The Western Cape is ready to roll out the national curriculum for Further Education and Training (FET) in schools.

This was the message from the official launch of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Grades 10 to 12 in the Western Cape, held at the Metropole North Education Management and Development Centre in Parow last night (Monday, 16 January 2006).

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has been preparing for the introduction of the NCS for FET in schools for the past three years. FET in schools covers Grades 10 to 12.

Provincial education departments are introducing the FET curriculum for schools in stages, starting with Grade 10 in 2006.

The introduction of the new curriculum in Grades 10 to 12 marks the end of a long process of restructuring of the education system in South Africa.

South Africa has already introduced the new national curriculum for Grades R to 9 and has restructured the FET college sector.

During the apartheid era, South Africa had 19 different education departments. Their various education systems prepared children differently for the roles they were expected to play in the social, economic and political life of the country.

Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education in the Western Cape, told the function that the Cape Province spent R496 to educate each white child in 1976, but only R28.56 on each African child. Expenditure on coloured and Asian children was R199 and R141 respectively.

MEC Dugmore said that these figures highlighted stark inequality. "We must celebrate the fact that today we mark the final chapter in freeing this country from an educational plan which was rooted in differentiation for purposes of exclusion."

The Grade 10s of 2006 would be the first to complete their schooling in 2008 based on the NCS. They would leave school "having had an outstanding preparation for a successful and fulfilling life in the 21^st century," MEC Dugmore said.

The national curriculum for Grades 10 to 12 requires a solid foundation in literacy, numeracy and life skills, and provides opportunities for specialisation to suit particular interests and aptitudes.

The curriculum requires learners to study seven subjects, comprising four core subjects and three electives.

The four core subjects are the learner’s home language, an additional language, mathematics (or mathematical literacy), and life orientation. Learners can choose three additional subjects from the list of 29 subjects covered by the curriculum.

The curriculum seeks to ensure that learners acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they need to realise their potential and to participate meaningfully in the social, economic and cultural life of the country.

MEC Dugmore said he was proud of all the hard work that schools and the WCED had put in since 2003 to prepare for the introduction of the new curriculum.

These preparations included training workshops, conferences, training documents and multi-media materials. Training would continue, focusing more on subject content knowledge. The province has provided an additional budget of R32-million to ensure that all learners have textbooks for core subjects.

Ron Swartz, the Head of Education in the Western Cape, said the focus of education over the past 10 years had been to provide quality education for all. Quality education was also central to the Western Cape’s Human Capital Development Strategy.

The Human Capital Strategy was not only about developing skills needed by the economy. "For all of us here, it is about education itself. It’s about the interaction between the teacher, the learner and knowledge."

He said the education system had to build a solid education base in General Education and Training, while FET provided opportunities for specialisation.

The WCED was particularly proud of the Western Cape’s 50 Dinaledi schools and the 28 focus schools, because they represented real movement towards curriculum redress, Mr Swartz said.

He was immensely pleased with the enthusiastic response of principals and teachers "who came in their hundreds" to attend training workshops.

Mr Swartz was quite confident that the Western Cape was ready the roll-out of the FET curriculum, for two important reasons:

• "The first is that there are thousands of teachers and principals who are ready and willing, and who are able to apply their minds and energies on making the curriculum work, rather than on focusing on the inevitable difficulties we will experience as we introduce a new system".

• "The second reason why we are ready is that we have a cadre of high committed, knowledge- able and well-prepared curriculum advisors who will be only too pleased to go to any school to provide support in any area of the curriculum."

Mr Enver Surty, Deputy Minister of Education, congratulated the Western Cape on its preparations for the roll-out of the curriculum.

He said the nature of South African society had changed quite dramatically over the past 10 years, and that this had driven the development of the NCS.

In addition to building core skills in numeracy and literacy, the NCS sought to build learners who could adapt to any learning environment, to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. The NCS also sought to build socially responsible learners who could contribute to the development of the country and the continent.

He said the that the national Department of Education, in consultation with provinces, had decided to develop a national team of master trainers who would move from province to province to provide training on the NCS on a sustained basis.

Dr Sigamoney Naicker, Chief Director: Education Planning at the WCED, spoke on the pedagogical issues relating to FET. He said it would take time for the education community to get to grips with the philosophical foundations of the NCS, but this would be necessary to ensure ongoing transformation in education in the country.