The Western Cape’s Minister of Education, Ms Helen Zille, and her counterpart in California, Ms Kerry Mazzoni, met this week to discuss a range of agreements on education signed by their respective state and provincial governments.

Members of the Western Cape Cabinet, including Ms Zille, are currently visiting California to sign a bilateral agreement with the state, which includes agreements to cooperate in education.

Ms Zille and Ms Mazzoni, California’s Secretary for Education, discussed how to implement the agreements on education, and other education policy issues. Ms Zille is also meeting with various education officials.

The Western Cape and California have agreed to:

• Cultivate strong links between the California Department of Education and the Western Cape Education Department;

• Collaborate on policy analysis and the facilitation of access to specific parts of the California education system;

• Exchange expertise on the use of information technology in education, with a specific focus on delivery of curricula through technology; and

• Facilitate the exchange of teachers to promote further development of skills and knowledge.

Ms Zille was pleased to note that both parties could learn from each other on applying information technology to curriculum delivery. "I was pleased to find that we are on the cutting edge in this field," she said.

Thanks to the agreement, the Western Cape Education Department would now be able to draw on the considerable technical expertise of the Californians, she said. She was particularly interested in their skills in developing wider area networks and the use of wireless systems.

Ms Zille took a special interest in trends in education policy in California. This included work on accountability in education, and how well-defined outcomes, or standards, as they are referred to in California, are applied in the State.

California carefully aligns required standards for every grade to teacher training, curricula and assessment to ensure quality assurance throughout the education system.

California uses State-wide examinations for every grade to ensure consistent assessment in all schools, and has scrapped "social promotion", which allowed learners to proceed from grade to grade to remain with their peers.

"Social promotion resulted in some virtually illiterate and innumerate college students who could not cope with higher education," Ms Zille said.

Ms Zille said that much of the impetus to change education policy in California had come from employers who had told education authorities that many learners leaving school were unemployable.

"California has one of the most successful economies in the world, and must invest seriously in the people needed to sustain this effort."

"We have a long way to go before we can match the Californian economy, although we can learn from how they got there."

"We must look at other models critically, while applying the same critical thinking to our own education systems."