Introduction [TJ]

7. SCHOOLNET SOUTH AFRICA

Edward Holcroft

Area: 1,219,912 sq km Capital: Pretoria Population: 43,586,097 (July 2001 est.) ^257 Age: 0-14 years:  32.01% 15-64 years:  63.11% 65 years +: 4.88% (2001 est.) Urbanisation: 54% urban ^258 Literacy: 81.8 %^259 Life expectancy: 48.9 yrs (2001 est.) Unemployment: 30% (2000 est.) Official language: 11 languages Telecommunications: Landlines 5.85 million (2001 est)^260 Mobiles 9.4 miillion (Nov 2001)^261 Internet 2. 85 million (2001)^262 No. of School Children^263 Primary: 133% of schoolgoing age Secondary: 94% of schoolgoing age	SOUTH AFRICA IN BRIEF^264
Evaluation Survey Sample size: No of Schools: 10 (2 in five provinces) No. of Learner Questionnaires: 102 No of Educator Questionnaires: 17 No. of Partner Responses: 2 Period of evaluation: October 2000 – May 2001
Project Information Name of Project: SchoolNet South Africa Duration: November 1997 - present IDRC contribution: CAD 472 000 (Phase 1) Implementing Agency: SchoolNet South Africa Partners: IDRC, National/Provincial Depts of Education, Telkom, Nortel, WorLD, IICD, Open Society Foundation SA, Netcorps, VSO Canada Beneficiaries: Learners and Teachers, Departments of Education (National and Provincial)

7.1 Country Context

South Africa is a unique case in sub-Saharan Africa in a multitude of ways. Having only recently emerged from its apartheid history, South Africa has, in a sense, its own domestic digital divide. There exists a paradoxical situation in that best in class commercial, business and technological practice live within a social system that is dysfunctional in many ways, including the prevalence of widespread illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, crime and disease. Confirming the paradox are the significant successes that have been achieved in building a new national education system and the policies associated with it, in contrast to the chronic shortages of resources, including ICTs in schools.

7.1.1 Socio-economic Background²⁶⁵

After a struggle for political rights and the destruction of the system of apartheid, the country held its first, non-racial elections and installed a democratically elected government in 1994. In June 1999, South Africa successfully held its second democratic elections marking the official start of the Post-Mandela era. Some positive aspects characterising the new South Africa include the promise of normalization of the country’s external relations and intended economic empowerment of once disadvantaged communities. Given the country’s mineral and marine wealth, infrastructural networks, financial services, manpower and its market, South Africa is one of Africa’s economic giants. Agriculture, mining, manufacturing and a tourist infrastructure constitute the core pillars of the economy. However, South Africa’s economy also displays several features characteristic of the continent as a whole. These include a high population growth rate, heavy dependence on the export of primary products and income distribution inequalities. Approximately 50% of South African households earn less than US$34 per adult/month. While the country’s performance in education and health remains above the sub-Saharan average, there remains a considerable backlog in the provision of social services. In particular, a high degree of divergence is reflected amongst the different races and regions, a legacy of the apartheid era. A major challenge for the future remains managing and sustaining a fragile democracy in a culturally diverse society and rejuvenating the economy, which is still suffering from years of isolation and inward trade and investment policies.

7.1.2 Educational Background

The education system in South Africa is undergoing major restructuring under the democratic government. The system inherited by the democratic government of 1994 was characterised by high rates of repetition, poor learning outcomes and substandard education offered to black South Africans, with the consequence that there is a high rate of adult illiteracy and innumeracy. To put this situation into perspective, it is estimated that in South Africa only one out of three learners obtain a high school pass (matric) and that 29% of the teachers did not pass matric.
According to the 1996 Schools Register of Needs,²⁶⁶ South Africa had about 27 000 schools serving the needs of just over 12 million learners with the services of about 380 000 educators. Only 59% had grid electricity, 59% had exchange-line telephones and only 15% had two or more computers. One in four schools had no water within walking distance, less than half (43%) had electricity, 73% had no learning equipment and 51% did not have adequate textbooks.²⁶⁷
A consolidation of the statistics shows that only 15% of schools possessed telecommunications potential by meeting the three basic prerequisites to connectivity viz. grid electricity, exchange telephone lines and two or more computers. Some provinces were worse off than others e.g. Northern Province showed only a 1% telecommunications potential, compared with 38% in the Western Cape.²⁶⁸
In September 1994, the publication of a Draft White Paper on Education and Training sparked significant public debate on the nature of a new non-racial, non-sexist and democratic education system. The main points highlighted in the paper were:

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  The government would provide funds to schools on an equitable basis in order to ensure an acceptable quality of education;
  
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  Uniform national school models would replace previous models such as the Model C²⁶⁹, farm schools and others; and
  
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  Equity of access to educational institutions as enshrined in the South African Bill of Rights.
  

Formal education is categorised into public ordinary school education (Grades R – 3 as the Foundation Phase, Grades 4 – 7 as the intermediate phases, and high school from Grades 8 to 12), teacher training, technikon and university training.

In 1998, Curriculum 2005 was introduced in Grade 1 as the new national curriculum framework for schools based on the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) system. OBE regards learning as essentially an interactive process between educators and learners, with the learner as the centre of the process and the teacher as a facilitator. Curriculum 2005 has its foundation in the establishment of the National Qualifications Framework and the South African Qualifications Authority. Both were established in Act No. 58 of 1995 with the intention of giving structural weight to efforts to transform education at school level, by moving from content-based to outcomes-based education (OBE). Key objectives of Curriculum 2005 are to shift radically from traditional approaches to teaching towards more active learning approaches; examination-driven to ongoing assessment and finally, from rote learning to critical thinking, reasoning, reflection, and action.
Educator Training

Educator training in South Africa is provided through two institutional mechanisms:

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  Traditional universities that provide a degree program coupled to a post-graduate diploma in education aimed at preparing students for a career in teaching. Typically, this consists of a three-year degree followed by a one-year fulltime diploma. Some universities offer a combined four-year professional degree to the same end.
  

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  Alternatively, prospective teachers can attend a teacher training college, culminating in a teaching diploma (also four years fulltime).
  

Content and Curriculum Development

Curriculum and content development in the government education system in South Africa is a function of specialist divisions within the departments of education. The National Department of Education assumes responsibility for development of the core curriculum (Curriculum 2005). This is in turn interpreted and implemented at provincial level by the various provincial departments of education. The selection of learning materials and examinable content is shared between individual schools and provincial departments. Schools assume a primary responsibility in this regard at the General Education and Training (GET) level, and provincial departments of education are responsible for the Further Education and Training (FET) level, in particular at matriculation level. Examinable education outcomes at provincial level are directly informed by the national core curriculum.

Curriculum 2005 does not exclude the integration of ICTs into the curriculum; in fact it welcomes their use where they may be appropriate to achieving educational outcomes. However, it does not make special provision for the use of ICTs, nor does it offer specific guidelines on the use of ICTs in the core curriculum. Furthermore, the outcomes have not been designed in such a way that they require the use of ICTs in meeting them.