Statement by Yousuf Gabru, MEC for Education in the Western Cape

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) launched the national Foundations for Learning Campaign in the province today (Saturday, 1 November 2008).

The aim of the campaign is to lay a solid foundation in languages and mathematics in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases in primary schools, which cover Grades R to 6.

Naledi Pandor, the national Minister of Education, launched the national campaign earlier this year. Provincial departments of education are now introducing the campaign in the provinces.

The WCED launched the campaign in the province at the Western Cape Sports School in Kuils River, at a function attended by about 2 000 representatives of the complete spectrum of role players involved in education.

The WCED has participated in developing the national campaign, which now represents the latest phase of the department's special interventions to improve literacy and numeracy in primary schools.

"We want to be sure that every teacher, every principal, every manager in the education system knows exactly what must be done to provide and track quality education," said Minister Pandor at the launch of the national campaign.

"We want to be sure that every learner accepts the challenges of learning and that every parent and guardian accepts the responsibility of having a learner in the house.

"We want to be sure that we all do the basics right and then build on those basics to develop quality teaching and learning in all our schools."

The campaign aims to increase the average learner performance in languages and mathematics to no less than 50% by 2011.

The national department will conduct a national evaluation in 2011, which will assess the languages and mathematics abilities of learners in South Africa.

The WCED has tested the literacy and numeracy skills of primary school learners every year since 2002, alternating between Grades 3 and 6.

The results have informed the development of special interventions, which culminated in the launch of a comprehensive literacy and numeracy strategy in 2006.

The tests have shown that interventions do work. Grade 3 results, for example, improved by 12.2% over the three testing periods from 2002 to 2006, from 35.5% to 47.7%. Grade 6 literacy results improved by 9.8% from 35% in 2003 to 44.8% in 2007.

The results for literacy show that the Western Cape is already close to the target of 50% for literacy. We are currently testing Grade 3 learners and look forward to the results with keen anticipation.

However, the results also show that learners are still struggling with maths.

Grade 3 maths results in 2006 saw a decline of 6.5% from 37.3% to 31%. Numeracy results in Grade 6 saw an increase from 15.6% in 2003 to 17.2% in 2005, and then a decline to 14% in 2007.

We therefore have a long way to go before we achieve the 50% mark in maths. While literacy continues to be a challenge, our biggest challenge at the moment is to improve results in maths.

The Foundations for Learning Campaign will strengthen our efforts to improve results in both literacy and numeracy.

The "non-negotiables" of the campaign include the following:

That every classroom has the appropriate resources for effective teaching. The national Department of Education (DoE) published a list of basic resources that every school must have in the Government Gazette on 14 March 2008. Each school must ensure that every teacher has at least the basic minimum resources in the classroom.

That teachers plan and teach effectively. All teachers are expected to be in their classes teaching planned lessons during contact teaching time. The timetable must require that every learner in the primary school engages in reading at school for 30 minutes every day, writes a piece of extended writing appropriate to the grade, engages in mental maths for 10 minutes and written maths for 20 minutes every day.

That district teacher forums are established in all districts. Teachers are expected to be a member of the district forum, or of a school forum, so that ideas, experience and best practice are shared and teachers can enhance their teaching strategies.

That teachers assess learner performance regularly. Standardized assessments will be provided by the DoE and the results of these assessments must be reported to the district office from where the results for each school will be sent, via the provincial office, to Minister Pandor's office.

To assist teachers to manage the assessment tasks within the continuous assessment framework, the DoE will provide milestones for expected attainment in mathematics and languages per term per grade. Annual tests based on the quarterly assessments will be provided to all schools.

Meanwhile, the WCED will continue various interventions that have assisted in improving results to date.

These include 120 full-time specialists who are engaging with every school needing special support, with a special focus on teacher development and school management.

Special focus areas will continue to include best teaching practice and teachers' knowledge of assessment standards.

The Quality Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment Programme (Qids-UP) will continue to provide resources, including libraries in poor schools.

The WCED allocated 364 additional teaching posts to the Foundation Phase in poor schools this year to reduce class sizes and will allocate a further 150 new posts for this purpose in 2009. The department has established 510 teaching assistant posts to support Foundation Phase teachers in poor schools.

The WCED's Curriculum Directorate has developed work schedules and pace setters, including daily routines for numeracy specifically for the Foundations for Learning campaign.

This includes a 37-week numeracy learning programme, which will guide teachers on a weekly basis in the classroom.

The department is encouraging learner support teachers to collaborate with teachers in mainstream schools, so that teachers in mainstream schools can learn from strategies used to teach learners with special education needs (LSEN).

The WCED has launched a campaign to encourage parents to practice literacy and maths with their children at home. This largely involves tips on what parents can do at home to build skills required by the Foundation Phase curriculum.

The WCED is establishing 49 circuit teams to provide in-depth support to schools, where this is needed the most. This support will include teacher development and support for school leadership and management, especially at primary schools.

Literacy and numeracy is the WCED's number one priority and forms part of the department's strategy to build the Foundation and Intermediate Phases as the bedrock for all future learning.

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The Western Cape - A Home for All
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