This mid-term review of The Royal Netherlands Embassy (EKN) Education Initiative: Systemic Education and Extra-Mural Development and Support (SEEDS), Western Cape, South Africa was conducted between July and September 2011.
The initiative comprises nine projects of six non-profit organisations and four higher education institutions in the Western Cape Province. The programme began on the 1st of January 2009 and will end on the 31st December 2012 with funding for a further three months to wind-down.
The implementing organisations and institutions are all (with the exception of SciFest) based in the province inclusive of the following:
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT): initially the Rural Education Centre, now the Centre for Multigrade Education – CMGE;
Stellenbosch University (US): Institute for Mathematics and Science Teaching (IMSTUS) [US is also the SEEDS managing agent, fund holder and pay master];
University of Cape Town (UCT): Maths and Science Education Project (MSEP): a project of the School Development Unit, School of Education;
Africa Genome Education Institute (AGEI), a non-profit public benefit Section 21 organisation in partnership with the University of the Western Cape (UWC)*;
Cape Higher Education Consortium in association with the Science and Industrial Leadership Initiative (SAILI) , a non-profit organisation;
Early Learning Resource Unit (ELRU): ): a non-profit organisation;
Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP): ): a non-profit organisation;
GOLD Peer Education Development Agency (GOLD): a non-profit organisation;
SCIFEST AFRICA: a project of the Grahamstown Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
The overall programme is to the amount of R149.446.92, payable bi-annually over the four year period. After the first 2 years, partners were some R10m under spent (including 10% inflation and contingency funds). The EKN agreed that all partners could revise project plans and budgets for 2011 &2012 and include the previously unspent funds. All revised budgets that were submitted were accepted by the EKN.
The Consolidated Budget breakdown by consortium membership is as follows:
CPUT
R22,000,000
MSEP-UCT
R18,500,000
IMSTUS
R25,000,000
AGEI-UWC
R16,000,000
ELRU
R13,000,000
EMEP
R18,000,000
GOLD
R15,000,000
SAILI
R6,500,000
SCIFEST AFRICA
R6,000,000
FUNDHOLDING
R10,000,000
TOTAL
R150,000,000
US are the SEEDS programme signatory to the EKN of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on behalf of the consortium members, who are designated as implementing agencies.
The programme manager, Mike Erskine, oversees the entire initiative, and is employed by and acts on behalf of US in its legal capacity as the fund holder and pay master in the interest, spirit and letter of the consortium proposal.
The ten consortium members submitted a consolidated proposal (appended to the MoU) in application for the grant. The SEEDS initiative in a legal sense does not constitute a ‘Partnership’ or a ‘Joint Venture’. Each party acts as an ‘independent contractor’ and not as an agent for, or partner with, the other parties.1 Nevertheless the parties are bound by their agreements in the programme document.
The Steering Committee (SC) is mandated to supervise and control the relationships between the parties and take all decisions relating to the implementation of the project, including considering and approving changes in projects budgets and, where necessary, intervening to resolve disputes with binding effect.2
Meetings of the SC are held quarterly to oversee coordination and management of the programme.3 The SC nominates and elects from its membership a chairperson to guide the SC deliberations and work with the Project Manager and the fund holder on a day-to-day basis: Dr. Wilmot James was first SEEDS chairperson; on giving up the position, he has been replaced by Dr. Kosie Smit.
A Programme Co-ordination Forum facilitates practical steps and actions that enhance co-operation and improve co-ordination amongst the parties. Learning and Research Forums as well as a finance forum have also been established to share learnings, research results and practice. The finance forum has met on three occasions, while the learning and research forums meet at least twice per year. A Directors meeting was also held in 2010 to discuss areas of possible synergy and cooperation.
The overarching goals of the SEEDS programme are to:
Benefit education in the Western Cape with particular emphasis on mathematics and science education, the development of a multigrade rural education centre, the development of schools as hubs of lifelong learning and HIV/AIDS peer education for youth
Generate creative and innovative solutions to current obstacles and challenges in the abovementioned focus areas through collaboration
Develop a systemic, multi-disciplinary and sustainable model for the abovementioned context
Share lessons learnt about collaborating processes, best practices and other relevant results with colleagues in South Africa, selected countries in Africa and the Netherlands
The participating organisations and institutions specify further that the SEEDS initiative will result in:
Raised levels of awareness about various opportunities and possibilities within the focus areas for the direct and indirect target audiences, the project institutions/ organisations and partners
Changes in the behaviour, relationships, activities and actions of the direct and indirect target audience, the project institutions/organisations and its partners
Realised aspirations amongst the direct and indirect target audiences that link education, career and work opportunities and possibilities
The SEEDS project document effectively reviews and analyses the educational context and background of public schooling, learning and teaching, numeracy and literacy, performance and participation in mathematics and science, as well as the challenges of sustaining and promoting innovative and educational reforms in the province.
Issues that underpin the general consortium aims and which are identified for particular attention include:
Growing population numbers, high in-migration, with sustained increased demand for basic services in the Western Cape
Rapid changes in the province’s racial, age and poverty numbers and proportions
Highly inequitable (inter-racial) distribution of opportunity in the province with respect to education and work opportunities disadvantaging especially young and black, particularly African, individuals and communities
Massive levels of school drop-out (Grades 1 – 12) of between 45% and 52%; marked levels of drop out in the senior phase, especially from Grade 7 and Grade 10
Sharp decline in pass rate in the school leaving exam (Grade 12 – Senior Certificate, now National Senior Certificate) from 2004 to 2007 (since levelling off)
Insufficiently competent numbers of black school graduates with mathematics and science in STEM fields to meet the needs of the economy provincially and nationally
Insufficient numbers of qualified (with mathematics (not Maths literacy) and science) black school graduates to study in disciplines that are mathematically based, such as Engineering and Economic and Management Sciences
Early childhood development sector severely neglected and under-provisioned with the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy sorely lacking at the Early Childhood Development and Foundation phase
Pedagogically challenged teachers corps in the ECD and Foundation phase in predominantly poor, one classroom, rural schools unable to prepare early learners of varying abilities and grades in one classroom (differentiated learning) for entering school for the first time (at age 6) notably in the field of mathematics
Neglect of rural small schools by government administrators and in educational research and formal professional teacher training by FET institutions
Hugely challenging recent transformations within education including the shift towards the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) (now CAPS) which demand a higher level of competency of educators and managers, effective use of learner centred pedagogies, a new focus on learner competencies and results
Urgent need for promotion of values in education very different to those that underpinned apartheid education including respect for democracy, equality, human dignity, life and social justice
Toxic debilitating combined impact on schools of poverty, the South African HIV/AIDS pandemic and incomplete education reform resulting in schools challenged to shift from traditional modes of operation to more profoundly creative means but in conditions of low morale, incompetence, staff shortage, trauma and pressure to meet higher standards and better performance results.
Lifelong learning, which starts within the home and extends to the school, has been eroded by a combination of factors including low levels of education of parents/caregivers and the challenging socio-economic conditions
Plethora of socio-economic challenges that hinder development broadly in combination with substance abuse, child abuse, crime, violence and gangsterism crippling learning and teaching in the classroom, debilitating school staff and destroying the physical infrastructure.
Communities with the highest HIV incidence rates amongst adolescents in the country (while the Western Cape has the lowest average HIV infection rates in South Africa) increasingly impacting local schools, placing more pressure on the education system to deal with prevention
Schools, which are the largest developmental infrastructure in communities, are extremely under-utilised, under-developed and unsafe whilst children and youth are without access to any or varied forms of recreation or amenities without any adult supervision or direction.
Non-profit organisations and Higher Education institutions in the province with significantly reduced funding, a more individualistic, less co-operative approach, competitive, highly specialised operational models undermining multi-disciplinary, synergistic educational partnerships.
This background analysis reflects many if not most of the key dynamics and contextual factors impacting the education landscape in the province. Understandably the analysis is fuller in areas where the parties have specific knowledge or experience. It is to be expected that a more complete, detailed and up-to-date analysis will emerge towards the conclusion of the project, which ought to incorporate the many new policy and political developments that have since occurred in the province and nationally with significant impact on the educational domain and beyond, inclusive of the following:
New political leadership in the Western Cape Provincial Government
Policy and organisational changes with the Western Cape Provincial Government, including Education, Social Development, and Health
The Presidency of His Excellency, President Zuma and prioritisation of education and health reform, and the New Growth Path
Creation of two national ministries for education (Basic and Higher Education)
National Department of Basic Education’s reform programme inclusive of Quality of Learning and Teaching Campaign, Report of the Task Team for the Review of the Implementation of the National Curriculum Statement (October 2009), Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa, 2011-2025, the Teacher Development Summit etc
On the basis of this background analysis, and in response to the opportunity presented by the EKN initiative inviting submissions for funding from the Western Cape, the ten consortium members came to the conclusion that they could contribute to alleviating this situation by joining hands in a collaborative approach even as they pointed out ‘the extent to which they envisage the co-operation, as well as what may be required by the interwoven issues, will lead them into uncharted waters’.4
Accordingly, the consortium proposed a full programme focussed on addressing the following priority or focus areas:
Focus Area 1: The need for effective Mathematics and Science learning
Focus Area 2: The need to offer rural, multigrade education
Focus Area 3: The need to improve the usage of existing school infrastructures
Focus Area 4: The need for a preventative HIV/AIDS programme and leadership development
Focus Area 5: The need for a collaborative, innovative intervention5
Focus Area 7: The need to share lessons with audiences within and outside South Africa
The EKN approved the programme budget on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 12 December 2008. Of the R150 million made available, Focus Area 1 – Maths and Science received 56.6% of the funds; Focus Area 2 – Rural Education, 14.7%, Focus Area 3 School Development, 12% and Focus Area 4 HIV and AIDS prevention, 10%. No budget was allocated to Focus Areas 5 and 6. The fund holder was allocated 6.7%.
The following table details the actual budget allocations by member organisation and focus area:
FOCUS AREA (% of Total)
Member
R(m's)
% of Total
1
2 2
3
4
5
6
7
CMGE
22
14.7
14.7
MSEP
18.5
12.3
12.3
IMSTUS
25
16.7
16.7
AEGI-UWC
16
10.7
10.7
ELRU
13
8.7
8.7
EMEP
18
12.0
12.0
GOLD
15
10.0
10.0
SAILI
6.5
4.3
4.3
SCIFEST AFRICA
6
4.0
4.0
Fund holder
10
6.7
TOTAL
150
100.0
56.7
14.7
12.0
10.0
0 -
-
-
Table: SEEDS Consortium 4-year Allocations, Totals and by Focus Areas6
The seven priority or focus areas together comprise the SEEDS programme.7 The MTR TOR is explicit in its embrace of all seven elements of the programme and accordingly this MTR will address progress made towards achieving the programme goals in each.
In order to capture an overview of the diversity of the SEEDS component programmes and their implementing agencies and beneficiaries, a combination of quantitative and qualitative review methodologies were utilised for the purposes of the MTR.
Initially, in-depth interviews were conducted with one or more members of the management of each implementing agency to determine their perspectives on the programmes.
With a view to quantitative surveys, each implementing agency was requested to provide a database of the teachers, students, learners and schools with which they were involved in respect of the SEEDS programmes.
In instances where the databases were small, all participating teachers, students or learners were included. Where databases were larger, systematic representative samples of these participants were selected for the surveys. In the case of SCIFEST, owing to the nature of the programme, the MTR was limited to qualitative interviews with management.
A generic questionnaire was developed and customised for each implementing agency, to capture the perceptions of participants. The questions explored participants’ opinions on the value and effectiveness of the programme, allowing for open-ended comments both positive and negative.
An experienced team of fieldworkers was trained and deployed to collect responses to the questionnaires from participants by one of three methods: face-to-face interviews; guided self-completion of questionnaires; or telephonic interviews.
The total numbers of realised responses for each agency are listed in the table that follows. The analysis that follows draws on both quantitative and qualitative responses received.
