The Primary Report
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1 The Primary Report A report on South Africa’s Primary School landscape and the potential impact of Open Education Resources and Wikipedia as support for curriculum-aligned content creation and dissemination. Compiled by Isla Haddow-Flood & Kelsey Wiens for the Africa Centre’s WikiAfrica Project. WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 2 The WikiAfrica Primary Report was produced in 2013 within the frame of WikiAfrica, a cross-continental collaboration that aims to increase the quantity and quality of African content on the world’s most refer- enced online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. WikiAfrica is promoted by lettera27 Foundation and the Africa Centre. WikiAfrica was initiated by lettera27 Foundation in 2006. The WikiAfrica Primary Report is released under the Creative Commons attribution share-alike license. attribution: WikiAfrica 2013. The Africa Centre is a not-for-profit social innovator based in Cape Town, South Africa, and working throughout the African continent. The Africa Centre provides a platform for contemporary Pan-African cultural practice and intellectual engagement for social change (www.africacentre.net). THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 3 Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 4 METHODOLOGY The report was formed through qualitative research conduct- ed through interviews, and desk-based investigation of existing research, online sources, news and official reports. Reports from universities, the Department of Basic Education, NGOs and other stakeholders were analyzed and relevant data collated. Interviews were conducted with 19 educators and 10 headmasters from all parts of South Africa across all 5 Quintiles. Interviews were either conducted over the phone, over email or over Skype during the month of November 2012. Extensive desk research and litera- ture reviews were conducted during October to November 2012. Interviews with 16 key Primary Schools and Education Projects and Stakeholders in South Africa were conducted from September to November 2012. Interviews with stakeholders were conducted over the phone, via email or on Skype. Limitations The study recognises that this is a narrow scope to the issues at play in South Africa’s primary education. Due to time and focus restraints, we did not explore at length a number of additional issues. Areas that we did not focus on include issues around health of the students and caregivers, nutritional needs of students, home life, and educators’ continuing education needs. Statistically the interviews are weak and a minimum of 100 interviews of edu- cators would be required to even begin to draw some analysis of issues at play in South Africa primary school education. THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 CONTENTS 5 Introduction 7 1. History 9 2. Primary School Landscape 11 2.1 The Successes 13 2.2 Illiteracy and Innumeracy 14 3. Structure of the Education System 17 3.1 Grading Scales 17 3.2 Curriculum Issues 18 3.3 Languages in Education Policy 22 3.4 Standardised Testing 25 3.4.1 The National Senior Certificate or Matric 25 3.4.2 The Annual National Assessments 26 3.5 Public and Private Schools 28 3.6 The Quintile System 30 3.7 Non-Fee Schools 32 3.8 Allocation of Funds per Learner 32 3.9 Regional Comparisons 33 4. Teaching Challenges 34 4.1 Teacher Training 35 4.2 Educator Knowledge 36 4.3 Educator Morale 37 4.4 Teacher Absenteeism 38 Image 1: colour your world by ibtihel zaatouri2012 on Flickr. CC-BY-SA WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 5 Infrastructural Challenges 39 6 6 Textbook Review 41 6.1 Textbooks per learner 42 6.2 Textbook Distribution 42 6.3 The 2012 Limpopo Textbook Crisis 43 7 ICT in South African Schools 44 8 Open Education Resources (OER) 47 8.1 OER and Learning Objects 47 8.2 OER in South Africa 49 8.3 OERs in South and Sub-Saharan Africa 51 8.4 Focus: Oer In The Primary Sector 54 8.5 ICT Challenges And Lessons Learned 54 9 Possibilities for Mobile Education 56 9.1 The Mobile Landscape in Africa 56 9.2 Current Landscape in South Africa 57 9.3 Mobile Solutions in South Africa 58 9.4 Mobile as Content Repositories 59 9.5 Interactive Platforms 60 9.5.1 Learning Through Social Interaction 60 9.6 Opportunities 61 9.7 SA-based Mobile Programmes 62 Conclusion 64 How Wikipedia Could Assist 72 Definitions 74 Bibliography 76 Tables, Figures 79 Image Credits 80 Appendix 1: Best Practices 81 Appendix 2: Learners’ Appeal 90 THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 INTRODUCTION 7 South African primary schools were placed 132th out of 144 countries with regard to quality teaching, and 115th with regard to access by children to primary schools. These are the findings of the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2012/2013. With the strong legacy of apartheid education, policy driven decisions and poor leadership, South Africa’s public education is at a tipping point. Education is making the headlines dai- Democratic Teachers Union. ly, from absentee teachers to illiterate students, to shocking infrastructure. All of these issues have a particular The dysfunctional nature of the sys- impact on the matters raised in this tem has created further disadvantages report. However, this report’s inten- in the labour market which is further tion is not to fix these major and entrenching poverty. Making the cy- worrying issues – that is a far larger cle nearly impossible to break. task for civil society and government to remedy. Instead, it is aimed at The Primary Report is the first step highlighting opportunities and solu- of the WikiAfrica Primary project. tions that use modern technology The report briefly explores the cur- and access, and that could support rent turbulent landscape in primary and foster content generation and school education in South Africa, delivery, tools creation and commu- and specifically looks at various tools nity building for teachers, students and content support that is being or and parents alike could be activated across digital plat- forms in order to support students, This report was initially compiled as teachers and parents in the successful part of an internal feasibility docu- completion of primary school educa- ment on the state of primary school tion. education in South Africa, Camer- oon and Italy, as a base from which Education is a particularly challeng- to identify possible opportunities ing environment and a hot media for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia topic in South Africa at this moment. projects. In April 2013 alone there have been revelations of debilitating absentee- The feasibility study was initiated by ism in the Eastern Cape, gross infra- the lettera27 foundation in Italy in structural challenges in both Limpo- order to test the assumption that the po and Eastern Cape Provinces, and Wikimedia projects are best suited to there has yet again been a teacher’s be able to support the education sec- strike called by the South Africa tor in Africa, and in this case, South WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 8 Africa. The findings from the feasibil- intends to: ity study has informed the structure and methodology of the larger Pri- 1. Present the current state of pri- mary Project that, in May 2013, was mary school education in South Africa, with specific focus to access being still being finalised. to content; Since the submission of the feasibility 2. Explore current access to digital study to the collaborating organi- educational resources by providing sation lettera27 (lettera27.org) in No- an analysis of access to ‘technolo- vember 2013, the Primary Report has gy’, and providing state of ‘digital been expanded to focus on South educational information’; Africa and to identify, analyse and suggest Open Education Resources 3. Identify gaps and make recom- and open access opportunities that mendations as to the areas that need support, possibly on could either be further leveraged or Wikipedia; and do not currently exist in the primary school sector in South Africa. 4. Further inform the conceptual framework and project design of the This report has four key objectives. It WikiAfrica Primary project. Image 2: Children at school in the Eastern Cape, 2013. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith courtesy of Equal Education THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 1.// HISTORY 9 South Africa has a famously black education was one-tenth of tumultuous past. that spent on white education.2 As such, South Africa’s education The National Policy for General Af- system was shaped by, and in some fairs Act (No. 76) of 1984 provided areas still reflects, the inequalities of some improvements in black edu- the past. This section will specifically cation, but maintained the overall deal with recent history and what separation called for by the Bantu 3 has shaped it.1 Education Act. The South African education system in the ten years The Bantu Education Act of 1953 preceding 1994 consisted of 15 ed- formalised the divide in educational 2. Giliomee H, 2009. A Note on Bantu Education opportunities for the different racial 1953-1970 South African Journal of Economics, groups, and was implemented in March 2009 3. Library of Congress, Federal Research Divi- order to keep black education at an sion, A Country Study: South Africa,July 27, 2010, inferior quality to white education. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/zatoc.html Hendrik Verwoerd, the Minister of Native Affairs (from 1950-1958), said black Africans “should be educated for their opportunities in life” and that there was no place for them “above a certain forms of labour.” The Bantu Education Act also called for schools to provide education in mother-tongue for the first years of primary school. This furthered the idea that a person’s social responsibil- ities and opportunities were defined by their ethnicity.