The DBE and PEDs are working extensively to increase career pathing opportunities for learners, with a specific focus on the Focus Schools Programme.

The National Development Plan (NDP) Vision for 2030 and the Action Plan 2024: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2030 call for the development of skillsets for the economic and social development of South Africa, demanding enhanced access to economic opportunities that eliminate poverty and provide just redress for past and current societal inequalities. Core features of the successful implementation of these policies will be evidenced by increased entrepreneurship and job creation, with a focus on artisanal occupations as well as increasing the number of learners eligible to study Mathematics and Science-related university courses, to achieve the 450,000 NDP target per year by 2030, and meeting the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Deputy Director for the Mathematics Science and Technology (MST) Directorate, Mr David Silman, said that, “the South African Government’s broad developmental strategy aims to promote and accelerate economic growth along a path that generates decent and sustainable employment opportunities to reduce poverty and the extreme inequalities that characterise the South African society and economy. During April 2016, the Heads of Education Department’s Committee (HEDCOM) approved the Guidelines for Public Ordinary Schools that provide schooling at Grades 10 to 12 for learners with special talents. These schools are legislatively recognised as Focus Schools. The DBE with its mandate to implement the Three-Streams Model, undertook a review of the 2016 Guidelines in close collaboration with the PEDs. This review, following the Director-General’s Roundtable engagement during February 2020, produced an expanded, more relevant and detailed draft Guideline for the establishment and management of Focus Schools. A further elaboration of these draft guidelines is underway and a final document is expected by September 2021”.

Public Ordinary Schools are those that offer a general curriculum consisting of a combination of subjects listed in terms of the twelve organising fields of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Mr Silman added that Focus Schools are schools that provide education with a specialised focus on talent.

According to the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996, Section 12 (3), provision is made for the establishment and recognition of Focus Schools as distinct entities within the Basic Education Sector. Subject offerings of a specialised nature distinguish Focus Schools from those which offer a more generalised curriculum. Currently, the most distinctly recognisable Focus Schools are Technical, Agricultural and Arts Schools which offer a combination of subjects that align with Manufacturing; Engineering and Technology; and Agriculture-based occupations.