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 referenced 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 conducted 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 literature 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 educators 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 platforms 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 primary 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. Education funding was tiered, with the schools assigned to white children receiving the most funds, followed by funding for coloured and Indians school, and finally black education was given the lowest priority. In the 1970’s, per-capita spending by the government on 1. For more information on the history of South Africa’s education system, go to: http://en.wikipe- Image 3: The infamous 16 June 1976 repercussions dia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Africa#History of the Bantu Education System from 1976 Mbuyisa Makhubo is carrying the dying Hector and Hector's sister, Antoinette, is running beside him during the Soweto Uprising. Photo by Sam Nzima.

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ucation departments, which served had teaching certificates, but only different population groups and eth- 15% of teachers in black schools nic groups. The per capita expendi- were certified. Secondary-school pass ture for each learner in the pre-1994 rates for black pupils in the nation- systems was extremely unequal. The wide, standardised high-school grad- majority of the white schools were uation exams were less than one-half provided with an almost free and the pass rate for whites. 5 high quality education, whereas the black children received free educa- Post-1994, this all changed. tion but low quality education. However, the strong legacy of apart- Between 1984 and 1994, education heid in South Africa, and the correla- was compulsory for all racial groups, tion between education and wealth, but at different ages, and the law have proven difficult to overcome. was enforced differently. Whites were Just over 18 years later, poorer learn- required to attend school between ers still perform worse academically. the ages of seven and sixteen. Black The links between affluence and ed- children were required to attend ucational quality in South Africa can school from age seven until the partially explain this outcome as the equivalent of seventh grade or the poor continue to receive a far inferior age of sixteen, this law was rigorous- quality of education when compared ly enforced, and not at all in areas to their wealthier counterparts. This where schools were unavailable. For disadvantages them in the labour Asians and coloured children, edu- market and thus entrenches their cation was compulsory between the poverty. ages of seven and fifteen.4 In an effort to counterbalance this The discrepancies in education legacy, several initiatives have been among racial groups during this time implemented by the Department of were glaring. Teacher: pupil ratios Basic Education and include the Lan- in primary schools averaged 1:18 in guage in Education Policy and the white schools, 1:24 in Asian schools, Quintile School System. 1:27 in coloured schools, and 1:39 in black schools. Moreover, 96% percent of all teachers in white schools 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 2. // PRIMARY SCHOOL LANDSCAPE 11

In 2012 there were 12,428,069 of all schools) were primary schools learners in the basic education or covered grades R to 7. There are (public, government-funded) 5,992,863 learners in grades R to system in South Africa. 7 who are served by 187,520 educators. 43% of the total educators The national definition of basic ed- from Grades 1 to 12 teach in prima- ucation has yet to be officially de- ry schools (DBE, 2012). termined, but we can consider that In the private sector in 2010 there basic education in South Africa en- were 1,399 private or independent compasses all educational institutions schools in South Africa that provid- that offer Grade R to Grade 12 and ed education facilities for 450,740 that received public funds from the students. 6 Department of Basic Education.

In 2011, there were 30,586 pub- licly funded schools in South Africa 6. South African Institute of Race Relations South Africa Survey 2010-2011 website: http:// serving grades R to 12 and 439,394 www.sairr.org.za/services/publications/south-afri- educators. Of these, 14,456 (or 47% ca-survey/south-africa-survey-online-2010-2011/ education

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Total population of South Africa (2011): 51,770,560

• Numbers of children under 19 in South Africa (2011): 19,103,566 or 37% of the population

• Total number of children aged 5-14 (2011): 9,414,637 or 18% of the population

• Almost one in three or 29.6% of the population of South Africa is aged between 0-14 years.

• South Africa Public Primary School Statistics

• 14,456 Primary Schools

• 5,992,863 Learners

• 187,520 Teachers

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Table 1: Number of learners in schools by grade, gender in 2012

Sex Gr. R Gr. R Gr.1 Gr.2 Gr.3 Gr.4 Gr.5 Gr.6 Gr.7 Total

Private F 8,925 15,870 23,541 21,239 19,023 17,914 16,662 16,169 15,945 130,493

M 8,825 16,149 23,968 20,978 19,050 17,678 16,853 15,825 50,356 129,610

T 17,750 32,019 47,509 42,217 38,073 35,592 33,515 31,994 66,301 260,103

Public F 15,406 365,191 553,942 500,398 450,694 446,047 438,117 442,307 435,658 3,267,163

M 15,998 342,442 563,508 495,699 485,251 504,415 486,983 481,599 475,021 3,492,476

T 30,320 735,846 1,161,464 1,032,571 929,300 930,757 905,510 903,452 881,325 6,744,379

Both F 24,331 381,061 577,583 521,637 469,717 463,961 454,779 458,476 451,603 3,397,656

M 23,739 386,804 631,490 553,151 497,626 502,388 484,246 1,463,604 491,447 3,606,862

T 48,070 767,865 1,208,973 1,074,788 967,373 966,349 939,025 935,446 912,528 7,004,482

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF LEARNING

All learners are offered one of 1. Afrikaans (Afrikaans), the approved languages as a 2. English subject in Grade 1 and Grade 2. 3. Ndebele (isiNdebele), 4. Northern Sotho (Sesotho From Grade 3 onwards, all saLeboa), learners learn in their chosen 5. Sotho (Sesotho), language of learning, and learn at least one addition- 6. Swati (siSwati), al approved language as a 7. Tsonga (Xitsonga), subject.

8. Tswana (Setswana),

9. Venda (Tshivenda),

10. Xhosa (isiXhosa),

11. Zulu (isiZulu)

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 2.1 // THE SUCCESSES 13

The education statistics of the 20117 also a considerable increase in the Census are positive. They show that percentage of persons who complet- the number of people aged 20 years ed higher education from 7,1% in who have no schooling halved from 1996 to 11,8% in 2011.8 19,1% in 1996 to 8,6% in 2011. The 2011 Census also shows that The percentage of persons whose the black African population group highest level of education was some has more than doubled the number primary level education decreased of people with higher education from 16,6% in 1996 to 12,3% in between 1996 and 2011. Those 2011; while those who had complet- with no schooling more than halved ed primary level decreased from 7,4% during the same time period for the in 1996 to 4,6% in 2011. There was black African, coloured and Asian/ Indian population.9 7 StatsSA; Census 2011 in brief: http://www.statssa.gov.za/Census2011/Products/Census_2011_ 8 (Ibid.) Census_in_brief.pdf 9 (ibid)

LEARNER TO TEACHER RATIOS

LEARNER RATIOS

• 2010 Learner to Educator Ratio: 29.3:1

• 2010 Learner to School Ratio: 474:1

• 2010 Educator to School Ratio: 16.2:1

• 2011 Matric Exam pass: 67.8%

Image 4: Vukani Primary School, Cape Town. Photo: By teachandlearn Konrad Glogows- ki. CC_BY_SA WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 2.3 // ILLITERACY AND INNUMERACY 14

It is revealing to calculate the per- of learners in quintile one schools are centage of Grade 6 South African functionally innumerate. For every sub- learners who can be classified as group, there are more learners classi- functionally illiterate and functionally fied as functionally innumerate than innumerate. Observing the national those classified as functionally illiterate. averages, it is disconcerting to see that 40.2% of South African Grade 6 There is an alarmingly large per- learners are functionally innumerate, centage of functionally innumerate and 27.2% are functionally illiterate. learners across all regions, all school As with all South African data, these locations, and all socioeconomic averages shroud the severe inequali- quintiles (except quintile 5). The ties between sub-groups of learners. specific percentages of functional- For example, only 5.1% of learners ly innumerate learners for selected in the Western Cape are functionally sub-groups are: Limpopo (60.6%), illiterate, and only 1.4% of quintile Eastern Cape (50.3%), KwaZulu-Natal five learners are functionally illiterate. (44%), Mpumalanga (43.8%), Rural schools (55.2%), Quintile one schools This is in stark contrast to the Eastern (58.7%), Quintile two schools (48.9%) Cape where 38.6% of learners are and Quintile three schools (47.4%).10 functionally illiterate, and Limpopo Province where the figure is 49%. 10. Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality. (2012). A study of Almost half (44.7%) of all quintile one the conditions of schooling and the quality of edu- learners are classified as functionally cation. Retrieved: SACMEQ website: http://www. illiterate, and more than half (58.7%) sacmeq.org/downloads/National%20Reports%20 SIII/S3_South_Africa_Final.pdf Table 2: Provincial percentages of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate

Provinces Functionally Functionally Illiterate (%) Innumerate (%) Eastern Cape 38.6 50.3 Freestate 22.3 38.1 Gauteng 11.6 20.5 KwaZulu-Natal 28.4 44 Limpopo 49 60.6 Mpumalanga 28.4 43.8 Northern Cape 21.4 37.1 North West 21.9 38.1 Western Cape 5.1 40.2 Total 27.2 40.2

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 15

Table 3: Percentage of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate distributed according to Quintiles.

Quintiles of School Functionally Functionally Illiterate (%) Innumerate (%)

Quintile 1 44.7 58.7

Quintile 2 34.4 48.9

Quintile 4 20.1 35.4

Quintile 5 1.4 4.6

Total 27.2 40.2

Table 4: Percentage of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate by classification of school [Data from The SACMEQ III project In South Africa: A Study of The Condi- tions of Schooling And The Quality of Education]

School Location Functionally Functionally Illiterate (%) Innumerate (%)

Isolated 38.8 56.2

Rural 41.3 55.2

Small town 16.7 32.9

Large city 11.4 20.7

Total 27.2 40.2

From an educational perspective it is In 2011, a SACMEQ11 study study important to realise that a large num- found that the exception of the ber of children - particularly those wealthiest two provinces (Gauteng from disadvantaged backgrounds and the Western Cape), all other those found in rural and Quintile 1-3 provinces perform worse than the often acquire these learning deficits SACMEQ average for both reading very early in their educational careers. and mathematics (Figure 1). This was surprising given that South Africa’s As education is a cumulative process, economy is by far the largest amongst these deficits in numeracy and litera- 11. Spaull, N. (2011) Primary School Performance cy are likely to stay with these chil- in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South dren for the rest of their lives. Africa Primary School Performance in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa (

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 16

Figure 1: South African National Provincial Student performance [SPAULL, 2011] the SACMEQ countries and it is one of grade 6 students, and the Northern the richest in per capita terms. Cape having the smallest share. To place these figures in perspective, The variation in student enrolments there are more grade 6 students en- across the nine provinces is also rolled in KwaZulu‐Natal than in the important to consider, with KwaZu- whole of Botswana. lu‐Natal having the largest share of

Image 5: Children at school in the Eastern Cape, 2013. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith courtesy of Equal Education

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 3. // STRUCTURE OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM 17

South Africa has a four-tiered sys- Table 5 Ages of primary school grades tem of education, Foundation Phase (grades R-3), Intermediate Phase Phase Grade Age (grades 4-7), Senior Phase (grades Pre-grade R 6 8-9) and Further Education and Training (FET) Band (grades 10- Foundation Phase: 12). Primary school in South Africa spans from grade 1-7, with a year of Grade R 7 pre-primary schooling. Grade 1 8

The Department of Basic Educa- Grade 2 9 tion (DBE) specifically focuses on all schools from Grade R to Grade Grade 3 10 12, and adult literacy programmes. (DBE) The South African Schools Act Intermediate Phase: (1996) made schooling compulsory Grade 4 11 for children aged 7 to 15 years, while the Education Laws Amendment Act Grade 5 12 (2002) set the age admission into Grade 1 as the year in which the Grade 6 13 12 child turns seven. Grade 7 14 12 Some Structural Changes in Educational Enrolment and Attainment Levels within the Fe- male Population of South Africa (2004-2007) / N. Ramaipato 3.1// GRADING SCALES

Most children enter grade R at the December, and begin a new school age of either six or seven. South Afri- year in January. ca has a four tiered education system, primary Schools specifically focus There are four breaks scheduled on the r first two tiers - Foundation throughout the year, generally held Phase (grades R-3) and Intermediate at the end of March, early July, end Phase (grades 4-7). of September and the year end break being held between December and The South African school year begins January, which is also known as the in mid January and runs through summer holidays. to early December of that year for approximately 42 weeks. Students advance with their class at the end of

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 3.2 // CURRICULUM ISSUES 18

In South Africa, the curriculum is • Organise and manage them- set nationally by the Department of selves and their activities respon- Basic Education. sibly and effectively;

The aim of the National Curriculum • Collect, analyse, organise and Statements (NCS) Grades R-12 is to critically evaluate information; ensure that children acquire and apply knowledge and skills in ways that • Communicate effectively using are meaningful to their own lives. visual, symbolic and/or language In this regard, the NCS Grades R-12 skills in various modes; promotes knowledge in local contexts, while being sensitive to global • Use science and technology imperatives. effectively and critically showing responsibility towards the envi- Grades R-12 aims to produce learners ronment and the health of oth- that are able to: ers; and

• Identify and solve problems and • Demonstrate an understanding make decisions using critical and of the world as a set of relat- creative thinking; ed systems by recognising that problem solving contexts do not • Work effectively as individuals exist in isolation. and with others as members of a team; PURPOSE OF NCS GRADES R-12

The National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12 serves the purposes of:

• Equipping learners, irrespective of their socio-economic background, race, gender, physical ability or intellectual ability, with the knowledge, skills and values necessary for self-fulfilment, and meaningful participation in society as citizens of a free country;

• Providing access to higher education;

• Facilitating the transition of learners from education institutions to the workplace; and

• Providing employers with a sufficient profile of a learner’s competences.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 19

PRINCIPLES BEHIND NCS

The National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12, according to the Department of Basic Education, is based on the following principles:

• Social transformation: ensuring that the educational im- balances of the past are redressed, and that equal educational opportunities are provided for all sections of the population;

• Active and critical learning: encouraging an active and critical approach to learning, rather than the rote and uncritical learning of given truths;

• High knowledge and high skills: the minimum standards of knowledge and skills to be achieved at each grade are specified and set high, achievable standards in all subjects;

• Progression: the content and context of each grade shows progression from simple to complex;

• Human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice: infusing the principles and practices of social and environmental justice and human rights as defined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Maintain a sensitivity to issues of diversity such as poverty, inequality, race, gender, language, age, disability and other factors;

• Valuing indigenous knowledge systems: acknowledging the rich history and heritage of this country as important contributors to nurturing the values contained in the Constitution; and

• Credibility, quality and efficiency: providing an education that is comparable in quality, breadth and depth to those of other countries.

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The National Curriculum Statement The instructional time per week in Implementation of the National Cur- the Foundation Phase is as is shown riculum Statement Grades R-12 in Table 6 below.

In Primary Schools across South Ten hours are allocated for languages Africa, the National Curriculum in Grades R-2 and 11 hours in Grade Statement Grades R-12 is rolled 3. A maximum of 8 hours and a out through the Foundation Phase minimum of 7 hours are allocated for (grades R-3) and Intermediate Phase Home Language, and a minimum of (grades 4-7). 2 hours and a maximum of 3 hours for Additional Language in Grades At the Foundation Phase Grades R to 1-2. 3 there are three learning programmes (or subjects): In Grade 3 a maximum of 8 hours and a minimum of 7 hours are allo- • Literacy (focussing on one of the cated for Home Language and a min- 11 national languages), imum of 3 hours and a maximum of • Numeracy (mathematics), and 4 hours for First Additional Language.

• Life Skills.

Table 6: Time allocation per subject for Foundation Phase

Subject Grade R Grades 1-2 Grade 3 (hrs/week) (hrs/week) (hrs/week)

Home Language 10 7/8 7/8

First Additional N/A 2/3 3/4 Language

Numeracy 7 7 7

Life Skills 6 7 7

• Beginning Knowledge (1) (1) (2) • Creative Arts (2) (2) (2) • Physical Education (2) (2) (2) • Personal and (1) (1) (1) Social Well-being

Total 23 23 25

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 21

At Intermediate Phase Grades 4 to 7 (Physics, Biology, and Chemistry) there are six learning areas or subjects: • Social Sciences (History and Geog- raphy) • Home Language • Life Skills • Additional Language (in one of the 11 languages) The instructional time per week in the Intermediate Phase is as por- • Mathematics trayed in Table 7 below.

• Natural Science and Technology

Table 7: Time allocation per subject for Intermediate Phase

Subject Grade 4 Grades 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 (hrs/week) (hrs/week) (hrs/week) (hrs/week)

Home Language 6 6 6 6

First Additional 5 5 5 5 Language

Mathematics 6 6 6 6

Natural Sciences 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 and Technology

Social Sciences 3 3 3 3 (History, Geography)

Life Skills 4 4 4 4

• Creative Arts (1.5) (1.5) (1.5) (1.5) • Physical Education (1) (1) (1) (1) • Personal and (1.5) (1.5) (1.5) (1.5) Social well-being

Total 27.5 27.5 27.5 27.5

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 3.3// LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION POLICY 22

The Department of Basic Education thermore, language may not be used adopted the Language in Education as a barrier to admission, ensuring Policy (LiEP) in 1997, and further clar- that governing bodies must stipulate ified its policy in the Revised National how their schools promote multilin- Curriculum Statement (NCS) of 2002. gualism. Further, failing a language will result in failing a grade. 13 The aims of the Language in Educa- tion Policy was to provide a strong The underlying principle of the LiEP foundation for the protection and is to maintain the use of home lan- advancement of the country’s diverse guage as the Language of Learning cultures and languages. Section 6 of and Teaching (especially in the early the Language in Education Policy Act years of learning), while providing empowers school governing bodies access to an additional language(s). to determine the language policy of Grades 1-2 must be available in all 11 schools within guidelines set nation- national languages of South Africa. 14 ally and on the provincial level. From Grade 3 onwards, all learners According to the Department of should receive education in their lan- Basic Education’s language policy, guage of learning and teaching, and students have a right to be taught at least one other approved language in a language of their choice and as subjects. From Table 4 below, you they should inform the school of the can see that the from Grade 3 on- language that they wish to be taught wards, home languages are replaced in when applying for admission. Only as the LoLT in Grade 4 by predomi- official languages may be used for nantly English, leaping from 27,7% instruction. From Grade 3 onwards, in Grade 3 to 79.1% in Grade 4. all pupils must study the language

they are taught in, and learn at least 13 Department of Basic Education. (1997). Lan- one other approved language. Fur- guage in Education Policy

Table 8 Percentage of learners by Language of Learning in 2007 [DBE, LOT Report 2010]

Gr 1 Gr2 Gr3 Gr4 Gr5 Gr6 Gr7 Gr8 Gr9 Gr10 Gr11 Gr12 SA Afrikaans 9.5 9.6 9.9 12.3 12.2 12.2 13.2 13.1 14.0 12.7 12.1 12.8 11.9 English 21.8 23.8 27.7 79.1 81.1 81.6 80.6 80.9 80.0 81.2 82.0 81.4 65.3 isiNdebele 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.4 isiXhosa 16.5 15.0 14.0 3.1 2.5 2.0 1.9 1.6 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.5 5.5 isiZulu 23.4 21.7 20.1 1.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 6.8 Sepedi 8.3 9.1 9.2 1.1 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.0 3.1 Sesotho 4.7 4.8 4.4 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.3 2.4 Siswati 2.1 2.1 1.7 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.7 Tshivenda 2.2 2.4 2.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.9 Xitsonga 3.1 3.3 3.1 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 1.4 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 23

In 2007, 65% of learners in Primary Table 9 is extracted from Wikipedia, School chose English as their Lan- that lists the national languages of guage of Learning and Teaching South Africa and the percentage of (LoLT), 12% of learners chose Afri- use through home language. kaans for their LoLT and 7% learnt via isiZulu. The language policy is controversial and often debated as the policy tries It is important to note that by the to meet two demands: maintaining end of their school career, 81.4% of multilingualism and gaining access pupils have chosen to learn in En- to global markets. Independent re- glish, with very little take up in oth- search conducted by the Project for er languages, apart from 12.8% in the Study of Alternative Education Afrikaans. in South Africa (PRAESA) shows that students learn best in their mother Interestingly, despite adoption and tongue, under the right conditions implementation of the Language in and when using a parallel language, Education Policy (LiEP) by the De- such as English, with learning out- partment of Basic Edcuation, the comes that best supports the stu- choice of LoLT is not a true reflection dents. PRAESA has established that of the country’s dominant home lan- children learn to read by creating guages, in that students are predom- stories and meaningful connections. inantly educated in English but speak another language at home. However, PRAESA cites that the big- gest challenge to delivering a suc- The 2011 Census recorded that cessful language of learning policy is 22.7% of South Africans spoke Zulu in providing adequate teacher edu- at home, followed 16% who speaks cation. Educators often don’t have Xhosa and 13.5% speaking Afrikaans. enough English skills themselves to Contrary to the popularity of English adequately provide instruction in as a LoLT, it ranks as the 6th most English. Secondly, if a student is only common home language of South offered English as a second language Africans, with only 4.8 million or between grade R and grade 2, and is 9.6% of the population registering then taught in English full time from English as their home language. It is grade three onwards, the learners often commented that one of the re- potentially spends most of their time maining legacies of apartheid is that trying to catch up in English instead English continues to be the country’s of grasping the concepts of what is language of business, politics and being taught. communication.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT Table 9: National Languages of South Africa according to the population [Wikipedia, 2012] 24

Language Speaker %

Zulu 10,677,000 23.8

Xhosa 7,907,000 17.6

Afrikaans 6,983,000 13.3

Norther Sotho 5,983,000 9.4

Tswana 3,677,000 8.2

English 3,673,000 8.2

Sotho 3,555,000 7.9

Tsonga 1,992,000 4.4

Swati 1,194,000 2.7

Venda 1,022,000 2.3

Ndebele 712,000 1.6

Other Languages 215,000 0.5

Total 44,820,000 100.0%

Image 6: School children attending parade. South Africa. Photo: Trevor Samson / World Bank

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 3.4// STANDARDISED TESTING 25

Annual National Assessment (ANA) written Gr. 3, Gr. 6, Gr. 9

National Senior Certificate (Matric Exam) Gr. 12

The National Curriculum Statement in a report card should be indicated Grade R–12 states that formal report by a combination of national codes, cards should be sent to parents once percentages and comments. The na- a term. tional codes and their corresponding percentage bands are as shown in Teachers of all grades report the Table 10 below. achievements of the students against percentages. The achievement rating Table 10: Codes and percentages for recording and reporting

National Codes Description of Competence Percentage of Marks

7 Outstanding achievement 80-100

6 Meritorious achievement 70 - 79

5 Substantial achievement 60-69

4 Adequate achievement 50-59

3 Moderate achievement 40 - 49

2 Elementary achievement 30 - 39

1 Not achieved 0-29

3.4.1 National Senior Certificate /Matric

The National Senior Certificate (NSC) However, the consequence of this examinations, commonly known focus has seen poor results related to as the “matric exams”, signifies the numeracy and literacy that have not culmination of twelve years of formal been assessed, and can therefore not schooling in South Africa. The NSC be corrected, earlier in the students’ examination has increasingly become education. Further, stakeholders feel one of the key barometers to indicate that the vast majority of pupil who the state of health of the education have passed matric are not prepared system in South Africa. for the labour market.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 26

In 2011, 620,266 pupils registered pupils that registered for matric). to write the matric exams. Of those registered to write the examinations, The statistics are interesting when 511 038 full time candidates enrolled calculated against the total num- for matric15, 496 090 wrote matric ber of pupils who entered Grade 1 (97% of those enrolled) and 348 117 in 2000, which was 923,463. This passed the NSC16. In 2011, the matric means that of the total number that exams were held at 6540 examina- entered the school system in 2000 tion centres, and were marked at 123 for the class of 2011, only 67% marking centres by 35,000 markers. stayed the course and sat the exams. The national pass rate, (for full time candidates) was 70.2%, an increase Despite matric result receiving the of 67.8% on 2010’s figures (or 68% lionshare of media and DBE focus, if you extrapolate from the number of less than one third of all South Afri- cans have completed matric. Only 15 This is opposed to part-time candidates. In 28.4% of South Africans over the age 2011, 108 237 part-time pupils (adult-education of twenty years have completed the and other) wrote matric, some of whom were 12th grade while only 33.8% even writing the Senior Certificate that was based on the previous syllabus got to high school and 8.6% had no 16 NAPTOSA, Matric Results 2011, Summary of schooling at all. 12.1% have a tertia- Statistics ry qualification. 3.4.2 The Annual National Assessments

In 2010, the Department of Ba- available in each of the eleven official sic Education posed the idea of an languages, while the Grade 6 ANAs Annual National Assessments (ANA). were only available in English or Afri- The ANA was implemented in order kaans – this mirrors the predominant to test the literacy and numeracy of medium of instruction in each of children in Grade 1 through 6 and these grades. In total over 7 million grade 9 using a standardised test. learners in more than 24,000 school wrote the ANAs in 2012. In 2012 the ANAs were expanded to include grades 1-6 and Grade

Table 11: The percentage of learners from Grade 3 and Grade 6 learners who are considered Literate and Numerate in 2011 [Department of Basic Education, 2011]

Grade 3 Grade 6

Literacy: 35% 28%

Numeracy: 28% 30%

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 Grade Home Language First Additional Grade Mathematics 27 Mark (%) Language Mark Mark (%)

1 58 n/a 1 68

2 55 n/a 2 57

3 52 n/a 3 41

4 43 34% 4 37

5 40 30% 5 30

6 43 36% 6 27

9 43 35% 9 13

Table 12: Average mark for Languages Table 13: Average mark for Mathematics [Dept. Basic Education, 2012] [Dept. Basic Education, 2012] These results effectively indicates that sons to check again the 2011-2012 the majority of South African learners perceived improvements; “Every year are performing at unacceptably low the Western Cape conducts tests levels, even when measured using (Systemic Evaluations) of Grade 3 local, curriculum-specific standards of and Grade 6 students. These tests literacy and numeracy. are marked centrally and not by the schools themselves. It is unfortunately impossible to com- pare the marks year-over-year. Educa- Between 2011 and 2012 there was tional Researchers Nic Spaull and Prof almost no improvement in System- Servaas van der Berg of Stellenbosch ic Test results in the Western Cape, University found that the “Grade yet according to the ANA results 3 Literacy improvement of 17 per- the Western Cape improved by 14 centage points year-on-year (a 49% percentage points. Given that the increase) amounts to 0.70 standard Systemic Tests are calibrated to be deviations (based on the Grade 3 of equal difficulty year-on-year, and literacy scores from Verification ANA that they are marked centrally, they 2011). If one compares this to the are currently a more reliable indicator largest improvers around the world, of true progress in learning than the it would mean that South Africa has ANA’s and provide strong evidence the fastest improving educational that ANA is exaggerating any im- system in the world.” provement that there may have been in learning in our schools.” When compared locally Spaull and van der Berg found local compari-

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 3.5// PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS 28

The South African Schools Act own expense, independent educa- (SASA) of 1996 established a nation- tional institutions. These institutions al schooling system and recognised may not discriminate on the basis two categories of schools: public and of race, must be registered with the independent. Public schools are state state, and must maintain standards controlled and independent schools not inferior to those of comparable are privately governed. All private public institutions. State subsidies to schools were included into the inde- independent institutions are permit- pendent school category. ted, but not guaranteed.

Within the public school catego- The vast majority of students in ry, SASA created a sub-category of South Africa attend public education- “public schools on private property” al institutions. Only 7.3% of those that includes state schools on private aged between 5 and 24 years attend land that are owned by religious private educational institutions (Stats- bodies, farmers, mines and forest- SA, 2011). This number has increased ry companies17. The South African from 5.3% in 2001. definition of independent schools is a narrow one compared to other According to the 2011 Census, the developing countries, especially as it provincial distribution of independent does not include the “public schools and public educational institution on private property”. attendance shows a general increase in private school attendance across In terms of Section 29 of the Consti- all provinces. Gauteng (16,7%), tution of South Africa, everyone has the Western Cape (7,5%) and Free the right to establish, at his or her State (6,4%) showed the highest attendance for private institutions. 17 http://www.isasa.org/

Figure 2: Percentage of students attending public vs. independent schools [StatsSA, 2011]

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 29

All other provinces had private insti- state sector.18 tution attendance rates of less than 5%. (ibid) This trend was particularly strong in the Eastern Cape where there was A study by the South African Institute a 295% increase in independent of Race Relations compared the num- schools, and Limpopo, with a 135% bers of independent schools in 2000 increase. Only in the Northern Cape with those in 2010. The study found did the number of independent that from 2000 to 2010 the number schools decrease. of independent schools increased by more than 44% across the whole Despite the increase in independent country, an increase from 971 in schools, these schools still account- 2000 to 1,399 in 2010. ed for only 5.4 percent of all South African schools, up from 3.5 percent The general growth of the indepen- in 2000. dent sector has been boosted by a growth in low-cost primary schools, in response to a lack of faith in the 18 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17315157 FUNDING

Education in South Africa is primarily provided through public funds.

In the 2012-2013 financial year, the allocation for basic education is R152.1 billion (Euro 13.29 bn). This figure accounts for 15% of the national budget, and as such education counts for the largest portion of South Africa’s budget.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 3.6 // THE QUINTILE SYSTEM 30

In an effort to redistribute funds and are given larger state subsidies (‘school address the economic divide left by allocations’) and so have lower school apartheid the Department of Basic fees, while schools that are perceived Education distributes funds according as wealthier are given smaller subsidies to a quintile system. According to the and so have higher fees. Each year, the School Act, the aim of the quintile Minister of Education determines the system is to “redress past injustices in quintiles or parts of quintiles where educational provision [and] provide schools may not charge compulsory an education of progressively high school fees. In 2011, quintiles 1 and 2 quality for all learners”19. Schools in were identified as no-fee schools. The South Africa are catagorised into policy requires that 60% of the avail- quintiles based on the socio-econom- able resources must be distributed to ic factors of the community, includ- the poorest 40% of learners (i.e. quin- ing rates of income, unemployment tiles 1 and 2). and illiteracy. Quintile 1 represents the poorest schools and quintile 5 While the quintile system has lead the least poor. to some improvement, the legacy of apartheid continues to exist within Schools quintiles are decided on by a the public school system of South national poverty table. The National Africa. Despite the increase in fund- Poverty Table is prepared by the Trea- ing for lower quintiles, the schools sury, which determines the poverty in quintile 5 continue to radically ranking of areas based on data from outperform the other quintiles. (See the national census, and include section below on the Current State income levels, dependency ratios and for performance results.) literacy rates in the area. Provinces then rank schools from quintile 1 to The quintile system is a difficult 5, according to the catchment area and bureaucratic process. Since the of the school. Each national quintile system’s implementation there have contains 20% of all learners, with quin- been complaints of incorrect quintile tile 1 representing the poorest 20% ranking. Incorrect ranking can lead and quintile 5 the wealthiest 20%. to limited teaching resources, a lack of basic infrastructure, the inability to The quintile ranking of a school is im- pay for basic services, the failure to pay portant because it determines the no- for school security and an inability to fee status of the school. Schools that participate in nutrition programs.20 have been determined to be poorer

19 Department of Basic Education website: http://www.education.gov.za/Newsroom/Speech- 20 Hall, K, Giese, S (2009). Addressing es/tabid/298/ctl/Details/mid/1390/ItemID/3184/ quality through school fees and school funding. Default.aspx South African Chld Guage, 2008/2009

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 31

Image 7: Two high school students run past a newly built classroom at Seaview High- school where out of forty Grade 12 learners in 2012, 2 students passed their Matric. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith, courtesy of Equal Education. 2013 Initial research commissioned by the the same community. Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS) in 22 schools • Failure to consider learner demo- across three provinces identified several graphics: Poor schools close to, or challenges with the ranking of schools. within, less poor areas are prej- udiced by the relative wealth of The main areas of dispute were: their neighbours, and ranked in a higher quintile than should be ap- • Outdated source data: Spatial propriate. The ranking system only targeting it is not always precise. considers the physical location of The National Census21 is the main the school and does not take into source of national data that was account learner demographics. used to determine the poverty score. The Census data is quickly • Masking inequality: Quintile rankings outdated, especially in the context can mask large disparities between of urban migration. schools that are ranked equally (within and across provinces). • Ranking errors: In some instanc- es schools in the same area are • Poor communication: Poor com- ranked differently, resulting in un- munication and a lack of consulta- equal allocations to schools serving tion leave schools and parents con- 21 In 1996 the post-apartheid government fused about each school’s status conducted its first population census. This was and rank. Misleading statements followed by a census in 2001. The next census was scheduled for 2006, but because Statistics by politicians about free education South Africa was not in a position to conduct a have added to the confusion, and successful census, this was rescheduled and resulted in parents refusing to pay- completed in 2011. A Community Survey took the 22 place of the 2006 census: http://www.statssa.gov. fees. za/census2011/intro.asp 22 Hall, K, Giese, S (2009). Addressing

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 3.7// NON-FEE SCHOOLS 32

In the poorest areas of all, parents 77% in 20101. The SAIRR study are exempt from paying school fees. showed that non-fee schools did not A study by the SA Institute of Race perform as well as low-fee schools. Relations (SAIRR) showed that the 1 http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ number of non-fee schools in South More-no-fee-schools-in-SA-SAIRR-20120723 Africa rose between 2008 and 2010. Table 14: Percentage of non-fee schools as a portion of each provinces total number The study, that used information from of public schools in 2010 [SAIRR, 2012] Statistics SA, showed that non-fee schools made up 55% of all public Province % of non-fee schools schools, or 13 643 of 24 814 schools, per total public schools in 2008. This rose to 60% non-fee Free State 83% schools in 2010, with 14 567 out of Eastern Cape 67% 24 532 schools not requiring fees. Northern Cape 67% The statistics showed that the Free North West 55% State had the highest percentage of non-fee schools in 2010, at 83%. Of KwaZulu-Natal 53% the 1,636 public schools in the Free Mpumalanga 52% State, 1 354 were non-fee schools, Western Cape 46% up 34% from 2008. It was followed by Limpopo, at 71% in 2008 and Gauteng 22%

3.8// ALLOCATION OF FUNDS PER LEARNER

A school in quintile 1 is said to be is what it considers the the poorest of schools, taking into minimal adequate amount of money account the socio-economic status of necessary for a learner to access his or the community around that school her right to basic education. In 2011 including; poverty, unemployment, the poorest quintile of schools, quin- dependency on social grants. The tile 1, receive an allocation of R901 opposite will apply for a quintile 5 (E65) per learner per year and the school, with everything that charac- wealthiest quintile 5 is R155 (E11). terises an up market suburb community with well off facilities. It is important to clarify that these amounts are not the total amount The Department of Education also of money spent on the education of sets the ‘adequacy benchmark’, which each learner as schools, can fundraise additional funds, but merely repre- quality through school fees and school funding. sent the amount allocated by the South African Chld Guage, 2008/2009

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 3.9// REGIONAL COMPARISONS 33 state for each learner (SPII, 2011) spending roughly the same amount, on average Euro 94026 per pupil per In 2011 the national expenditure year, South Africa grossly underper- on public education in South Africa formed when comparing reading was 17.59% of the total government and math scores. expenditure. South Africa’s budget for 2012-2013 education makes up The study showed that the amount for 15% of the national budget. Basic of money spent on the average Mo- education remains the largest piece zambican child in primary school per of South Africa’s budget23. In 2010 year is only 6.4% (Euro 62) of what public education in South Africa was is spent on the average Botswana or 5% of the Gross Domestic Product South African child (approximately (GDP).24 Euro 940), and 11.8% of what is spent on the average Namibian child In 2011, a SACMEQ study25 com- ($668). pared the education of Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Figure 3 below shows the average Africa. maths and reading performance for Botswana (B), Mozambique (M), South Africa and Botswana, despite Namibia (N) and South Africa (S) both being well-resourced and with each bubble being weighted by 23 Department of Basic Education. (2012). the public per pupil spending in that Annual report 2011/2012: Department of Basic country. Education 24 World Bank, (2012). Public spending on education, total (% of government expenditure) 25 Spaull, N. (2011) Primary School Per- formance in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa Primary School Performance in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South 26 Exchange rate calculation on 21 November Africa (Working Paper No. 8) 2012; rate: 1 USD = 0.783645 EUR

B = Botswana N = Namibia M = Mozambique S = South Africa

Figure 3: Regional comparisons between maths and reading performance, weighted by public spending per student (2007) [Spaull, 2011]

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 4.// TEACHING CHALLENGES 34

Teachers are pivotal members in tors consists of 67% female and 33% any education system. They bear male, which points to a marked and the weight and responsibility of consistent gender disparity2. Further, teaching, and, apart from parents, the teacher age profile shows that are the main source of knowledge more than two thirds of South Afri- and values for children. In South ca’s teachers are over 40 years old.3 Africa, faced daily by ‘multiple and complex challenges’ teachers seem According to a report released by to bear the brunt of the education the Centre for Development and systems’ problems. Enterprise (CDE) in September 2011, South Africa is in dire need of good, In 2011, there were 439,394 ed- skilled teachers. The report shows ucators in South Africa serving that South Africa needs to increase its grades R to 12. Of these, 187,520 output of trained teachers by 15,000 educators work at teaching children annually to meet the requirement of in grades R to 7, which amounts to 25,000 new teachers per year.4 43% of all educators teaching in primary schools.1 2 South African Country Report: Progress on the The gender composition from 2006 Implementation of the Regional Education and Training Plan SADC and COMEDAF V to 2008 in South Africa shows that 3 Value in the Classroom: the quantity and quality the workforce of school based educa- of SOuth Africa’s teachers. Centre for Develop- 1 Department of Basic Education. (2012) School ment and Enterprise September 2011 Realities 2012 4 Ibid.

Image 8: Classrooms at Sea View Highschool are run down and dilapidated. Zuki, one of the pupils, showed one of the members of Equal Education Staff, the holes in the floor of his classroom and the broken windows that they wanted government to fix. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith, courtesy of Equal Education, 2013

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 4.1//TEACHER TRAINING 35

There are two routes to becoming In 1994 there were over 120 teach- an educator in South Africa. It can be er colleges across South Africa that achieved either through a four year resulted in 71,000 students studying Bachelor of Education degree or a to be educators. In 2010 there were three-or four-year Bachelor’s degree, 25 universities that offered teacher followed by a one-year Postgraduate qualifications and 10,000 students Certificate in Education. enrolled in the education depart- ment7. Further, the education system Currently, there are 22 public higher must also contend with the reality or tertiary education institutions in that over 25% of newly qualified South Africa that offer teacher qualifi- teachers immediately pursue other cations distributed across eight prov- professions, or emigrate.8 inces. This includes the University of South Africa (UNISA), which offers In April 2012 Higher Education and remote education, and is the largest Training Minister Blade Nzimande educator of teachers in South Africa. announced that his department would be reopening three teacher 5During apartheid teacher training training colleges in 2013. The three was segregated along the same racial colleges are the Ndebele College lines as learner education. One of Campus in Mpumalanga for founda- the largest changes the ANC govern- tion phase teacher education, and ment made to education was closing one former teacher training college all teacher colleges and moving the each in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the East- courses to universities in an attempt ern Cape.9 to increase the quality of learning for educators. The government felt university training would provide a better standard of teaching. Howev- er, universities have proved unable to produce teachers in sufficient numbers and too few teaching graduates are willing to move to impoverished rural communities. 6

7 Equal Education, (2011). Teachers and the 5 Spaull, N. (2011) Primary School Performance Teaching Profession. in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South 8 Value in the Classroom: the quantity and quality Africa Primary School Performance in Botswana, of South Africa’s teachers. Centre for Develop- Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa (Working ment and Enterprise September 2011 Paper No. 8) 9 South Africa Former teacher training colleges 6 Mundy, S. (2011). Education: Decline of stan- to be re-opened. http://7thspace.com/head- dards leaves learners at the bottom of the league. lines/410824/south_africa_former_teacher_train- FT.com. ing_colleges_to_be_re_opened.html

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 4.2//EDUCATOR KNOWLEDGE 36

The effectiveness of training that the average, more tertiary education and educators currently received has also training than most of their SACMEQ been called into question. The South- counterparts.11 ern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality Research dating back to 2005 (SACMEQ) has compared educator demonstrates that although 16,581 knowledge across each of its fifteen mathematics teachers were present. member countries10. South African educators rank 6th out of 15 for in the Eastern Cape, only 7,090 were reading content knowledge and 9th teaching the subject. However, of out of fifteen for mathematics con- those that were teaching mathemat- tent knowledge. ics, 5,032 were not qualified to do so. 12 South African teachers have, on 10 The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium 11 Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is Monitoring Educational Quality. (2012). A study made up of Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, of the conditions of schooling and the quality of Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, education. South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), 12 Value in the Classroom: the quantity and quali- Tanzania,(Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zim- ty of SOuth Africa’s teachers. Centre for Develop- babwe. ment and Enterprise

Figure 4: Teacher Reading and Math Scores by country [SACMEQ III, 2011]

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 4.3// EDUCATOR MORALE 37

Research by Equal Education13 • If he/she works in a secondary has found that educators had too school most of her learners fail ma- many admin tasks. The 2011 report tric. claimed “they said they were con- fused about their role as educators. Educators interviewed across South 55% of teachers say they would Africa indicated a system-wide lack quit if they could. This is because of of accountability amongst educators. stress, low salaries, lack of discipline They reported that educators did not in schools and feeling stuck in their work regular hours, there was poor jobs. ” attendance and did not use their time effectively. Government studies Equal Education found that teachers have reported that many teachers in poor schools were often met with: come late, leave early, spend only 46% of their time teaching each • Parents who did not receive a qual- week, and hardly teach at all on ity education and were therefore Friday.14 unable to help their children with their homework. Some of the educators that were interviewed by Equal Education • Learners who didn’t have books at researchers expressed that there was home or see their parents reading a lack of passionate educators who books. Their parents also didn’t were willing to explore new or dif- read to them when they were ferent ways to deliver the syllabus. young. In our interviews one educator at an Eastern Cape urban school with low • No stocked library, media centre or income students expressed a lack of computer room. basic educational infrastructure as the greatest barrier to learning. • Over-crowded classrooms, some- times as many as 90 learners in one In general, there is a lack of pride in classroom. their work across all low to middle income educators in South Africa. This • In extreme cases, such as the mud- is reflected by society at large with schools in the Eastern Cape, teach- the teaching profession not being ers (and pupils) had no access to highly regarded. As well, due to very running water, electricity or toilets. strict labour laws and a strong teach- • A shortage of books, teaching ma- ers union, it is difficult to discipline or terial, support and administration fire a poor achieving educator. staff. 14 Value in the Classroom: the quantity and qual- 13 Equal Education, (2011). Teachers and the ity of South Africa’s teachers. Centre for Develop- Teaching Profession. ment and Enterprise

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 4.4 // TEACHER ABSENTEEISM 38

In 2011, SACMEQ reported on its 2007 found that 20% of teachers in South study which found that the average Africa are absent on Mondays and Fri- Grade 6 learner in South Africa was days. Rates increase to one-third by the taught by a teacher who was absent month’s end. Teachers in predominant- approximately 19.7 days a year;15 ly black schools teach an average of 3.5 roughly an entire month of school time. hours per day compared with 6.5 hours The provincial differences were large, per day in historically white schools. 16 with learners in the Western Cape and Gauteng experiencing less teacher Discretionary absence (short duration absenteeism (around 12 days) than and not requiring a medical certificate) learners in KwaZulu Natal and Limpo- rates are higher on days adjacent to po, where the corresponding figures non-instructional days (weekends, are 25.4 and 24.2 days respectively. public holidays or just before vacation). A high proportion of absences are as- A similar trend is seen when comparing cribed to illness which occurs in blocks quintile 1-4 learners (the poorest 80%) of time short enough that no medical with quintile 5 learners (the richest certification is required. There is evi- 20%). In the report, quintile 1-4 learn- dence that “schools with strong leaders experienced almost three times as ership by principals who insist educa- much teacher absenteeism (22.4 days) tors come to school on time, properly compared to quintile 5 learners (8.1 use class time and remain sober have days). Figure 5 shows the contrast in achieved good test results.17 teacher absenteeism by quintile. 16 Reddy, V., Prinsloo, C.H., Netshitangani, T., A study conducted by the Human Sci- Moletsane, R., Juan, A. & Janse van Rensburg, D. (2010) An investigation into educator leave ences Research Council (HSRC) in 2010 in the South African ordinary public schooling 15 Spaull, N. (2011) Equity & Efficiency in South system. African Primary Schools A Preliminary Analysis of 17 Saunders, S. (2012). A Sad State of Teaching SACMEQ III South Africa. Affairs retrieved: Mail & Guardian

Figure 5: Teacher absenteeism comparing quintiles with days absent per year excluding outside values (2007) [SACMEQ III]

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 5.// INFRASTRUCTURAL CHALLENGES 39

Basic infrastructure remains a chal- have a functioning library; 5,465 lenge across schools in South Afri- schools (96%) do not have func- ca. Nationally, there are 446 mud tioning computer centres, schools, most of which are located 5. 395 schools are made out of mud in the Eastern Cape. Only 86% of schools have electricity and there are Section27 the legal representative 913 schools in South Africa that do of Equal Education launched a case not have basic toilet facilities. against the Department of Basic Ed- ucation to establish basic norms and In April 2013, Equal Education con- standards in South Africa’s schools. ducted a high profile visit to the East- Equal Education felt that the South ern Cape to draw attention to the African Schools Act gives the Minis- state of the schools in that province. ter of Education the power to create Out of the 5,676 public ordinary regulations (norms & standards) for schools in the Eastern Cape: school infrastructure. 1. 1,152 schools have no electricity; 116 have an unreliable electrical Having such a bylaw gives the stu- connection, dents, educators and school the legal mechanism to hold the provincial de- 2. 1,096 schools have no water sup- partment of education responsible in ply; 322 have an unreliable water making sure they are supplied with the supply, necessary infrastructure and resources. 3. 551 schools have no ablution facilities; 3,160 schools use pit In November 2012 Section27 struck a latrines, deal with the Department of Basic Ed- ucation that from May 2013 the De- 4. 5,508 schools (97%) do not partment of Basic Education will have

Images 9, 10 & 11 : Photos of school infrastructure and overcrowded conditions at Lim- popo Province Schools in 2013. Source: Equal Education CC-BY-SA

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 40

Image 12 & 13: Photos of school infrastructure and overcrowded conditions at Limpopo Province Schools in 2013. Source: Equal Education CC-BY-SA

established and will abide by certain rooms, electricity, water, sanitation, norms and standards. These have a library, laboratories, recreational been called the Minimum Norms and facilities, internet connectivity and Standards for School Infrastructure fencing.18

The standards will include, but not 18 http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2012/11/21/agreement-on-basic-standards- be limited to: the availability of class- for-schools INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES

This is a breakdown of basic Access to Electricity infrastructure in South African • With electricity 86% schools provided by the De- partment of Basic Education in • Solar electricity 1,866 2011. 1 • Generator on sites 119 Access to Water • Municipal grid 19,480 • With Water Supply - 90% • No electricity 14% • Borehole / Rain Harvesting on Site - 37% • Unreliable electricity 3% • Communal Water Supply Ablutions on site - 17% • Municipal flush 32% • Mobile Tankers Water -.05% (1198) • Septic flush 10% • Municipal Water - 39% • Enviro loo (1,294) 0.05%

• No Water Supply - 10% • VIP 20% (pit latrine with ventilation pipe) • Unreliable Water Supply - 10% • Pit Latrine 47%

1 http://www.education.gov.za/Link- • Chemical (155) 006% Click.aspx?fileticket=hHaBCAerGX- • No Facility (913) 0.04% c%3D&tabid=358&mid=180

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 6. // TEXTBOOK REVIEW 41

The Department of Basic Education • To assist teachers in identifying (DBE) has stated that each student in learners needs for extra support South Africa is entitled to a textbook. early in the year. The textbooks are distributed by the DBE as part of their Learning and • The worksheets are intended to Teaching Support Material (LTSM). assist busy teachers who have large classes and who won’t nec- In 2011 the DBE redesigned the essarily have the resources needed primary school workbooks to provide to make their own worksheets. more local language and relevan- cy. Each home language workbook • They will assist with teaching mul- provides 128 worksheets, with each tilingual classes. workbook divided into two volumes of 64 worksheets each (Terms 1 & 2 • They will be useful for multi-grade and Terms 3 & 4) includes: classes and for teaching mixed ability groups. • 4 worksheets per week The Department of Basic Education • 8 weeks per term (DBE) determines the textbooks that may be ordered by any school in the • 2 terms per volume system. After a lengthy submissions process by publishers, the DBE cre- • They are labelled per term and ates a list of sanctioned textbooks week 19 that schools may order. Titles are chosen if they ensure uniformity and The new workbooks are designed conformance with the curriculum. to support every child in maths and language. Specifically to: The DBE also fixes the prices that the publishers charge. Each school deter- • To pace the learning mines which of the approved titles best suit their needs, and places an • To assist teachers to cover the cur- order with the local education au- riculum thority. These orders are then col- • They assist the teacher to manage lated and presented to the DBE for teaching time budgetary approval.

• To monitor the tasks that children Once this process is finalised, the do in the workbooks books are ordered and delivered. however, the delivery of textbooks 19 Working Workbooks: the problem: learner has become a point of contention achievement in the ANAs Maths and Languages across the country.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 6.1// Textbooks per learner 42

In 2007 the average Grade 6 learner either had no reading book or shared in South Africa was in a school where a book with someone else. For 45% of the learners had reading mathematics textbooks the situation books and 36.4% had mathematics was worse with the corresponding textbooks. percentage being 64.6%. The situation, regarding Reading and Maths, This means that Grade 6 learners remains unsatisfactory in most prov- were in schools where 55% of them inces.

6.2// Textbook Distribution

The National School Monitoring language. Survey, a report released in May 2012, shows that the distribution of “In the absence of textbooks, learners textbooks delivery and monitoring are often exposed to only fragments (that the crisis in Limpopo highlight- of the curriculum, presented through ed below) afflicts the whole country. standalone worksheets or isolated The survey found that: short exercises,” the report states.1

• Only 38% of grade 6 has access 1 MacFarlane, D. (2012) Textbook Crisis: to a language workbook. The Free damning report fails Motshekga retrieved: Mail & State was best supplied (72%), Guardian and Limpopo the worst (11%).

• 85% of grade 6 have maths workbooks.

However, the national average regarding the distribution of workbooks is misleading and conceals provincial discrepancies. In Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape, 88% of students had language and maths books, but only 69% of Mpumalanga pupils.

Some schools did not receive books at all, or too late, or not enough, and some received books in the wrong

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 6.3// The 2012 Limpopo Textbook Crisis 43

This ongoing situation came to crisis did not make it to the schools that point in mid-2012 when a textbook needed them, and were bizarrely delivery scandal was revealed in Lim- found either discarded or burned. popo Province. Half way through the year, it was discovered that the text- In November 2012, the rights group Sec- books intended for the 2012 school tion27 put pressure on the DBE to supply year had not yet arrived, that would an adequate timeline of textbook delivery negatively prejudice the students’ for 2013. Section27 filed three successful end of year results. court actions against the DBE over the seven month delay in textbook delivery in Rumours and accusations ran ram- Limpopo. The DBE has been ordered to pant, but the main reasons for lack deliver 5.5 million Curriculum and Assess- of delivery were put down to two ment Policy Statement aligned textbooks factors. The first was that the mon- to 3 ,950 High and Primary Schools in the ey that had been ring-fenced to buy Limpopo Province, before 14th Decem- textbooks for the 2012 school year ber 2012 for the 2013 school year. These was reallocated in mid-2011 by the textbooks are to be used by learners in Limpopo government and so the text- Grades 4-6 and 11. books could not be ordered in time. The deadline of the 14th December Although emergency funding was 2012 was set by the North Gauteng sought from the treasury, it was High Court. Section27 actions are not received in time. To exacerbate responsible for putting the Limpopo the budgetary shortfall, schools did textbook scandal onto South Africa’s not receive either the amount of National Agenda.20 However in April textbooks they requested, nor the 2013, the DG acknowledged that titles they want, as the DBE ordered textbook delivery in Limpopo Prov- cheaper alternatives. Secondly, al- ince was inadequate and remained a though some of the books had made challenge. it to the Province, many of the books 20 Gernetzky, K. (2012). Limpopo Textbook Plan Gets Cautious Welcome from Section27

Image 14: Police found more than 5 000 books dumped in Majeje, in the Phalaborwa region. (Gallo, courtesy of Mail and Guardian)

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 7.// ICT IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS 44

Information and Communication 1 Electronic Multimedia Resource Technologies (ICT) in Education are Development and Distribution; considered part of the solution for addressing the needs of developing 2 ICT professional development for countries. management, teaching and learning; They can help improve basic administration tasks, including the 3 ICT Teacher Development Levels; registration of learners, handling learners records and marks as well as 4 ICT Infrastructure; easier access to learning and teach- 5 Connectivity; and ing materials online. However, ICT being accessed and used by learners 6 Research and Development. provide myriad benefits, including access to support or extra-curricular In 2004 the DBE released its White knowledge, and preparation for an Paper on e-Education. Since this extensively computerised world. The white paper, gradual progress has DBE has focused a lot of attention been made towards providing ICT and budget to improving ICTs across infrastructure to schools. In 2010, the country. nationally (excluding KwaZulu Natal and the Free State who did not have According to the Strategic Plan enough schools to provide ade- 2011-2014 of DBE, six areas of focus quate reporting) only 2,587 (15%) have been identified in the National of schools had classes with work- Implementation Strategy for e-Ed- ing computers in them and 12,082 ucation from the eEducation White (71%) of schools had one or more Paper: computers in them.

Figure 6: Status of Schools with Computers in Provinces [Graph from Survey of ICT in Schools in South Africa 2012]

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 45

There has been drastic increase in the ern Cape (99%), Gauteng (92%) and number of ICTs in school from the Limpopo (72%) all had a high per- 2004 White Paper and ICT in Educa- centage of schools with at least one tion survey data of 2010, the West- computer in a working condition.

Figure 7: ICTs in Schools 2004 & 2010 [Graph from Survey of ICT in Schools in South Africa 2012]

Access to computers and the Internet tent and examples, and inadequate is important for the development of technical and pedagogical support at the knowledge (digital) economy, local levels”. but as indicated in the 2010 survey results it is limited in schools in most The ICT in Education survey results provinces in the country. reveal that for the schools that re- sponded, a very low percentage The White Paper on e-Education (6%) have classrooms with com- (2004) states that “Internet access is puters connected to the Internet. becoming more common, but the The percentage of schools where use of the Internet for teaching and computers are used for teaching and learning purposes is very limited, due learning purposes ie computer labs to high connectivity and telecom- (9%) and computer labs specifically munication costs, lack of local con- for CAT/IT (16%) is relatively low.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 46

Figure 8: Per Capita Distribution of Computers per 1000 Learners by Quintile [Graph from Survey of ICT in Schools in South Africa 2012]

However, this number does not detail sponded, on average 31% of schools if students have access to comput- have internet connectivity through ers. It has been generally found that Dial-up, ISDN, and ADSL 3G. these computers remain in the office and are used for admin support. Again provincial results identifies the Figure 8 below shows the per capita Western Cape as having the highest distribution of computers per 1000 level of connectivity with 99% of learners by quintile. This indicates schools being connected. In Gauteng that in the more affluent schools this figure drops to 61% of schools, there are significantly more comput- Limpopo has 17% of schools con- ers per 1000 learners than in the less nected , Mpumalanga 16% and final- affluent schools. ly the Eastern Cape has the lowest percentage of schools with connec- The 2012 survey also revealed that tivity at 13%. nationally, of the schools that re-

Table 15: ICTs in Schools by province and location of ICTs within the school [Data from Survey of ICT in Schools in South Africa 2012]

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 8.// OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER) 47

An immediate response to the issues since they facilitate cost contain- at play in South Africa is to suggest ment and potential for optimal use, using distance education and e-learn- through re-versioning in education ing to alleviate it. However, Wolfen- programmes (Geser, 2007). den (2008) argues that ‘[A]ccess to high quality pedagogically sound Hylén (2005) suggests that OER ini- learning materials is frequently inhib- tiatives can take the form of: ited by the inability of African educational institutions to afford them’ 1 Open courseware and content; (2008, p. 6). Materials development 2 Open software tools (e.g. learning can be a slow and costly process. management systems; Bateman suggests that ‘one of the major monetary costs to African 3 Open material for e-learning ca- educational systems is that of acquir- pacity building of faculty staff; ing pedagogically sound educational materials’ (2008, p. 43). 4 Repositories of learning objects; and Open Educational Resources (OER) can help to alleviate this problem 5 Free educational courses.

8.1// OER AND LEARNING OBJECTS

After reviewing the OER movement covered, levels of education ca- Moon (2010, p.127) concluded that tered for and intended audience? much content could and should be: A narrow OER project might focus “Freely accessible for use by anyone; only on providing physics materi- presented in a format that users can als to support in-class, tertiary-level adapt for their own context; and teaching; a broad OER project may framed within a licensing system that aim to share teaching and learning makes adapters responsible for shar- materials for a variety of levels and ing their use of the resources with subjects with both educators and the wider community.” students.

While there are different ways of • Authorship: are the resources the evaluating OER initiatives, an OECD product of one content creator study proposed a set of five dimen- working alone, or are they the sions: result of a collaborative effort?

• Scope: how focused is the OER • Licensing: the choice of license will project in terms of disciplines affect the degree to which mate-

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 48

rials can be mixed with other OER Combination refers to the affordanc- or reused in other contexts and is es of a digital resource for separation an important piece of information into small independent units and to capture in any mapping exer- the latter to its affordances for com- cise. bining units in various ways or with other resources. • Granularity: this refers to the size of the educational resources Combining and/or sequencing produced. The more granular a learning objects is one of the most resource, the smaller the chunk of difficult problem facing instructional information it contains. designers. Granularity refers to size. For example, an entire curriculum • Teaching duration: the actual could be viewed as a learning object teaching time needed for use but such a viewpoint diminishes the of the materials (i.e. from a full possibility of learning object reuse course that may take a whole se- which is central to conceptualizations mester or term at one extreme, to of the learning object. Large learning a learning object for use in a single objects with specific learning path- class at the other). ways built firmly into them may be difficult to adapt and reuse. ‘Granularity’ and ‘combination’ are terms used extensively in the literature on learning objects.

Image 15: IT training for kids who live in the surrounding farm areas of Stutterheim outside East London in the Eastern Cape. South Africa. Photo: Trevor Samson / World BankFigure

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 8.2// OER IN SOUTH AFRICA 49

Education is essential to personal South Africa is faced with severe freedom and national development, limitations to conventional methods people want good quality education of teaching and learning. One solu- at a minimal costs to society. When tion is to increase access by making compared to neighbouring coun- primary education free or nearly free tries, South Africa achieves the first for those that qualify. As a result of goal of getting almost all children the implementation of the Quintile into primary school. However, once System, much larger numbers of in school, the number and quality of children come to school, however matric graduates is significantly lower the parallel recruitment and training than neighbouring nations. of teachers has not been able to keep pace. Class sizes have increased and It would seem that urgent focus is often the quality of learning goes required on the quality of the educa- down. If you try to improve one side tion the children are getting, espe- of this triangle your action effect the cially as enrolments have increased other two sides in undesirable ways. rapidly and dramatically, and are Suppose that you want to increase expected to continue to grow. quality by providing more books and learning materials. The cost These three criteria for education: of schooling will go up which may wide accessibility; good quality con- mean that it can be offered to fewer tent and delivery, and low cost fees people so access goes down. are universal.

Access

Cost Quality Figure 9: The Criteria for Education

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 50

The ability to break up this trifecta is cators. However, this was a difficult why education technology and OER process as long as those educational is so appealing. You can increase objects were physical. It was difficult access, improve quality and maintain and time consuming to share across costs - all at the same time. This is distances, it was expense to ship and because the economies of scale and even more challenging to build or consistency of quality that comes adapt to your particular needs. with using media. CD-Roms and DVDs can replace the expense of OERs allows for that sharing, adap- printing books and their distribution tion, and attribution to be done reduces issues like what are currently seamlessly because objects are now in play in last years ongoing textbook held electronically. Where we use delivery scandal. But now as Internet to be suspicious of materials found costs are rapidly reducing while in- on the Web, we now are learning creasing speed and availability Cloud to trust learning materials as digital based materials are replacing CDs social accountability increases. and DVDs. Open Educational Resources has Social software and collaborative come a long way since 2001 when development of OER is particularly Massachusetts Institute of Technol- promising. With the collaborative ogy (MIT) first made faculty course and community based open text- notes freely available online for any- book project Cape Town based one to use. Siyavula, and alternative publisher Paperight; which we will outline MIT is frequently heralded as the further. launch for the OER movement because MIT had the prestige, technical Sharing learning materials between wherewithal and internal support to education institutions isn’t a new sustain such a bold change in previ- idea. Inter-Library Loans have a long ously extremely preparatory educa- history amongst all levels of educational objects. The OER movement tional libraries, Educators have long has made enormous strides and been sharing their learning materi- holds great promise in South Africa als through conference and alike to from the signing of the Cape Town learn from and support other edu- Open Education Declaration in 2007.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 8.3// OERS IN SOUTH AFRICA 51 (AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA)

Siyavula out in its printed, downloadable and practice online services. Statistics on In 2012 Siyavula, a Cape Town- take up have yet to be compiled. based Open Access publisher, began supplying the Department of Basic Siyavula has also recently Thunder- Education with Grade 10, 11 and bolt Kids for Natural Sciences and 12 Maths and Science textbooks for Technology for Gr 4-6, produced R40 each. Siyavula means “we are with Sasol Inzalo (investment is the opening” in the Nguni family of lan- largest broad-based Black Economic guages. A set of Grade 4-6 Natural Empowerment (BEE) transaction to Sciences and Technology books was date) and printed by Department of submitted for approval to the DBE Basic Education for all government in late 2012, with an expected pur- schools to receive free of charge this chase price of R90.55. year. Siyavula is currently working on Natural Sciences textbooks for Gr The textbooks have been created 7-9, which are due to be printed for through community weekend work- the 2014 school year by Department shops, with community members of Basic Education, also produced donating their time to write, edit with Sasol Inzalo. and translate the content for each textbook. The books are published Paperight through a Creative Commons By-At- tribution licence. While downloaded While Paperight isn’t specifically a books are free, Siyavula’s method- Open Educational Resource it does ology allows for a vast reduction in facilitation the ease of sharing and printed book prices with prices being access which is one of the three further reduced by the size of the criterias of effective teaching as combined print-run. previously outlined. Paperight turns any business with any printer and an The project also allows learners from Internet connection into a print-on- Grade 10 to 12 to download digital demand bookstore. By registering version of the books for free from a with Paperight for free, copy shops website. The books can be viewed anywhere in the world have access to on their iPads, computers, mobile an online library from which they can phones, printed hardcopies and in- legally print out books, magazines class projectors. The books can also and other documents. be used on Mixit. Siyavula’s innovative project is only just begun to roll Paperight lets publishers earn licence

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 52

fees from legal print-outs of their material is readily available through books, cutting out expensive distri- online, mobile and print (newspaper) bution and printing costs, and pass- making it a distributor of high quality ing those savings on to customers. material, easy to access and low cost to users. A customer pays the outlet (e.g. a copy shop) for their print-out, and This is one of the few organisations the outlet uses Paperight to pay the in South Africa that are specifically publisher. Paperight makes buying targeting pre-primary and primary and selling books easier and, over- learners. all, more cost-effective for everyone anywhere. OER4Schools Nal’ibali CCE-funded ‘OER4Schools’ project started in August 2009 with a pilot Nal’ibali is isiXhosa for “here’s the phase, that was completed in May story”, they are a national read- 2010. They assessed the feasibili- ing-for-enjoyment campaign to ty of providing Open Educational designed to spark children’s potential Resources (OER) to ICT- and Inter- through storytelling and reading. net-equipped primary schools in Zambia, and of supporting interac- Nal’ibali is driven by PRAESA (the tive forms of subject pedagogy with Project for the Study of Alternative the new resources. Education) and Times Media. They believe that children who are im- It identified the needs of school- mersed in great and well-told stories based professional development – and in languages they understand adapted to the local context. – become inspired and are motivated to learn to read for themselves. The project is conducted in a North- South partnership between the Nal’ibali offers sustained mentoring, CCE and institutions in Zambia. It collaboration with communities, uniquely combines stakeholders from reading clubs, literacy organisations various sectors (including educa- and volunteers of all ages, in additional research, ICT for development tional to their weekly publication of [NGOs], government, and the ICT children stories and games in the na- service sector) as a basis for devel- tional newspaper The Times. While oping methodologies that promise the reading material is to date lasting transformation in Zambian primary education. not officially licenced through a Cre- ative Commons licence the reading While the project is conducted in

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 53

Zambia, it is anticipated to be rele- OER Africa vant to a wide range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. OER Africa is an innovative initiative established by the South African In- In 2010 OER4Schools developed stitute for Distance Education (Saide) a professional learning resource for to play a leading role in driving the teachers and student teachers, fo- development and use of Open Ed- cussing on interactive teaching and ucational Resources (OER) across learning - with and without ICT. all education sectors on the African continent. A key element of this resource is the use of unique video clips illustrating OER Africa/Sadie is behind Saide interactive practice (produced in ACEMaths Project. The aim of SAIDE Zambian and South African primary ACEMaths Project was to pilot a col- classroom contexts) as a stimulus laborative process for the selection, for discussion.The resource is freely adaptation and use of OER materials available for re-use under a Creative for teacher education programmes in Commons license. South Africa.

It supports different modes of learn- The ACEMaths module, Teaching ing, including collaborative and and Learning Mathematics in Diverse individual use, as well as blended Classrooms, is available for down- learning as part of a course. It will loading for free in two formats - for be available in a number of formats, printing (PDF), and for adaptation appropriate to the varied African (Word). environments in which teachers find themselves.

Image 16: Information technology training for kids who live in the surrounding farm areas of Stutterheim, Photo: Trevor Samson / World Bank, CC-BY-SA

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 8.4// FOCUS: OER IN THE PRIMARY SECTOR 54

‘Matric’ exams are given such high mathematics in the primary school prestige in the media, and are used curriculum. as the benchmark of education in South Africa, as such the majority of Creating and build OER tools de- support and infrastructure (as well signed to assist and support educa- as NPO projects) tends to be aimed tors would help to alleviate pressure at senior school students. Further, on overburdened educators in South although Open Education is taking Africa. It can also be assumed that hold in South Africa, and across the the core primary school curriculum continent, there are hardly any OER does not vary wildly across the conti- aimed at Primary Schools. nent and so this kind of development would support school systems across This indicates a significant and ob- Africa. vious gap in the market to provide support to primary education learn- The OER4Schools program seems ers and educators. OER Africa has a to have had tremendous success in database to provide online catalogue Zambia and in smaller pilot programs of OER tools for educators in Afri- in South Africa. They have listed the ca62. Currently there is very limited following as challenges and lessons educational artifacts dealing with learned which are valuable when primary school education. As of 2012 thinking about a new OER project in there are four artifacts dealing with South Africa.

8.5 // ICT CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

It takes significant time and engage- Working remotely with teachers ment for teachers to make deep (through phone calls / internet tele- rather than superficial changes in phony / shared documents) is chal- their practice. TPD programmes need lenging. We recommend providing to be well supported and resource access to resources through local in- intensive. It is imperative to find ways frastructure (such as a local low-pow- of supporting teachers sufficiently, er robust server). Internet, when it while bearing in mind the available and mains power are available, for resources. media transfer can be useful.

One-off top-down interventions do Be aware of communication chal- not work. Cost-effective approaches lenges due to cultural factors, includ- need to be embedded in local school ing a reluctance to relay negative cultures. feedback or difficulties encountered.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 55

Face-to-face communication works being as clear as possible about what far better but it is time and labour in- teachers can be paid for, and to tensive, and recruitment of local TPD make the available budgets transpar- leaders can be very challenging. ent.

Strong educational leadership from Speaking at the Forum on behalf of headteachers is key to addressing OER Africa, Catherine Ngugi suggest- challenges with poor working condi- ed that government needs to play tions and teacher absenteeism. the role of ‘champion at the top’ for the OER movement in order to It is also important that unhelpful avoid issues of poor awareness and barriers and hierarchies are broken up-take, with teachers and educators down, so that teachers are free to reluctant to adopt a ‘learner-orient- experiment and discuss. To this end, ed’ pedagogy. there are advantages in fostering peer interaction and “critical friend- The need to have these structures in ship”, rather than interaction with a place is clearly important, not only “senior trainer”, such as a university to spread awareness of OER and or ministry official. bring it into the mainstream, but also to monitor and control the quality Payment of stipends or “per diems” of the resources available. And no- often simply for attendance of work- where more so than in Africa, where shop sessions is another issue. Such a reliance on resources from highly payments are expected but deeply developed countries in Europe and ingrained in an unhelpful “aid cul- North America can have a potentially ture”, and make projects instantly detrimental effect on the knowledge unsustainable. We must thus do our economy. utmost to reverse this. We suggest

Image 17: Connect To Learn is a collaborative effort between Ericsson, the Earth Institute and Millennium Promise that leverages the power of ICT to bring education to students. Ericsson Images, Flickr CC-BY-NC WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 9.// POSSIBILITIES FOR MOBILE EDUCATION 56

Can Africa reach its 2015 Millennium Development Goals? If countries em- brace the unique power of mobile broadband technology, I believe many have a good chance.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-general of the Interna- tional Telecommunication Union, 2012

9.1// THE MOBILE LANDSCAPE IN AFRICA

The mobile revolution in Africa is In some countries – including Bo- widely reported with a staggering tswana, Gabon and Namibia – there growth and enthusiastic up take of are more mobile subscriptions than the technology. In 2013, the conti- inhabitants. The majority (an over- nent of Africa is the world’s second whelming 95%) of people in Africa largest, and the fastest growing, are connected by prepaid. mobile phone region. For the first time, in history, the pop- Over the past 11 years, mobile con- ulations of Africa are connected to nections have grown by an average each other, and the world. of 30% per year. In the second quarter of 2013, and despite the amount of spectrum allocated to mobile services in Africa is among the lowest worldwide1, there are an estimated 735 million mobile phone subscriptions across the continent, and a mobile penetration rate of 65%. Smart phones are outselling computers 4 to 1 and 50% of all access to the Internet is via a mobile phone. 1 A lack of spectrum creates a number of issues, that ranges from traffic congestion to increased service costs, and poses a threat to the development of mobile services and to the development of mobile broadband in particular. [Sub Saharan Figure 10: Mobile penetration per country in Africa Mobile Observatory 2012] Sub Saharan Africa [source: Wireless Intelligence] 1 1 Hamadoun Touré, special for the CNN. “How mobile broadband can transform Africa”, 2012.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 9.2// CURRENT LANDSCAPE IN SOUTH AFRICA 57

The Sub-Saharan Africa Mobile Ob- World Wide Worx has reported that servatory 2012 has reported that in about 8 million South Africans ac- South Africa, at the end of the forth cess the internet on their mobiles. quarter in 2012, the mobile pene- Of these, 2.48 million do not have tration in South Africa (by unique access to computers, while the rest subscribers) stood at 63.68%. The of South Africa’s 8.5 million internet number of unique subscribers in users (at the end of 2011) access the South Africa by the end of the forth web using computers, laptops and quarter of 2012 to be 32,386,986. tablets. However, 5.42 million or The current contract vs prepaid split 90% South Africa’s internet users use on connections is 19% contract vs. their cellphones to go online. 81% prepaid.

CHALLENGE TO CELLPHONE OPERATORS

In December 2012 a group Of the Joe Slovo learners, it of Grade 11 learners at Sinen- is estimated that 90% have jongo High School, Joe Slovo cellphones and 70% access Park, Cape Town challenged Facebook from their phones. South Africa’s cellphone op- However, they don’t have is erators to provide free cell- access to computers outside phone access to Wikipedia in of the school environment. South Africa. There are only 25 school computers, which are avail- The learners published an able to each learner for an open letter to the four mobile hour a week. Alternatives network operators, Vodacom, include walking to or taking MTN, Cell C and 8ta, urging public transport to the near- them to give their customers est library to queue to use free mobile access to Wikipe- the few computers with In- dia (see the letter in Appen- ternet connectivity. Or, they dix). can use internet cafes, which are an expensive option for By May 2013, only the bank learners from low-income FNB connect had released households. Mxit offers Wiki- Wikipedia free as an add-on pedia access for free, which service to its subscribers of its was being accessed by 1,2 mobile platform. million subscribers in 2012.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 9.3//MOBILE SOLUTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA 58

Mobile access has completely Several organisations across Africa changed how people interact, com- have seized the opportunities pre- municate, socialise, work, do business, sented by mobile. Mobile education, transfer money and even how they either in isolation or in support of get the going rate of goods at mar- other interventions, has extended ket. Equally, with a growing number education beyond what has been of children with access to mobile previously possible. But there remain phones, there are increasing educa- many gaps, that could leverage this tion opportunities available on mobile technology to more advantage. phones. The strength in such platforms is that it works beyond physical Steve Vosloo, a mobile learning and geographical constraints. specialist with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural With more than mobile phones are Organization (UNESCO), reported in being used to improve knowledge of 2013 that an “increasing number of mathematics, as well as to increase initiatives – some large-scale, some knowledge around safe sex and HIV. small – are using mobile technologies But what does this mean to the pri- to distribute educational materials, mary school sector? Mobile technol- support reading, and enable peer-to- ogy can be used as a tool to support peer learning and remote tutoring learners and teachers. Just some of the through social networking services”. ways in which mobile technology can harness education include: providing Mobile offers the ability to streamline content, connecting teachers to oth- education administration and is begin- ers in a support networks, assist with ning to improve communication be- teaching and learning assessments, tween schools, teachers and parents. and supporting teacher administration. WIKIPEDIA ZERO

The Wikipedia Zero initiative The Wikipedia Zero project is based on partnerships be- has the potential to enable tween Wikimedia and mobile every person across Africa to phone operators around the access Wikipedia for free. world. The partnership en- tails the operator agreeing Currently, this project is to deploy a version of Wiki- being supported by Orange pedia in such a way that their and Telenor. In Africa, it is users do not need to pay for available to those who use data access. It is accessible the Orange network (for the by feature phones, and a text moment this includes Ugan- service is expected to be re- da, Tunisia, Niger, Kenya, leased in the near future. Cameroon).

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 9.4// MOBILE AS CONTENT REPOSITORIES 59

Given the cost of printing and chal- 18 months. lenges of distribution, books are uni- formly expensive, scarce or outdated The non-profit organisation across the developing world. Mobile Worldreader delivers digital books platforms, including feature phones, via mobile feature phone-based are able to connect content-hungry e-readers to 3.9 million handsets. consumers to content sites. Mobile In April 2013 more than 10,000 has created opportunities to con- children were accessing content on nect communities and individuals to Worldreader via e-readers and over all manner of content; whether it is half a million regularly doing the an outlet for local artists to express same on mobile phones3 across the themselves, via such platforms as developing world. Bozza.mobi or for teenagers to discuss love, sex, HIV and sexual health With projects such as these, mobile in a fluid, safe environment such as phones have been shown as effective channels for the distribution of read- Young Africa Live2. ing material, especially to rural areas. It also provides reading content to a Mobiles can also deliver appropriate voracious audience. Projects such as and personalized content, in ways Yoza Cellphone Stories (Yoza.mobi) that print books cannot. And yet, in offers downloads to stories and nov- South Africa - with the recent excep- els on mobile phones as m-novels. otion of Siyavula, textbooks and their The project saw 470,000 complete content, are not yet available on reads of stories and poems in its first mobile devices.

2 http://www.praekeltfoundation.org/young-afri- 3 McElwee, Colin (2013) Mobile Innovation and ca-live.html the Power of Choosing Books, April 29, 2013

Image 18: Zambian high schoolers and their mobile phones, by mLearning Africa CC-BY -SA

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 9.5// INTERACTIVE PLATFORMS 60

With many users sms savvy and petitions and ongoing quizzes. linked to social media, mobile devices offer the ability for interactivity Importantly, accessing Dr Maths is that enables ongoing tutoring and relatively inexpensive. The service is games in order to enhance under- free, but the phone subscriber pays standing and give ad hoc lessons. a small data charge to their mobile It enables learners to comment on providers. Other benefits are that it ideas and concepts, to connect with works in the evenings, when learners other learners, and to receive support need help with homework. from their peers. Hot on the heels of its unconvention- One such example of how this is al printed textbooks, Siyavula has used is Mr Maths on the Mxit plat- also launched the Intelligent Practice form. Launched in January 2007 by service where users can download the Meraka Institute it provides tutors textbooks for free. This ensures that (engineering students at the Univer- the content is available on the web, sity of Pretoria) that help pupils with on mobile and on Mxit. The service mathematics homework. By 2009, also enables learners to practise com- 5,500 pupils had used the service plex, multi-part Maths and Science helping approximately 50 pupils questions online; and, if linked to an per hour. In 2012, they had 32 000 entire class, their Teacher Dashboard students using the service. Dr Maths tool allows the teacher to monitor maintains traction by holding com- individual and class progress. 9.5.1// Learning through social interaction

Social networking sites across Africa virtual communities is invaluable. are increasingly offering education projects on their platforms. These South Africa’s Mxit is the largest of platforms offer excellent spaces for these homegrown social networks engagement with an already invest- with over 10 million active users (6,5 ed audience. Many teachers and million in South Africa), and 50 mil- learners already share resources and lion registered users. Its demograph- provide support on the platforms. ics are 48% of all users are aged They are being used by teachers and 18-24 years, with 25% between the learners to share resources and pro- ages of 13 - 17years old. There are vide support in open discussions. For no stats for the primary school age. communities that are geographically dispersed and cannot afford to meet 82% of South Africa’s Mxit users are in person, the support from such using feature phone handsets. Mxit hosts Dr Maths and Siyavula’s Intel-

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 61 ligent Practice. It also offers Carded (the In Nigeria, Nokia Live uses popu- ability to store study notes for easy learn- lar information channels to deliver ing), CellSchool (video revision lessons preparation tips for middle and high aimed at Matric), Class of 2012 (a portal school exams and English language for students in 2012), Everything Maths lessons. The service uses SMS and and Everything Science (portals to dis- does not require mobile data cover- cuss these subjects), Student Village (an age that is not as widely implement- information service for College and Uni- ed in many places. versity students), Wikipedia, and YESA (a digital space for young scientists). 9.6// OPPORTUNITIES

The main attraction of mobile phones One project that seems to have no- as a tool of learning is that the de- ticed and worked to reduce some of vice supports the user who can learn these gaps is Obami. Founders of the whatever they choose at any time platform have reported that using in any place. By their nature, mobile the application has resulted in great- phones are to hand and specifically er class participation and reduced allow for personal choice especially absenteeism – and therefore better contextual, engaged and informal results. They attribute this to pupils learning. being engaged by the technology and therefore more keen to learn. Yet, despite the positive develop- Maths and science is being taught ments on mobile platforms across through Obami, while Afrikaans and Africa, there remain large gaps. These English projects are set using the include: platform, and geography resources are shared. • no focus on content gathering with all on content provision; To paraphrase Steven Vosloo, mo- • relatively small interactive engage- bile has taught us that learners are ment with children about culture, connected, they want to use mobile, arts, creativity and heritage, as they want to be socially, economi- well as maths and sciences; cally or geographically within reach; and they want to consume projects • no teacher sharing platforms and that tutor, provide games and quiz- discussion forums; and zes, give peer-support, and support information dissemination, literacy • non-engagement with and projects aimed at primary school development, and local orientation. learners.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 9.7// SA-BASED MOBILE PROGRAMMES 62

imfundo yami Mxit Reach

http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/innov- Education fair2011/docs/nokia.pdf The education apps that specialise in In 2008, the South African President’s revision and are available to all Mxit office requested a project exploring users include: the use of mobile technologies to support formal education in South • QuizMax: Maths, Physical Sci- ence and Life Sciences quizzes for Africa. Consequently, in 2009, Nokia, grade 10,11 and 12 learners with the support of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), led a project team, • Class of 2012 (DOBE): Tips and including several government and advice on study methods and private sector partners, in conceptu- additional study materials alizing a pilot project which tested and measured the efficacy of using • ExamZone: Chat room for exam mobile technologies to support discussions learning of Grade 10 mathematics in • Everything Maths: Curriculum South African schools. aligned textbooks with embedded videos, simulations, PowerPoint M-Ubuntu presentations and more.

http://www.m-ubuntu.org.za/ • Everything Science: Curriculum aligned textbooks with embedded M-Ubuntu uses inexpensive, videos, simulations, PowerPoint low-threshold mobile phone technol- presentations and more. ogies to empower teachers to address Africa’s literacy crisis. M-Ubun- • CellSchool: Free video revision tu is applying the Zulu concept of lessons to assist with exam prepa- Ubuntu - best translated as “I am ration because we are” to this challenge. Developed with and for students • Crunch The Numbers: Put Maths and fellow teachers, M-Ubuntu is skills to the test, and possibly win a bursary connecting South African teachers with m-literacy coaches in the Unit- • Dr Math: A Maths-tutoring pro- ed States and England to help them gramme developed by the CSIR open new vistas to learners on the Meraka Institute. wrong side of the literacy and digital divide.

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M4Girls Siyavula’s https://mobiledevelopmentintelligence. Intelligent Practice com/products/822-m4girls Siyavula’s Intelligent Practice service The M4girls project is a partnership allows learners to practise complex, between Nokia, Mindset Network, multi-part Maths and Science ques- and the Department of Education tions online. Questions are aligned (North West Province) to test the to the curriculum and learners can provision of educational content monitor their progress. There is a on a mobile phone platform to girl Teacher Dashboard that lets the learners. The project targeted the teacher monitor individual and class development of Mathematics com- progress. petencies in Grade Ten girl learners from underserved communities in VodaCom Mobile South Africa, and aimed to empower girl learners. Education Program http://digitalclassroom.co.za/digitalclass- Obami room/mobile-education-programme http://www.beta.obami.com/ The Vodacom Mobile Education Pro- gramme is a nationwide teacher de- A Zulu word meaning “mine”, velopment initiative to improve the Obami is a platform that brings quality of instruction in all subjects at pupils, teachers and parents togeth- every level, with particular emphasis er to connect and exchange ideas on Mathematics, Mathematical Lit- and provide school administrators eracy and Physical Science in Grades with a comprehensive platform to 10 to 12. The teacher professional make school management easy and development training focuses on ICT effective. Some 300 schools in South Literacy, as well as the effective use Africa are using the platform. In and integration of digital content in 2011, it was voted among the top 10 the classroom. innovative technologies in the world by Netexplo in partnership with UN- ESCO, and in 2012, it was identified by Forbes in the top 20 African tech start-ups.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT CONCLUSION 64

The World Economic Forum’s across the system is deficient: 2012-13 World Competitiveness schools are deprived of resources, Report rated South Africa’s pri- facilities and qualified teachers. mary education at 132 out of • Schools have inadequate basic 144. The overall quality of ed- infrastructure: electricity, perma- ucation of South Africa as 140 nent buildings, latrines, etc. out of 144 and Internet access in • Pupils and educators have insuffi- 1 schools as 111 out of 144. cient access to learning resources.

There is no doubt that South Africa • There is insufficient access for is amidst a crisis in education; a crisis pupils to nutrition, often resulting that should be treated with the same in growth problems. urgency as the HIV/AIDs epidemic.2 • A significant portion of pupils live Since 1994, South Africa’s education in poverty, with the subsequent system has been built on ambitious lack of social or parental support.3 goals and persuasive policy intent on setting to rights the significant • A significant number of children wrongs of the past. However, the are in grades that do not reflect realities of enforcing and focusing on their age. this Utopian system, over developing infrastructure and teacher training, • Parent education levels are low has led to shocing illiteracy and innu- resulting in a lack of understand- meracy across the board. ing of school work.

Factors that point to a crisis include: • Students are often not able to complete homework due to • There are large dropout rates, household chores being seen as which results in many children higher priority. not achieving matric, and relatively few achieving tertiary level. • The impact of HIV, child-led households, HIV positive educa- • Sexual assault and violence in tors, single parent households, schools is on the rise. etc. is significant and debilitating.

• The quality of education delivery • Educators are predominantly fe- 1 Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum, The 3 For statistics and more information on these Global Competitiveness Report 2012–2013, elements of influence, please look at the following 2 The situation is so complex, extensive and per- fact sheet: http://www.population.gov.za/pop_dev/ vasive, that many of the issues that are detailed images/2012factsheets/state%20of%20chil- below have not been fully covered in this report. dren%20in%20south%20africa%20factsheet.pdf

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male and in South Africa females morale, pressures or working are generally the household conditions of Teachers. caregivers which can lead to an increase in absentee days. • Learners are leaving secondary education without the requisite • Educator absenteeism is rife, with skills to enter the job market, or little self-discipline schools, ineffi- the academic grounding for ter- cient use of time and low morale. tiary education.

• Teaching is not viewed as an • The cost of the failed Outcomes aspirational career. Based system (officially scrapped in 2010) is too high to calculate. Sig- • Education is not highly prized by nificant money, time and energy society in general. that was wasted could have been focused on building infrastructure, • Teachers union are often viewed facilities and teacher training. as ‘militant’ rather than ‘professional’ and do little to raise the SOLUTIONS TO THE MACRO PROBLEMS

A struggling education system is has benefited from. So, what is there a problem that is faced by many to be done about it? countries in the world. UNESCO4 has reported that, in sub-Saharan Africa, Education plays an important role in 10m children drop out of primary breaking the poverty cycle in South school every single year. Africa. The Children’s Institute, a think tank based out of the University However, as you can see in this of Cape Town, outlines three broad report, many of those countries that areas that need to be addressed in continue to struggle have achieved order to reduce inequality in educa- great success in literacy, numera- tion between South Africa’s rich and cy and equipping their students poor. These are: for their high school future. What’s more, most of them have succeeded 1. Environment with considerably less financial and other resource support that, since • Providing nutrition programmes that 1994, South Africa’s school system assess all students based on need, rather than on the quintile rating, 4 UNESCO (2011) Regional overview: sub-Sa- in order to capture all students that haran Africa Unesco, Education For All Global require nutritional support. Monitoring Report 2011

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• Ensure that all schools have basic • In 2014 all children will be re- infrastructure, which includes quired to attend grade R which is toilets, electricity and water. currently only optional for parents. • Provide effective teachers, including upgrading skills of teachers It is important to note that in South within the system and ensuring Africa, poverty is strongly associated that they can teach the subject with the performance of each pupil. assigned to them. However, many school systems within the region achieve higher quality 2. Accountability education for their learners with far fewer resources than South Africa’s • The recent establishment of the education system. National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU) Because the challenges of providing and the Planning and Delivery quality education in South Africa is Oversight Unit (PDOU). The such a multifaceted problem, there NEEDU is tasked with identifying is no one solution and an integrat- factors that are inhibiting school ed mixed model solution would be progress and formulating solu- required. tions. The NEEDU reports directly to the Minister of Basic Education. However, there is hope at the end of The PDOU is focused on im- the gloomy tunnel. proving curriculum delivery and learner achievement at the district Appalled by the daily media cover- school office level. age, civil society is now galvanised – with such institutions as Equal • The proposed South African Insti- Education and Section 27 leading the tute for Vocational and Continu- charge and forcing the Department ing Education and training would of Basic Education to be account- provide support to educators able. There are increasing initiatives needing skills upgrades. being put in place – all created by concerned and invested third parties. 3. Assessment These initiatives can, accompanied by, hopefully, a change in political • Early intervention is the key to thinking, take this sector forward. ensuring children are not left But, despite its current educational behind in school. The recently woes, South Africa is now in a po- implemented Annual National tentially powerful position to lead an Assessments will help to ensure alternative way of looking at educa- children are not left behind. tion.

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The tried and trusted but increasing- its existence, is already starting to ly dogmatic, colonial-imposed style change how children absorb infor- of feeding information to children mation and knowledge. is being challenged by the more interactive, intuitive, and engaging Bypassing the lack of libraries and absorption of content from different other essential resources, learners digital platforms. Mobile phones are now clamouring for, and in some are networking people to each oth- cases demanding, access to online er and information more effectively information as part of their Right to than any other medium by negating access to education. financial and geographical barriers. South Africa has an active, progres- Mobile and Internet-based learning sive and increasingly competitive can never remedy the many and mobile phone sector that, just by multiple problems to infrastructure, THE POTENTIAL OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Regardless of social class, textbook delivery, teacher absentee- almost everyone [in ism and other crippling sagas that Africa] has a mobile continue to beset the education phone, or two or three. sector in South Africa in 2013. But they can contribute in unique and Even in remote villages, powerful ways that could have never mobile phones have previously been considered or even replaced the bicycle or been possible. radio as prized assets.

The Department of Basic Education Elsie Kanza, Director, Head of Africa, World Economic Forum* has acknowledged this. In 2004 the Department published a white paper on e-education. The paper stated 5 that, by 2013, every South African pants in the global community” . pupil will be capable in information However, by 2010, less than 30% and communication technology and of schools in the country and only use this technology “confidently and 6% of classrooms had access to the creatively to help develop the skills Internet. and knowledge they need to achieve personal goals and to be full partici- 5 Nic Spaull quoting the Department of Basic Education’s White Paper on e-education 2004. * Roopanarine,Les; Mobile phone boom in developing world could boost e-learning; guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 May 2012 11.29 BST

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Despite this relatively slow uptake, streamline school administration and there are an increasing number facilitates communication with par- of initiatives that either use digital ents. platforms, and especially mobile, to support more textbook based activi- Beyond mobile access, those gov- ties, or as a way of engaging learners ernments and NGOs that have sup- and giving them additional infor- plied schools with computer labs mation. These platforms currently and online access have already seen distribute textbooks and other edu- profound results. In Senegal, 27% of cation materials, supply e-books and pupils surveyed reported better qual- reading tools, allow for repeat prac- ity knowledge from the Internet, and tice of concepts through quizzes and 6.5% understood the lessons better competitions, provide out-of-school after accessing content digitally. remote tutoring and give learners the ability to connect to, and support, As the Sub Saharan Africa Mobile each other via social networking sites Observatory 2012 states: “High-qual- and other platforms. ity, electronic content curricula can improve educational outcomes, and Mobile also has the potential to mobile broadband will be the only FOCUSED TEACHER SUPPORT

means of Internet connectivity for Africa will need to recruit 350,000 most schools.6 new teachers7 every year.

Teaching across South Africa, indeed Teachers can and do support each across Africa, is in similar crisis. other, but they are limited by geographical and physical locations. Teachers are not trained to a high Obvious gaps exist in the South enough standard in their subjects, African landscape for teachers to are not motivated, and are not given bypass these limitations and support the tools with which to cope with each other by swapping lesson plans, extra administration, and unruly extended reading lists, suggest alter- students. native class delivery practices, advice and support. Absenteeism is rife. It is estimated that for every child to be given quality education by 2015, sub-Saharan

6 Sub Saharan African Mobile Observatory 2012 7 Global Teacher Demand, UNESCO

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL 69

If digital learning is to have a real im- South Africa’s cellphone companies pact, policy makers, the department make millions on billions of moments of Basic Education and schools have of communication from their sub- the chance now to assess what they scribers every day. It can only add want to achieve with education and to their subscriber retention if they how they can look at other ways of offer serious, effective and interactive achieving the same, if not far better, education solutions – like Wikipedia ends. Zero – to their packages; and not just task their underfunded CSR depart- One way to do this is to harness the ments to pay lip service to a real and powerful tool that almost every South urgent need. The lack of any positive Africa already has – a mobile phone. response by the big cellphone op- John Traxler, professor of m-learning erators to the impassioned plea by at the University of Wolverhampton Sinenjongo High School students in in the UK claims “Computers, books, Joe Slovo Park is telling in its re- television sets and college buildings sounding silence. may be infinitely more respected, but people already have mobile phones In May 2013, the Rocker Rockefel- – they buy them, pay for them, and ler Foundation announced the in- carry them. So let’s look at how the vestment of nearly US$100 (R902) technology is representative of our million in a new initiative to create society, and how we can use it … .” digital jobs in Africa that aims at impacting on one million lives in six But – to make a truly revolutionary countries (South Africa, Kenya, Nige- impact – governments, mobile net- ria, Ghana, Morocco and Egypt). Al- works and serious commercial players though it did not mention education have to become involved. Projects specifically, it is these kinds of pledg- have to be national, sustainable and es that could help to turn around the not limited in scale. To do this, invest- education sector, and digitally em- ment is needed by all stakeholders, powering its teachers and students. especially the private sector.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT RECOMMENDED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS 70

In WikiAfrica’s interviews with key 2. Activating and empowering young stakeholders across South Africa, a digitally savvy entrepreneurs to number of gaps in the primary eco- consult and empower communities system arose. These gaps could be around Open Movement solutions narrowed through possible ICT interventions and projects. Below are just Some of the reasons behind an embar- some of gaps and the ICT solutions rassing lack of content about and rep- that have been posited: resenting everyday reality on Africa on the Internet can be partly remedied by 1. A centralised portal that maps focusing on two issues. and communicates the Education Currently there is no culture of contri- Ecosystem bution to the Internet. The other issue is that there is very little understanding of In the interviews, several stakeholders the benefits of the open movement for commented on a lack of knowledge education and heritage institutions or across the country of the various edu- knowledge repositories. cation projects. This refers to a lack of a centralised database that maps, records By training invested and tech-savvy and reports on the abundance of work young entrepreneurs in the open move- and projects, NGOs, Provincial Govern- ment landscape and its subsequent ment projects, and localised projects opportunities, new communities can be working to supporting the education activated that assist in porting vital local system in South Africa. Currently there is geographical, heritage, news and other no way of effectively sharing that infor- content‚ onto digital sites. mation, any data, or detail best practices. With correctly referenced and accessible A database of the ecosystem of South information online, the physical and African primary education would allow financial constraints that impeded, say, educators to share information and best a day trip to a museum are eliminated. practices more efficiently. By building This information that can be drawn a searchable database of all ongoing upon by primary school across the coun- NGOs, government projects, for profit try, increasing the pupil’s knowledge and organisations anyone who is involved in increasing audiences and understanding primary education, educators, research- for such institutions. ers, principals, industry leaders would be able to work together and share research. Currently everyone is working in silos there is no current tool available to easily share information.

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3. Leveraging technology to assist 4. Importance of local content sup- with Adult Education port for the curriculum as Africa’s population grows Due to the pervasive and dismal education that children have received over In November 201, the United Nations the last ten years, around 15,437,336 of children’s agency released a study that the population are recent or soon-to-be forecasts a 4% increase in the glob- school leavers between the ages of 15 al population of children by 2025. and 29 years. The evidence contained The study explains that child popula- within this report points to the fact that tion-growth is expected to shift signifi- this 30% of the population would have cantly to countries in the South. received a substandard education. By 2050, “1 in every 3 births – and Basic education, with literacy and nu- almost 1 in every 3 children under 18 – meracy as core elements, is a foundation will be African”, according to just one of for raising living standards, fighting gen- the findings. This compares to only one der inequities, increasing entrepreneur- in ten in 1950. In percentage terms, the ship, and generally empowering poor top ten countries to see increases in child communities to act more effectively in populations are all in sub-saharan Africa pursuit of their goals. In too many Afri- and are: Zambia (66%), Niger (64%), can countries, improvement and expan- Malawi (63%), United Republic of Tan- sion of the primary school systems alone zania (57%), Somalia (50%), Burkina will not reduce adult illiteracy quickly Faso (48%), Uganda (47%), Mali (46%), enough to meet development objec- Rwanda (45%) and Nigeria (41%). tives. The problem of illiteracy must be addressed not only by providing educa- The report continues: “To achieve tion to children of primary school age, universal primary education and other but also through effective Adult Basic goals is more demanding in countries Education (ABE) programs.8 with fast growing child populations. In some Sub-Saharan African countries, the One way to remedy this situation, and population of school-aged children will its potentially catastrophic impact on double between 2010 and 2025; this South Africa’s society, is to harness ICT has major implications for provision of (especially mobile platforms) to promote education and other essential services.” adult education, further learning and access to knowledge for this age group. In 2011, there were 1,032,532,974 peo- (See point 6 in the How Wikipedia might ple living in Africa. It is estimated that 40% specifically resolve issue section below) of the total population (or 413,013,190 children) is below the age of 15 .

8 Jon Lauglo, World Bank, Feb 2001: Engaging With almost one in three children in the With Adults: The Case for Increased Support to world under the age of 18 being African, Adult Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

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the demand for content that is local and the pupil. These pod/vodcasts could also truthfully reflects each country’s multiple increase the educator’s understanding layers could not be more urgent or per- of each subject, and perhaps promote tinent to this report. (See point 5 in the enough professional pride to raise their How Wikipedia might specifically resolve collective game. issue section below) 6. Pupil-authored content 5. Pod/vodcasts of classes in various languages While there is much use of digital platforms as a tool to push information to With teacher teaching and delivery students, and as a medium for support varying significantly across schools, one and tutoring, there are very few portals way that was devised to allow further that allow some form of authorship or support for both teachers and students content creation for individual students alike, was to record the delivery of quali- or classes to research, write and take ty, well-resourced primary school classes ownership of their collective history or for every subject and widely distribute story; creatively or factually. There is a these via mobile and other platforms in dearth of information about and from each language of instruction. This would Africa on the global digital portals. Pupil allow for no-cost, time-relevant accessi- authorship facilitates core research skills, bility, help with homework while travel- sense of achievement, knowledge of and ing to and from school (if downloaded investment in heritage, geography and to a mobile device), and reinforce con- other personally relevant content, as cepts that have been covered in class, well as a confident sense of place within but not yet understood or absorbed by the global community. HOW WIKIPEDIA COULD ASSIST

There are too many large issues and educators could use an offline within the education system, espe- Wikipedia, such as a Wikireader cially the primary education sector, , to help prepare lessons and to for WikiAfrica to ever hope to resolve. help students with lessons. Below are some ideas posed by interviewed stakeholders as to what 2. Educators need more effective interventions WikiAfrica via Wikipedia teacher development and ‘how could consider implementing. to’ tools in order to provide more effective teaching. The primary 1. The deployment among schools of education system isn’t failing due an offline Wikipedia would benefit to a lack of content. Educators and teacher’s work. Due to a lack of students have all the tools avail- bandwidth and ICTs the students able to them to sufficiently pass

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and educate. curriculum-relevant content on Wikipedia, was seen as a good tool 3. Before providing additional con- for helping good teachers move to tent to the educators and stu- become great teachers, but would dents, the basic functionality of not succeed in turning ineffective the schools needs to be addressed. teachers into effective educators. One way to do this, as suggested by one key stakeholder, was to 6. A small and scalable idea for focus on the educators and their Wikipedia to support primary ed- personal development. By working ucation in South Africa would be with the teachers’ colleges and to drive the South African history teachers’ unions, WikiAfrica could and geography sections within provide effective Wikipedia entries Wikipedia. By providing accurate, by training incoming educators to non-politicised, multi-layered, up- support the curriculum content, to-date history of South Africa you and this would then trickle down could then support WikiAfrica’s to the students. Further, by pro- mandates, the educators and the viding videos, training and other students. instructional tools, you would better influence the needs of the 7. While primary school is a priority, students, via the educators. there is a need to educate learners once they’ve left the school 4. One stakeholder felt strongly that, system. With a 67% matric exam until there is adequate IT resources pass rate, the exam students write and training for the educators to in their final year of school, this provide the educators with a basic indicates that there are a large understanding of how the internet number of adults with less than and technology works, you won’t basic education. be able to influence their teaching habits with a wikipedia-based Developing a project within Wikipe- curriculum. dia that specifically supports adult learning would help to help foster re- Ultimately it was felt that effec- spect for life-long learning in adults, tive teachers are already using would benefit children and help to Wikipedia. The idea of providing create an ecosystem of learning.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT DEFINITIONS 74

Adequacy Benchmark: which is what (as set out by the UN Develop- the South African Department of ment Report) most are located Basic Education considers the min- in the Southern Hemisphere. It imal adequate amount of money includes countries with medium necessary for a learner to access development and low human his or her right to basic education. development. Most of the Glob- al South is located in South and Assessment Standards: These are the Central America, Africa, and Asia. levels of understanding and skills learners should reach in each Intermediate Phase: refers to learners in Learning Area over the course of South Africa in grades 4-7. Gener- the year. They are directly related ally ages 11-14. to the Learning Outcomes. Language of Learning and Teaching: Basic Education: in South Africa encom- the language that is used daily passes all educational institutions in the classroom. In South Africa that offer Grade R to Grade 12 from Grade 3 onwards, all learners and that received public funds learn in their chosen language of from the Department of Basic learning, and learn at least one Education. additional approved language as a subject. Basic Infrastructure: Currently there is no standard definition for Basic Learners: One who is enrolled or attends Infrastructure in South African classes at a school, schools but are referred to as the minimal adequate of infrastructure Learning Outcomes: These are the skills, in order for a school to function: knowledge and values that learn- including electricity, water supply, ers should have achieved in each ablution facilities, library. subject at the end of a phase

Foundation Phase: refers to learners in Matric: short for matriculation, signifies South Africa in grades R-3. Gener- the culmination of twelve years of ally ages 6-10. formal schooling in South Africa.

Functionally Illiterate: having reading Mother Tongue: refers to learners first and writing skills insufficient for language or language spoken ordinary practical needs. predominantly at home.

Functionally Innumerate: Unfamiliar with National Curriculum Statements: refers mathematical concepts and meth- to a baseline of skills required in ods for ordinary practical needs. grades R-12. Designed to promote knowledge in local contexts, while Global South : refers to countries with a being sensitive to global impera- lower Human Development Index tives.

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 75

National Senior Certificate: a certificate Private Schools: A school run and sup- gained after mandatory examina- ported by private individuals or tions, commonly known as the a corporation rather than by a “matric exams”, signifies the cul- government or public agency. mination of twelve years of formal schooling in South Africa. Public School: Schools in South Africa that are maintained at public ex- No-Fee Schools: school where parents pense, on public land. are exempt from paying school fees based on financial need. Public Schools on Private Property: includes state schools on private Outcomes-based Education: The South land that are owned by religious African education system is now bodies, farmers, mines and forest- outcomes-based. It is a learn- ry companies. er-centred and activity-based system that values the gaining of Quintile School System: Schools in skills, knowledge (understanding) South Africa are categorized into and values over the mere repe- quintiles based on the socio-eco- tition of facts. It emphasises the nomic factors of the community, child’s own role in their learning, including rates of income, unem- facilitated by the teacher. ployment and illiteracy. Quintile 1 represents the poorest schools Primary school: An institution in which and quintile 5 the least poor. Pub- children receive the first stage of lic funds received by the schools is compulsory education. In South divided by Quintile. Africa refers to Foundation and Intermediate Phase.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT BIBLIOGRAPHY 76

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Department of Basic Education. (2011). Department of Basic Education. (2012). National Curriculum Statement (NCS) Education Statistics in South Africa 2010 Curriculum and Assessment Policy retrieved: Department of Basic Educa- Statement: Intermediate Phase Grades tion website: http://www.education. 4-6 retrieved: Department of Basic Edu- gov.za/LinkClick.aspxfileticket=VlqIdHT7 cation website: http://www.education. qZ8%3d&tabid=462&mid=1326 gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=bwEY- GLiIozs%3D&tabid=692&mid=1933 Department of Basic Education. (2012) School Realities 2012 Retrieved from: Department of Basic Education. (2011). Department of Education South Africa National Curriculum Statement (NCS) website: http://www.education.gov.za/ Curriculum and Assessment Policy LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=MMXRVCu- Statement: Foundation Phase Grades gRQ4%3d&tabid=93&mid=1952

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 77

Department of Economics University of sis: damning report fails Mot- Stellenbosch. (2012) Policy brief : SA shekga retrieved: Mail & Guard- learners perform poorly relative to ian website: http://mg.co.za/ local and regional standards website: article/2012-07-12-damning-re- http://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/policy- port-fails-motshekga briefs/2012/012012/policy-brief---may- 2012-sun-poli.pdf Modisaotsile, B. (2012). The Failing Standard of basic Education in South Africa. Re- Ensor, Tim; Lyons, Peter; Page, Mark; Phillips, trieved: Africa Institute of South Africa Tom; Molina, Dr. Maria; Viviez, Laurent; website: http://www.ai.org.za/wp-con- (2011) tent/uploads/downloads/2012/03/No.- 72.The-Failing-Standard-of-Basic-Educa- African Mobile Observatory 2011; Driving tion-in-South-Africa1.pdf Economic and Social Development through Mobile Services, conducted Moloi, M, Chetty, M. (2010) Department by GSMA, A.T. Kearney and Wireless of Basic Education. (2011) SACMEQ Intelligence. III project In South Africa A Study of The Conditions of Schooling And The Gernetzky, K. (2012). Limpopo Textbook Quality of Education Retrieved from De- Plan Gets Cautious Welcome from partment of Basic Education. Website: Section27 retrieved: Business Day Live http://www.sacmeq.org/downloads/Na- website: http://www.bdlive.co.za/Feeds/ tional%20Reports%20SIII/S3_South_Af- BusinessDay/2012/11/07/limpopo-text- rica_Final.pdf book-plan-gets-cautious-welcome-from- section27 Mundy, S. (2011). Education: Decline of standards leaves learners at the bottom Giliomee H, 2009. A Note on Bantu Educa- of the league. FT.com tion 1953-1970 South African Journal of Economics, March 2009. Reports, October. Retrieved: Financial Times website: http://www.ft.com/intl/ John, V 2012. Vast Improvements in pupils nationals test results ‘not Reddy, V., Prinsloo, C., Netshitangani, T., et. possible’ retrieved from: Mail & al. (2010). An Investigation into Educa- Guardian website: http://mg.co.za/ tor Leave in the South African Ordinary article/2012-12-07-00-vast-improve- Public Schooling System. Retrieved: ments-in-national-pupil-test-res- HSRC website: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/ ults-highly-implausible Document-3889.phtml

Lyons, Peter; Phillips, Tom; Valdés-Valdivieso, Roopanarine,Les; Mobile phone boom in Luisa; Penteriani, Gaia; (2012) Sub-Sa- developing world could boost e-learn- haran Africa Mobile Observatory 2012, ing; guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 May Wireless Intelligence, GSM Association, 2012 11.29 BST http://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/ wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SSA_Full- http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-develop- Report_v6.1_clean.pdfretrieved: 05 May ment/2012/may/30/mobile-phone-de- 2013. veloping-world-elearning

MacFarlane, D. (2012) Textbook Cri-

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 78

Saunders, S. (2012). A Sad State of Teach- STATSA. (2012) Census 2011 Statistical ing Affairs retrieved: Mail & Guardian Release retrieved: Statistics South Africa. website: http://mg.co.za/article/2011- Webstite: http://www.statssa.gov.za/ 07-08-a-sad-state-of-teaching-affairs publications/P03014/P030142011.pdf

Schwab, K. (2012). The Global Competitive- UNESCO (2011) Global Teacher Demand, ness Report 2012–2013 retrieved: World http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/ Economic Forum website: http://www3. Pages/global_teacher_demand_2011. weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompet- aspx itivenessReport_2012-13.pdf UNESCO (2011) Regional overview: sub-Sa- South Africa Government News Service. haran Africa Unesco, Education For All (2012). South African Government to Re Global Monitoring Report 2011; Open Former Teacher Training Colleges retrieved: http://7thspace.com/ website: van Wyk, C. (2012). Survey of ICT in School http://7thspace.com/headlines/410824/ in South Africa SURVEY OF ICT IN south_africa_former_teacher_training_ SCHOOLS IN: Public Expenditure Anal- colleges_to_be_re_opened.html ysis for the Department of Basic Educa- tion: Report 8 Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality. (2012). Veriava, F. (2010). The Resourceing of Public A study of the conditions of schooling Schools: an analysis of compliance with, and the quality of education. Retrieved: and measurement of the state’s consti- SACMEQ website: http://www.sac- tutional obligations. Retrieved: Research meq.org/downloads/National%20Re- Paper for the Studies in Poverty and ports%20SIII/S3_South_Africa_Final.pdf Inequality Institute. Website: http:// www.spii.org.za/agentfiles/434/file/Re- Spaull, N. (2012) Back to the real basics, view%20of%20Education%20Policy.pdf Mail and Guardian, 10 May 2012; Retrieved: http://mg.co.za/article/2012- Vosloo, Steve (2012) The future of education 05-10-back-to-the-real-basics-2 in Africa is mobile; http://www.bbc. com/future/story/20120823-what-afri- Spaull, N. (2011) Equity & Efficiency in ca-can-learn-from-phones; retrieved 07 South African Primary Schools A Pre- May 2013 liminary Analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa. Retrieved: University of Stellen- Wireless Intelligence, GSM Association, bosch, website: http://scholar.sun.ac.za/ email: 07 May 2013. handle/10019.1/20184 World Bank, (2012). Public spending on ed- Spaull, N. (2011) Primary School Perfor- ucation, total (% of government expen- mance in Botswana, Mozambique, Na- diture) retrieved: World Bank website: mibia, and South Africa Primary School http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ Performance in Botswana, Mozambique, SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS Namibia, and South Africa (Working Paper No. 8) Retrieved from: South- ern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality website: http://www.sacmeq.org/downloads/ Working%20Papers/08_Comparison_Fi- nal_18Oct2011.pdf

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 TABLES 79 Table 1: Number of learners in schools by grade, gender in 2012

Table 2: Provincial percentages of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate

Table 3: Percentage of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate distributed according to Quintiles.

Table 4: Percentage of learners rated as functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate by classification of school

Table 5: Ages of primary school grades

Table 6: Time allocation per subject for Foundation Phase

Table 7: Time allocation per subject for Intermediate Phase

Table 8: Percentage of learners by Language of Learning in 2007

Table 9: National Languages of South Africa according to the population

Table 10: Codes and percentages for recording and reporting

Table 11: The percentage of learners from Grade 3 and Grade 6 learners who are considered Literate and Numerate

Table 12: Average mark for Languages

Table 13: Average mark for Mathematics

Table 14: Percentage of non-fee schools as a portion of each provinces total number of public schools in 2010

Table 15: ICTs in Schools by province and location of ICTs within the school

FIGURES

Figure 1: South African National Provincial Student performance

Figure 2: Percentage of students attending public vs. independent schools

Figure 3: Regional comparisons between maths and reading performance,weighted by public spending per student (2007)

Figure 4: Teacher Reading and Math Scores by country

Figure 5: Teacher absenteeism comparing quintiles with days absent per year excluding outside values (2007)

Figure 6: Status of Schools with Computers in Provinces

Figure 7: ICTs in Schools 2004 & 2010

Figure 8: Per Capita Distribution of Computers per 1000 Learners by Quintile

Figure 9: The Criteria for Education

Figure 10: Mobile penetration per country in Sub Saharan Africa

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT PHOTO CREDITS 80 Pg 5 Image 1: colour your world by ibtihel zaatouri2012 on Flickr. CC-BY-SA

Pg 8 Image 2: Children at school in the Eastern Cape, 2013. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith courtesy of Equal Education 2013, posted to Flickr by pandrcutts (Robert Cutts)http://www.flickr.com/ photos/panr/2590874830/ - CC-BY

Pg 9 Image 3: The infamous 16 June 1976 repercussions of the Bantu Education System from 1976 Mbuyisa Makhubo is carrying the dying Hector and Hector’s sister, Antoinette, is running beside him during the Soweto Uprising. Photo by Sam Nzima.source: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/panr/2590874830/

Pg 13 Image 4: Vukani Primary School, Cape Town. Photo: By teachandlearn Konrad Glogowski. CC_BY_SA, http://www.flickr.com/photos/53346833@N00/2843997474

Pg 16 Image 5: Children at school in the Eastern Cape, 2013. pphoto: Sydelle Willow Smith, courtesy of Equal Education. 2013

Pg 24 Image 6: School children attending parade. South Africa. Photo: Trevor Samson / World Bank. http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/1128216161/sizes/z/in/photostream/ CC-BY- NC ND

Pg 31 Image 7: Two high school students run past a newly built classroom at Seaview Highschool where out of forty Grade 12 learners in 2012, 2 students passed their Matric. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith, courtesy of Equal Education. 2013

Pg 34 Image 8: Classrooms at Sea View Highschool are run down and dilapidated. Zuki, one of the pupils, showed one of the members of Equal Education Staff, the holes in the floor of his classroom and the broken windows that they wanted government to fix. photo: Sydelle Willow Smith, courtesy of Equal Education, 2013

Pg 39 Images 9, 10 & 11 : Photos of school infrastructure and overcrowded conditions at Limpopo Province Schools in 2013. Phoo: Equal Education CC-BY-SA; source: http://www.section27. org.za/2013/02/20/the-shocking-state-of-infrastructure-in-limpopo-schools/

Pg 40 Image 12 & 13: Photos of school infrastructure and overcrowded conditions at Limpopo Province Schools in 2013. Source: Equal Education CC-BY-SA; source: http://www.section27. org.za/2013/02/20/the-shocking-state-of-infrastructure-in-limpopo-schools/

Pg 42 High pile of hardcover books, text books by albertog CC-BY, source: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/albertogp123/5843032561/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Pg 43 Image 14: Police found more than 5 000 books dumped in Majeje, in the Phalaborwa region. (Gallo, courtesy of Mail and Guardian), source: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-08-07-da-police-probe-education-department

Pg 48 Figure 15: IT training for kids who live in the surrounding farm areas of Stutterheim outside East London in the Eastern Cape. South Africa. Photo: Trevor Samson / World BankFigure, source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/1129055810/in/photostream/

Pg 53 Image 16: Information technology training for kids who live in the surrounding farm areas of Stutterheim, Photo: Trevor Samson / World Bank, CC-BY-SA, source: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/worldbank/1129055810/in/photostream/

Pg 55 Image 17: Connect To Learn is a collaborative effort between Ericsson, the Earth Institute and Millennium Promise that leverages the power of ICT to bring education to students. Ericsson Images, Flickr CC-BY-ND; source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63327802@ N03/6152676936

Pg 59 Image 18: Zambian high schoolers and their mobile phones, by mLearning Africa CC-BY -SA; source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40042565@N06/3681090988/sizes/z/in/photostream/

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 APPENDIX 1: BEST PRACTICES 81

The following list is from the global feasibility study. It is placed here in full in order to give a wide understanding of the level to which digital resources can be used to leverage teacher networks and support teachers and learners with content and learning tools.

While some of these might include mobile platforms, a full audit of all educational material available for education has not yet been conducted. Local best practices are covered in the main body under the mobile section.

Cl@ssi 2.0

Cl@ssi 2.0 aims to modify learning environments at school by the pervasive and continuous use of technology supported teaching: students and teachers can take advantage of technological and multimedia devices and classrooms are progressively equipped with internet connection. The project involved in 2009/2010 lower secondary school and in 2010/2011 primary and high schools: Cl@ssi 2.0 consti- tutes, with A.N.S.A.S collaboration plus a network of associated university, a learning project for the experimentation of enhanced learning methodologies. Institutes are selected through public calls regionally distributed. Basically, provides schools with funds to buy hardware related to the project proposed by selected classrooms (LIM, Personal Computer, video cameras, etc.). Where the devices were already available (i.e. Trentino region), funds have been dedicated for training teachers to use new devices (see project Didapat described below).

Didaduezero

Didaduezero is an action-research project managed by IPRASE and the University of Padova in 2008-2010. Itinvestigates into formal and non-formal processes medi- ated by new media and web 2.0 and on their integration with learning processes in all school grades. The research involves the creation and development, through social software, of learning environment where students and teachers try to cope with each other creating digital artefacts. These artefacts are also strongly connected with the local community, in order to build an effective integration between school and territory.

Didapat

Didapat (2005-2008) is a project funded by the European Social Fund and realized by the Autonomous Province of Trento. It aims to implement and enhance compe- tencies in school system, as well as to promote best practices of technological innovation in education. The project intends to exploit the potential of ICT in learning activity, in order to integrate them effectively in schools. Action planned have the purpose to provide teachers with competences on how and why use new learning technologies, and follow different path according to the level of teachers involved.

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SLOOP - Sharing Learning Objects in an Open Perspective

The SLOOP Project (2007-2011) has been funded with support from the Europe- an Commission and aims at promoting and facilitating the integration of e-Learn- ing, work-based learning and face to face education. It consists in a LOms based online platform (Learning Object Management System) designed for schools, colleges, universities, training centres, teachers/trainers and, generally speaking, everybody who is involved in planning and running pedagogical paths. The project acts both as repository of OER providing contents for teachers’ and students’ training and as discussion forum for communities engaged in education. Users can share and produce learning resources collaboratively following the philosophy of the Open and Free Source Movement.

Share.Tec - Sharing Digital Resources in the Teaching Education Community

Share.TEC (2008 to 2011) is a project co-funded by the European Community’s eContentPlus programme. Share.TEC is devoted to fostering digital culture in the teaching education field and to supporting the development of a Europe-wide perspective among those working in and with the teaching education community. Share.TEC is developing an online platform which will help practitioners across Europe search for, learn about and exchange resources of various kinds, and will support the sharing of experience about the use of those resources. The system is primarily designed for teacher educators and for teachers engaged in pre-service education and continuous professional development; it will also cater for develop- ers and publishers of digital resources for teaching education.

Innovascuola

InnovaScuola is a web portal that aims to promote and widen the use of new media supporting learning process. The project intends to involve a wide number of schools, to cover the subjects and disciplines of all school grades and to allow to realize learning units by school themselves. The portal offers digital contents on all subjects and multimedia training for teachers, as well as the possibility to have a profile for user generated contents in education. Part of digital contents published on the web portal is produced by experts, so as ensuring their quality and accuracy, part of them is produced by schools and other institution involved, that are responsible of their quality and accuracy. Contents are published either under proprietary license or under copyleft (General Public License and Creative Commons Public License).

POERUP

POERUP is carrying out research to understand how governments can stimulate the uptake of Open Educational Resources (OER) by policy means. It aims to convince decision-makers that in order to be successful with OER, they will have to formulate evidence-based policies based on looking beyond one’s own coun-

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 83

try, region or continent, beyond the educational sector they look after. The project aims to study the end-user–producer communities behind OER initiatives. By comparing in-depth European case-studies to selected non-European ones, the project will refine and elaborate recommendations to formulate a set of action points that can be applied to ensuring the realisation of successful, lively and sustainable OER communities.

Oilproject

Oilproject is conceived as a free online school managed by students. Its archive contain several videos, texts and exercises on many subjects. Oilproject contents are published under Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 2.5, and are organized in lectures and courses, mostly for higher education (Literature, Sciences, Internet & Informatics, Economics and Business, Philosophy, Foreign Languages, Arts, Histo- ry). The quality of contents is evaluated by users with vote and peer-review mecha- nisms: everybody can produce and use them, in learning and teaching modes.

Insegnalo

Insegnalo is a web portal offering online courses and support for personalized learning needs, mostly designed for lifelong learning and not related to school grades. Insegnalo courses are non-free and integrate different modes of online teaching (live, learning object, learning path, etc.), with spaces of interaction between participants and teachers. There is also the possibility to require customized courses, whose articulation will be developed by project staff.

Bookinprogress

Book in progress is a project created by Istituto Majorana (Brindisi) and joined by several Italian high schools. Textbooks are written by teachers and printed in schools, in order to improve and personalize learning for student, as well as reduce textbook costs for families. The publishing plan aims to deliver textbooks to high schools for different subjects, such as Italian Literature, History, Geography, Chem- istry, English Language and Literature, Physics, Law and Economics, Mathematics, Technology and Drawing. So conceived, the project structure allows to change groups of contents on the basis of specific learning needs of students, so as empha- sizing the role of teachers and the personalization of learning actions. The contents and services produced, that includes also video lectures and online support for students, are not under creative common license.

Ricerche Maestre

“Ricerche Maestre” is a search engine dedicated to children, parents and teachers that includes websites selected by experts and primary school teachers. It contains about 3000 educational resources for primary school and educational and enter- taining web contents for children.

WikiAfrica 2013 THE PRIMARY REPORT 84

Wikiversity

Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. Wikiversity is articulated in protals realted to the different education grades (Pre-school Education Portal, Primary Education Portal, Secondary Education Portal, Tertiary Education Portal, Non-formal Education Portal, The Research Por- tal). Wikiversity invites teachers, students, and researchers to join the project in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning communities.

Adotta una parola & Adotta una parola va a scuola

“Adotta una parola” (adopt a word) is a project created in 2010 by the touristic agency of Emilia Romagna to collaboratively collect and improve Wikipedia entries on tourism and culture of that territory. Participants are responsible of taking care of “adopted” entries, contributing to the improvement of knowledge open for all: basically, they look at the status of the adopted entry, review its quality and integrate and correct contents where needed. “Adotta una parola va a scuola” (“Adotta una parola” goes to school) is a follow up to the project dedicated to Italian lower and upper secondary schools, started in 2011. Classrooms joining the project must adopt one Wikipedia entry relevant for their curriculum in order to enhance it through research. With this purpose, students learn the proper use of sources, the use of digital languages and a research method, with an active role in using web contents.

Autori in Wikipedia

“Autori in Wikipedia” (Authors in Wikipedia) is a contest organized by ANSAS with Wikimedia Italia in 2011/2012 to award the best Wikipedia entries written by students. The project is open for upper secondary school students and involves preliminary meetings with teachers and students.

Dschola

Dschola is a non-profit organization based in Piedmont that has the purpose to promote and improve the technological dimension of culture, the innovation in teaching and the sharing of knowledge through ICT. Dschola created a public office that act as a point of reference for innovation in the the Piedmont school system. Dschola is also a communication portal (providing advice and support in communication services), offers technical advice in using technological resources and promotes ICT in schools with conferences and seminars (such as the recent Mashup).

THE PRIMARY REPORT WikiAfrica 2013 85

Snaefellsnes case

Snaefellsnes is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland where high schools spread in the territory have been unified and coordinated by a project inspired to the principles of participatory design. The project aims to the creation of an unconventional learning environment, based on technologi- cally infrastructured open space, in order to fulfil the needs of users being distant from schools. An extended and distributed educational space has been built, that includes one central school, peripheral schools, as well as students’ and teachers’ houses. The project engaged learning communities that switch from live to virtual presence, with students, teachers and locals. School schedule have been redefined, introducing working hours in the afternoon, supported by tutors. Absence due to extreme climatic conditions are made up with virtual presence on LCMS (Learning Management System). There has also been a drastic reduction of frontal lectures with an increase of groupworks led by teachers.

Italian blogs with educational purposes

• http://www.robertosconocchini.it

• http://spicchidilimone.blogspot.it/

• http://www.lanostra-matematica.org/

• http://www.giuseppina.org/

• http://podcast.brofferio.net

• http://www.maestrasandra.it/

• http://maestraleila.wordpress.com/

• http://unpostovicinoalfinestrino.blogspot.it/

• http://ascuolasulweb2.blogspot.it/ -

• http://www.ciaomaestra.com/

• http://utenti.quipo.it/base5/index.htm

Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa

The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA)’s focus of work includes language planning and policy formulation at national and provincial government levels, in-service teacher education, developmental research into multilingual classrooms. PRAESA’s research shows that students learn best in their mother tongue, under the right conditions and using a parallel language learning outcome to best support the students. PRAESA believes that children learn to read by creating stories and meaningful connections. PRAESA recently launched the

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National Reading for Enjoyment Program, Nal’ibali. In addition to reading clubs, Nal’ibali publishes a bilingual story once a month in the national newspaper, The Times. PRAESA focuses on; Research and development programmes about bilingualism and biliteracy in early childhood education; Raising the status of the (official) African languages for oral and written language functions in society Mentoring adults to deepen understandings and appreciation of the value of becoming reading and writing role models for children of all ages and supporting their growing understandings and strategies for achieving this; Initiating the development of materials for use with babies and children in multilingual situations, through original writing and translation.

University of Cape Town: School of Education

The School of Education, which celebrated its centenary in 2011, is a largely post-graduate interdisciplinary department in the Faculty of Humanities with research activity across a number of important fields. These include studies in knowledge development and transfer (curriculum development, learning and acquisition, scientific literacy, maths, science and technology education, primary education), policy evaluation and support (evaluation studies, networks and partnerships, support services policy), studies in race, culture, identity and language, and adult education. A significant number of staff act as consultants to local and national government, to national commissions as well as to important education NGOs.

University of Witswatersrand: School of Education

The School of Education at WITs has initial teacher education, postgraduate education, research and public engagement. The School offers a wide range of programmes, which contribute to cutting-edge research and development of all stages of schooling and the higher education sector. The Wits School of Educa- tion prides itself on exceptional research, which focuses on: Curriculum; Teaching and Learning in Schools and Higher Education; Educational Technology; Educa- tional Policy and Leadership, Educational Economics, Language Education and Mathematics Education, Science Education, Deaf Education, Post School Educa- tion, Vocational Education, Labour Market Research.

The Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security

The Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS) is a grouping of more than 1,223 children’s sector organisations that are committed to working together to achieve a comprehensive social security package that respects the dignity of all and gives practical substance to children’s rights. The members are drawn from all of South Africa’s nine provinces.

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E-Classroom

An online re source in South Africa that provides support material for educators to use in the classroom. e-classroom.co.za

Equal Education

Equal Education is a movement of learners, parents, teachers and community members working for quality and equality in South African education, through analysis and activism.EE is a community and membership-based organisation. It advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and en- gages in evidence-based activism for improving the nation’s schools. It is a leader in youth leadership development. EE’s campaigns, based on detailed research and policy analysis, are aimed at achieving quality education for all.

Symphonia

Symphonia is an Organisational Change practice that works with leaders to engage their stakeholders so that talent, human energy and creativity is maximized. Our mission is to ignite a sense of possibility everywhere we work. Companies that share the Symphonia brand work together to develop the leadership skills and ca- pacity of leaders in South Africa, thereby strengthening the fabric of South African society

Siyavula

Siyavula” is a Nguni word which means “we are opening”. Formerly seeded by the Shuttleworth Foundation, Siyavula supports and encourages communities of teachers to work together, openly share their teaching resources and benefit from the use of technology. Siyavula focuses on Openness in education; Communities of educators working together: Technology for collaboration.

Education without Borders (EwB)

Eduation without Boarder is a Canadian non-profit foundation created in 2002. Their mandate is to foster educational opportunities and provide educational facilities in disadvantaged regions of the world. Currently, EwB’s efforts are focused on Fezeka Secondary and the surrounding community in the township of Gugulethu, South Africa. e-Government for Citizens, Western Cape Government

e-Government for Citizens (E-G4C) forms part of the Department of the Premier. E-G4C manages the Western Cape Government website, which is a single point of access to government information and services for citizens of the Western Cape. The directorate also maintains and manages the Western Cape Government in-

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tranet, the Western Cape Government Contact Centre (which includes the Call Centre, Presidential Hotline, Walk-in Centre and E-mail Channel) and the Cape Access programme.

LEAP Science and Math Schools

LEAP is a learning model that aims for excellence – particularly in mathematics, science and English – and so transforms disadvantaged young people’s lives and the communities where they live. LEAP provides a high quality education to students from grades 9 to 12 with the potential to learn and a willingness to work hard towards success in education, future employment and life.

Ikamvayouth

IkamvaYouth equips learners from disadvantaged communities with the knowledge, skills, networks and resources to access tertiary education and/or employment opportunities once they matriculate. IkamvaYouth aims to increase the collective skill level of the population, to grow the national knowledge base, and to replicate success in more communities. A non-profit organisation (established in 2003 and formally registered in 2004) with branches in three provinces in South Africa, IkamvaYouth currently operates from Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Masiphu- melele in the Western Cape, Ivory Park in Gauteng, the greater Cato Manor area and Molweni in KwaZulu-Natal.

Shuttleworth Foundation

Shuttleworth Foundation provides funding for dynamic leaders who are at the forefront of social change. They identify people, give them a fellowship grant, and multiply the money they put into their projects by a factor of ten or more. The Foundation is at its core an experiment in open philanthropy and uses alternative funding methodologies, new technologies and collaborative ways of working to ensure that every initiative receives the best exposure and resources to succeed.

Mindset

Mindset Network is a non-profit, South African organisation aimed at personal, social and economic development of all people in Africa. Mindset creates, sources and delivers on a mass scale quality educational resources through appropriate mediums to the; primary and secondary school community; health community, vocation and enterprise community, and under-developed and under-resourced communities where upliftment can be achieved through education.

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University of Stellenbosch Department of Economics

The Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University is one of the oldest Eco- nomics departments on the continent and one of the largest in the university.The department is dedicated to quality research and teaching, with a focus on economic issues pertaining to South Africa and Africa.

South African Institute for Distance Learning (SAIDE)

SAIDE’s task is to contribute to the development of new models of open and distance education practice, that accord with and take forward the values, principles, and goals of the evolving education systems in the Southern African region. It has also paid particular attention to the appropriate use of technology in education and most recently established a Kenya-based initiative, OER Africa, to promote the development and sharing of OER on the African continent. http://www.saide.org. za

OER AFRICA

OER Africa provides anyone with access to information they need to learn about and benefit from Open Educational Resources (OER). OER Africa currently focuses on the supporting and developing OER in these thematic areas of agriculture, health education, foundation courses and teacher education. It is a project of SAIDE. http://www.oerafrica.org/

Paperight

Paperight turns any business with any printer and an Internet connection into a print-on-demand bookstore thus reducing costs (by cutting out printing and distribution costs) and still allowing for publishers to earn licencing fees. This is increasingly important with regards to text books and support material that is being made available on the Paperight online library. Paperight.com

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Letter to Cell C, MTN, Vodacom and 8ta

We are learners in a Grade 11 class at Sinenjongo High School, Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton, Cape Town. We recently heard that in some other African countries like Kenya and Uganda certain cell phone providers are offering their customers free access to Wikipedia.

We think this is a wonderful idea and would really like to encourage you also to make the same offer here in South Africa. It would be totally amazing to be able to access information on our cell phones which would be affordable to us.

Our school does not have a library at all so when we need to do research we have to walk a long way to the local library. When we get there we have to wait in a queue to use the one or two computers which have the internet. At school we do have 25 computers but we struggle to get to use them because they are mainly for the learners who do CAT (Com- puter Application Technology) as a subject. Going to an internet cafe is also not an easy option because you have to pay per half hour.

90% of us have cell phones but it is expensive for us to buy airtime so if we could get free access to Wikipedia it would make a huge difference to us.

Normally when we do research Wikipedia is one of the best sites for us to use and so we go straight to it. The information there is clear, updated and there is information on just about every topic.

Our education system needs help and having access to Wikipedia would make a very positive difference. Just think of the boost that it will give us as students and to the whole education system of South Africa.

From

Sinombongo, Sinako, Busisiwe, Ntswaki, Bomkazi, Lindokuhle, Ntsika, Patrick, Ndumiso, Sinazo, Bathandwa, Nokuthembela, Lutho, Mandlilakhe, Zingisile, Aviwe, Nezisa, Ncumisa, Nokubonga, Pheliwe, Zama, Unathi, Malixole and Ntombozuko.

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