FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRESS UPDATE: NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENT FOR GRADES 10 – 12 (SCHOOLS)

1. FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAININGPROGRESS UPDATE:NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENT FOR GRADES 10 – 12 (SCHOOLS)

2. STRUCTURE OF REPORT The report seeks to present: • Progress on planned processes for NCS development and OBE introduction in 2004. • Emerging positions w.r.t the Qualification and Assessment structure. • Imminent implementation challenges and implications. • Perceived tensions and contradictions.

3. National Curriculum Statement • Presentation to: HEDCOM 9/09 and CEM 16/09. • Release of NCS for public comment - 20/09 The structure of the NCS: 1.Introduction and overview. 2.The policy context. 3.Principles. 4. Subject statements: purpose, scope and learning outcomes. 5.Qualification framework and assessment. 6. Key implementation issues.

4. QUALIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT Recommendations: • A single exit qualification an FETC at Level 4. • Statements of competence &credits at Level 2 and 3. • MML to be phased in gradually beginning with 4 credits in 2004. • For articulation with GET subjects should be organized into learning fields. (C&L/P&M Sc./B,E&M Sc./ H&S Sc./Technical/Services). • LO to be a 6 credit fundamental in Grds. 10 and 11. • Subjects in Report 550 to be offered as electives during the transition.

5. NQF Structure FET Band

6. Rules of combination • The aggregate system should be abolished. • All level and exit qualifications should be whole qualifications. • Level descriptors will determine the level at which qualifications are pegged. • There should be equivalence between subjects in the General pathway and unit standards in the Vocational pathway at the same level. • Marks to be replaced by a criterion-referenced approach to assessment.

7. Rules of combination (continued…) • A 5 point grading scale from not achieved to achieved with distinction should be used. • Condonation will be considered for descriptor 2 – partially achieved. • Such condonation shall apply only once. • Candidates will offer 6 subjects and achieve in 5 to proceed to the next level. • The subjects will include 3 fundamentals, 2 core subjects drawn from a learning field and 1 elective from any other field.

8. Rules of combination (contd…) • An alternative system of differentiation to replace HG/SG. • A performance threshold beyond the minimum of 120 credits to be used for differentiation. • Differentiation to reflect levels of difficulty of assessment tasks in SBA and in final written exams. • A maximum number of additional credits in each subject to be used to cater for differentiation. • 29,5 hours of actual teaching time a week with 5,5 hours for breaks. • FETC to offer general admission to Higher Education (HE). • HEIs may require additional requirements.

9. IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES • Draft one of the strategy is being scrutinized. • A gradual and incremental phase-in phase-out strategy over a period of between 4 – 6 years. • Emerging FET Branch positions:

10. Context of the Curriculum Roll-out • There is overwhelming support for outcomes-based education (OBE) as an alternative curriculum. • There is relative stability in the system. • Readiness and will characterize the mood on the ground. • Experiences of the advocacy trail: misinformed but positive. • Decisive and visionary leadership and guidance is key.

11. Implementation Challenges • Simultaneous implementation in both GET and FET in 2004. • Resident resource capacity will be overstretched. • Fiscal constraints are unlikely to ease off. • Senior Secondary School teachers are less amenable to change than Primary Schools. • Outcomes-based is a resource hungry form of curriculum. • Up to 10% of teachers in Grade 10 will be rendered redundant when the previous curriculum is phased out. • The introduction of MML, LO and Arts and Culture subjects mean a re-tooling of educators.

12. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Teacher Preparation • By July 2003 all Grade 10 teachers will have received three “teach reflect teach” type sessions of training. • Follow-up training will consolidate subject specific teaching and assessment strategies. • Subject specific teacher guides will be prepared as part of the development of the NCS. • A dedicated cadre of curriculum implementers, lead teachers and head teachers will conduct teacher preparation.

13. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY (cont…) • Follow-up, on site support will be provided on a district and school cluster basis. • Training will be designed and conducted jointly with HEIs and NGOs carefully selected on the basis of their strengths in selected learning fields.

14. Learning and Teaching Support Materials • LTSM is broader than textbooks. • It includes equipment such as reference material, teacher guides and libraries etc. • Subjects in FET are in established fields and knowledge areas 80–90% material is usable. • However, the material should be delivered and assessed differently. • New textbooks are urgently needed for new subjects such as MML, LO and Compu-typing.

15. Learning and Teaching Support Materials • In the interim some existing textbooks supported by subject specific teacher guides supplemented by clearly designed exemplars and teaching activities should suffice. • The Publishing Houses, working in close interaction with teachers and curriculum specialists should develop textbooks between January 2003 and June 2004 to accommodate the 18 months lead time. • New textbooks will thus be introduced in 2005 for Grade 10, 2007 for Grade 11 and 2009 for Grade 12.

16. LTSM • The second glossy and durable edition should be developed over a period of no less than 2 yrs with teacher involvement. • A book selection list to be compiled centrally by the national Department of Education, provinces and partners. • Textbook writing should be a two phased developmental process: • Phase 1: First edition in simpler, cheaper form and material. • Phase 2: Second edition in glossy, bound form.

17. CHALLENGES MANAGING INHERENT TENSIONS: • Sensationalist and deliberate distortions or misinformation campaigns versus constructive critique and engagement. • Entrenched traditions and conventions versus new OBE compliant approaches and practices: assessment vs. exams, coordination, coherence and integration vs. sectorial, separatist interest driven turf guarding tendencies, LTSM vs. textbooks etc.

18. Challenges • Integrating education and training within the band. Vocational/occupational and general education being perceived as not similar but related programmes in a continuum for the enhancement of the skills base of the country. • Responding to the bulge of the out of school and unemployed that is courtesy of the apartheid education.