Education
Question by Hon van Wyk.
With regard to the World Bank’s Education Sector Analysis Report:
(a) What were his Department’s reasons for commissioning this report, (b) what were the (i) key findings and (ii) recommendations of this report and (c) what action does his Department plan to take in the light of this report?
8. My department has informed me of the following:
- In December 2022, the Western Cape Government and the World Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Through the MoU, the WCED requested that the World Bank perform an Education Sector Analysis, with the objective of improving the learning outcomes of the children of the Western Cape.
- (i) and (ii)
The report indicates that the Western Cape has higher learning levels than other provinces in South Africa, according to international assessments, but that despite these achievements, we still face serious challenges in terms of learning in the province, as does the rest of South Africa.
The report proposes specific interventions to address this learning crisis:
• Strengthening the foundations of learning through access to better quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) services;
• Support for teachers, with increased emphasis on early grades; focusing continuous professional development on how to teach to supplement what to teach (i.e., curriculum and assessment), and building teachers’ capabilities to address a typically diverse range of learner abilities within individual classes;
• Implementing and testing innovations in education service delivery that would improve both learning and access, and leveraging public-private partnerships; and
• Close monitoring of all initiatives to ensure implementation is on track and that data is used to assess progress regularly and course correct as needed.
Action is recommended in five key areas:
- Setting ambitious goals for literacy and numeracy.
- Collecting and making better use of data on learning.
- Reducing overcrowding in schools to improve teaching and learning conditions.
- Renewing teachers’ continuous professional development to enhance their effectiveness in the classroom.
- Strengthening leadership development for school management teams to increase the focus on cultivating teacher motivation.
The report does acknowledge our #BackOnTrack programme to reverse learning losses as an example of our Department’s “agility, strategic sense, and creativity in problem-solving”.
It also acknowledges our need to accommodate thousands of additional learners entering the system every year, and that our Rapid School Build program is potentially the most cost-effective way to expand the network of schools quickly.
Finally, the report highlights the role that our annual systemic tests play in highlighting the gaps in learning, and how they could be used to target resources to learners who need additional support.
The report can be found here:
- Our department is analysing the findings and recommendations with a view to further improving learning outcomes and giving our children a better future in the Western Cape.
