Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, has been engaging with provincial and district officials as part of the second phase of his annual virtual engagements for 2022. The engagements commenced with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) on 13 October 2022, and concluded with the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) on 25 October 2022, covering all nine Provincial Education Departments (PEDs).
These engagements are meant to determine the state of learner and system readiness through the presentations made by the DBE; the tracking of learner performance per grade and per subject; the implementation of the Provincial Reading Strategies aligned to the National Reading Sector Plan; the State of Readiness on Internal and External Examination Administration; and progress made with the Early Childhood Development (ECD) function by PEDs.
Throughout the engagement meetings, Dr Rufus Poliah, Chief Director for National Assessment and Public Examinations and his team, presented the various provinces with the profile for the Class of 2022, explaining that, “all the efforts of 12 years of academic input culminates on 31 October 2022, when learners commence with the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examination”. Dr Poliah indicated that the Class of 2022 bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the expectation is therefore that the performance of the Class of 2022 might be similar to the Class of 2021, with perhaps a slight drop in performance as this year’s cohort has shown resilience in the face of adversity, aided by various learner intervention and support programmes.
Gauteng Province Engagement Meeting
Dr Moses Simelane, DBE Chief Director for Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring, chaired the meeting with the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) on 21 October 2022, on behalf of DG Mweli who was conducting infrastructure monitoring visits in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. “I am impressed with the punctuality, discipline and attendance of provincial officials,” Dr Simelane said, indicating that over 700 participants attended the sessions.
Welcoming delegates to the meeting, DG Mweli, who was able to join the virtual session to set the scene for the meeting, said, “I would like to express my gratitude to Gauteng officials for their dedication in keeping the system afloat during extreme difficulties that the sector was subjected to due to COVID-19. I must congratulate the GDE for their sustained programme of learner support as the province has been pulling out all stops to put interventions in place to ensure the mitigation of challenges presented”. Mr Mweli also used the opportunity to thank the leadership of the province and congratulated the new Education MEC for Education, Mr Matome Chiloane on his appointment.
Gauteng HoD, Mr Edward Mosuwe, who could not attend the meeting, was represented by Advocate Alison Bengtson, Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Management and Delivery at the GDE. “This engagement provides the province with an opportunity to reflect on the progress that we have made, not only in Grade 12, but across all grades, and share the interventions put in place to improve post COVID-19 learning recovery and outcomes. It always assists to have an objective, external eye for guidance and feedback,” she said.
Ms Nadine Pote, Chief Director, GDE, presented an insightful presentation on the state of readiness on the administration of the NSC Examination, with 138,887 full-time and 55,734 part-time candidates expecting to write at a total of 1,018 examination centres.
Dr Helen Ramsay, Chief Education Specialist at the GDE, conducted the presentation on the Tracking of Learner Performance per grade and subject across all grades. She identified challenges and areas which will receive focus and strengthening during 2023 for intervention and support. “Mathematics, Physical Science and Home Language still present the province with challenges as these remain problematic to many learners.”
Ms Antionette Nicolaai, Acting Chief Director at the GDE, presented the Provincial Reading Strategy to ensure alignment to the National Reading Plan and summarised areas that the province will be strengthening. “Firstly, the Learning Recovery Framework will be strengthened to improve reading and writing as from 2023/24, along with the transition of learners from Grade 3 to 4 for building strong foundations. There will be a focus on the strengthening of Grade 8 and 9 Mathematics, Natural Sciences and all Languages. In addition, Grade 9 career guidance will be provided to promote participation in Technical subjects at FET level. As indicated during the presentation on Learner Performance, we will also increase participation in Mathematics, Accounting and Economics. Performance in Home Languages is an area of concern and must be strengthened across all phases. Resourcing for Reading, Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST), Coding and Robotics, as well as the implementation of the Three Stream Model will be at the top of the to do list for the new academic year. The importance of Project-Based Learning across all subjects and the strengthening of Professional Learning Communities have been identified to strengthen teacher development and networking support”.
Free State Engagement Meeting
Ms Simone Geyer, DBE’s Deputy Director-General for Delivery and Support, chaired the engagement meeting with the Free State Province on 24 October 2022, on behalf of Mr Mweli. “The first phase of the DG’s Engagements took place earlier this year to prepare the Class of 2022 for their end-of-year examinations. Now, we are at the point where they will be writing the NSC Examination on 31 October 2022,” said DDG Geyer.
Mr Tsatsi Montso, Acting DDG, District and Curriculum Management, mentioned that the province had a successful pledge signing last week to ensure support for the examination to be fairly conducted without irregularities. “We kept an eye on curriculum delivery and support to all learners across the province and we raised the bar to close the gap for them to improve their performance. During the past six months, we had been busy with the ECD function shift to ensure that those who qualify for funding are assisted, and we are happy to report that we have had productive engagements in this regard”.
In his welcome address, DG Mweli expressed his concern about the unfortunate incident of the Free State teacher who passed away after being assaulted by a learner. Mr Mweli condemned the increase of violence against teachers: “We should mobilise stakeholders to ensure the safety of our teachers as nation builders. Reading is important, not only for building strong foundations, but to acquire knowledge, attitude and values to become good citizens for sustained livelihood. On matters of ECD, we are no longer talking function shift, but improving ECD in the system”. DG Mweli expressed his gratitude towards senior managers and officials from the DBE, as well as Free State officials for their continued efforts in strengthening the system.
The province has implemented many reading interventions, focusing on teacher developmental support; tracking learner performance; provision of resources and literacy enrichment activities. A main focus is to capacitate Departmental Heads to moderate language assessments at the appropriate level as language and reading go hand in hand for the province to attain their vision of reading for meaning.
Mr Selebogo Ditebe, Director for Curriculum, Primary Schools, and Ms Janetta Nel, Director for Curriculum, Secondary Schools, presented the report on the Tracking of Learner Performance per grade and per subject across terms and grades, highlighting that there has been good participation in Technology subjects, but it will be better if more learners could participate. Mr Seliki Tlhabane, Chief Director for MST and Curriculum and Enhancement Programmes welcomed the detailed tive report with positive interventions listed, and agreed that matters to flag are, Home Languages, such as Sepedi and Setswana. The performance of Mathematics in the Senior Phase in Grade 8 and 9 have notably improved owing to interventions; however, concerns continue to be the number of participation numbers in Mathematics. The Free State Province indicated their readiness to administer the NSC Examinations with 36,353 full-time and 7,120 part-time candidates writing at 370 centres. To stabilise the ECD sector, plans are in place to train ECD social workers, curriculum officials, matrons and governing bodies during two years of accredited training to empower and bring uniformity to the sector in terms of governance.
DG Mweli commended the province on the detailed presentations and the interventions undertaken. “The marks look good thus far and are rather consistent. The province needs to give effect to the President’s pronouncement of reading with meaning at the age of ten as we need to be impact and outcome driven, compared to input and output driven to improve the system”.
Eastern Cape Engagement Meeting
Ms Simone Geyer, DBE’s Deputy Director-General for Delivery and Support, led the engagement on behalf of DG Mweli during the provincial engagement with the Eastern Cape Province on 25 October; however, DG Mweli made time to highlight the purpose of the meeting, which is to assess the health of the entire education system via a system-wide approach. “The Class of 2022 suffered the worst interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the NSC Examination prepares our learners for a sustainable life. The Eastern Cape Province is the last province we are engaging with; the province has been working consistently hard, performing well and we expect this trend to continue”.
HOD Mahlubandile Qwase was otherwise engaged and the opening remarks were made by Mr Raymond Tywakadi who indicated that the ECDoE is set to administer the NSC Examination to 98,756 full-time and 18,681 part-time candidates at the 942 centres across the province. Mr Khayalakhe Molaoa presented the Tracking of Learner Performance per grade and per subject to analyse results. “The province is currently working on a Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Robotics, aimed at improving underperformance as we believe that Mathematics is the language of Science. We do not only need to improve performance, but also the quality of passes in Mathematics,” he said.
Ms Genevieve Koopman, Chief Director for Curriculum Management, presented the Eastern Cape Reading Strategy and Campaign 2022 – 2030 to Improve Reading to Improve Learning, which was launched by Eastern Cape Education MEC, Mr Fundile Gade on 4 October 2022, in East London. “Research has concluded that adequate instruction contributes towards reading with meaning and comprehension to improve reading outcomes in the province by building strong foundations for learning. Every classroom must have sufficient reading material such as textbooks, workbooks, readers and readers for leisure. Reading must be taught every day as part of the ongoing teaching and learning programme. Reading is not the responsibility of teachers alone, and we are advocating for paramount stakeholders across the entire schooling ecosystem to collaborate, holding each other accountable for this mandate to be implemented”.
On ECD, a survey on the age and qualifications of practitioners has been conducted to assess their needs in capacity building programmes. In addition, an EDC database has been collated using statistics from the 2021 Census and reports from districts to disaggregate the data and to plan for improved implementation services and programmes going forward to ensure that strong foundations are cemented. The province currently has 5,323 centres in operation; of these, a total of 2,786 are registered and funded by the Department, whilst 514 centres are still in the process of registration. A total of 2025 centres are not registered as ECD centres. These figures indicate that progress has been made post the 1 April function shift.