaching
• The textbooks have too many errors – are clearly written in haste.  The school is hesitant  to hand them to learners
• There are too many different textbooks – Curriculum Advisors often differ in their recommendations as to which one is advisable to use
• The gap is too big between Grade 9 & 10 in terms of CASS percentages.
• The perception is that OBE is failing our nation.  The question is whether the country wants to continue with OBE given that the system is not doing our learners any good.  What has happened to the notion  of “people’s education for people’s power”
• OBE isn’t delivering what it promised.  Learners can’t read. teachers are overloaded with administration.
• The admin overload is stifling for teachers
• The admin load is made much worse by large class sizes
• Educators should get far more curriculum support
• We need more training – there are misconceptions about OBE
• Low literacy levels at the school are an increasing problem. This is one reason for the school’s low pass rate.  The school needs support to increase pass rate
• The Task Team to be set up by the DoE must consist on teachers and not be influenced by departmental officials, politicians or unions
• Schools should receive more exemplars of the Foundations for Learning Campaign
• We should return to rote learning, and to teaching multiplication tables
• Rote learning cannot be reintroduced
• Literacy & Numeracy levels are a concern
• There are too many learning areas in the Intermediate Phase.
  • Not enough time to consolidate and do reading and arithmetic
• Matric exemplars did not arrive in time in isiXhosa Second Additional language
• A real concern is that matric exemplar papers and guidelines didn’t always arrive on time
• Primary and high schools must talk to establish what each expect from the curriculum
• The Department should please come back to teachers to get their views before introducing policies.

Common Task for Assessment (CTA)

• Late arrival of CTAs causes problems overlapping with Grade 11 assessment tasks which have to be completed.
• CTAs arrived late and not enough copies were sent to the school
  CAs could assist the department by checking with schools to prevent delays
• The CTA for Social Sciences was set at too a high level
  • learners cannot relate;
  • learners find it difficult to understand the historical sources used
• The CTA for Sotho always arrives very late. No one knows why it is so late.  As a result, section A must be done under pressure

Cluster Moderation

• Cluster moderation is not effective.  Teachers are not honest in how they moderate
• It is not the job of teachers to evaluate each other.  This is a District responsibility
• New ways must be devised to ensure that cluster moderation does not become “waste of time”
• External (cluster) moderation affects the school’s organization if dates and times are changed at will without consulting schools
  The school has not been given a moderation date.
  • Moderation cannot take place for Grades 10 & 11 at this late stage
• Moderation may be important, but not the kind that just “rubber stamps”
• Cluster groups should be about sharing best practice, not judging each other’s work

Support from Districts

• Visits twice a year from the Multi Functional Teams are not enough. The school requires much more support/ guidance. A structure should be put in place
• Curriculum Advisors don’t have the answers to questions. They lack content knowledge
• We raise issues with Curriculum Advisors who promise to get back to us because they don’t know the answer – “It comes from National”.  Curriculum Advisors don’t always know their content.
• Planning of HO and Districts must be made available in advance at least by one term

Grade 3 & 6 systemic evaluation

• Systemic tests in Grades 3 & 6 are welcome but the language translation was bad. The learners didn’t understand the Xhosa translation.
• Grade 3 systemic evaluation is done in English and not the learners’ mother tongue
  • Unfair to learners
  • Learners cannot develop properly.

General teaching conditions

• Learner ill-discipline must be addressed effectively
• In terms of disciplining/punishing learners, they seem to have more rights than teachers
• The department should show more respect to educators, particularly in Labour Relations matters.  It should give more support instead of simply charging teachers with misconduct.  Good educators are leaving the system.
• Overcrowded classes make teaching very difficult
• Classes are overcrowded - schools require more teachers
  Learner ratios are very uneven:  affluent schools vs poorer township schools.  This makes teaching difficult in poorer schools who are expected to produce the same results
• We have 20 classes, but only 17 teachers
• There are discrepancies in the Norms and Standards Funding
  • Stats SA data is not accurate
  • Schools are not always accurately or consistently classified
• Because of inadequate funding, schools have to rely too heavily on fundraising – SGBs become fundraisers.
• It would be a good idea to twin poorly resourced schools with better resourced schools to facilitate sharing of best practice
• CTLI offers wonderful courses for SMTs but they also need to offer whole school professional development courses that include teachers
• More help is needed for LSEN teachers who must share schools. There should be one LSEN teacher at each school
• For some teachers it is not appropriate to stipulate the 7 hour day to be at school.  This  can be difficult for teachers who must then do preparation at home
• There should be greater and faster integration of staff at ex-model C schools.  The learner composition in many of the ex-model C schools consists of a greater number of learners from townships.
• Xhosa speaking learners attending better resourced schools: are there Xhosa speaking teachers at these school to teach the Xhosa language skills to learners?
• Should an SGB decide the language policy of a school, when the majority of its learners come from outside of the community and speak a different mother tongue?  It is recommended that the SGB should not decide on what the language policy of a school should be.
• The language policy of the school (English and Afrikaans) is a problem. Learners whose mother tongue is Xhosa take Xhosa as an additional language (at primary school) and experience difficulty at high school.
• isiXhosa is not valued enough – SGBs treat it as an additional language and put Afrikaans above iaiXhosa
• English-speaking learners should learn Xhosa
• There is a problem with learners coming into Grade 8 with Literacy and Numeracy problems.  Teachers try their best, but don’t get supported to cope with barriers learners may have.
• Teachers at school on long sick leave must be finalized as soon as possible
• IQMS administration impacts on teachers, especially in some of the schools
• How can we do WSE when the OSD hasn’t yet been finalized?

School sport

• Learners need opportunities to participate in sporting codes.  We need teachers who can focus on sport.  This could perhaps be done with clusters of schools.
• Learners have too much time on their hands after school.  Sport would be good in combating substance abuse.
• Schools require an additional post to deal with sport at the school.
• We need to look at posts for sports assistants at school
  There could be an itinerant teacher for sport
• Schools require a sport field where learners can go to practice
  Mitchells Plain has no sporting facilities to develop learners

Socio- economic challenges

• In some areas, most parents are unemployed.  HIV/AIDS is a problem, but drug abuse is a bigger problem.  We are a poor school lacking in resources.  The Education Department enforces policy without recognizing this.
• Most kids in our school can’t pay fees.
• Poor schools have bright kids, who need other sills to be built.  Kids need more space to express themselves.  Primary schools need halls and sports facilities.  Our children are still suffering in Mitchells Plain
• Schools in poor areas experience regular burglaries.  This school has been burgled ten times this year
• Substance and alcohol abuse cause the school to be dysfunctional
• Schools cannot collect school fees when parents are too poor
• School’s low literacy and numeracy rates must be seen in context
  Learners are to poor to go to FET colleges because they are very expensive.
• Mfuleni needs a school of skills
• We need another school of skills for learners in poor areas
  Kids move to schools under the mountain because resources are better there.  What can be done about this?
• The struggle demand was for a single education system.  We still don’t have this. The government is relinquishing what it is supposed to be doing for education.  Current circumstances should not still be prevailing.
• Government is not doing its duty and its involvement must be more effective

Resources

A number of schools mentioned specific problems relating to plant and resources.  These have been noted, and some have already been addressed.  Examples of issues raise include:

• The school has a broken water pipe and DTPW has not visited school despite informing them
• No electricity for the last two months
• The school has pre-fabs needs a permanent structure
• The school is 42 years old and still has no hall
• Learners need space to develop physically and a space to express themselves

Wrapping up, the MEC said:

• The summary of issues raised at the meeting will be sent to schools
• Teachers/principals can use the email address to communicate directly with the MEC
• The summary will be placed on the WCED’s website.
• Teachers will be able to interact with the summary notes via the dedicated email address
• Some of the issues raised require more in-depth discussions
• Concrete proposals are required – please send these in
• Certain topics can be selected for in-depth discussion. Schools will be given adequate notice of the discussions

Information

• Dr Sigamoney Naicker, chief director: Curriculum - smnaicker@pgwc.gov.za
  

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