Action Plan to 2019

Towards the realisation of Schooling 2030

Taking forward South Africa’s

National Development Plan 2030

April 2015
The 27 Schooling 2030 goals

This plan has 27 goals. Goals 1 to 13 deal with outputs we want to achieve in relation to
learning and enrolments. Goals 14 to 27 deal with how the outputs are to be achieved. Five
priority goals are indicated by three stars (). In the interests of continuity, the 27 goals
are the same as those appearing in the 2011 Action Plan (the one exception is Goal 9).

Goal 1 Increase the number of learners in Grade 3 who, by the end of the year, have
mastered the minimum language and numeracy competencies for Grade 3.
Goal 2 Increase the number of learners in Grade 6 who, by the end of the year, have
mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for Grade 6.
Goal 3 Increase the number of learners in Grade 9 who, by the end of the year, have
mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for Grade 9.
Goal 4 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who become eligible for a Bachelors
programme at a university.
Goal 5 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass mathematics.
Goal 6 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass physical science.
Goal 7 Improve the average performance of Grade 6 learners in languages.
Goal 8 Improve the average performance of Grade 6 learners in mathematics.
Goal 9 Improve the average performance of Grade 9 learners in mathematics.
Goal 10 Ensure that all children remain effectively enrolled in school at least up to the
year in which they turn 15.
Goal 11 Improve the access of children to quality Early Childhood Development (ECD)
 below Grade 1.
Goal 12 Improve the grade promotion of learners through Grades 1 to 9.
Goal 13 Improve the access of the youth to Further Education and Training (FET) beyond
Grade 9.

Goals 14 to 27 deal with the things we must do to achieve our 13 output goals.

Goal 14 Attract a new group of young, motivated and appropriately trained teachers to
the teaching profession every year.
Goal 15 Ensure that the availability and utilisation of teachers are such that excessively
large classes are avoided.
Goal 16 Improve the professionalism, teaching skills, subject knowledge and computer
 literacy of teachers throughout their entire careers.
Goal 17 Strive for a teacher workforce that is healthy and enjoys a sense of job
satisfaction.
Goal 18 Ensure that learners cover all the topics and skills areas that they should cover
within their current school year.
Goal 19 Ensure that every learner has access to the minimum set of textbooks and
 workbooks required according to national policy.
Goal 20 Increase access amongst learners to a wide range of media, including computers,
which enrich their education.
Goal 21 Ensure that the basic annual management processes take place across all schools
 in the country in a way that contributes towards a functional school environment.
Goal 22 Improve parent and community participation in the governance of schools, partly
by improving access to important information via the e-Education strategy.
Goal 23 Ensure that all schools are funded at least at the minimum per learner levels
determined nationally and that funds are utilised transparently and effectively.

1
Goal 24 Ensure that the physical infrastructure and environment of every school inspire
learners to want to come to school and learn, and teachers to teach.
Goal 25 Use schools as vehicles for promoting access to a range of public services amongst
learners in areas such as health, poverty alleviation, psychosocial support, sport
and culture.
Goal 26 Increase the number of schools that effectively implement the inclusive education
policy and have access to centres that offer specialist services.
Goal 27 Improve the frequency and quality of the monitoring and support services
 provided to schools by district offices, partly through better use of e-Education.

2
Contents

1 Purpose of the Action Plan ............................................................................................... 6

2 Our vision of a post-apartheid schooling system............................................................ 8
3 Developments up to 2014 that influence our strategic direction ................................. 10
4 Innovation priorities ....................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Annual National Assessments .....................................................................................16
4.2 e-Education ..................................................................................................................18
5 Output goals that look at learning outcomes and coverage (Goals 1 to 13) ............... 21
5.1 Goals 1 to 6: Meeting minimum educational standards ..............................................21
5.2 Goals 7 to 9: Improving average performance ............................................................29
5.3 Goal 10: Compulsory schooling ..................................................................................31
5.4 Goal 11: Access to ECD and Grade R  .............................................................32
5.5 Goals 12 to 13: Improving grade attainment ...............................................................33
6 The goals dealing with the how of improving schooling (Goals 14 to 27) .................. 37
6.1 Goal 14: Supply of young teachers..............................................................................37
6.2 Goal 15: Teacher availability and class sizes ..............................................................38
6.3 Goal 16: Teacher capacity and professionalism  ..............................................39
6.4 Goal 17: Teacher well-being and job satisfaction .......................................................42
6.5 Goal 18: Curriculum coverage in schools ...................................................................43
6.6 Goals 19 to 20: Educational materials  .............................................................44
6.7 Goal 21: School management  ..........................................................................47
6.8 Goal 22: Community participation ..............................................................................49
6.9 Goal 23: School funding ..............................................................................................50
6.10 Goal 24: School buildings and facilities ......................................................................51
6.11 Goal 25: Learner well-being ........................................................................................52
6.12 Goal 26: Inclusive education .......................................................................................54
6.13 Goal 27: District support ..................................................................................55
7 Reporting on progress in the sector............................................................................... 58
Appendix A: The 36 Action Plan indicators ....................................................................... 59
Appendix B: Details on grade and age ................................................................................ 70
Appendix C: Useful documents ............................................................................................ 71

3
Acronyms used

ACER Australian Council for Educational Research

AIDS Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
AMESA Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa
ANA Annual National Assessments
ASIDI Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative
CAPS Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
CPTD Continuing professional teacher development
DBE Department of Basic Education
DPMA Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
ECD Early Childhood Development
EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment
FET Further Education and Training
FOSS Free and open source software
GET General Education and Training
GHS General Household Survey
HIV Human immunodeficiency virus
HL Home language
ICT Information and communication technologies
IEB Independent Examinations Board
IQMS Integrated Quality Management System
LURITS Learner Unit Record Information Tracking System
MST Mathematics, science and technology
MTSF Medium Term Strategic Framework
NAEP National Assessment of Educational Progress
NDP National Development Plan
NECT National Education Collaboration Trust
NEEDU National Education Evaluation and Development Unit
NGO Non-government organisation
NSC National Senior Certificate
NSNP National School Nutrition Programme
PIRLS Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
PLC Professional learning community
SACE South African Council for Educators
SACMEQ Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality
SGB School Governing Body
SMS School Monitoring Survey
Stats SA Statistics South Africa
STI Sexually transmitted infection
TB Tuberculosis
TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
WEF World Economic Forum

4
The following acronyms are used for the provinces:

EC Eastern Cape
FS Free State
GP Gauteng
KN KwaZulu-Natal
LP Limpopo
MP Mpumalanga
NC Northern Cape
NW North West
WC Western Cape

5
1 Purpose of the Action Plan

 The NDP on the role of educational quality in the national

development process:

Improved education ... will lead to higher employment and earnings,

while more rapid economic growth will broaden opportunities for all
and generate the resources required to improve education. (p. 26)

This plan, produced by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), represents another
milestone in the journey towards quality schooling for all South Africans. This document
takes stock of key developments in the basic education sector since the release in 2011 of the
last sector plan, Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025. It reiterates
many of the priorities outlined in the earlier plan, as to a large extent priorities have remained
the same in recent years. However, there are also shifts of emphasis in the wake of lessons
learnt and, very importantly, priorities put forward by the National Development Plan (NDP)
released by the President in 20121. In line with the NDP, the planning horizon in the current
plan is 2030, and no longer 2025. The medium term horizon is set at 2019, which is the end of
the 2014 to 2019 electoral cycle.

The current plan is directed at a broad range of stakeholders involved in the momentous task
of transforming South Africa’s schools. These stakeholders include parents, teachers, school
principals, officials at the district, provincial and national levels, members of Parliament,
leaders in civil society organisations, including teacher unions, private sector partners,
researchers, and international partner agencies such as UNICEF and the World Bank. The
document also serves to share with people outside the country, including foreign investors,
ideas and strategies that South Africans firmly believe will enhance our education levels, and
hence our prosperity, social cohesion, and ability to contribute to global development.

This plan provides continuity insofar as it follows the basic structure of the previous sector
plan, which we shall refer to as the 2011 Action Plan in this document. Thus the original 27
goals covering a broad range of issues and interventions remain. Of these 27 goals, 13 deal
with performance and participation outcomes we strive for and 14 deal with the ‘how’ of
realising these improvements, in other words actions that need to be taken to strengthen the
sector. Twenty-seven goals may seem like many goals, but they are retained as we want to
underline how diverse the role players are who contribute towards educational improvement.
To promote focus within the system, however, five of the 27 goals remain priority goals.
These deal with Grade R, teacher development, learning materials, school management and
support by district offices. The five priority goals are indicated by  in this plan. The 36
indicators of the 2011 Action Plan, which are attached to individual goals, also remain. A few
indicators are high priority indicators and are also marked with .

This plan is shorter than the 200-page Action Plan of 2011. The 2011 document was long as it
was the sector’s first comprehensive sector plan and it was thus necessary to argue clearly
why certain strategies were important, on the basis of existing trends and the available
evidence. Moreover, that document served to respond to a variety of concerns that were
brought up during the public consultations that led to the 2011 plan. The 2011 Action Plan
will continue to serve as an important resource for understanding the challenges and solutions
of the schooling sector.

1
National Planning Commission, 2012.

6
There are a number of planning documents that guide the basic education sector apart from
this one. What they say is essentially the same, but their intended audiences, time horizons
and level of detail differ. Other important documents include the following:

 National Development Plan 2030: Our future – make it work. This plan, released by the
President in 2012, is a landmark document that guides the nation. It is based on much
research and public consultation. The sections in the plan dealing with education also
drew to a large degree from early versions of the 2011 Action Plan. The new Action Plan
will continue to be closely aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP).

 Medium Term Strategic Framework. The MTSF document, produced by Presidency,

translates the National Development Plan commitments to actions to be taken during the
2014 to 2019 electoral cycle. In producing the basic education section of the MTSF,
Presidency worked closely with the DBE. The MTSF comprises both an over-arching
document that covers 14 ‘priority outcomes’, the first of which is basic education, and
then also separate detailed documents for each of the 14 priority outcomes2. A key
purpose of the MTSF is to demonstrate how the 14 outcomes link to each other.

 Strategic plan of the DBE 2014-2019. This plan, which guides each annual plan (or
‘Annual Performance Plan’) of the DBE, is required by Treasury and is strongly focussed
on how the DBE will use its budget to contribute towards progress in the basic education
sector. It should be remembered, however, that most spending in this sector is from the
budgets of provincial education departments. The provincial departments each have their
own five-year strategic plan and annual performance plans. The DBE works hard at
ensuring that the annual plans of the ten departments (the DBE and the nine provincial
departments) are aligned to each other, to the Action Plan, and to the NDP.

 The NDP on education’s role in dealing with the apartheid legacy:

The education system will play a greater role in building an inclusive

society, providing equal opportunities and helping all South Africans
to realise their full potential, in particular those previously
disadvantaged by apartheid policies, namely black people, women
and people with disabilities. (p. 296)

2
Documents available at http://www.thepresidency-
dpme.gov.za/keyfocusareas/outcomesSite/Pages/the-Outcomes-Delivery-Agreements.aspx.

7
2 Our vision of a post-apartheid schooling system

 The NDP...

... envisions a South Africa where everyone feels free yet bounded to
others; where everyone embraces their full potential, a country
where opportunity is determined not by birth, but by ability,
education and hard work. (p. 24)

The vision for schools that guides this document is stated below. It is the same vision that
informed the 2011 Action Plan.

Making sure that every young South African receives quality schooling is an urgent need.
Yet, we realise that this cannot be realised overnight. We need a clear vision of where we
want to be in 2030, or even before then if possible. And we must make sure that every year
we move a bit closer to our vision, recognising that a large improvement is actually an
accumulation of many smaller changes. By 2030 we must see the following in every South
African school:

Learners attend school every day and are on time because they want to come to school, the
school is accessible and because they know that if they miss school when they should not,
some action will be taken. Learners understand the importance of doing their schoolwork, in
school and at home, and they know their school will do everything possible to get them to
learn what they should. Much learning happens through the use of computers and, from Grade
3 onwards, all learners are computer literate. Part of the reason why learners want to come to
school is that they get to meet friends in a safe and secure environment where everyone is
respected; they will get a good meal; they know they can depend on their teachers for advice
and guidance; and they are able to participate in sporting and cultural activities organised at
the school after school hours.

Teachers who received the training they require are continuously improving their capabilities
and are confident in their profession. Teachers understand the importance of their profession
for the development of the nation and do their utmost to give their learners a good educational
start in life. They are, on the whole, satisfied with their jobs because they feel their employer
is sensitive to their personal and professional needs and that their pay and conditions of
service in general are decent and similar to what one would find in other professions.

The school principal ensures that teaching in the school takes place as it should, according to
the national curriculum, and understands his or her role as a leader whose responsibility is to
promote harmony, creativity and a sound work ethic within the school community and
beyond.

Parents, who are well informed about what happens in the school, are keen to be involved in
school affairs and receive regular reports about how well their children perform against clear
standards that are shared by all schools. These parents know that if something is not
happening as it should in the school, the principal or someone in the department will listen to
them and take steps to deal with any problems.

Learning and teaching materials are in abundance and of a high quality. The national
Minimum Schoolbag policy, which is widely understood, describes the minimum quantity
and quality of materials that every learner must have access to. Computers in the school are an
important medium through which learners and teachers access information.

8
School buildings and facilities are spacious, functional, safe and well maintained. Learners,
teachers and the school community as a whole look after their buildings and facilities because
they take pride in their school.

9
3 Developments up to 2014 that influence our strategic direction

 The NDP on over-arching ‘critical success factors’ for national

development:

Focused leadership: “Policy changes should be approached

cautiously based on experience and evidence ...”

A plan for all: “Broad support across society is needed for ...
successful implementation ... Vigorous debate is essential for
building consensus.”

Institutional capability: “Institutions improve through continuous

learning and incremental steps ... This requires good management ...
high performance ... ethics and a willingness to learn from
experience.”

Willingness to prioritise: “... senior public officials should focus most

of their attention on a few strategic priorities.” (p. 59)

The public discourse on the schooling sector in South Africa sometimes creates the
impression that nothing is changing, that challenges remain unchanged in their size and
nature. This is an impression that is not supported by the facts. The system is dynamic.
Schools in 2014 were not the same as schools in 2009. Changes have occurred, some very
obvious, others more subtle. By far most changes have been in the right direction. Certain
changes are large, others less so. Whilst we do need to accelerate change, it must be
remembered that certain changes in education systems tend to be slow. The key thing, as
indicated in the vision of the previous section, is to ensure that there is continuous
improvement and that changes are as large as can be expected. In the end, a large
improvement is the accumulation of many smaller changes.

So how was the schooling system in 2014 different to what we had in 2009, and how does this
influence our strategies?

Perhaps the most significant news about the system in recent years was the TIMSS3 2011
results released at the end of 2012. TIMSS is a widely respected international testing
programme aimed largely at assessing whether countries are making educational progress
over time. South Africa’s participation in TIMSS involved the testing of Grade 9 learners in
mathematics and science in 2002 and again in 20114. Our average in mathematics improved
over this period from 285 to 352. A similar trend was seen in science. TIMSS scores are
benchmarked in such a way that 500 represents the average across all countries in the 1995
run of TIMSS. The size of South Africa’s improvement in the 2002 to 2011 period,
around 7 points a year, is about as large as we could hope to achieve. This is the rate of
change that has been seen amongst the fastest improvers in the world5. If we continue at this

3
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
4
In 2002, South Africa tested learners in both grades 8 and 9, and in 2011 only in Grade 9. Details on
the comparison between the two years can be found in Reddy, et al (2012). The international TIMSS
reports (see for instance Mullis et al, 2012) refer to a run of TIMSS in 2003, but not 2002. Whilst most
TIMSS countries did test learners in 2003, in South Africa testing occurred in the previous year.
5
DBE, 2013b: 14.

10
rate, we should be able to achieve the target put forward in the 2011 Action Plan, which was
to reach the level of the best developing counties seen in 2009, by around 2023.

The TIMMS trend in South Africa can be seen as more than just a trend for mathematics and
science in Grade 9. Such trends do not occur in isolation. They occur because there is
improvement in earlier grades as well, and across other subjects such as the languages. A
good command of language can be regarded as a prerequisite for effective learning in other
non-language subjects.

Not only did South Africa’s Grade 9 TIMSS results improve, they improved whilst more
learners reached Grade 9. The percentage reaching Grade 9 has improved from around 80%
to 85% in the 2002 to 2011 period. Moreover, youths have been reaching Grade 9 at a lower
age6. In general, it has been more socio-economically disadvantaged youths who have seen
their access to education improve. That we should have seen the TIMSS average improve
whilst greater numbers of disadvantaged learners were being retained in schools is certainly
an achievement we should be proud of. The following graph illustrates South Africa’s past
and envisaged future educational quality trajectory, in terms of TIMSS mathematics scores.

Envisaged future educational quality trend for South Africa7

500 Future targets

Bulgaria Gr 8 2007
TIMSS Grade 9 score in mathematics

450

400 Already achieved

Thailand Gr 8 2007
2002-2011

350 Botswana Gr 9 2011

300

250

200
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

Is the 2002 to 2011 TIMSS trend described above compatible with evidence from other
sources? In SACMEQ8, the improvement between 2000 and 2007 in Grade 6 mathematics
was too small to be considered statistically significant, thus suggesting that there was virtually
no quality improvement between 2000 and 2007 in this grade. A possible explanation is that
the strong shift towards more structured learning programmes and greater use of textbooks
prompted by the Foundations for Learning programme in 2008, influenced learning outcomes
in Grade 6 in 2008, and is thus seen in improvements in the Grade 9 results three years later.
6
DBE, 2013b: 11, 14.
7
For two countries, Thailand and Bulgaria, historical Grade 8 (not 9) values are quoted as most TIMSS
countries test Grade 8. To provide some sense of grade-on-grade differences, in 2002 the difference
between South Africa’s Grade 8 and Grade 9 mathematics results was 21 TIMSS points.
8
Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.

11
South Africa’s participation in TIMSS 2015, again at the Grade 9 level, is set to proceed and
provides an important opportunity to test the extent to which the trend seen up to 2011 has
been sustained beyond this year. The results from the SACMEQ Grade 6 testing that occurred
in 2013, when released, will also assist in understanding the dynamics of the changes under
way.

Output at the critical Grade 12 level has improved with respect to a few important indicators.
In particular, the number of Grade 12 graduates with sufficient results to qualify for
Bachelors-level studies at university increased from around 110 000 to 151 000 between
2009 and 2014. The average annual increase for the indicator in this period was 7%, against
an increase in the youth population of around just 0.5% a year9. This is an encouraging trend
given the urgent need for more university graduates in the economy. Yet the trend falls short
of the targets set in the 2011 Action Plan. Other indicators, such as the number of Grade
12 passes in mathematics and physical science, dropped immediately after the transition
to the new curriculum in Grade 12 in 2008, as the system learnt to adapt to a new
examinations system, but these indicators have subsequently stabilised and are following
a sustainable upward trend. The strong support that has been given to teachers and learners
by education departments and others to assist in the improvement of Grade 12 results appear
to have paid off. But for continued improvements, it will be necessary to reap the benefits
of better schooling in the lower grades. There is a limit to what can be fixed in the final
two or three grades of the system. This is why the positive TIMSS trend is so important.
Though the Grade 12 examinations, unlike the TIMSS or Annual National Assessments
(ANA) tests, are not specifically intended to measure year-on-year improvement in the
system, in particular given the fact that results depend strongly on the subjects that learners
choose, the DBE realises that more could be done to use the Grade 12 results to track the
quality of education at this level, a matter that is of obvious concern to universities. To this
end, the DBE is working with Umalusi to bring about a greater use of anchor items (common
questions across years) and other techniques that will facilitate the monitoring of quality.

Recent developments point to a schooling system that is succeeding in improving the quality
of learning outcomes, sometimes in line with targets, sometimes below the target levels,
depending on what indicator one looks at. This indicates that at least some of government’s
interventions over the years are making a positive difference. In a system as complex as the
schooling system, it is difficult to know exactly how positive change is brought about. But
the fact that movement is in the right direction suggests that in the coming years
consolidation of existing initiatives, as opposed to radical change, must be a strategic
priority.

Even if it is not absolutely clear what interventions are contributing how much to educational
improvement, likely explanations include a range of bold initiatives that have been taken by
government in recent years. In fact, the TIMSS background data reveal a few of the key
trends. For instance, the percentage of teachers saying they used a textbook as their main
classroom resource for teaching mathematics increased from a worryingly low 30% in 2002 to
70% in 2011. The latter 70% of teachers are concentrated amongst schools serving poorer
communities. This trend reflects increased spending on textbooks and, since 2011, a
particularly strong emphasis on providing standardised textbooks and workbooks to all
schools. As emphasised in the 2009 review of curriculum implementation10, insufficient use
of good textbooks had for many years been a reason for poor learning and teaching.

Monitoring of access to learning materials is not something that education systems typically
do well, but the DBE has initiated innovative ways of dealing with the problem. It is
important to bear in mind that ultimately access to books, in the classroom but also at home,

9
DBE (2013b) with an analysis of 2013 and 2014 examination results added.
10
DBE, 2009.

12
is what is important. Monitoring spending on books and the delivery of books to schools is
also important, but success here is not always a guarantee that learners will have access to
books. A 2011 survey of a representative sample of around 2,000 schools, which involved
visits to classrooms by fieldworkers and actual counting of books, revealed that there
were roughly around 8.5 books, either printed workbooks or textbooks, for every 10
learners in visited classrooms in key subjects. Access to books appears to improving, but
should be better. Achieving this requires a mix of adequate budgets, effective provisioning
of books, good year-on-year retrieval systems in schools and appreciation of books amongst
learners.

Even before the full-scale introduction of the Annual National Assessments (ANA), there had
been an increasing use of standardised testing programmes, either national or provincial.
Whilst it will take some years for ANA to evolve into the world class testing system
envisaged in the 2011 Action Plan, even as it evolves it can still play a crucial role in
heightening an awareness of standards and core learning competencies amongst
teachers, parents and society as a whole. In fact, one would expect to see improvements
in learning outcomes as a result of the increasing use of standardised assessments below
the Grade 12 level in recent years. However, it is important that ANA assumes its world
class status as soon as possible. Comparability of results across time (years) and space (for
instance districts) needs to improve. It is also vital that the information emerging from ANA
is appropriately packaged for different users, including parents who need to know what is
happening in their schools, those who run in-service training for teachers, and district officials
who need to assess the performance of individual schools and school principals. The DBE is
working closely with experts within the country and beyond (for instance the World Bank) to
ensure that these aims are achieved.

One important area of innovation in government currently is the shift towards more
scientific impact evaluation techniques to ensure that as often as possible, the impact of the
various interventions we invest in, from teacher development to school nutrition, is measured.
Clearly, if interventions are not making a positive contribution towards learning and teaching,
we need to rethink these interventions. The Department of Performance Monitoring and
Evaluation (DPME) of the Presidency has already completed or initiated a few impact
evaluations in the basic education sector whose findings will guide planning in the sector11.

With regard to curriculum, the schooling system is entering an era of unprecedented

stability. This creates opportunities for consolidating work, but also innovating, in areas
that depend on curriculum stability, such as teacher development and the writing of
educational materials. In 2015, every grade in the schooling system will be subject to
essentially the same curriculum and assessment rules as in the previous year. The importance
of this becomes clear if one considers that in almost every year between 1998 and 2014, there
has been at least one grade which was implementing an important new curriculum document
(the exceptions were the years 2009 to 2011). The year 2014 saw the finalisation of the roll-
out of the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which was
implemented in grades 7 to 9 and 12 in that year. This signals the end of an important process
of ongoing learning and improvement in relation to the school curriculum. The CAPS enjoy
widespread support, largely due to the fact that they put forward the details and
examples teachers need, in an accessible language and format.

Annual spending on infrastructure has continued to increase. The real inflation-adjusted

increase was 85% between 2009 and 2014, counting both provincial department spending and
the new DBE spending in this area started in 2012. The way this infrastructure spending
occurs is improving as well. Policies on minimum norms have been tightened up. There is

11
See the National evaluation plan 2013-14 to 2015-16 on http://www.thepresidency-dpme.gov.za. See
also Presidency (2011).

13
also more transparency, for instance in the form of school-by-school schedules of building
work to be undertaken in each financial cycle, published on the web. Infrastructure
backlogs cannot all be resolved immediately, but the budgets and procedures for
tackling this challenge are looking healthier than ever before. Yet, as emphasised in the
National Development Plan, there are fundamental problems with the way
infrastructure development is carried out, which lead to inflated costs. These problems
must be resolved if improvements to the physical environment of learners are to be
accelerated further.

An encouraging set of indicators are those relating to the levels of satisfaction amongst South
Africa’s households when it comes to basic education. Every year since 2004 Stats SA’s
General Household Survey has asked households what they would complain about when it
comes to the education their children. As seen in the following graph, lack of books has
consistently been perceived by households as the largest problem, followed by school
fees. Complaints about these two issues have more than halved since 2004. Complaints
about poor school infrastructure have also decreased by a similar proportion. These are
important trends that those striving for a better schooling system should take credit for.

Schooling problems according to households

16

14

12
Lack of books
Percentage of learners

10 Poor quality of teaching

Lack of teachers
8
Facilities in bad condition
6 Fees too high

Classes too large/too many

4 learners

0
2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Source: Analysis of General Household Survey datasets of Stats SA.

Note: Household respondents are asked about these problems separately
with respect to each learner. More than one complaint can be chosen per
learner.

Certain things have not proceeded as planned in recent years. Many have pointed to
weaknesses in the system when it comes to the adoption of new technologies to improve
the administration of the schooling system and the teaching and learning process. This is
an inherently difficult area, not just in South Africa. Yet we need to do better if we are to
avoid a widening of the gap between South Africa and other countries, even other middle
income countries. The area is a difficult one because the evidence is not very clear on, for
instance, what information and communications technology (ICT) investments are best for
improving learning and teaching. Education principles need to be upheld in face of much
‘hype’ around what certain products can do and vigorous marketing by suppliers. The case for
ICT investments in the area of education administration is a bit more straightforward, though
even here the benefits of investments need to be weighed up carefully against costs.

14
What should concern us is that there is little research on how schools are currently making use
of ICTs, and that the little system-wide information we have points to very little growth in
access to ICTs amongst learners. For instance, the percentage of learners in a school with a
computer centre of any kind has remained just under 40% for many years, and on the whole
this 40% is the most socio-economically advantaged part of the system. Stats SA’s General
Household Survey points to the percentage of learners having access to the internet through
their school as still being very low, around 4% in 2011. Government needs to work more
vigorously on partnerships that take certain aspects of e-education forward, or target
particular disadvantaged areas. But for more widespread and sustainable development
to occur, government and other stakeholders will need to strengthen the research and
monitoring capacity in this area, as well as the over-arching policy frameworks.

National development planning is now on a much better footing than it was just five years
ago. This is obviously good for planning in the education sector. Not only has the National
Development Plan, and the process that led up to it, brought important research to the
fore and inspired vital debates, it has also underlined how planning ought to occur. Plans
need to bring together a wide range of issues. Budgets and service delivery goals are of course
important, but what is also important are cultural and historical considerations, an over-
arching framework of economic and social development, a more professional approach within
our public institutions and vigilance around the impact of our work on the environment. But it
should be emphasised that there are still considerable challenges and bottlenecks in
government’s planning systems. For this reason, the Presidency initiated an intervention
during 2014 to assist the delivery of key services. This initiative, Operation Phakisa12,
draws from experiences in Malaysia and places a strong emphasis on collaboration and
the sharing of skills between various government and non-government stakeholders
within South Africa, and contributions from foreign experts. Education service delivery is
a key focus area within Operation Phakisa.

12
See http://www.operationphakisa.gov.za.

15
4 Innovation priorities

Though innovation is needed in many areas of the basic education sector, two specific
challenges stand out: the Annual National Assessments, or ANA, programme, and e-
education. These two areas receive attention in the next two sub-sections.

4.1 Annual National Assessments

Government has repeatedly stated that it is committed towards establishing a world class
assessment system for the grades 1 to 9 band at school which will provide the nation with
reliable information on progress with respect to what learners learn, but which will also offer
practical tools to help educators and parents focus on the right things. The NDP underlines the
centrality of ANA for many of the changes we wish to see in education. Many would argue
that ANA has already succeeded in shifting the culture in the schooling system towards a
stronger focus on learning outcomes. Yet experience in other countries has shown that
achieving a world class assessment system takes several years.

The Action Plan of 2011 explained the origins of the ANA programme in the sample-based
Systemic Evaluation programme first implemented in 2001. Since 2011, ANA has involved
the testing of all learners in grades 1 to 6, with the scope expanding to Grade 9 in 2012, and
grades 7 and 8 in 2014. In 2011, 2013 and 2014, the sample-based ‘verification ANA’ was
also run. The 2013 and 2014 verification exercises covered all the grades covered in
‘universal ANA’. Since 2011, the release each year of the national report on ANA results has
been a major event in the education calendar that has sparked considerable debate about the
quality of schooling.

During 2013, important external evaluations were made of the ANA programme, at the
request of the DBE, with a view to strengthening the programme. On the one hand, an
advisory committee of external experts, led by Dr Anil Kanjee, a South African assessment
expert with extensive experience inside and outside the country, and including two experts
from the United States National Science Council, with in-depth knowledge of the US national
assessment system, NAEP13, provided valuable advice. Moreover, as part a wider partnership
between the South African government and the World Bank, experts from the latter with
experience in assessment systems in various developing countries, made recommendations for
improving ANA.

Both the advisory committee and the World Bank supported having a two-tier approach, but
recommended a stronger separation between the two levels, with universal ANA being more
focussed on changing practices in schools and classrooms, and ‘verification ANA’ better
focussed on producing performance information that is comparable over time and across
provinces. In fact, ‘verification ANA’ may be an inappropriate name for the latter.

Best practices in other countries have demonstrated that comparable statistics on language and
mathematics performance over time need to be obtained through a sample-based testing
system, in our case ‘verification ANA’, as it is only within a limited exercise such as this that
it is possible to achieve the required rigour and levels of reliability. To illustrate, the most
respected national measure of progress in learning outcomes in the United States is the NAEP
programme, which tests a representative sample of just 9 000 learners per targeted grade.

The external experts have warned against attempting to cover too many grades too frequently
with ‘verification ANA’, but have recommended that the testing that does occur should be
more rigorous than what is currently the case. A strong focus on key grades, in particular
grades 3, 6 and 9, which are all the end points of three-year curriculum phases, is important.

13
National Assessment of Educational Progress.

16
Tests need to be ‘secure’, in other words not freely available to the public. This is necessary
because some questions, called ‘anchor items’, need to be the same from one year to the next,
so that proper comparisons across years can be made. If test questions are publicly known,
teachers are likely to drill these questions with learners. The ‘verification ANA’ and universal
ANA tests need to be different, even if they are focussing on the same competencies. Ideally,
‘verification ANA’ results need to be adjusted after the marking process using approaches that
follow item response theory (IRT), as is done in SACMEQ14 and TIMSS15, to improve
comparability. Techniques such as secure anchor items and IRT scoring are still quite new to
the South African education system, but they are necessary given how difficult it is for even
the most capable educators to set different tests which are of equal difficulty. Tests need to be
at least partly similar, through the use of anchor items, and even then, adjustments in the
scores will still be needed. How the process unfolds, from the test design stage to the
determination of final scores, needs to be quality-assured by a range of experts, and technical
details need to be made public for the resultant performance statistics to enjoy credibility.

The external experts moreover emphasised the importance of maintaining a critical level of
independence in the management of the sample-based ‘verification ANA’ testing and noted
that the use of external service providers for the sample-based collections of 2011, 2013 and
2014 was a positive feature.

The advice received by the DBE points to the importance of balancing two needs in the
design of the ANA tests: the need to gauge how well learners perform relative to the
curriculum of their current grade, and the need to gauge how far behind worse performing
learners are. Difficulties relating to the fact that curricula, in particular in developing
countries, set standards which are often well above what most learners will cope with in a
specific grade, are increasingly being acknowledged by researchers. Tests need to include
more ‘easy items’ so that teachers and researchers can obtain a better idea of exactly what
obstacles are faced by learners who are behind in the learning process.

Whilst a key purpose of ‘verification ANA’ must be to input reliable information into the
national education debates, the main purpose of universal ANA should be to assist teachers,
parents and school and district managers to understand their teaching and learning challenges
better, and to identify what remedial steps to take. One criticism often heard is that there has
not been a sufficiently clear statement by the DBE on how school and district staff should use
ANA, and how ANA links up to other initiatives such as the national workbooks. What is
clearly needed are more user-friendly guides for schools, as well as reports that use the data
collected from universal ANA to inform individual districts and schools of where their key
challenges lie. At the same time, it has been emphasised that it would be dangerous to make
universal ANA a high stakes process, attached to rewards and punitive action, whilst ANA is
still relatively new. Countries that have, for instance, attached incentives to their testing
systems have done so after many years of allowing the testing system to mature and become
respected as a fair measure of performance.

In moving forward, the DBE envisages a number of ANA milestones, based on lessons learnt
and careful consideration of the advice received from external advisors and stakeholders. One
priority is to produce a clear policy statement on the basic logic of ANA, including its
intended use by teachers, parents and others at the school and district level. Test design
processes need to become more rigorous. Concretely, the DBE will ensure that starting in
2015, ‘verification ANA’ tests will be secure and include anchor items. This will allow for
better comparison of results over time, and across provinces. Adjustment of results using
item response theory will moreover be explored, beginning in 2016. In 2015, the DBE
will generate district-level ANA reports, using universal ANA data, as one important step

14
Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
15
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

17
towards better use of ANA at the district and school levels. Finally, the DBE will continue to
engage with a range of experts on the optimal approaches to take in ANA and will moreover
evaluate ANA on a regular basis through feedback from teachers, parents and other
stakeholders at the school and district levels.

4.2 e-Education

e-Education is considered one of two key areas of innovation for the basic education sector
for a number of reasons. e-Education can involve changing the way schooling occurs in rather
fundamental ways, modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the
potential to improve and diversify learning to a large degree and, finally, ICTs are becoming
so widely used in society that an education without them is rapidly becoming an incomplete
education. As emphasised in the 2011 Action Plan, e-education for just a privileged minority
can exacerbate future inequalities in South African society through the so-called ‘digital
divide’.

 The NDP on the importance of broadband in schools:

... the most crucial enabler of ICT [in schools] is high-speed

broadband. (p. 303)

The NDP emphasises how important it is for the state to be pro-active in advancing ICTs
amongst all South Africans and thus combating the digital divide. But the NDP also
emphasises how important it is for state interventions to be carefully designed. Opportunities
have been lost in the past due to poor intervention design and as a result South Africa has to
some extent fallen behind comparable countries16. Good policy frameworks are needed. Here
an important step forward was the release of the 2014 Green Paper on ICTs by the
Department of Communications17. Progress in e-education is clearly dependent on favourable
prices and a good ICT infrastructure in the country as a whole.

There was a slightly better picture in 2014 with respect to ICTs in schools, compared to when
the 2011 Action Plan was released. Yet it should be cause for concern that our knowledge of
the fairly fragmented yet substantial e-education landscape as it currently exists remains
limited. The 2011 TIMSS18 data confirm that over the past decade or so access to computers
in schools improved substantially. In 2011, 49% of Grade 9 learners had access to computers
in schools, against 28% in 2002. However, the same TIMSS data reveal that South Africa was
in 2011 considerably behind other developing countries, if one compares our 49% to
Botswana’s 86%, Ghana’s 78% and Indonesia’s 82% (all 2011 figures)19. Access to the
internet in schools remains fairly low, at around 9% of learners in 2013, according to the
General Household Survey, which since 2009 has tracked household access to the internet
through education institutions20.

At the secondary level, one can expect the number of schools offering the two subjects
computer applications technology and information technology to reflect, to a fairly large
degree, capacity of schools to take steps towards more e-education in general. Here progress
since 2008 has not been good, with the percentage of schools participating in examinations in
these two subjects at the Grade 12 level remaining at around 24%. However, one province,
16
National Planning Commission, 2012: 190.
17
Government Notice 44 of 2014.
18
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
19
Calculated from the 2011 TIMSS data available at http://timss.bc.edu.
20
The GHS does not differentiate between schools and other education institutions. However, when
only households with learners in schools but not students in other institutions, such as universities, are
considered, the figure remains around 9%.

18
Free State, stands out as a success story that the country as a whole could learn from. In Free
State, the percentage of public schools offering Grade 12 and either (or both) of the subjects
in question increased from 42% to 56% between 2008 and 2012, thanks largely to efforts by
the provincial department to establish computer centres in schools. As a result, 56 historically
disadvantaged schools started entering students in ICT-oriented Grade 12 examination
subjects. In Limpopo, on the other hand, a worrying situation still prevailed where in 2013
only around 6% of public schools with Grade 12 offered one or two of the computer subjects
in question, against a figure of 29% for the rest of the country.

As explained in the 2004 White Paper on e-education21, e-education includes the use of
modern ICTs for better education administration. In this regard, the 2013 report Success by
numbers22, the outcome of a joint initiative between the DBE and private sector partners, and
based partly on interviews conducted by experts with over 300 people working at the various
levels of the schooling system, represents a milestone towards understanding how information
and ICTs can contribute towards better system administration. The findings and
recommendations of this report are also discussed under Goal 27 in the current plan. On the
positive side, the report acknowledges the strong commitment within the system to the use of
data to bring about effective management. However, fundamental problems include a
widespread culture of unquestioning compliance in many parts of the system, which results in
a situation where managers devote a large amount of effort to completing forms and
submitting data with little understanding of what the data are used for, or how the effort
contributes towards better schooling. This situation leads to data that are often of a poor
quality. More consideration of how data will be used, and insistence that data should result in
reports that can assist managers at all levels of the system, are needed for e-education
progress to be realised. For instance, school principals should, in return for data they submit,
receive reports that allow the school community to see how well or poorly the school
performs within the district against key indicators. The limited capacity of managers and
planners to prioritise represents a further fundamental problem, according to the report. Too
many priorities, each linked to complex reporting procedures, are likely to overload the
system. As demonstrated by the current plan, and the technical documentation that
accompanies it, getting just one indicator right can involve considerable technical work.
Clearly, indicators need to be chosen carefully and the number of indicators needs to be
limited.

The DBE will, during 2015, release a draft national strategy on e-education for the
schooling sector for consideration by the large range of e-education stakeholders in the
country. Whilst the 2004 White Paper remains a key guiding document, there remain
important gaps, partly because ICTs evolve rapidly over time. Below, four key strategic areas
where informed policy guidance is needed for success in e-education are briefly discussed.

Firstly, strategy needs to draw a clear link between greater use of ICTs and achieving the
learning improvement goals established by the system. It is easy for the ‘hype’ generated
around ICTs, much of it by vendors, to lead to the mistaken belief that computers and the
internet will automatically lead to, for instance, better reading and numeracy skills. Good
impact evaluations on past ICT interventions are scarce, but where they exist, they suggest
that system-wide interventions in contexts of poverty and weak management need to proceed
with much caution, and with effective monitoring of what actually changes ‘on the ground’23.
There are reasons to be hopeful about the impact of ICTs on learning outcomes, but improved
access to ICTs must be linked to other elements of school improvement.

21
Government Notice 1922 of 2004.
22
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, 2013.
23
For a rare example of an impact evaluation of ICTs on schooling in a developing country context, see
Cristia et al (2012).

19
Secondly, strategy must be clear on what the available technologies are, and needs to
demystify these. It is clear that difficult technology choices need to be made at the national
and provincial levels, and these need to be guided by issues such as relative costs, including
‘hidden’ costs associated with human capacity and sustainability. South Africa should also
make use of the opportunity to learn from other countries, in particular developing countries,
which are a few years ahead of us in the area of e-education24. One thing that experiences
elsewhere clearly show is that whilst relatively small-scale projects involving public-private
partnerships have been vital for initiating the e-education journey, system-wide investments
and regulations are necessary if e-education is to move beyond being ‘too little, too
expensive, and poorly managed’25. Specifically, guidance is needed on the migration from no
ICTs in a school, to the use of computer centres (also referred to as ‘cyberlabs’), to one-to-one
situations where all learners have access to their own device. One thing that makes system-
wide projects difficult is that these migrations typically bring about temporary inequities as it
is impossible to equip all schools simultaneously. Policy needs to clarify how such temporary
inequities are justified within the sector’s overall emphasis on an equitable schooling system.
Guidance is also needed on standards of internet speed for schools. As emphasised by the
2014 Green Paper on ICTs of the Department of Communication, improving access to the
internet in schools needs to be driven partly by demand, which in turn is driven by the quality
and quantity of educational materials available online. Guidance is also needed on the
complex migration to the greater use of free and open source software (FOSS), something that
is prioritised in government policy26.

Thirdly, e-education involves many players inside and outside government. Strategy needs to
be clear on who these players are, and how they collaborate. A structure such as the
Ministerial e-Education Advisory Council proposed by the 2004 White Paper is still needed.
The Department of Communications is clearly key insofar as it establishes ICT standards for
the country as a whole. There is room for the basic and higher education sectors to work more
closely together on securing adequate broadband connectivity for all education institutions.
Guidance is needed to ensure that educational materials developed with public funds, or
through public-private partnerships, are freely available online. Schools that have experience
in the use of ICTs have established associations which can offer valuable advice on what
works best. Even with the introduction of system-wide e-education initiatives, localised
public-private partnerships to strengthen ICT use should continue to be encouraged, partly
because these partnerships can teach the system valuable lessons. How lessons emerging from
these partnerships can be more widely disseminated, but also how schools can be advised on
how to enter into beneficial partnerships, need to be made clear.

Finally, it is clear that strategy and planning need to be guided by much better information on
the current shape and size of e-education in schools, and on whether existing initiatives are
having the intended results. UNESCO’s 2009 guide on monitoring e-education progress in
schools creates an excellent point of departure for establishing a South African monitoring
and evaluation framework27. International experience shows that apart from more objective
measures of progress relating to, for instance, ratios of learners to computers, it is also
important to gather opinions from samples of schools on how they experience new e-
education initiatives.

24
For a good example of a report on progress and challenges in a country widely cited as a success
story, namely Uruguay, see Fullan et al (2013).
25
Farrell and Isaacs, 2007: 3.
26
Policy on free and open source software use for South African government of 2006, available at
http://www.gov.za.
27
UNESCO: UIS, 2009.

20
5 Output goals that look at learning outcomes and coverage (Goals 1 to 13)

Goals 1 to 13 deal with specific outcomes of the schooling system, both outcomes relating to
enrolment and attainment, and outcomes relating to what learners learn. Amongst the latter,
one can distinguish between average performance, or marks, and the proportion of learners
surpassing critical thresholds.

Goals and indicators marked with  are of an especially high priority.

5.1 Goals 1 to 6: Meeting minimum educational standards

Goals 1 to 6 deal with the number or percentage of learners reaching specific standards.

Goal 1 Increase the number of learners in Grade 3 who, by the end of the year,
have mastered the minimum language and numeracy competencies for
Grade 3.

As argued in the 2012 report of the DBE’s newly established National Education Evaluation
and Development Unit (NEEDU)28, improving the generally very low levels of language and
mathematics competencies reached in the Foundation Phase (grades R to 3) requires both
fixing the overall functionality of the school, and running interventions aimed at changing
teaching practices in the classroom. It is not enough to do just the one. This underlines the
inter-connectedness of the various actions described under the goals of this plan.

The NEEDU report points to the fact that although the availability of books has improved in
the Foundation Phase, largely through the national workbooks initiative discussed under Goal
19, the shortage or absence of a sufficient variety of reading materials, for instance in the
form of graded readers, remains a concern. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
(CAPS), introduced in the Foundation Phase in 2012, has made what teachers need to do
much clearer, according to the NEEDU report. However, the NEEDU report also recommends
a few additional specifications for teachers, specifically very simple level of effort and
performance norms such as the requirement that learners write a specific number of pages per
week, or that some assessment of reading should occur using simple speed norms, expressed
in words per minute.

The NEEDU report, as well as a special DBE audit of provincial reading improvement
interventions, found a worrying tendency for provinces to have official strategies on paper,
which were barely known in schools. Only in two or three provinces is there a clear presence
within schools of provincially driven strategies to improve language and mathematics
outcomes at the Foundation Phase. In response, the DBE has adopted to a more pro-active
approach to ensure that all provinces learn from best practices. The NEEDU report moreover
emphasised the need for a stronger evaluation culture to test the effectiveness of existing
strategies, and for a stronger national focus on developing the required evaluation
instruments. For instance, there is a need to adapt tools such as the early grade reading
assessments (EGRA) so that they better reflect the structure of our African languages 29.

28
See DBE (2013c). See Goal 16 for further details in this report.
29
See https://www.eddataglobal.org/reading/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubDetail&ID=215 for an example
of the EGRA instrument for isiZulu. For a description of the use of the EGRA instrument, see for
instance Ralaingita and Wetterberg (2011).

21
 Indicator 1.1. Percentage of Grade 3 learners performing at the required literacy
level according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

Indicator 1.2. Percentage of Grade 3 learners performing at the required numeracy level
according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

The 2014 values for the above two indicators, 57% and 56% respectively, were obtained from
‘verification ANA’ and confirm the seriousness of the problem with under-performance even
at the earliest grades. The rankings of provinces with respect to the two indicators remain
basically as they have appeared in earlier assessment exercises, with Western Cape, Gauteng,
KwaZulu-Natal and Free State performing relatively well, and Limpopo displaying relatively
poor results. As discussed in the DBE’s 2013 progress report on the sector30, this ranking is
partly to be expected insofar as learners from poorer households typically experience greater
barriers to learning and different provinces have different poverty burdens. However, what is
telling is that there is a general pattern whereby similarly poor or disadvantaged learners
perform better in certain provinces than others and we can expect this to be a reflection of
better service delivery. This is confirmed in the following graph, which shows for instance
that though learners in Mpumalanga enjoy as much household support, in the form of
educated adults, as Free State or KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga’s Grade 3 ANA results (the
average for the mean scores across the two subjects) were worse than those in the other two
provinces.

Grade 3 ANA results and household circumstances

The official ANA reports confirms that the ANA programme has not reached the stage of
maturity at which we can be certain about year-on-year improvements. To quote the 2013
ANA report31, ‘no technically defensible comparisons can be made on the results of ANA
2013 to those of previous years although the results of each year are valuable for the year
under review.’ Similarly, the 2014 ANA32 report explains: ‘The fact that ANA tests are

30
DBE, 2013b: 30.
31
DBE, 2013d: 7.
32
DBE, 2014c: 37.

22
exposed necessitates that a different test is administered every year. This makes it difficult to
compare performance from year to year because different tests are likely to yield different
results’. It is also worth noting that several of the increases and decreases seen in the
provincial ANA results are larger than what one is likely to find in any schooling system33.
Programmes such as ANA in other countries have typically taken several years to mature.
This should not detract from the importance of the process of this kind of programme, which
even if not a perfect measurement tool helps schools to focus on the quality of learning and
teaching. The DBE’s plans for improving the accuracy of the ANA results, whilst preserving
the benefits of the ANA process within the school, were summarised in section 4.1.

Goal 2 Increase the number of learners in Grade 6 who, by the end of the year,
have mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for
Grade 6.

With respect to this goal, the Annual National Assessments (ANA) focus on mathematics and
the languages English and, for around 11% of learners in the Intermediate Phase34, Afrikaans.
These two languages are critical insofar as they are still the only languages used in the non-
language subject examinations at the end of Grade 12.

Whilst the general pattern up to Grade 3 is for language and mathematics results to be fairly
similar, from the Intermediate Phase onwards mathematics results tend to be considerably
lower than language results, as seen in the 2014 national values for the two indicators under
this goal: 46% of Grade 6 learners pass the language test, against 32% for mathematics. This
is partly due to demands being high in mathematics. The international SACMEQ tests, which
focus on Grade 6, reveal that South Africa’s ratio of mathematics to language performance is
in line with what is found elsewhere.

Since 2012, the English and Afrikaans tests in ANA have each had home language (HL) and
first additional language (FAL) versions, meaning the tests have been brought in line with the
curriculum. In Grade 6, around 66% of learners take the English FAL test, 22% take English
HL, 10% Afrikaans HL and 1% Afrikaans FAL. The fact that home language learners are
more likely to pass the test than FAL learners should be seen against the fact that home
language learners tend to come from more socio-economically advantaged backgrounds and
thus enjoy more educational support in the home.

Since 2012, a key outcome of the ANA process has been a diagnostic report produced by
education experts, where they illustrate typical learning problems seen in a reduced random
sample of test scripts, and suggest approaches teachers should take to remedy these problems.
For instance, the 2013 diagnostic report, hard copies of which have been sent to all schools,
indicated that Intermediate Phase learners still frequently fail to think in abstract terms, as
reflected in ‘count marks’ written on scripts. In English FAL, the tests reveal too many
learners have a vocabulary that is too small. Building a larger vocabulary is relatively simple
to achieve through specific classroom exercises and clearly many teachers should pay more
attention to this.

An important shift in 2013, with the introduction of the new Curriculum and Assessment
Policy Statement (CAPS) in the Intermediate Phase, was an increase in the weekly time
allocation for the fundamental subjects mathematics and languages. By reducing the number
of subjects in the Intermediate Phase from nine to six, and extending the total classroom

33
Specifically, apparent movements up or down that exceed 0.08 standard deviations are not likely to
be true.
34
Grades 4 to 6.

23
contact time by one hour, it has been possible to increase the mathematics time allocation
from 5 to 6 hours, and the overall time devoted to languages (home language and first
additional language combined) from 7 to 11 hours. In the CAPS, first additional language
(English for most learners) is allocated 5 hours per week.

 Indicator 2.1. Percentage of Grade 6 learners performing at the required language
level according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

Indicator 2.2. Percentage of Grade 6 learners performing at the required mathematics level
according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

The 2014 values for the above two indicators, 46% and 32% respectively, were obtained from
‘verification ANA’ and confirm the seriousness of the problem of under-performance in the
Intermediate Phase. The language statistic of 46% is a weighted average of the home language
average pass statistic of 75% and the first additional language average of 36%. See the
discussion under the previous goal relating to measurement issues in ANA.

Goal 3 Increase the number of learners in Grade 9 who, by the end of the year,
have mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for
Grade 9.

The extension of the Annual National Assessments (ANA) programme to all Grade 9 learners
in 2012 was an important milestone for the sector. For the first time, it became possible to
compare educational outcomes across, for instance, provinces and poverty quintiles, at the
Grade 9 level. Though the Grade 9 ANA does not result in a certificate for learners, this
remains an option, for instance to facilitate the placement of learners wishing to move from
Grade 9 to a further education and training (FET) college. Problems in the movement of
learners from schools to colleges persist in the sense that in 2012, only 1% of new students at
FET colleges were Grade 9 graduates. The other 99% had completed grades 10, 11 or 12 at
school. Yet officially the ideal entrance qualification for students entering FET colleges is
Grade 9.

What the Grade 9 ANA has succeeded in doing, however, is to provide a better basis for
deciding what subjects learners should take in grades 10 to 12 at school, for instance whether
learners are equipped to take mathematics, or whether they should take mathematical literacy.

The 2012 to 2014 ANA results showed that Grade 9 performance in language (English or
Afrikaans) and mathematics was well below expectations. However, as argued below,
expectations in the Grade 9 ANA mathematics tests seem high by international standards if
one considers that a more favourable picture emerges if one uses South Africa’s TIMSS35
data, and TIMSS performance benchmarks. The poor Grade 9 ANA results in mathematics
led to a review of the tests themselves to ascertain their appropriateness. An independent
review by the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA) concluded
in 2013 that test questions used in 2012 were in fact appropriate36.

Pressure to improve Grade 9 learning outcomes should be seen in conjunction with the
simultaneous need to ensure that all children complete Grade 9. Grade attainment has been
improving, for instance the percentage of children completing Grade 9 at some point in time
increased from 88% to 90% between 2010 and 2013. However, this trend should be
accelerated.
35
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
36
See report at http://www.amesa.org.za/AMESA_Gr_9_ANA_report.pdf.

24
 Indicator 3.1. Percentage of Grade 9 learners performing at the required language
level according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

Indicator 3.2. Percentage of Grade 9 learners performing at the required mathematics level
according to the country’s Annual National Assessments.

The 2014 values for the above two indicators, 22% and 3% respectively, were obtained from
‘verification ANA’ and are indicative of the problem of under-performance in the senior
phase. However, it should be kept in mind that the standard set in the Grade 9 mathematics
test in ANA is relatively high, something that becomes apparent if one looks at the TIMSS
results. The 2003 wave of TIMSS found that 6% of South Africa’s Grade 8 learners achieved
at an ‘intermediate international benchmark’ whilst 10% achieved at a ‘low international
benchmark’. These figures are considerably higher than the 3% figure emerging from ANA.
The corresponding figures for South Africa’s TIMSS Grade 9 results (which are available for
2002 and 2011) are difficult to interpret as one is using a Grade 8 benchmark for Grade 9
learners, but what is clear is that achievement of particular benchmarks has improved over
time, off a low base. For instance, the percentage of Grade 9 learners attaining the low (Grade
8) benchmark of TIMSS moved from 6% to 15% between 2003 and 2011. The level of Grade
9 mathematics achievement is undoubtedly low in South Africa, but ANA could have over-
stated the problem. This is not surprising, given the newness of ANA in Grade 9. See the
discussion in section 4.1 on ongoing improvements in the ANA methodology.

Goal 4 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who become eligible for a
Bachelors programme at a university.

Attainment of a Bachelors-level pass in Grade 12, in the pre-2008 system referred to as

attainment of a ‘matric exemption’, is an important goal for many students. Whilst the lower
level of attainment that permits studies at the Diploma level still permits a learner to study at a
university, it is only with a Bachelors-level pass that access to the full range of university
studies becomes possible, subject to further possible requirements that specific faculties at
universities may impose. In many ways, the numbers of youths achieving a Bachelors-level
pass is more important for national development than the number of youths achieving a
simple pass, or the National Senior Certificate. This is implicit in the NDP, with its emphasis
on expanding the post-school sector and specifically Bachelors and post-graduate enrolments
at universities.

Achieving a Bachelors-level pass requires a learner to obtain a minimum of 50% in all of the
four non-language subjects taken, with the further requirement that the four subjects should be
from a set of more academically-oriented subjects (for instance, the subject computer
applications technology is not included in the set, whilst the more academic subject
information technology is). The 2014 report of a Ministerial task team (discussed further
under Goal 13) has recommended that the requirements for a Bachelors level pass should be
made even more stringent. This recommendation is being carefully considered. Yet it should
be kept in mind that achieving a Bachelors level pass is only a first hurdle for students, given
that universities are increasingly imposing additional academic hurdles specific to certain
areas of study.

 Indicator 4. Number of Grade 12 learners who become eligible for a Bachelors
programme in the public national examinations.

As explained in section 3, the value for this indicator has increased substantially, from around
110 000 to 151 000 between 2009 and 2014, and in 2014 fell short of the national target set in

25
the 2011 Action Plan by 24 000 learners, or 14%. The 2014 value was nonetheless the highest
value for this indicator seen since 2000, if one discounts the exceptionally high 2013 value of
around 172 000. Despite the fact that the 2014 target was not met, the strong upward
trajectory over the longer term encouraging, given the need for substantial increases in
university enrolments expressed in the 2013 White Paper on post-school education. The
following graph illustrates the long-term improvement that has occurred with respect to this
indicator since 2000, when the number of Bachelors-level passes was less than half of what it
became in 2014. The graph also illustrates future targets. These targets have been adjusted
upwards, relative to the 2011 Action Plan, to cater for new and ambitious targets for
university enrolments set in the NDP. (The two vertical broken lines refer to the last year of
the previous curriculum and the first year where a target value is used.)

Grade 12 Bachelors level passes

The exceptionally high values for this indicator, and for other Grade 12 examinations
indicators, seen in 2013 raise important questions. What is clear is that the number of
examination candidates rose sharply in this year, by 10% between 2012 and 2013. Moreover,
the percentage of examination-takers who achieved a pass and a pass at the Bachelors level
also rose. There were thus two factors at play, more candidates and higher levels of
achievement amongst candidates. Why these two trends should have been so exceptional in
2013 is still a matter for analysis, but what is clear is that the 2014 figures display an
improvement relative to 2012, and relative to earlier years. Not only is the 2014 figure for
Bachelors level passes higher than in 2012 or any previous year, the same can be said for the
number of NSC passes in general. Closer analysis of the 2012 and 2013 examinations data
reveals that a large increase in the number of younger examination candidates aged 16 at the
start of the year (so they turned 17 in 2012 or 2013) accounts for most of the overall increase
in the 2013 candidates.

Goal 5 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass mathematics.

As discussed below in the box dealing with indicator values, progress with respect to this goal
should have been better. However, building teacher capabilities in the teaching of
mathematics and translating this into better learner competencies is necessarily a gradual
process. Moreover, the introduction of the new CAPS curriculum provisions in Grade 12
during 2014 brought new topics into the Grade 12 mathematics syllabus, creating challenges

26
which had not existed previously37. There is no reason to doubt that efforts in recent years to
strengthen mathematics will yield results in future years, in particular considering the
improvement seen in Grade 9 mathematics according to TIMSS. However, the emphasis
needs to be not just on increasing the number of Grade 12 mathematics passes, but also on
increasing the number of learners with high mathematics marks. In response to this need, in
2013 the official Grade 12 examinations report included for the first time details on
mathematics distinctions, or learners achieving a mark of 80% or above.

Greater success in mathematics in Grade 12 is obviously dependent on many of the

interventions, current and planned, described throughout this document and targeting all the
school grades. A good foundation before Grade 12 is clearly crucial, yet for various reasons
‘last minute’ interventions in Grade 12 will continue to warrant considerable attention as
learners prepare for their examinations. ‘Matric camps’ offering additional classes for
learners, often organised by government in partnership with universities and NGOs, have
become more common and better organised in recent years, and feedback from stakeholders
has tended to be very positive. Another intervention in recent years that has been widely
welcomed was the distribution of the newly developed Siyavula mathematics textbooks to all
grades 10 to 12 learners in 2012, and continued distribution during subsequent years. The
innovative production process for these books has succeeded in making them freely
downloadable online, has reduced the unit cost of printed copies by around 75% relative to
regular textbooks and has ensured content of a high standard. The books were produced by
the DBE in partnership with a number of organisations and companies, including the
Shuttleworth Foundation38. In a few provinces, the decision has been taken to let the Siyavula
books replace regular textbooks.

In 2014 a Ministerial task team established to look into an updated ‘MST’ (mathematics,
science and technology) strategy for the country made its report public39. The new strategy, to
be released in 2015, will prioritise the following: the establishment of a national office to
champion MST in schools and bring greater coherence to the planning of MST; stronger
partnerships between the various stakeholders, including universities; a greater use of e-
education to promote MST development; consolidating and re-orienting certain aspects of the
longstanding Dinaledi school intervention programme; and strengthening the design and use
of the diagnostic reports that the DBE has been producing following each Grade 12
examination40 (these reports are similar to the ANA reports discussed under Goal 2).

Clearly, all efforts to strengthen mathematics must pay special attention to overcoming the
devastating legacy of apartheid which, despite improvements over the years, is still evident in
facts such as that only 46% of learners with mathematics distinctions in the 2013 Grade 12
examinations were black African, though 83% of all examination candidates were from this
population group.

Indicator 5. Number of Grade 12 learners passing mathematics.

Despite improvements in the number of learners qualifying for university entrance (see the
previous indicator), it must be noted that this has not been accompanied by a similarly large
improvement in the number of Grade 12 mathematics passes in general, or passes at a high
level. However, the downward trend in the number of mathematics passes after the

37
Specifically, Euclidean geometry was examined for the first time in Grade 12 in 2014.
38
For further details see http://www.siyavula.com.
39
See report titled Investigation into the implementation of maths, science and technology on the DBE
website. The outgoing MST strategy is from 2001 and is titled National strategy for mathematics,
science and technology education in general and further education and training.
40
See for instance the 2013 National Senior Certificate examination: National diagnostic report
available on the DBE website.

27
introduction of Revised National Curriculum Statement in Grade 12 in 2008, as the system
adjusted to the new curriculum, has been reversed and the current trend is more or less in line
with the future targets set in the 2011 Action Plan, and maintained in the current plan (see
graph below). However, the number of very good passes remains worryingly low. For
example, in 2014 the number of mathematics distinctions, or mathematics passes achieving at
least 80%, was 7 216 which, though an improvement on the 2012 figure of 6 591, is not
sufficient to maintain the level of high-level mathematics skills the country needs. The
number of Grade 12 mathematics learners in 2014 achieving at least 70%, a mark often
considered a minimum for entry into university studies in a field such as engineering, was
around 18 000.

Grade 12 mathematics passes

350,000

300,000

250,000

200,000
Learners

150,000

100,000

50,000

0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Mathematics passes

(In the above graph, figures up to 2014 are actuals, whilst figures from 2015 are targets. A
vertical dotted line appears at 2007 as this was the last year of the outgoing curriculum.)

Goal 6 Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass physical science.

Most of the discussion presented for the previous goal, which dealt with Grade 12 passes in
mathematics, applies to this goal too. In particular, the Siyavula textbooks covered both
mathematics and physical science and hard copies for both these subjects were distributed to
learners.

Indicator 6. Number of Grade 12 learners passing physical science.

Like the indicator on mathematics passes, this indicator experienced a decline following the
introduction of the new curriculum in 2008, but from 2010 there has been a steady
improvement, with the value in 2014 reaching around 103 000 learners. As with other Grade
12 examination indicators, there was a spike in 2013 of around 143 000 learners. Attaining
originally established targets remains a possibility. The positive signs seen in the 2011 TIMSS
results with regard to mathematics were also seen in science. Again, this suggests that
ongoing gains made in lower grades will be translated into Grade 12 improvements in future
years.

28
5.2 Goals 7 to 9: Improving average performance

Goals 7 to 9 focus on improvements in the average performance of learners within two key
international testing programmes.

Goal 7 Improve the average performance of Grade 6 learners in languages.

The discussion of the SACMEQ41 indicator values appearing in the box below serves as a
reminder of the enormous task still facing the country when it comes to improving reading
and language competencies at the primary school level. Apart from SACMEQ, an
international testing programme which examines language in South Africa at the primary
level is PIRLS42. South Africa has participated in this programme in 2006 and 2011.
Importantly, South Africa’s results for these two years are not comparable. In 2011 South
Africa, together with Botswana and Colombia, switched from the main PIRLS test to a new
so-called pre-PIRLS test, a test designed specifically for developing countries with many
learners performing at rather low levels43. The main PIRLS test is designed mainly with rich
country contexts in mind.

Indicator 7. Average score obtained in Grade 6 in language in the SACMEQ assessment.

SACMEQ was run again across fifteen Southern and East African countries in 2013.
Preliminary results will become available during 2015, which will allow South Africa to
gauge in which areas of Grade 6 English (or, for some learners, Afrikaans) improvements
have occurred, and in which areas the largest challenges lie. The SACMEQ mean for
language in South Africa saw a movement from 492 to 495 between 2000 and 2007, a change
that is too small, given the size of the sample, to be statistically significant. Of the 15
countries, South Africa was in position 10 with respect to the national reading average. The
results from the 2013 testing will be crucial in determining whether the strong emphasis on
improvement interventions since 2007 in the form of, for instance, national workbooks and
clearer curriculum guidance, have borne fruit, and whether further change or continuity is
required.

Goal 8 Improve the average performance of Grade 6 learners in mathematics.

One of the great benefits with the SACMEQ testing programme is that it includes the testing
of Grade 6 teachers, using tests that partially repeat questions appearing in the learner tests.
This has provided education planners with an invaluable insight into what areas to focus on in
developing teachers. As argued in the 2012 NEEDU report, ‘teachers cannot teach what they
themselves don’t know’44. One key pattern observed in the results of the 2007 SACMEQ
teachers tests is the exceptionally poor level of mathematics performance of teachers in three

41
Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
42
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.
43
See Mullis, Martin, Foy and Drucker (2012: 39). Note that the 421 PIRLS score attributed to
‘Eng/Afr (5) – RSA’ on the same page is not derived from a nationally representative sample of South
African schools, but instead from a sample of only those schools using English or Afrikaans as a
language of learning and teaching (medium of instruction) in grades 1 to 3 (Howie et al, 2012: 7). Such
schools comprise roughly a quarter of South Africa’s primary schools.
44
DBE, 2013c: 25.

29
provinces: Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo45. The professional development
activities outlined under Goal 16 are clearly of special importance for these provinces.

Indicator 8. Average score obtained in Grade 6 in mathematics in the SACMEQ

assessment.

What was said for the previous indicator applies for this indicator too. The change from 486
to 495 between 2000 and 2007, whilst larger than the change in language, was too small to be
an unambiguous sign of an improvement. When SACMEQ 2013 results become available in
2015, these will create a crucial basis for evaluating interventions introduced to improve
mathematics after 2007, partly in response to the disappointing 2007 SACMEQ results.

Goal 9 Improve the average performance of Grade 9 learners in mathematics.

Goal 9 is the only goal, out of the 27, that has changed following the 2011 Action Plan. The
grade for this goal changed from Grade 8 to Grade 9 because the focus grade in TIMSS46
changed for a few developing countries, including South Africa. In 2002, South African
learners were tested in both grades 8 and 947. In 2011, only Grade 9 learners were tested, as
the tests were considered more meaningful for this grade. It should be remembered that the
TIMSS tests are set at a relatively high standard which is most relevant for schooling systems
in developed countries. Apart from South Africa, Botswana and Honduras tested Grade 9, and
not Grade 8, in TIMSS 2011.

It is important that inaccurate comparative statistics on educational performance should not

cause panic and confusion. Unfortunately, for several years the World Economic Forum
(WEF) has published tables with misleading rankings of countries against key education
indicators, tables which have received considerable attention in the South African media. For
instance, in 2014 the WEF ranked South Africa last out of 148 countries with respect to the
‘quality of math and science education’48. Rankings such as this by the WEF are based on the
opinions of selected business leaders, who rate the education system on a scale from
‘extremely poor’ to ‘excellent’. Given government’s own admission that educational quality
is a serious national challenge and the availability of educational quality data in South Africa,
it is not surprising that interviewees should respond as they do. However it is problematic to
use responses of this nature to compile international rankings in education. Whilst South
Africa has performed poorly in, for instance, the TIMSS tests, countries participating in
TIMSS tend to be countries which take education rather seriously. Around half the countries
in the world, generally countries with particularly weak education systems, do not participate
in any international testing system.

Indicator 9. Average Grade 9 mathematics score obtained in TIMSS.

As discussed in section 3, improvements in the country’s Grade 9 TIMSS results between

2002 and 2011, from 285 to 352 TIMSS points, represent the most compelling evidence that
the quality of learning and teaching is improving in South Africa’s schools. The 2011 level of
performance is still low, but there is a trend in the right direction, and the trend is roughly as
fast as one might expect. One can regard improvements in a key subject such as mathematics
as an indication of a general improvement across the entire curriculum, given the inter-

45
Moloi and Chetty, 2010: 50.
46
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
47
Whilst the international TIMSS documents refer to TIMSS in 2003, not 2002, and most TIMSS
countries tested in 2003, in South Africa the ‘TIMSS 2003’ testing actually occurred in 2002.
48
World Economic Forum, 2013.

30
dependence of subjects. Improved mathematics results are almost certainly also a reflection of
improved language skills, which in turn influence results in all subjects.

5.3 Goal 10: Compulsory schooling

Goal 10 Ensure that all children remain effectively enrolled in school at least up to
the year in which they turn 15.

Though very few children aged 7 to 15 are not attending an education institution, the
approximately 1% who do not must remain a concern, as should irregular attendance. The
high enrolment ratios in South Africa for children aged 7 to 15 has tended to hide the fact that
around 15% learners do not complete Grade 9, the grade a learner should have reached by age
15 assuming no grade repetition (see discussion under Goal 13). The problem is that many
learners do repeat grades and drop out at around age 15 without having reached Grade 9 yet.
This problem needs to be tackled largely through education quality interventions which
strengthen the capacity of teachers and give all youths a sense of hope in their schooling.
Without this hope, learners easily fall prey to a variety of social ills, including substance
abuse. The LURITS49 system, which keeps a record of each individual learner in the public
and independent schooling systems, continues to be an important tool for understanding the
phenomenon of dropping out and for developing strategies to follow up on the most serious
cases.

Indicator 10. Percentage of 7 to 15 year olds attending education institutions.

Values for this indicator, across all provinces, remain close to 100%, according to the General
Household Survey, which asks whether household members are ‘currently attending any
educational institution’. No province has a value below 98,0%. Yet this is an indicator that the
system needs to continue paying close attention to, partly because it is clear that some learners
are not receiving the schooling they should. Related indicators, such as those dealing with
absenteeism and time spent on learning at school, need to be considered in conjunction with
this indicator.

The findings of the 2011 national population census of Stats SA point to enrolment ratios for
children which are a few percentage points below what is found when Stats SA’s General
Household Survey datasets are used. For instance, the census points to the percentage of 14
year olds enrolled in an education institution as being 95,5%50. These kinds of discrepancies
between the census data and the GHS have been observed before. Analysis of individual
records in the census data have indicated that even highly educated parents apparently have
young children who are not in any kind of education51. This seems very unlikely and is the
reason why the DBE uses enrolment ratios derived from the GHS for planning purposes.

49
Learner Unit Record Information Tracking System.
50
Figure 3.14 in statistical release P0301.4, available on the Statistics South Africa website.
51
Gustafsson, 2012: 12.

31
5.4 Goal 11: Access to ECD and Grade R 

Goal 11 Improve the access of children to quality Early Childhood Development

 (ECD) below Grade 1.

Though figures vary somewhat, it is clear that access to ECD below Grade 1 is improving.
The General Household Survey (GHS) points to 96% of all first-time Grade 1 learners in
2014 having received schooling in the previous year. In 2009 this figure was below 85%52.

Even below Grade R enrolment has been increasing, as indicated by the percentage of
enrolled four year olds, which rose from 59% in 2009 to 75% in 2013 according to the GHS.
The NDP indicates that this figure should reach 100% as a year of schooling below Grade R
becomes universal.

Whilst improvements in the numbers are clearly a move in the right direction, in the NDP and
elsewhere concerns have been raised about how to monitor and improve the quality of ECD
so that it truly strengthens schooling in the later grades. The Department of Performance
Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) of Presidency has completed a study which looks at the
impact of the introduction of Grade R in a school on subsequent Annual National
Assessments (ANA) results53. The results are mixed. In some schools Grade R has contributed
towards better learning, but in other schools it has not. Clearly one cannot take it for granted
that Grade R is always quality Grade R. It should be emphasised, however, that Presidency’s
evaluation focuses largely on the impact of the average Grade R service as it existed in the
2005 to 2011 period54. Important quality enhancement initiatives have occurred since then,
including the introduction, in 2013, of new full colour Grade R workbooks, in line with the
books distributed annually for Grade 1.

A number of interventions to improve the quality of ECD have been initiated, and a key
challenge in the coming years will be to strengthen these. The DBE will continue to
distribute workbooks to all learners each year. Challenges include further improvement
of materials on the basis of an extensive evaluation that was concluded in 2012. This
evaluation showed that 90% of schools received resource packs in 2011, that on the whole
teachers were very positive about the materials, that around 70% of schools used the packs,
but that certain improvements were necessary, for instance clearer teacher guides.

Several universities have started offering a National Diploma for pre-school teachers, partly in
response to consultations with the DBE. The professionalisation of pre-school teachers
needs to continue.

ECD continues to be the programme in the provincial budgets with the strongest budget
growth55. Good planning will be needed to deal with the estimated 6% of public schools
in 2014 which were still not able to cater for community demand for Grade R.

Presidency’s Diagnostic review of early childhood development56 provides a comprehensive

outline of the range of ECD challenges, from stunting arising out of malnutrition, to the need
for cognitive development. An important milestone was the release in 2013 of the National

52
DBE, 2013b: 6.
53
Presidency, 2014.
54
The impact evaluation focussed on the impact of past Grade R enrolment patterns, at the school level,
on ANA results for grades 1 to 6 in the years 2011 and 2012.
55
2012 report produced jointly by DBE and UNICEF titled Public expenditure analysis for the basic
education sector in South Africa.
56
Richter, 2012.

32
Curriculum Framework57 for children from birth to age four. This document, produced in
collaboration with UNICEF and drawing from international best practice, needs to form
a basis for better monitoring of the quality of ECD at age four and below, and the design
of interventions.

 Indicator 11. The percentage of Grade 1 learners who received Grade R.

By 2014, about 96% of Grade 1 learners had received a year of Grade R education in the
previous year according to the General Household Survey. Five years previously the value
stood at 85%. There has thus been steady progress towards the ideal of universal Grade R.
Whilst household data need to remain a key source for this indicator, given the variety of
settings for Grade R, data collected from schools should also be used. As monitoring of the
quality of ECD improves, reporting against minimum standards needs to be increasingly used.

5.5 Goals 12 to 13: Improving grade attainment

The following two goals deal with ensuring that more learners succeed in moving through the
grade system without repeating grades, and that fewer learners drop out before Grade 12.

Goal 12 Improve the grade promotion of learners through Grades 1 to 9.

South Africa’s grade repetition levels remain lower than in other countries in the region, and
reductions in grade repetition have been more pronounced than elsewhere. Specifically, in
2000, 42% of South Africa’s Grade 6 learners had repeated some grade in the past, against
48% across other countries in Southern and East Africa. By 2007, the figure for South Africa
had improved to 29%, against 40% for the rest of the region58. The indicator values discussed
below suggest that after 2007, the situation has improved further.

Indicator 12.1. The percentage of children who turned 9 in the previous year and who are
currently enrolled in Grade 4 (or a higher grade).

Indicator 12.2. The percentage of children who turned 12 in the previous year and who are
currently enrolled in Grade 7 (or a higher grade).

Due to improvements in the way the age of learners is monitored in the Annual Survey of
Schools, it has become easier to monitor compliance against age-grade norms. The data
indicate, for instance, that the percentage of learners who turned 12 in the previous calendar
year and who were in Grade 7 or a higher grade (the second of the two indicators above)
improved from 61,3% to 63,1% between 2010 and 201359. In the absence of any grade
repetition or late entry into Grade 1, these figures would be 100%. The 2013 value for the first
of the two indicators was 73%. For both indicators, values vary considerably across
provinces, with Gauteng displaying the most favourable values during the 2010 to 2013
period. It is important to bear in mind why upward trends for these indicators are desirable.
Better alignment between age and grade in the schooling system, apart from pointing to less
grade repetition and thus, hopefully, better learning in the case of individual learners, is
important insofar as a wide range of ages within the same class is known to exacerbate
discipline problems.

57
National early learning and development standards for children birth to four years (NELDS),
produced by the DBE.
58
DBE, 2013f: 22.
59
See Appendix B of the current plan.

33
Goal 13 Improve the access of the youth to Further Education and Training (FET)
beyond Grade 9.

Getting more learners to obtain the National Senior Certificate (NSC) on successful
completion of Grade 12 in a school, or some equivalent qualification outside the schooling
system, is widely considered an important prerequisite for improving economic growth and
reducing income inequality in South Africa60. Yet as attainment of twelve years of education
is improved, it is important to continue current efforts to ensure that all South Africans
successfully complete Grade 9, the last grade of the General Education and Training (GET)
band of the curriculum. Around 15% of South Africa’s poorest youths were still not
completing Grade 9 in around 201161.

Successful completion of Grade 12, or an equivalent non-school level, is not easy to monitor,
partly because fluctuations from one year to the next can be the result of changes in enrolment
and grade repetition patterns occurring as much as a decade previously. The important thing is
the general pattern. This general trend has been an upward one, though a slow one. In the
period 2000 to 2014, on average the number of NSC passes has risen by around 10 000, or
3%, per year. Whilst this does signal progress, this increase is only around half as large as
what is required to keep up with official targets. Far too few youths obtain an education
qualification, of any kind, and much must still be done, within the schooling system and in the
Further Education and Training (FET) college sector to address this problem.

There has been much debate in recent years around whether the standards of the Grade 12
examination system are sufficiently high. This prompted Umalusi, the examinations quality
assurance body, to release, in 2011, the NSC marks standardisation process for the first time
ever. In 2013, the Minister of Basic Education set up a task team to investigate the quality of
the NSC. The team’s report, released in 2014, pointed to a number of quality and structural
concerns which it thought should be addressed. For instance, it argued that criteria for
achieving specific classes of the NSC, such as a Bachelors level pass, be made more stringent,
that the vocational routes within the examination be expanded, and that special attention
needed to go to upholding high and common standards across the various official languages.
Importantly, the report also indicated that ‘The standard and quality of the NSC is
improving’62. The Minister has broadly accepted the task team’s recommendations, including
the important recommendation that stability in the examination system is required, implying
that many changes would have to be phased in gradually. The DBE needs to ensure that
learners in different years are not unfairly discriminated against and that there is no confusion
amongst post-school institutions and employers as to the meaning of the NSC, including the
meaning of the subject-specific achievement symbols.

There is little disagreement between the various stakeholders, including government, around
the need to increase the number of Grade 12 learners achieving high marks in key subjects, as
opposed to just passes (see the discussion under Goal 5 concerning mathematics). What is
more a matter of debate is how changes in the Grade 12 marking and pass criteria might
encourage teachers and learners to aim higher.

All of the goals 14 to 27 in this plan on how to improve the quality of schooling contribute in
some way towards getting learners to achieve the NSC. It has become increasingly accepted
that whilst some results can be achieved through ‘last minute’ interventions targeted at the

60
See for instance Branson, Garlick, Lam and Leibbrandt (2012).
61
DBE, 2013b.
62
DBE, 2014b: 5.

34
final years of schooling, it is only through improving learning and teaching at the primary
level that large improvements at the exit point of the schooling system will be seen.

One important initiative aimed at making the grades 10 to 12 subject mix more responsive to
the interests of a variety of students is the Technical Secondary Schools Recapitalisation
Grant. This grant focuses on increasing access to the four technical and vocationally-oriented
subjects engineering graphics and design, civil technology, electrical technology, and
mechanical technology. Statistics from the 2013 Grade 12 examinations indicate how little
change there has been since the apartheid era in the taking of these subjects. Almost half,
specifically 46%, of white male learners took at least one of these subjects, compared to 5%
of black African male learners. Across all races, males are three times as likely to take a
technical subject as females. Clearly there is a need for more black and female students to
take these subjects. Around 16% of public schools offering Grade 12 offer at least one
technical subject. These schools are relatively well distributed across the country. It has been
estimated that just by increasing participation in technical subjects within these schools the
number of learners taking technical subjects can be tripled.

An initiative started in 2012 to improve the ability of Grade 12 learners to prepare for the
year-end examinations was the distribution of the newly designed Mind the gap study guides.
What stands out about this initiative is that it was subjected to a scientific impact evaluation
which indicated that learners who received the guides performed significantly better in the
examinations than learners who did not63. These results have led to a more widespread
distribution of the study guides.

Career guidance, occurring inside and outside the subject life orientation, is important for
ensuring that learners select appropriate subject combinations as they enter Grade 10 and that
in general learners feel motivated to achieve good results in the Grade 12 examinations. There
are a number of initiatives under way to strengthen career guidance, some of them the result
of partnerships with employers. But good career guidance needs to become more accessible to
learners. Work in this area has been facilitated by a 2012 policy framework for strengthening
career guidance, produced through a multi-stakeholder process64. Materials aimed at getting
appropriate learners to consider teaching as a career have also been improved65.

Indicator 13.1. The percentage of youths who obtained a National Senior Certificate from a
school.

Indicator 13.2. The percentage of youths who obtained any FET qualification. (This is an
indicator of concern to DBE and the Department of Higher Education and Training.)

The first of these two indicators stood at around 42% in the 2009 to 2011 period, according to
the DBE’s analysis66. There are difficulties both on the side of the numerator and the
denominator of this indicator. The number of National Senior Certificates (NSCs) obtained
each year is influenced by a variety of factors, including results of the supplementary
examinations following the main year-end examinations, the results of part-time students, and
Independent Examinations Board results. The DBE is working on establishing a more
integrated reporting system that would incorporate all these NSC strands. With respect to the
denominator, any calculation of the indicator value needs to make adjustments to deal with
obvious discrepancies between the population figures and enrolment figures. Despite these

63
See DBE (2013e).
64
See Framework for cooperation in the provision of career development services in South Africa at
http://www.saqa.org.za/docs/pol/2012/Framework_for_Career_Development_Services_2012.pdf.
65
See for instance Information guide on initial teacher education: Make a difference... become a
teacher available at http://www.education.gov.za.
66
See DBE (2013b).

35
difficulties, the indicator values reported by the DBE can be considered sufficiently reliable,
at most about a percentage point off the true value. The value for 2014 was estimated to be
45%, based on an examination of recent trends with respect to the number of NSC recipients,
the size of age cohorts at around the age 18 point and ratios derived from the General
Household Survey datasets. The method for arriving at the 2014 national and provincial
baseline figures seen in the indicator tables at the end of the plan is essentially the same what
was used for the 2013 progress report (DBE, 2013e).

The second of the two indicators should reflect the value of the first indicator, plus those
youths who do not obtain the National Senior Certificate but do obtain some other Further
Education and Training (FET) qualification. It is still difficult to estimate this latter figure,
partly because when respondents to household surveys indicate that their highest level of
education is a qualification from an FET college, it is not clear whether this individual also
has an NSC. Many do, as reflected in the fact that between a half and three-quarters of public
FET college students in 2013 had received the NSC previously. The available data suggest
that the difference between the two indicators is not more than two percentage points at the
national level. This informs the values seen in the appendix of this plan.

36
6 The goals dealing with the how of improving schooling (Goals 14 to 27)

Goals 14 to 27 deal with the how of achieving the 13 output goals described above. They thus
deal with matters relating to teachers, class sizes, classroom practices, educational materials,
and school management and governance. For a more in-depth discussion of how these factors
contribute towards better schooling in the South African context, and how the link to each
other, see the 2011 Action Plan.

6.1 Goal 14: Supply of young teachers

Goal 14 Attract a new group of young, motivated and appropriately trained

teachers to the teaching profession every year.

The basic education sector, like so many sectors in the economy, continues to experience
problems attracting enough young and appropriately skilled people. The indicator values for
this goal (see below) reflect the seriousness of the problem. The number of young people
joining the teaching profession is still only around two-thirds of what it should be. The DBE’s
data indicate that the shortfall is partly being covered by the entry of older qualified teachers.
However, it is also clear that a substantial number of schools are unable to fill posts, in
particular in relation to certain subject specialisations such as mathematics and African
languages.

A positive development has been the increase in the number of graduates in initial teacher
education from around 6 900 in 2010 to 17 500 in 2014, a 150% increase. Further
improvements are envisaged67, partly due to the opening of new teacher training campuses at
the old teacher training colleges. Implementation of the latter started in 2013 at the newly
established University of Mpumalanga.

To reinforce these trends, the DBE is exploring with Treasury the possibility of further
increases in spending on the Funza Lushaka bursaries for prospective teachers, given that
growth in real terms in this budget is lower than expected growth in the number of new
teachers. The NDP in fact points to the need to expand the bursary programme. Moreover,
better ways of ensuring that all Funza Lushaka teachers are placed in public school teaching
posts are being explored, partly by making it easier to transfer surplus teachers in one
province to another province.

Currently most young people studying to become teachers are not Funza Lushaka bursary
recipients, and it is clear that a holistic strategy that goes beyond Funza Lushaka is needed.
Communication is an important element of this strategy. Factors which make teaching a
rewarding profession, including opportunities to influence young people’s lives and build a
better, more equitable nation, should be properly communicated to young teachers-to-be.

Indicator 14. The number of qualified teachers, aged 30 and below, entering the public
service as teachers for the first time during the past year.

Analysis of the payroll data indicate that around 6 800 new, qualified teachers, aged 30 and
below, entered the public schooling system in 2014. As explained in Appendix A, due to the
phenomenon of multiple entry and departure amongst many young teachers, it is important to
consider several years of data at once when obtaining values for this indicator. The 6 800
figure falls short of the 8 000 target for 2014 appearing in the 2011 Action Plan. The inflow
of young teachers into the system remains one of the most serious challenges confronting the

67
The target for 2016/17, in the 2014 annual performance plan of the Department of Higher Education
and Training is 20 600.

37
DBE, but also the Department of Higher Education and Training. Part of the problem arises
from the general shortage of university-ready youths in recent years, a shortage which affects
all professions. As was seen earlier in this plan, that situation has been improving, in
particular with the large increases in recent years in learners qualifying for Bachelors level
studies.

6.2 Goal 15: Teacher availability and class sizes

Goal 15 Ensure that the availability and utilisation of teachers are such that
excessively large classes are avoided.

The availability of teachers in schools and classrooms has not improved across the schooling
system in any substantial sense. Challenges such as excessively sized classes remain serious.
As reflected by the first indicator for this goal (see below), in 2013 35% of learners were in
classes with more than 45 learners. This is only slightly better than the situation in 2009.
Around 10% of schools do not have all educator posts filled, with the average vacancy rate in
these schools being 6%. One key factor which has made placing an adequate number of
teachers in schools difficult is substantial enrolment growth in recent years. Between 2010
and 2013 enrolments in Grade 1 in public schools grew by 9% and this increase has since
moved up the grades. Analysis conducted by the DBE has established that the bulk of this
increase is due to larger age cohorts, in other words population growth, and not other possible
factors such as ‘ghost learners’ (inflation of learner numbers by school principals) or higher
levels of grade repetition.

As explained in the 2011 Action Plan, the dynamics of teacher availability are complex and
are inextricably linked to other goals in this plan. The under-supply of teachers (see the
previous goal) is a part of the problem, but poor management of teacher time within schools
also exacerbates the situation. A key policy governing teacher availability is the post
provisioning policy, which in a narrow sense is the formula that determines how many
educator posts each school receives, though the entire post provisioning system includes
incentives paid to teachers to teach in remote areas, the procedures governing who gets to be
appointed as an educator within each school, strategies to retain teachers within the public
system, and the rights of teachers when enrolments decline and teachers must move.
Moreover, ensuring that the number of posts allocated to each school is in line with the
number of physical classrooms is important. In 2013, the DBE, with support from UNICEF,
completed a major review of the post provisioning system, using the services of experts from
the consulting firm Deloitte. This places the DBE in a far stronger position to make changes
to the existing system, a process that will require a careful balancing of various elements,
including the teacher salary structure and provincial budgets. Increases in the purchasing
power of teachers, which were necessary (see goal 17 below), have placed considerable
budget pressure on provincial departments. For example, in Gauteng spending on personnel as
a percentage of all recurrent spending is expected to rise from 87% to 89% between 2013 and
2016, with an increase from 88% to 90% expected in Mpumalanga68.

Indicator 15.1. The percentage of learners who are in classes with no more than 45
learners.

Indicator 15.2. The percentage of schools where allocated teaching posts are all filled.

In 2009, 64% of learners in public ordinary schools were in classes not exceeding 45 learners,
according to the Annual Survey of Schools. In 2013, this national statistic stood at 65%, in

68
Estimates of provincial revenue and expenditure for the two provinces, released in 2014.

38
other words a third of learners remained in classes which were clearly too large using a 45-
learner cut-off. For all provinces the indicator value remained more or less constant between
2009 and 2013. The curriculum phase that experienced the largest improvement was the
Intermediate Phase (grades 4 to 6), where the percentage of learners in classes of 45 or fewer
learners rose from 64% to 71% between 2009 and 2013. In 2013, extremely large classes of
over 60 learners remained a serious problem. For instance, the percentage of grades 1 to 7
learners in such classes in Eastern Cape was 13% in 2013. Nationally this figure was 6%.

Turning to the second indicator, unfilled teaching posts clearly do contribute towards over-
sized classes. The School Monitoring Survey has permitted a more accurate picture of the size
of the vacant posts problem, partly as it allows the DBE to verify reports from provincial
human resources directorates against what school principals themselves say is the situation
within the school. The DBE’s analysis points to around 90% of schools having all educator
posts filled69. In those schools where not all posts were filled, the average vacancy rate is
around 6%. The situation varies across provinces, with Free State experiencing particularly
serious problems in filling vacancies. The data also confirm that grades 10 to 12, of all grades,
are most affected by the problem of vacant posts.

Whilst it is important for the DBE to confirm directly with school principals what the staffing
situation is at schools, it is also important that administrative systems, including the personnel
payroll (Persal) system, become better at providing accurate information, down to the school
level, on matters such as number of vacant posts and ‘excess’ teachers at any point in the year.

6.3 Goal 16: Teacher capacity and professionalism 

Goal 16 Improve the professionalism, teaching skills, subject knowledge and

 computer literacy of teachers throughout their entire careers.

Our picture of teacher capacity and what is being done to improve this, has become clearer.
Whilst testing of teachers, including self-assessment through special diagnostic tests, is still
very rare in the schooling system, Annual Survey of Schools data on teachers’ own opinions
of their strengths and weaknesses in various subjects is beginning to inform policy and
actions. Moreover, reports pointing out specific areas of weakness in the Grade 12
examination and Annual National Assessments (ANA) are more widely used. Monitoring of
the investment made by teachers in their own development has improved through the School
Monitoring Survey. It is clear that for around half of educators 12 or fewer hours of
professional development in a year is the norm, and that there are many schools where this
activity is not taken seriously, partly due to a lack of available external training and guidance
on how schools can initiate their own training.

The Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS), gradually expanded and strengthened
since its inception in 2003, has been closely monitored in recent years, partly through
nationally employed ‘IQMS monitors’, given its importance for acknowledging teacher
professionalism. The 2012 national IQMS report, the first of its kind, indicated that across the
public schooling system 12% of teachers were rated as ‘outstanding’, 57% as ‘good’, 31% as
‘meets minimum standards’ and 0.5% as ‘unacceptable’70. What is important is that within
schools differentiation is occurring: 86% of teachers in 2013 were in schools where at least
two of the four IQMS levels were assigned to teachers, whilst a quarter were in schools where

69
See DBE (2014a). As explained in this report, limitations in the data mean that the 90% figure refers
to schools which do not have educators paid by the school governing body (SGB). The figure thus
refers to more historically disadvantaged schools, which are the schools which generally have the
greatest difficulties in attracting teachers.
70
Department of Basic Education (2012: 17).

39
three different levels were assigned. The IQMS ratings are based largely on self-assessments,
though peers at the school influence the final rating. The process through which these
assessments are occurring represents an important school dynamic. Knowing there is room for
improvement, and knowing which teachers have the strongest need for further professional
development within a school, is a prerequisite for effective teacher development programmes.

Concrete steps have been taken in recent years to improve access to professional development
programmes amongst educators. For instance, the DBE provides more guidance than before,
through its website, on what training is offered by the various higher education institutions. In
2012 a landmark agreement was signed between the DBE, provincial departments and all five
major teacher unions, for the latter to become more integrally involved in the in-service
training area. Collaboration between the employer and unions in this regard has been
successful in other countries and helps to raise the status of professional issues in the
relationship between the employer and unions. In terms of the 2012 agreement, unions use
public funds to source appropriate training, subject to agreed upon quality assurance criteria.
The importance of quality assuring the available training has been underlined by, for instance,
a key evaluation by the Council on Higher Education (2010), which included the finding that
half of the evaluated in-service training programmes, which focussed mainly on mathematics,
were insufficiently geared towards helping teachers solve practical problems in the classroom.
A further challenge is strengthening a system within which teachers plan and account for their
professional development activities. The 2012 report on progress to date with regard to the
Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) management system71 points to
serious hurdles, in terms of budgets and human capacity, if the originally envisaged online
system is to be pursued.

So what are the key priorities to pursue going forward? In prioritising, it is important to strike
a balance between professional development aimed at improving the capacity of teachers, and
accountability systems, such as the ANA, which provide an incentive for teachers to put the
capacity they have to proper use in the classroom. The 2012 report of the newly established
National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU) drew an important
distinction between the problem of ‘cannot’ and ‘will not’. Professional development is
needed for the former, accountability for the latter. Whilst there is little doubt that capacity
building is needed, evidence also suggests that some of South Africa’s teachers produce
worse learner performance than what is produced by similarly capacitated teachers in other
countries in the region72.

One priority must be to strengthen further the messages sent to teachers. Confusing
messages with respect to the how of delivering the curriculum was a problem identified in the
2009 review of curriculum implementation73. Partly, this was due to the fact that different
levels of the system issued different guides. The 2012 NEEDU report, which was based on
visits to 133 primary schools during 2012, concluded that in the Foundation Phase there was
still insufficiently focussed guidance for teachers on how to strengthen teaching methods and
what standards to set for different grades. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
documents, which were being introduced in the Foundation Phase in 2012, as well as the
national workbooks, provide a good point of departure for greater clarity, but more
accompanying guides, for instance in relation to practical uses of the workbooks, are
needed. The assessment banks (sets of recommended questions for learners) available on the
Thutong education portal are an example of the kinds of resources that can be strengthened,
for instance through expanding the volume of materials, clarifying the CAPS-alignment of the
resources and the introduction of innovative online tools, such as tools for building tests.

71
The status of the CPTD management system, available on the SACE website.
72
Department of Basic Education, 2013b: 31.
73
Report of the Task Team for the Review of the Implementation of the National Curriculum Statement,
available on the DBE website.

40
A second priority must be to create a stronger enabling framework for teacher-initiated
professional development activities, in particular professional learning communities
(PLCs). PLCs, which are groups of teachers formed by teachers themselves for the purpose of
professional development, feature strongly in the 2011 policy on teacher development 74, but
have yet to ‘take off’ across a wide range of schools. Work on best approaches for PLCs in
the South African context is still at an early stage75 though certain groups, for instance the
Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA), an association of
mathematics educators, has done some exemplary work. Experiences in other countries have
shown that for PLCs to flourish, advocacy campaigns informed by the actual experiences
of teachers and effective ‘how-to’ guides are needed. It should be made clear that
contributing towards PLCs will influence a teacher’s IQMS rating. The National Teacher
Awards should include the setting up and development of PLCs as an award criterion.
Online diagnostic tests that teachers can use to assess their own strengths and weaknesses,
tools which were identified as important by the 2011 policy, should become more available
and widely used, partly so that teacher-initiated professional development activities can focus
on the right things.

Thirdly, externally provided in-service training must become better and more readily
available. Currently, around a third of the time spent by teachers on professional
development is accounted for by training provided by the education department or some other
external provider, such as a university. Whilst the proportion may be right, there is still a need
for more of this kind of training, given how low the overall amount of time spent on
professional development is. In recent years, much external training has focussed on orienting
teachers to new curriculum documents. In the context of a commitment to an extended period
of curriculum stability, following the completion of the CAPS roll-out in 2014, external
training will be able to focus to much larger degree on subject knowledge and teaching
methodology. The DBE will strengthen further its provision of relevant information to
teachers on who provides what kind of training. The DBE will also repeat its 2008
professional development survey and publish a report aimed at guiding future
developments, partly through an analysis of teachers’ own opinions of the various types
of training they experience.

Fourthly, greater access to and educational use of digital resources by teachers must be
accelerated. A priority programme in this regard continues to be the Teacher Laptop
Initiative. The considerable teething problems of this initiative have largely been ironed out.
In moving forward, not just the technologies themselves, but their use to promote better
teaching practices, must be emphasised.

Monitoring and evaluation of teacher professional development must be strengthened. The

DBE should work closely with the South African Council for Educators (SACE) to
ensure that at the very least, basic procedures for the school principal to monitor
teacher investment in professional development are in place. The original plans for an
integrated online system in the near future may have been overly ambitious. Lessons should
be drawn from parallel developments in the medical profession.

The NDP has called for incentives linked to ANA results. The DBE’s response to this call
will include better acknowledgement of the efforts of teachers in schools where ANA
results show a credible upward trend. This acknowledgement may occur through the
National Teacher Awards or an alternative programme. The methodology for identifying
schools will make use of various sources of data, and several school factors, to ensure that the
process is fair and credible.

74
Integrated strategic planning framework for teacher education and development in South Africa,
available on the DBE website.
75
See for instance Chauraya (2013).

41
Indicator 16.1. The average hours per year spent by teachers on professional development
activities.

 Indicator 16.2. The percentage of teachers who are able to attain minimum
standards in anonymous and sample-based assessments of their subject knowledge.

The 2011 School Monitoring Survey has provided the best data to date on the effort invested
by educators in professional development, as well as the different types of development
activities and teachers’ opinions of training received. On average, educators spend 39 hours a
year on professional development, though half of educators spend 12 or fewer hours a year.
Level of effort, as well as the quality of training received, both need strengthening. Limpopo
stands out as a province where both the level of effort and the perceived quality are low.

Despite the fact that the 2013 collection of SACMEQ data will include test results from Grade
6 teachers, comprehensive data for this indicator are still some years from being realised.
However, the DBE remains committed to improving our knowledge about what teachers
know. Work on this indicator should be an extension on the development of the diagnostic
tests referred to above.

6.4 Goal 17: Teacher well-being and job satisfaction

Goal 17 Strive for a teacher workforce that is healthy and enjoys a sense of job
satisfaction.

The 2011 Action Plan referred to data indicating that 80% of teachers could be considered
satisfied. The data sources in question, TIMSS and PIRLS76, can unfortunately not be used to
examine a trend, because satisfaction questions in the 2011 collections for these two
programmes were different to satisfaction questions used previously. But for all years since
2002 where internationally comparable data are available, one thing that stands out is that
levels of teacher satisfaction are similar to the international average. Moreover, South
Africa’s teachers emerge as considerably more satisfied than those in Botswana77. Clearly job
satisfaction statistics need to be interpreted with much caution due to their sensitivity to
factors such as culture and language. Frustrations that many teachers experience with the
system within which they work, and difficulties teacher have dealing with socio-economic
problems in the community such as poverty and substance abuse, should not be under-
estimated. One trend over recent years that has probably contributed to greater teacher job
satisfaction has been substantial increases in the real wages, or purchasing power, of teachers.
The 2011 Action Plan reported that between 2007 and 2010 average teacher pay improved by
19% in real terms. This trend continued beyond 2010. Teacher pay in mid-2014 was 29%
higher in real terms than it was 200778. In fact, household data indicate that increases for
teachers have been better than for other professionals in the country, so that even relative to
other professionals teachers were better off in 2010 than they were in 200779.

Other steps forward with respect to teacher well-being include the finalisation, in 2013, of a
national policy framework for HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and TB, which
assists the sector to devote funds and human resources towards, for instance, support to
teachers affected by HIV. The National Teacher Awards, a major annual event on the

76
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study.
77
See Mullis, Martin, Foy et al (2012: 323) and Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, et al (2004: 320).
78
This considers only increases in the values of salary notches. If the annual movement of educators up
the notches were considered, the increase would be even larger.
79
Armstrong, 2014: 14.

42
education calendar for many years, has expanded in recent years with more awards being
given in more categories. Yet there are areas where progress has been slow and teachers have
been disappointed. In particular, the Teacher Laptop Initiative (discussed in section 4.2 above)
and other programmes aimed at getting teachers to take advantage of emerging technologies
require special attention.

Indicator 17. The percentage of teachers absent from school on an average day.

The School Monitoring Survey of 2011 confirmed what earlier research had shown, namely
that on an average day, around 8% of educators are absent from school, for a variety of
reasons, both legitimate and not legitimate80. As pointed out in the 2011 Action Plan, teacher
absenteeism in South Africa is similar to that found in many other developing countries. This
does not mean that current levels of absenteeism are acceptable. In developed countries,
absenteeism figures are around half of what they are in developing countries. If one breaks
South Africa’s 8% figure down by reason, one finds that the largest reason is sick leave,
which accounts for around 3% of all school educators on any day. This is not high if one
considers that many developing countries experience levels above 3% in the labour force as a
whole and in South Africa the figure for the general labour force has been around 3% in
recent years81. The second largest reason, after sick leave, is official work, which accounts for
1.2% of all educators. This would include performing errands such as delivering documents to
the district office. This could be reduced through the greater availability of administrative
assistants at schools and stronger e-education systems so that teachers could focus more on
their core educational responsibilities. The School Monitoring Survey, like earlier studies,
points to particularly high educator absenteeism levels in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.

6.5 Goal 18: Curriculum coverage in schools

Goal 18 Ensure that learners cover all the topics and skills areas that they should
cover within their current school year.

As indicated below, progress has been made towards better methods and tools to monitor
curriculum coverage. This has occurred in the context of better guidance, through the
Curriculum and Assessment Statement (CAPS) and national workbooks, on what work should
have been covered by specific weeks of the year. The key challenge in the coming years will
be to move from systemic research to practical tools that can be used by all districts and
school principals to monitor curriculum coverage. There is a real risk that must be managed,
namely the risk that monitoring leads to a ‘tickbox approach’ to the curriculum, where
teachers seem to comply with timeframes, but there is too much compromising in terms of
depth and actual learning. In this regard, it has become increasingly clear that there is not
enough good guidance offered to teachers on how to deal with a multitude of abilities within
the same class. Decisions on when to move from one topic to the next in the curriculum when
some learners are still clearly struggling with the previous topic are extremely difficult
decisions for teachers. Support and guidance for teachers here is crucial.

Indicator 18. The percentage of learners who cover everything in the curriculum for their
current year on the basis of sample-based evaluations of records kept by teachers and
evidence of practical exercises done by learners.

80
DBE, 2014a.
81
Scheil-Adlung, X. (2010). Paid sick leave: Incidence, patterns and expenditure in times of crises.
Geneva: International Labour Organization. Also Adcorp employment index report, April 2012.

43
This indicator, still a relatively new one in the South Africa education policy debates, reflects
the increasing concern over how teachers deal with the complex matter of pacing topics from
the curriculum across the school year. Currently, the system is still several steps away from
having a workable methodology for tracking curriculum coverage in any class in a school.
This is currently a monitoring challenge not just in South Africa, but elsewhere too. What has
been tested, through the School Monitoring Survey, is a method whereby external assessors
examine the level of effort being put into curriculum coverage, which would be closely linked
to the degree of success in covering the whole year’s curriculum. The DBE’s research82 has
revealed that on average 53% of learners were putting in at least a basic minimum level of
effort, where this would be, for instance, seven mathematics exercises a month at the Grade 9
level or six language exercises a month in Grade 6. These levels, which are arguably low,
represent typical levels found in historically better performing schools, specifically suburban
schools. The 53% at the national level varied, at the provincial level, from 24% in the case of
North West to 85% in the case of Gauteng.

6.6 Goals 19 to 20: Educational materials 

Goal 19 Ensure that every learner has access to the minimum set of textbooks
 and workbooks required according to national policy.

Since the release of the 2011 Action Plan the distribution of national workbooks, books in
which learners write and which become the property of learners, has become an established
feature of the public schooling system, with deliveries occurring every year from 2011 to
2015. The national workbooks initiative represents one of the most ambitious projects ever
undertaken by government to improve teaching and learning practices. In 2014, the scope of
the workbooks initiative extended from Grade R to Grade 9, and covered mathematics and
languages, as well as life orientation in certain grades. In addition, the Siyavula series of
mathematics and physical science textbooks has been delivered to learners in grades 10 to 12.
This more interventionist role of the national department in the area of books was partly a
response to insufficient access to texts in the classroom, and partly aimed at addressing the
need for stronger signals relating to minimum learning requirements. The number of
workbooks, textbooks and study guides printed and distributed by just the national
government for the 2011 to 2013 school years was around 117 million. To get a sense of what
117 million books means to the system, it is useful to bear in mind that in 2010, there were
about 50 million textbooks that learners had access to in our public schools. If the national
policy of one textbook per subject were achieved, there would be 74 million textbooks used
by learners in schools. Importantly, national initiatives do not replace provincial programmes
to supply textbooks. Instead, they supplement provincial programmes.

As mentioned in section 3 above, the international TIMSS83 programme confirms that schools
have responded positively to government efforts to promote a greater use of structured texts
by teachers: between 2002 and 2011 mathematics teachers reporting that they used a textbook
as a basis for planning their teaching increased from 30% to 70%. The 2011 School
Monitoring Survey, the first national survey ever involving physical inspections of books in
classrooms, found that in 90% of Grade 6 mathematics classes visited, learners could show
inspectors books and that in these classes, on average 9.4 of every 10 learners had a book with
him or her84. This is still not ideal, but these figures point to a healthier situation than figures
quoted in the 2011 Action Plan. In just over 70% of classes visited in 2011, learners could
show textbooks, and the figure was similar for workbooks, meaning many learners had both

82
DBE, 2013a.
83
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
84
Department of Basic Education (2013a: 10).

44
books with them. The School Monitoring Survey revealed a similar situation for other grades
and subjects other than mathematics, with access to books being best in grades 10 to 12.
Clearly, the 10% of classes visited where learners did not have any books with them during
the inspection should be a cause for concern. This figure was in fact higher in schools serving
wealthier communities, which points to the widespread use of other materials, such as
worksheets, in better off schools. Yet what does seem to pose a serious challenge is the fact
that in quintiles 1 to 3 schools serving poorer communities, no books of one type or another
could be seen in 8% of classes visited. A part of the explanation is that books are left at home
or are locked in cupboards at the school, instead of being used as they should.

The quality of textbooks and workbooks must be carefully monitored. The national
workbooks, which are available on the DBE website, have in general been well received.
These resources are rich in content. For instance, the Grade 6 mathematics workbooks contain
500 pages of explanations and exercises in full colour and include suggestions on how
teachers can pace the work through the year. The DBE commissioned the Australian Council
for Educational Research (ACER) to provide an external evaluation of the workbooks.
ACER’s 2013 report85 was on the whole positive about the quality of the resources, and actual
use of the workbooks in classrooms. A key recommendation made was that teachers require
better guidance, possibly through videos, on how to make the best use of materials in the
classroom.

The 2011 Action Plan indicated that the national department needed to assume a stronger
leadership role in the quality assurance of textbooks used in schools. The DBE has established
a more comprehensive national approval process for books, and by 2013 national textbook
catalogues had been released for all grades for the first time. The catalogues are not only the
outcome of a quality assurance process, they also reduce the number of titles in response to
criticism that in the past the presence of too many titles made teacher in-service training
difficult and that in an international comparison the number of different books used in South
African schools was exceptionally high86. Despite recent changes, teachers still enjoy
considerable choice. For instance, there were eight titles to choose from in Grade 7
mathematics87. Provinces have been supportive of the national catalogues and have reported
that these have helped to reduce the average prices of books, through economies of scale.

In the coming years efforts should be largely concentrated on consolidating the major
innovations introduced in the years preceding 2015. Better guidance is needed for teachers
on how to make the best use of what are still relatively new resources. It needs be
become clearer to teachers how national workbooks, textbooks, the new curriculum
elements and Annual National Assessments are linked to each other.

The complex system designed to get quality learning materials to the classroom functions
relatively well, but there is still much wastage and the quality of service delivery is uneven
across the country. Part of what is needed is a firmer national policy framework, including
specifications around how monitoring should occur. The DBE will be releasing a draft
policy framework for public comment in 2015. This policy will assist in ensuring that we
learn from past mistakes, in South Africa and beyond. The system for supplying materials
needs to balance centralised control and school-level flexibility. The NDP88 emphasises that
the ideal must be effective school principals whose work is not made more difficult by poorly
functioning central procurement processes. Even well-functioning centralised systems are
typically unable to deal with the kinds of last minute resourcing adjustments that schools
continuously have to make as learner numbers change. At the same time, departmental

85
Australian Council for Educational Research (2013).
86
Department of Basic Education (2009: 70).
87
This is titles in English. Versions in Afrikaans not counted as separate titles.
88
National Planning Commission (2012: 310).

45
procurement arrangements that benefit schools, for instance by lowering prices through bulk
orders, are clearly needed. The South African Schools Act principle that it is management
readiness that should determine which procurement rules apply to which schools, should be
upheld. Fee-charging public schools should be able to opt into centralised procurement
systems, whilst well-run no fee schools should enjoy relative freedom with respect to how
their public funding is utilised.

Very public debates in recent years around the quality of service delivery in relation to the
provisioning of books underline the importance of having a clear monitoring and
accountability framework. Here it is important to emphasise, as was done in the 2011 School
Monitoring Survey, that what ultimately counts is that learners should have access to the
materials they need in the classroom, and at home. Monitoring of contracts with providers,
deliveries, and school textbook retrieval systems is important, and should be strengthened, but
only focussing on this is no guarantee that educational materials are in the hands of learners.
There needs to be more detailed reporting at the national and provincial levels on the various
parts of the book supply system, but given the complexity of the system, clear guidance is
needed on what things to concentrate on.

Indicator 19. The percentage of learners having access to the required textbooks and
workbooks for the entire school year.

The 2011 School Monitoring Survey’s visits to classrooms in a nationally representative

sample of schools present the best source of information the schooling system has had so far
on the actual access by learners to texts. A national average of 61% was calculated, based on
data from two grades and two subjects, and using an adjustment to take into account the fact
that in schools serving better off learners, the presence of, say, worksheets instead of books
would not represent a problem89. The methodology used is clearly a stringent one, as a learner
without a book with him or her on the day of the classroom visit might have left the book at
home, and could thus have access the following day. However, the method is a relatively
simple one and probably offers a good basis for tracking improvements over time. The School

Goal 20 Increase access amongst learners to a wide range of media, including

computers, which enrich their education.

Access to computers has been discussed in section 4.2 above. The discussion for this goal
focuses on libraries. The School Monitoring Survey of 2011 confirmed that what was said
about primary schools in the 2011 Action Plan applies to the schooling system as a whole:
around 40% of learners are in schools with access to a stand-alone library (this would exclude
access to just book corners or classroom libraries). This 40% is also confirmed by the 2011
PIRLS questionnaires90. This latter source moreover provides a picture of the stock of books
of school libraries relative to enrolments: just under half of the existing school libraries have
three or more books per learner, around a quarter have five or more books per learner.

The last few years have seen important steps towards equipping all schools with libraries.
Above all, the policy basis for obtaining funds and planning school libraries is now clearer.
The first ever comprehensive set of guidelines for libraries was released in 201291. These
guidelines indicate that there should be at least five books per learner. Given that only around
one in ten learners have access to this level of library services, there is clearly much work to
89
DBE, 2013a.
90
Mullis, Martin, Foy and Drucker, 2012: 157.
91
See National guidelines for school library and information services on the DBE website.

46
do and the challenge is not just to establish new libraries, but also to ensure that existing
libraries are expanded. The 2013 school infrastructure norms92, discussed under Goal 24,
provide further details on minimum standards for libraries, for instance that stand-alone
school libraries should be at least 60 square metres in size.

Indicator 20. The percentage of learners in schools with a library or multimedia centre
fulfilling certain minimum standards.

The School Monitoring Survey data93 indicate that by 2011, 40% of learners had access to a
school library, where this was defined as either a permanent stand-alone library (so not a
classroom library) or a mobile library. Excluding mobile libraries would reduce the national
figure to 37%. If classroom libraries are included, the figure becomes 58%. Just as Limpopo
stands out as a province with a particularly low presence of schools able to offer computer
subjects (see section 4.2), this province also stands out as having a particularly poor presence
of school libraries. Only 8% of learners in Limpopo have access to a school library, whilst the
national figure is 40%. Tracking trends with respect to school libraries is still difficult, given
that different systems use somewhat different definitions of what constitutes a school library,
but the figures we have suggest that there has not been any major improvement in recent
years. A priority for the DBE is to strengthen the monitoring of libraries and multimedia
centres, including the use of these facilities and improvements in their quality and contents.
Clearly, as e-education becomes more widespread, there will be a movement away from more
traditional libraries, and this will need to be taken into account in the monitoring systems.

6.7 Goal 21: School management 

Goal 21 Ensure that the basic annual management processes take place across all
 schools in the country in a way that contributes towards a functional
school environment.

 The NDP on empowering capable school principals:

Gradually give principals more administrative powers as the quality

of school leadership improves, including in financial management,
the procurement of textbooks and other educational material, and
human resources management. These delegations ensure that
principals are held accountable for their schools. Provincial
departments will remain the employer of educators, and wages will
continue to be centrally determined. (p. 310)

Though improvements in school management practices over time are particularly difficult to
measure, the trends seen in the available data point to some progress. For instance, the
percentage of schools with school improvement plans appears to have gone up, from 79% in
2009 (reported in the 2011 Action Plan) to 88% in 2011 according to the School Monitoring
Survey (SMS). The presence of class registers appears to have improved, with 100% of
schools having these in 2011 according to the SMS. However, problems persist. A 2009
survey found that 25% of schools in Eastern Cape did not produce annual financial
statements. In 2011, according to the SMS, this figure still stood at 21% (the average across
the other eight provinces was 9%).

92
Government Regulation 920 of 2013.
93
DBE, 2013a.

47
Perhaps the policy intervention that has shifted school management more than any other in
recent years, is the introduction of the Annual National Assessments (ANA). There is much
anecdotal evidence that ANA has made it easier for school principals to engage with teachers
on the matter of education outcomes. The limited standardisation in assessments that had
existed in many schools before ANA had made it difficult for school principals to identify in
which grades and subjects the largest problems were. ANA has assisted in highlighting which
teachers require the greatest support, and which teachers might be suitable as mentors. A
national guide on how ANA can be used within schools, for instance to strengthen school
management, is now available94. Moving forward, the challenge will be not only to improve
the design of ANA (see section 4.1), but also to identify effective ways in which school
principals are actually using ANA so that advice can be based on experiences in schools.
Simple yet effective computer software that schools can use to diagnose teaching and
learning problems on the basis of the ANA results need to become more readily
available. The need for tools and more evidence-driven guidance to schools is something that
was emphasised in the 2012 NEEDU report.

Two further initiatives in the coming years to strengthen school management stand out.
Firstly, competency assessments for school principals will be rolled out across the whole
public schooling system, partly to ensure that everyone who is appointed into a school
principal post fulfils at least the minimum requirements for this job, and partly to
provide a profile of the existing group of school principals, including capacity gaps that
need to be addressed through training. This is something that has been prioritised in the
NDP. As a necessary prelude to this work, during 2013 the DBE developed ‘The South
African standard for school principals’, drawing from research and extensive consultation.
This 25-page document, to be published as a government notice in 2015, provides, for the first
time ever, a clear and comprehensive statement of the competencies required of a school
principal, and thus a firmer basis for training, assessments and remedial action where
principals are struggling or failing. The competency assessments will cover a wide range of
skills, from people management skills, to financial planning. The national initiative will draw
from many years of experience on school principal competency assessments in Gauteng,
where assessments have been outsourced to a third party through a contract that emphasises
the need for the assessments and data to remain confidential, and for the evaluation process to
be fair and standardised across different schools and over time. National experiences in this
initiative will inform the development of similar tools for deputy principals and heads of
department. The importance of ensuring that head of department posts are filled by the right
people was something emphasised in the NEEDU report.

The second major initiative will be the updating of the national training programme for
school managers. At the core of this programme is a set of materials, 2 000 pages in total,
published in 2008 following a major collaboration between the national department and
experts from a range of universities and other organisations95. The programme materials and
modes of delivery have been considered to be of a high standard by evaluators from inside
and outside the country96. However, there is room for improvement. For instance, a more
consistent use of the national materials by universities delivering the programme seems
necessary. The updating of the materials is needed to accommodate important contextual
shifts since 2008, such as changes in the curriculum and the introduction of ANA.

Indicator 21. The percentage of schools producing the minimum set of management
documents at a required standard, for instance a school budget, a school improvement
plan, an annual report, attendance registers and a record of learner marks.

94
See A guideline for the interpretation and use of ANA results, on the DBE website.
95
The materials, the Advanced Certificate in Education package for school management and
leadership, are available on the DBE website.
96
Bush, Kiggundu and Moorosi, 2011.

48
The 2011 School Monitoring Survey (SMS), to be repeated in 2015, has taken the monitoring
of the ‘building blocks’ of school management referred to in the 2011 Action Plan a step
forward. Whilst earlier surveys had largely relied on the school principal’s own report on the
presence of certain management documents, the SMS involved basic inspections by external
fieldworkers of the documents. The percentage of schools found to have 11 key documents in
place in 2011 was 52%97. Moving forward, what is needed is closer monitoring of the quality
of existing school management documents and what this says about the management
problems existing in schools and how to address these problems through policy and capacity
building.

6.8 Goal 22: Community participation

Goal 22 Improve parent and community participation in the governance of

schools, partly by improving access to important information via the e-
Education strategy.

2012 saw the successful roll-out of the most recent school governing body (SGB) elections
across all public schools in the country. These elections remain an important cornerstone of
democracy and accountability in the schooling system, and indeed the country. At the
provincial and national levels, the work of the country’s several SGB representative bodies
continue to reflect the commitment of society as a whole towards strengthening schools. The
strategies of the DBE and this plan are in many cases partly a response to concerns that these
SGB bodies have raised. The education departments need to continue to engage closely with
them. In particular, the Annual National Assessments (ANA) have allowed parents and
communities to engage more directly with schools in the matter of the quality of teaching and
learning. How ANA can be used to improve this focus, and allow parents to become more
involved in what the school does and what happens in the home to promote learning, should
be high on the agenda.

The DBE is working with the World Bank on testing various ways of communicating ANA
results to parents in selected schools in Mpumalanga, and examining the impact of different
approaches on improvements in learner performance. This is pioneering research in the South
African context and is important, given that international evidence shows that action by
parents, who may themselves be illiterate, is highly dependent on how information is
packaged and distributed.

The DBE’s call centre has dealt with, amongst other things, queries and complaints from
parents and communities, often in relation to what rights and obligations national policies
give to schools and parents. This service should be strengthened, and information collected
through it should be used more systematically to assess what the typical concerns of
communities are and how to respond to these.

During 2015, considerable attention will go towards the 2015 SGB elections and on inducting
and training new SGB members, for instance in relation to the role of the SGB in promoting
quality education and upholding the constitutional rights of children.

Indicator 22. The percentage of schools where the school governing body meets the
minimum criteria in terms of effectiveness.

The School Monitoring Survey points to a system of school governing bodies that is firmly
established, with the great majority of these structures being properly constituted and holding

97
Department of Basic Education, 2014.

49
the required minimum of four meetings in the year. About a quarter of SGBs have as
members not just parents, but also community members who are not parents at the school.
The latest national value for this indicator is 81%, with the lowest provincial values being
those for KwaZulu-Natal (75%) and Mpumalanga (70%). The lower values for these two
provinces is largely due to fewer schools holding the minimum number of meetings. Clearly,
it is difficult to reduce a matter as complex as SGB effectiveness to a number, and the
information that underlies any indicator value, as well as more qualitative research examining
the role of SGBs, is necessary for a proper understanding of what is occurring in schools.

6.9 Goal 23: School funding

Goal 23 Ensure that all schools are funded at least at the minimum per learner
levels determined nationally and that funds are utilised transparently and
effectively.

The ‘school allocation’, or the non-personnel funding that schools receive each year for each
learner, remains a vital element in the struggle for better functioning schools and poverty
alleviation. In particular, in poorer communities it is important that the school allocation
money and goods purchased with this money should reach schools on time each year to
prevent pressure on poor households to make contributions they cannot afford. The ‘minimum
threshold’ for the school allocation, or the amount of funding per learner that quintiles 1 to 3
schools (those serving the poorest communities) should receive to maintain their status as ‘no
fee schools’ has increased in real terms. The 2009 to 2014 increase in the threshold from
R605 per learner to R1 059 per learner represented a real inflation-adjusted increase of 34%.
Household data in fact point to successes in upholding the system of no fee schools. In both
2009 and 2013, officially 60% of learners in public schools were meant to be in no fee
schools. The General Household Survey indicates that the percentage of learners actually
paying zero fees increased from 51% to 66% between 2009 and 2013, suggesting strongly
that implementation of the no fee system in quintiles 1 to 3, as well as fee exemptions for
poor learners in quintiles 4 and 5 schools, are working rather well.

Challenges for future years include ensuring that provincial departments do not cut the school
allocation to deal with budget pressures in other areas, and that payments are made to schools
on time. The data suggest that by 2014 roughly 75% of schools were not receiving less than
they should receive. Yet the 2011 Action Plan set a goal of 100% in this regard for 2014.
Ensuring the appropriate use of the school allocation funds also remains a challenge.
Monitoring of actual spending patterns in schools remains weak in many provinces and policy
on pro-active and reactive steps to take against fraud are still not firmly entrenched.

 Indicator 23.1. The percentage of learners in schools that are funded at the
minimum level.

Indicator 23.2. The percentage of schools that have acquired the full set of financial
management responsibilities on the basis of an assessment of their financial management
capacity.

The most recent year for which a comprehensive analysis of school funding exists, is 2010. In
that year, 79% of schools can be considered to be have been funded adequately, though to
some extent this figure does not reflect resourcing problems linked to non-delivery of goods
and services procured by the provincial department on behalf of schools (see the technical
report referred to in the appendix below for more details). The poor statistic for Free State
seen in the appendix, of 41%, can be considered an anomaly applicable to 2010 only, when
this province adjusted the pro-poor spending gradient, though overall spending commitments

50
in this province were roughly similar to those in other provinces. A preliminary analysis for
the 2012 year, based on a reduced sample, pointed to the problem of under-funding with
respect to the school allocation being particularly worrying in three provinces: Eastern Cape,
KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. Analysis of 2014 data pointed to an indicator value of roughly
75% at the national level. This is clearly unsatisfactory and below the target of 100% for
2014. However, there appears to have been progress over time if one compares the 62%
national value reported in the 2011 Action Plan (which referred to the situation in the 2008
school year) to the 75% national value estimated for 2014.

The national value for the second indicator, dealing with financial management
responsibilities, was 76% in 2011, and there is little to suggest this has shifted much between
2011 and 2014 as there has been little emphasis on such a shift. However, there has been
some movement in the right direction insofar as the national value was 64% in 2008 (reported
in 2011 Action Plan). One province that appears consistently to be permitting school
principals very few financial management responsibilities is Mpumalanga. The 2019 target
for this indicator at the national level is 95%.

6.10 Goal 24: School buildings and facilities

Goal 24 Ensure that the physical infrastructure and environment of every school
inspire learners to want to come to school and learn, and teachers to
teach.

 The NDP on building more with the money we have:

Investigate the spiralling costs of building schools ... Develop

measures to build schools at a reasonable cost without
compromising quality. (p. 313)

The Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI), which became fully
operational in 2013, is the national department’s flagship programme focussing currently on
schools whose buildings require complete replacement, for instance because they were built
of inappropriate materials. In 2012, 496 schools were identified as requiring replacement. By
2014, 49 new ASIDI schools had been built and a further 196 were under construction. Not
only is ASIDI aimed at improving the physical environment of specific school communities,
it also allows the DBE to experiment with new building processes and designs. ASIDI only
accounts for around 20% of spending on infrastructure in the schooling sector. The remaining
80% is accounted for by provincial building programmes, over which the national department
has strengthened its monitoring processes through, in particular, the Education Infrastructure
Grant, a grant flowing from the DBE to provincial education departments.

Given the number of roleplayers involved in infrastructure development, having appropriate

policies in place to guide the various actors becomes important. A stronger policy framework
has been created by the cross-sectoral National Infrastructure Plan98. During 2013 the DBE
released infrastructure regulations99 to formalise and clarify guidelines that had been released
in 2012. This puts the country on a much better footing than it was previously to deal with the
complex matter of standards and targeting in the improvement of school infrastructure. The
2013 regulations envisage four key goals. By 2016 all schools should meet minimum

98
Department of Economic Development, 2012.
99
Government Regulation 920 of 2013.

51
standards with respect to water, toilets, electricity and the materials used for the school
building. By 2020 all schools should have at least a minimum number of classrooms, relative
to enrolments, as well as electronic connectivity and perimeter fencing. By 2023 all schools
should have the required libraries and laboratories and, finally, by 2030 all remaining
standards governing, for instance, sporting facilities should be met. ASIDI schools comply
with all standards and thus serve as models and testing grounds for the policy.

In 2012, in the interests of greater transparency and accountability, the DBE started
publishing on its website the school-by-school infrastructure upgrading plans of the provincial
departments.

Part of the challenge in moving forward is to sustain the momentum of current initiatives.
However, as indicated in the NDP and the National Infrastructure Plan, public infrastructure
development is often not cost-effective and is hampered by unnecessarily complicated
bureaucracy. The emphasis in the 2011 Action Plan on innovative approaches, possibly
through decentralisation and the funding of school-initiated work, remains relevant.
Moreover, ways of ensuring that communities value and hence protect school property is
important. The use of the school’s facilities after hours for a variety of community-oriented
purposes is one way of doing this.

The conditional grant for the upgrading of technical secondary schools, which came to R230
million in 2014, and which has been focussing partly on school workshops, but also the
development of teachers, is creating new opportunities for youths to access a more
vocationally-oriented Grade 12 qualification (see discussion under Goal 13).

Indicator 24. The percentage of schools complying with a very basic level of school
infrastructure.

Whilst government does have relatively good data on the various elements of school
infrastructure, such as toilets, science laboratories and general classrooms, and whilst clear
standards for infrastructure were published in 2013, how exactly to monitor progress remains
a matter of debate. In particular, reducing the quality of school infrastructure to a single
indicator value has proven difficult. Notwithstanding these difficulties, it has been estimated
that by 2014 around half of schools were complying with minimum standards which the 2013
regulations specify should be reached in all schools by 2020100. These standards focus, in
particular, on the availability of water, toilets, electricity and a minimum number of
classrooms. Specifically, by 2011 an estimated 46% of schools complied with the standards in
question. The standards are more stringent than those used for the indicator values published
in the 2011 Action Plan. The adequacy of classrooms plays a large role. If classrooms are
removed from the calculation, then 84% of schools were found to comply with the remaining
standards (water, toilets and electricity) in 2011. Clearly more work needs to occur on the
calculation of composite indicator values. What is important is that whatever method is used,
the same provinces emerge as having the largest school infrastructure deficits. These
provinces are Eastern Cape (by far the worst), KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

6.11 Goal 25: Learner well-being

Goal 25 Use schools as vehicles for promoting access to a range of public services
amongst learners in areas such as health, poverty alleviation,
psychosocial support, sport and culture.

100
DBE, 2014a.

52
Government continues to prioritise a number of services in schools which though not of an
educational nature, are important for the development of the child and support the education
process indirectly. The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), whose reach has
extended further in recent years (see discussion in the indicator box below), remains an
important success story for government, with the conditional grant funding this programme
accounting for just over a quarter of the DBE’s budget. Going forward, the emphasis needs to
be not so much on expanding the programme further, given that it already covers almost all
learners in need of publicly funded meals, but rather on upholding the quality of meals and
ensuring that the programme is implemented in such a way that its contribution to the learning
process is maximised. The 2012 NEEDU101 report emphasised the importance of ensuring that
the processes surrounding the preparation and offering of meals disrupts classes as little as
possible.

The last national survey of HIV prevalence, conducted in 2012, pointed to prevalence rates
for the 0 to 14 age group being around 2,5% and for the 15 to 19 age group 5,5%102. These
figures provide a sense of the magnitude of the challenges facing the education system both in
terms of facilitating care and treatment, and in terms of prevention through education. The
2007 wave of SACMEQ103 included the collection of valuable information on teacher and
learner knowledge of HIV and AIDS issues. Whilst the data pointed to a high degree of
awareness and knowledge amongst teachers, only 35% of Grade 6 learners in South Africa
possessed what could be considered the minimum necessary knowledge104. The situation for
learners is expected to have improved since then, for instance as a result of a life orientation
initiative with an HIV and AIDS focus funded through a national conditional grant. Yet there
is room for improving the HIV and AIDS education of learners, but also teachers, further. In
order to strengthen alignment between various initiatives, the DBE finalised a new strategy
document on HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and TB in 2012105.

In order to address the serious lack of general health interventions in schools, including health
screening of learners, something noted in the 2011 Action Plan, in 2012 the DBE and the
Department of Health released an integrated health policy106. A vital element in this policy is
a minimum package of health services, broken down by three-year curriculum phases, which
ultimately all schools across the country should enjoy. The policy re-emphasises the
importance of health education as a way of preventing a variety of physical and emotional ills,
including bullying, sexual harassment and drug abuse. But it also emphasises that the need for
treatment in areas such as visual impairment, mental health and HIV and AIDS must be
established early, through the schooling system, so that the relevant referrals to health services
can be made.

The DBE will promote research and action around a matter which has received too little
attention: the under-performance of boys in schools. SACMEQ data show that boys in Grade
6 obtain test scores, in mathematics and language, which are around 20% of a standard
deviation below that of girls (approximately the learning one would expect from five months
of schooling). It is largely this academic under-performance which leads more boys than girls
to give up on their schooling and drop out. The 2013 General Household Survey showed that
for grades 9 to 12, the percentage of girls successfully completing each grade is around 5
percentage points above the figure for boys. The data also indicate that the male under-
performance problem has existed for at least ten years, and is found in all provinces and
across all race groups.

101
DBE, 2013c.
102
Shisana, Rehle, Simbayi, Zuma et al, 2014.
103
Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
104
Moloi and Chetty, 2011: 79.
105
Integrated strategy on HIV, STIs and TB 2012-2016, available on the DBE website.
106
Integrated school health policy 2012, available on the DBE website.

53
Indicator 25. The percentage of children who enjoy a publicly funded school lunch every
school day.

The School Monitoring Survey, the General Household Survey, and monitoring reports
compiled by provincial education departments all point to the national value for this indicator
currently being at around 70%. This value includes only publicly-funded NSNP meals and
excludes learners in schools where it was reported that in the weeks preceding the fieldworker
visit, the school was not able to cover five days a week. If schools not able to cover the full
five days are included, the 70% figure changes very little, to 71%, indicating that nearly all
schools cover all five days. However, if disruptions across the entire school year are
considered, then the situation becomes less positive. At the national level, 57% of learners
were receiving NSNP meals on every day of the entire year. Disruptions were most serious in
Eastern Cape (this was in 2011). At the national level, disruptions affected the provisioning of
school meals on 4% of days altogether, meaning the problem is a limited one. Despite these
challenges, publicly funded meals represent one of the great success stories of the schooling
system. The General Household Survey indicates that between 2009 and 2013, the percentage
of public school learners receiving a school meal every day increased from 54% to 68%, with
the value at the secondary level improving substantially from 28% to 62% during the same
period. These trends are welcome in a context where poverty often gets in the way of effective
teaching and learning. Targets for all future years beyond 2014 have been set at 75%, in
keeping with the DBE’s commitment to shift the emphasis during the coming years from
expansion and coverage to the quality of meals.

6.12 Goal 26: Inclusive education

Goal 26 Increase the number of schools that effectively implement the inclusive
education policy and have access to centres that offer specialist services.

Work over the years to raise the awareness and knowledge of educators at schools with
respect to inclusive education principles and specific special needs methods have clearly
borne fruit. By 2011, 64% of learners were in schools where the school principal reported that
the school had constituted a team to deal specifically with special needs107. Clearly the
remaining 36% should be cause for concern and further work is required. As discussed in the
indicator box below, the level of skills amongst teachers in schools in the area of special
needs education is relatively high. In many schools, the challenge is to ensure that the
capacity that exists is properly utilised, partly by ensuring that the principal allocates time to
special needs activities, and the necessary structures and physical resources are available.

In 2014 the DBE released for public comment a policy and a set of practical tools relating to
special needs support108. This is the culmination of many years of testing of various methods,
but also much public debate around how inclusive education principles, around which there
are many divergent views, ought to be taken forward in South African schools. The DBE
believes we have reached a point where the focus should now shift strongly to implementation
of a relatively standard package of educational support services. The new policy is aligned to
other policies, such as the integrated school health policy (see the previous goal) and spells
out the roles of key roleplayers, including the school-based support team, the district-based
support team, full-service schools and special schools serving as resource centres. There is
still a need for some further policy work, specifically in the area of the provisioning of posts.

107
DBE, 2014a.
108
Government Notice 293 of 2014, in combination with the document Draft policy on screening,
identification, assessment and support, available on the DBE website.

54
The post provisioning system must still be amended to make provision for itinerant specialists
whose services are needed across clusters of schools.

Indicator 26. The percentage of learners in schools with at least one educator who received
specialised training in the identification and support of special needs.

The 91% national value for this indicator is a high one, and thus promising. Clearly there is
considerable capacity spread across schools to implement special needs support. Yet there are
a number of caveats. The School Monitoring Survey data used for the indicator suggest that
teachers are most confident if they have a formal qualification focussing on special needs and
have also received some informal training. In other words, a combination of more theoretical
and practical training is required. Only 63% of learners are in schools where at least one
teacher reported having undergone both types of development. The data also suggest that in a
substantial number of schools which appear to have the capacity to implement certain special
needs education, this work is not occurring. This could be because school principals have not
fully bought into the idea of special needs support.

Free State, Gauteng and Western Cape fare relatively well with respect to this indicator,
whilst Eastern Cape and Limpopo fare relatively poorly.

6.13 Goal 27: District support 

Goal 27 Improve the frequency and quality of the monitoring and support
 services provided to schools by district offices, partly through better use
of e-Education.

 The NDP on districts:

Many of the weaknesses in schools are a reflection of weaknesses

at the district level. ... Deploy multidisciplinary support teams to
work with districts in the short to medium term. (p. 310)

Several steps have been taken to strengthen the capacity of districts to support schools in the
last few years. In 2012 a direct line of communication was created between the national
department, on the one hand, and the country’s 86 district directors with the establishment, by
the Minister, of quarterly meetings to brainstorm key policy imperatives and challenges faced
by districts. These meetings have proved effective, not only in strengthening the ties between
the national and district levels, but also insofar as they have allowed, for the first time ever,
regular interaction between district directors from across the country to share experiences and
ideas. In 2013 an official policy on the functions and responsibilities of districts was
finalised109, a necessary basis for arguing for better resourcing of district offices. The 2011
School Monitoring Survey (2011) provided a vital new information source on how schools
see the services offered by districts110. Feedback from schools must clearly inform how
districts are strengthened. The 2011 SMS pointed to some improvement in the quantity of
interaction between districts and schools. In 2009, 78% of schools reported that they had at

109
Government Notice 300 of 2013.
110
Department of Basic Education (2013a).

55
least two face-to-face interactions with the district in a year. By 2011, according to the SMS,
this had improved to 87%111.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation report112, produced in collaboration with the DBE,
on how information is used in the South African schooling system, in particular at the district
level, to assist in the pursuit of teaching and learning goals, offers a valuable basis for
understanding challenges relating not just to information systems, but also management
approaches, in districts. The report confirms the importance of districts which, it argues, are
close to schools, yet sufficiently large, in terms of number of schools, to play a role in
facilitating learning between schools and responding to school needs in a systematic manner.
Whilst the report acknowledges that in certain provinces and districts pioneering work has
been done, it also highlights serious mindset problems (some of which were discussed in
section 4.2 on e-education) and problems of duplication and poor prioritisation. Three
recommendations from the report stand out. Firstly, each district needs to take stock of how
it uses information, in particular Grade 12 examinations and ANA results, and
information on dropping out, to understand and manage education outcomes in the
district. Each district should then include within its plans a clear statement of how
information use to promote education outcomes should improve. The DBE needs to
provide guidance in this regard, using the 2013 policy on the roles and responsibilities of
districts as a point of departure. The work needs to focus partly on the difficult question of
how to depart from ‘business as usual’, where this has resulted in the collection of large
volumes of data, which are then not used, simply for compliance purposes. Plans need to
focus on how more time and effort can be shifted towards the interpretation of information to
shape intervention strategies.

Secondly, district efforts to strengthen the capacity of core staff dealing with data and
information needs encouragement and support. Initiatives in this regard must be properly
focussed, however, on providing staff offering curriculum and other support to schools with
relevant information, and on supporting decision-making in the district. The Dell Foundation
report has emphasised the potential for the computerised school management system, SA-
SAMS, to serve decision-making in schools and districts in far better ways than is currently
the case. Currently, the system is used largely for the collection and submission of data from
the school to the provincial department.

Thirdly, a greater variety of standard reports need to be generated, using data that has
been collected for some years, to assist district and school managers, but also parents on
school governing bodies, in taking the right decisions. These reports need to be designed
and presented in such a way that they are truly meaningful to their intended audiences. To
some extent, it is possible to draw from existing good practice in the country, for instance the
online EduInfoSearch information interface of the Western Cape, which aims to serve the
needs of managers from the provincial level, down to the school.

The Dell Foundation report has led to a number of projects involving the DBE and private
sector partners aimed at piloting new ways of using data to advance education goals in
selected districts. In 2014, total spending on these projects was R75m. New tools developed
out of this work need to inspire and inform districts across the country as they
strengthen their ability to support schools.

Initiatives aimed at improving the information systems of districts are part of a wider trend
towards involving partners from the private sector and other stakeholders, in particular unions

111
The 2009 figure of 78%, quoted in the 2011 Action Plan, was from the National School
Effectiveness Study dataset, which excluded Gauteng. The 2011 figure of 87% thus also excludes
Gauteng. With Gauteng included, this figure becomes 88%.
112
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (2013).

56
and parent associations, in ‘turning around’ the schooling system’s 86 district administrations.
The 2011 Action Plan referred to the need for a high-level multi-stakeholder forum to
facilitate partnerships in the sector. The role of the originally envisaged National Education
and Training Forum is being fulfilled by two new structures which flow from the National
Collaboration Framework113, agreed upon by stakeholders in 2011. The framework includes a
flexible plan, focussing on district improvement, which stretches to 2023. The first structure is
the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), established in 2013 and aimed at
facilitating non-government involvement in education innovation initiatives, in particular at
the district level. The NECT is not intended to replace existing partnership initiatives, but
rather to expand the range of opportunities and strengthen ties between stakeholders. A
second structure, the National Education Council, will be set up largely as a vehicle for
interaction on basic education policy matters. A priority is thus to use these new structures,
and the goodwill surrounding them, to bring together the country’s best talent in
supporting and advising districts, and the schooling system as a whole. Past experiences
point to the importance of not losing ideas and materials developed within locally-focussed
partnership projects. Through the newly established structures, the DBE will work on
identifying best practices that should reach a wider audience, based on credible
evaluation principles, in particular those of the Presidency’s national evaluation
policy114.

Indicator 27.1. The percentage of schools visited at least twice a year by district officials for
monitoring and support purposes.

 Indicator 27.2. The percentage of school principals rating the support services of
districts as being satisfactory.

The 2011 School Monitoring Survey (SMS), to be repeated in 2015, indicated that 88% of
schools were visited at least twice during 2011. The data were collected in November 2011,
so about a month before the end of the school year, meaning the 88% statistic is likely to be a
slight under-estimate.

The 2011 School Monitoring Survey (SMS) included several questions on principal
satisfaction with district monitoring and support. The national statistic for this indicator, of
50%, was derived after careful analysis of the principal responses115. Clearly any derivation of
this indicator value is sensitive to how responses are interpreted. In many respects, what is
more important than the aggregate indicator value is what the detailed data analysis says
about the aspects of district support most in need of improvement.

113
See National collaboration framework, available at http://www.jet.org.za.
114
Presidency (2011).
115
See DBE (2013a).

57
7 Reporting on progress in the sector

Plans need to lead to reports that inform stakeholders on progress against the plan. The 2011
Action Plan outlined in some detail the institutional context within which planning (including
budgeting) and reporting within the basic education occur. On the whole, procedures which
are already in place will be followed to ensure there is monitoring and reporting against the
current plan. Some of these procedures need further strengthening.

At the national level, the DBE will continue to play a key role in ensuring that credible
updates on progress in the schooling sector are produced for the nation. The current plan
makes reference to a number of important progress reports produced in recent years. It seems
clear that the DBE’s capacity in this area has improved, yet further improvements are
required. Importantly, much of the information that the DBE has relied on for gauging
progress against earlier plans is collected from sources who have no interest in distorting this
information. Progress in terms of provincial service delivery is largely gathered directly from
schools by the DBE. Household survey information has been used to supplement and verify
information collected through the sector’s own systems. Information from internationally
standardised testing programmes will continue to be a key basis for gauging progress with
respect to learning outcomes.

The National Development Plan creates new and necessary pressures for reporting. For
instance, this reporting will focus strongly on collaboration and alignment across different
sectors, for instance between the basic education and health sectors, and between basic
education and social development.

One reporting strand that the DBE is working on improving is quarterly reporting by
provincial education departments. Quarterly reporting with a holistic sector focus, and with a
focus on not just successes, but also risks, needs to be strengthened.

The annual reports of the DBE and the nine provincial education departments, reports which
are strongly linked to the budget process and are required by the Public Finance Management
Act, will continue to be crucial elements for establishing what the key sector-wide trends are.
There is room for improvement with respect to these annual reports, for instance in terms of
the credibility of non-financial performance statistics and their strategic focus on learning
outcomes as the core deliverable of the basic education sector.

58
Appendix A: The 36 Action Plan indicators

In this appendix, a number of things are provided with respect to each or most of the 36
indicators of this Action Plan. A first table provides recent historical values per indicator,
future targets up to around 2030, and some discussion around measurement and interpretation,
all at the national level. A second table provides recent values per province, as well as targets
for 2019, plus an indication of how national targets were broken down to the province level.
Unless otherwise indicated, targets appearing in Action Plan 2011 are repeated here. Clearly
this means that where progress has been slower than anticipated, targets will be more difficult
to achieve than before. However, targets set in Action Plan 2011 are still all considered more
or less achievable in the long run, and for this reason it seemed best to retain those targets.

Priority indicators marked with  are indicators for the five priority goals, and a few
additional priority indicators not directly linked to the priority goals. All indicators remain
with their original Action Plan 2011 wording, with the exception of Indicator 9, where the
change from Grade 8 to Grade 9 in TIMSS is now reflected.

As argued in the 2011 Action Plan, indicators should not be viewed in isolation from related
issues and statistics. Each indicator should, in a sense, serve as a focal point in a broader
debate around the topic at hand, a debate which should ideally make use of a variety of data
sources.

For certain indicators, improvements shrink in distant future years, in particular 2024. This is
in recognition of the fact that education systems tend to find it harder to make large
improvements the better they get, or the closer they get to a performance ceiling. Put
differently, large improvements are often easier to bring about whilst indicator values are still
low.

59
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
1.1 Percentage of Grade 3 learners The ANA programme needs further refining before year-on-year
 performing at the required literacy comparisons, or even comparisons across provinces, can be 57
60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
level according to the country’s considered highly accurate. Specifically, ‘secure anchor items’, or (2014)
Annual National Assessments. questions that are not freely available in the public domain and are
1.2 Percentage of Grade 3 learners reused in different years need to become more systematically used
performing at the required numeracy within the sample-based ‘verification ANA’. It is the sample-based
level according to the country’s component in ANA that is most likely to provide reliable year-on- 56
60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
Annual National Assessments. year comparisons. For more details in this regard, see section 4.1. (2014)
For the 2014 baseline values, verification ANA results were used
(DBE, 2014c).
2.1 Percentage of Grade 6 learners See discussion for Indicator 1.1. For the 2014 value, both home
performing at the required language language and first additional language learners were considered. 46
60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
level according to the country’s (2014)
Annual National Assessments.
2.2 Percentage of Grade 6 learners See discussion for Indicator 1.1.
performing at the required
32
mathematics level according to the 60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
(2014)
country’s Annual National
Assessments.
3.1 Percentage of Grade 9 learners See discussion for Indicator 1.1. For the 2013 value, both home
performing at the required language language and first additional language learners were considered. 22
60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
level according to the country’s (2014)
Annual National Assessments.
3.2 Percentage of Grade 9 learners See discussion for Indicator 1.1.
 performing at the required 3
mathematics level according to the 60 63 66 69 72 75 90 95
(2014)
country’s Annual National
Assessments.

60
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
4 Number of Grade 12 learners who Figures to the right represent thousands of youths. The 2014
 become eligible for a Bachelors baseline figure excludes part-time students, passes in the
programme in the public national supplementary examinations and Independent Examinations Board
151
examinations. (IEB) students. Of the three exclusions, it is only the IEB results 190 205 220 235 255 270 350 435
(2014)
which would influence the indicator value substantially. Around
9 000 Bachelors level passes per year emerge from the IEB. For a
discussion of the indicator, see e.g. DBE (2013b).
5 Number of Grade 12 learners passing Figures to the right represent thousands of youths. The 2014
mathematics. baseline figure excludes part-time students and passes in the
supplementary examinations. Including these other categories tends 121
180 198 216 234 252 270 350 380
to raise the figure by around 10%. Only passes in the public (2014)
examination system are counted here. For a discussion of the
indicator, see e.g. DBE (2013b).
6 Number of Grade 12 learners passing See discussion for previous indicator. 103
170 186 202 218 234 250 320 350
physical science. (2014)
7 Average score obtained in Grade 6 in The 495 actual value is from the 2007 run of SACMEQ (Moloi and
language in the SACMEQ Chetty, 2010). The target of 520 is applicable to the 2013 run of 495
520 550 600 640
assessment. SACMEQ, whose results should be made available late in 2014. (2007)
The target of 550 assumes that SACMEQ testing occurs in 2019.
8 Average score obtained in Grade 6 in See discussion for previous indicator.
495
 mathematics in the SACMEQ (2007)
520 550 600 640
assessment.
9 Average Grade 8 mathematics score The actual value of 352 is from the 2011 TIMSS run, which
obtained in TIMSS. occurred in Grade 9 in South Africa (Reddy et al, 2012). Future
targets are those published in Action Plan 2011, incremented by 21
points, as this was the gap between grades 8 and 9 averages in 352
361 401 441 472
2003. Targets had to be adjusted upwards in line with the trend for (2011)
South Africa to participate at the Grade 9 level. The 2024 and 2029
targets apply to assumed TIMSS runs in 2023 and 2027
respectively.
10 Percentage of 7 to 15 year olds The key source for this indicator is the General Household Survey. 98,8
99,0 99,2 99,4 99,6 99,8 100 100 100
attending education institutions. (2012)

61
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
11 The percentage of Grade 1 learners Issues relating to the calculation of this indicator are described in
 who received Grade R. DBE (2013b). The source is household data (General Household
Survey of Stats SA), partly to ensure that Grade R outside ordinary 96
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
schools is included. For this indicator it is possible to use the (2014)
household data for one year to obtain the indicator value applicable
to the following year.
12.1 The percentage of children who See important points relating to the calculation of this indicator in
turned 9 in the previous year and who DBE (2013b) and correction appearing in Appendix B of the 73
65 67 69 71 73 75 85 90
are currently enrolled in Grade 4 (or a current plan. The key source for this indicator is the Annual Survey (2013)
higher grade). of Schools.
12.2 The percentage of children who See note for previous indicator.
turned 12 in the previous year and 63
52 54 55 57 58 60 75 80
who are currently enrolled in Grade 7 (2013)
(or a higher grade).
13.1 The percentage of youths who Past values are obtained using both household data and official
obtained a National Senior Certificate examinations reports. Indicator values for 2009-2011 in DBE 45
50 52 54 56 58 60 70 75
from a school. (2013b) were adjusted upwards to reflect the very large increase in (2014)
the number of passes in the 2013 examinations.
13.2 The percentage of youths who See important points relating to the calculation of this indicator in
obtained any FET qualification. (This DBE (2013b). Past values are obtained using both household data 47
65 72 79 86 93 100 100 100
is an indicator of concern to DBE and and official examinations reports. (2014)
DHET.)
14 The number of qualified teachers, Figures to the right represent thousands of teachers. The key source
aged 30 and below, entering the for this indicator is the Persal payroll system. The DBE’s analysis
public service as teachers for the first to arrive at these figures involves looking at several years of data at
time during the past year. once in order to take into account the fact that it is common for
educators to enter and leave multiple times, often as temporary
6,8
educators, before they ‘settle into’ the system. Not taking into 8 9 10 10 11 12 12 14
(2014)
account these dynamics can lead to an over-estimation of joining
(but even attrition). The figures provided in this report can be
considered to reflect the entry of qualified teachers for the first time
ever into the public system in provinces. The age of teachers is the
age in October of the year of entry

62
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
15.1 The percentage of learners who are in The key source for this indicator is the Annual Survey of Schools
65
classes with no more than 45 of the DBE. 80 83 86 89 92 95 100 100
(2013)
learners.
15.2 The percentage of schools where The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
allocated teaching posts are all filled. Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values 90
92 93 93 94 94 95 100 100
can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for (2011)
basic education sector, completed in 2014.
16.1 The average hours per year spent by The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
teachers on professional development Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values 39
51 55 58 62 66 70 80 80
activities. can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for (2011)
basic education sector, completed in 2014.
16.2 The percentage of teachers who are This is an indicator of great strategic importance, but it is also the
 able to attain minimum standards in indicator in the current list for which there is least data. The best
anonymous and sample-based data available are the 2007 SACMEQ Grade 6 teacher test results.
assessments of their subject These data are discussed in e.g. DBE (2013b). The 41% indicated
41
knowledge. here is from the mathematics test and uses an analysis of the
(2007)
correlation between learner results, percentage of learners
achieving acceptable standards and teacher test results to arrive at a
‘pass mark’ for teachers (793 SACMEQ points). Targets will be set
when more recent and comprehensive baseline data are available.
17 The percentage of teachers absent The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
from school on an average day. Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values 8
8 7 7 6 6 5 4 4
can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for (2011)
basic education sector, completed in 2014.
18 The percentage of learners who cover The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 everything in the curriculum for their Survey of the DBE. See important points relating to the calculation
current year on the basis of sample- of this indicator in DBE (2013a). The methodology of examining 53
60 63 66 69 72 75 90 100
based evaluations of records kept by learner writing books used in the 2011 School Monitoring Survey (2011)
teachers and evidence of practical represents an important step forward in the monitoring of this
exercises done by learners. important aspect of education service delivery.

63
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
19 The percentage of learners having The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 access to the required textbooks and Survey of the DBE. It is important to note that these statistics refer
workbooks for the entire school year. to learners who have the books they need in the classroom during
the visit of a fieldworker. Improving values thus depends on a host 61
69 77 84 92 100 100 100 100
of factors: deliveries of books to schools, re-use of books from one (2011)
year to the next, the teacher’s insistence that learners do not leave
books at home, and learner self-discipline around the use of books.
See an important explanation of the methodology in DBE (2013a).
20 The percentage of learners in schools The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 with a library or multimedia centre Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values 40
51 55 59 63 66 70 85 100
fulfilling certain minimum standards. can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for (2011)
basic education sector, completed in 2014.
21 The percentage of schools producing The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 the minimum set of management Survey of the DBE. Given the difficulties around collecting and
documents at a required standard, for interpreting data on the quality of school management documents,
instance a school budget, a school it was decided to allow baseline figures and targets to focus just on
52
improvement plan, an annual report, the availability of documents during the fieldworker visit. The 70 76 82 88 94 100 100 100
(2011)
attendance registers and a record of DBE remains committed improving the monitoring of the quality
learner marks. of these documents. Details on the calculation of baseline values
can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for
basic education sector, completed in 2014.
22 The percentage of schools where the The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
school governing body meets the Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values 81
84 86 87 88 89 90 100 100
minimum criteria in terms of can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for (2011)
effectiveness. basic education sector, completed in 2014.
23.1 The percentage of learners in schools The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 that are funded at the minimum level. Survey of the DBE. 2010 is the most recent year for which a
comprehensive analysis of the various facets of the implementation 79
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
of the funding norms was available. Details on the calculation of (2010)
baseline values can be found in the report Second detailed
indicator report for basic education sector, completed in 2014.

64
TABLE 1: NATIONAL INDICATOR VALUES
Indicator description Discussion Past 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 2029
23.2 The percentage of schools that have The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
acquired the full set of financial Survey of the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values
79
management responsibilities on the can be found in the report Second detailed indicator report for 85 87 89 91 93 95 100 100
(2011)
basis of an assessment of their basic education sector, completed in 2014.
financial management capacity.
24 The percentage of schools complying Key sources for this indicator are the School Monitoring Survey
 with a very basic level of school and the National Education Infrastructure Management System of
infrastructure. the DBE. Details on the calculation of baseline values can be found
46
in the report Second detailed indicator report for basic education 64 70 76 82 88 94 100 100
(2011)
sector, completed in 2014. The standard that informs the 46%
baseline value seen here conforms more or less what official
regulations state should be achieved by 2020.
25 The percentage of children who enjoy Past values are produced after careful consideration of three
a publicly funded school lunch every sources: official nutrition programme reports, the General
school day. Household Survey and the School Monitoring Survey. See DBE 70
75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75
(2014a) for the method used. 2011 figures are provided for the (2011)
baseline, but GHS data suggest the situation remained more or less
unchanged between 2011 and 2013.
26 The percentage of learners in schools The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
with at least one educator who Survey of the DBE. See DBE (2014a).
91
received specialised training in the 80 84 88 92 96 100 100 100
(2011)
identification and support of special
needs.
27.1 The percentage of schools visited at The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
88
least twice a year by district officials Survey of the DBE. See DBE (2013a) for methodology. 93 94 96 97 99 100 100 100
(2011)
for monitoring and support purposes.
27.2 The percentage of school principals The key source for this indicator has been the School Monitoring
 rating the support services of districts Survey of the DBE. See DBE (2013a) for methodology. Obviously, 50
as being satisfactory. values for this indicator are strongly depending on the wording of 55 59 63 67 71 75 85 90
(2011)
the questionnaire principals must answer and the way responses are
interpreted.

65
TABLE 2: PROVINCIAL INDICATOR VALUES Past values (see Table 1 for year) 2019 targets
Indicator description SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC
This table should be read with the previous one. In particular, the previous table includes important references to reports that explain the methodology used for individual
indicators. Unless otherwise stated, 2019 provincial targets seen below are calculated using an approach where worse performing provinces are expected to achieve larger
improvements, in absolute and proportional terms, meaning worse provinces are expected, over time, to catch up to better performing provinces, though the latter are also
expected to improve. Provincial target values moreover take into account the fact that larger provincial systems have larger effects on national indicator values.
1.1 Percentage of Grade 3 learners performing at the
 required literacy level according to the country’s Annual 57 51 65 71 57 43 57 45 51 64 75 70 79 78 77 72 73 71 72 80
National Assessments.
1.2 Percentage of Grade 3 learners performing at the
required numeracy level according to the country’s 56 52 65 74 56 34 55 49 39 68 75 72 74 79 76 70 74 74 73 83
Annual National Assessments.
2.1 Percentage of Grade 6 learners performing at the
required language level according to the country’s 46 28 49 74 40 26 40 48 41 75 75 69 76 84 74 69 71 75 75 86
Annual National Assessments.
2.2 Percentage of Grade 6 learners performing at the
required mathematics level according to the country’s 32 22 41 53 31 16 27 24 20 45 75 71 75 78 76 72 73 73 75 80
Annual National Assessments.
3.1 Percentage of Grade 9 learners performing at the
required language level according to the country’s 22 16 22 34 19 8 22 28 19 38 75 74 75 78 74 72 74 78 75 80
Annual National Assessments.
3.2 Percentage of Grade 9 learners performing at the
 required mathematics level according to the country’s 3 2 5 3 3 1 4 3 3 3 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 76
Annual National Assessments.
4 Number of Grade 12 learners who become eligible for a
 Bachelors programme in the public national
examinations. 151 13 8 37 36 16 11 2 9 19 270 33 15 52 67 33 21 5 17 27
Values here and for the following two indicators refer to
thousands of youths.
5 Number of Grade 12 learners passing mathematics. 121 13 7 25 29 18 10 2 6 11 270 40 15 46 66 38 21 5 16 23
6 Number of Grade 12 learners passing physical science. 103 11 6 20 25 18 9 1 5 8 250 38 14 42 60 37 21 5 15 19
7 Average score obtained in Grade 6 in language in the
495 448 491 573 486 425 474 506 506 583 520 481 517 585 513 462 503 529 529 593
SACMEQ assessment.

66
TABLE 2: PROVINCIAL INDICATOR VALUES Past values (see Table 1 for year) 2019 targets
Indicator description SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC
8 Average score obtained in Grade 6 in mathematics in the
495 469 493 545 485 447 477 499 503 566 520 498 518 561 512 480 505 523 527 579
 SACMEQ assessment.
9 Average Grade 9 mathematics score obtained in TIMSS. 352 316 359 389 337 322 344 366 350 404 401 382 407 424 394 385 398 411 402 433
10 Percentage of 7 to 15 year olds attending education
98,8 98,4 99,2 99,0 98,8 99,2 99,0 98,6 98,8 98,2 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
institutions.
11 The percentage of Grade 1 learners who received Grade
 R. 97 99 100 94 85 98 98 90 100 98 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Past values (including the national value) are means
using General Household Survey data 2011 to 2013.
12.1 The percentage of children who turned 9 in the previous
year and who are currently enrolled in Grade 4 (or a 73 63 69 83 75 80 68 69 70 70 75 73 73 77 76 77 75 72 73 73
higher grade).
12.2 The percentage of children who turned 12 in the previous
year and who are currently enrolled in Grade 7 (or a 63 49 59 78 63 67 58 57 57 64 60 57 58 64 60 62 59 57 57 60
higher grade).
13.1 The percentage of youths who obtained a National
45 33 43 49 49 48 49 39 39 46 60 53 59 59 66 64 61 54 56 57
Senior Certificate from a school.
13.2 The percentage of youths who obtained any FET
qualification. (This is an indicator of concern to DBE 47 35 45 51 51 50 51 41 41 48 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
and DHET.)
14 The number of qualified teachers, aged 30 and below,
entering the public service as teachers for the first time
6,8 0,2 0,4 1,6 1,7 0,6 0,7 0,2 0,5 0,2 12 1,1 0,7 2,4 2,9 1,4 1,1 0,3 0,9 1,2
during the past year.
Values refer to thousands of teachers.
15.1 The percentage of learners who are in classes with no
65 62 77 74 62 51 54 77 66 86 95 95 96 96 94 93 93 98 95 98
more than 45 learners.
15.2 The percentage of schools where allocated teaching posts
90 85 82 86 95 93 89 95 91 95 95 92 91 93 97 96 94 97 95 97
are all filled.
16.1 The average hours per year spent by teachers on
39 36 40 34 46 30 37 39 40 55 70 69 70 69 72 68 69 70 70 74
professional development activities.
16.2 The percentage of teachers who are able to attain
 minimum standards in anonymous and sample-based 41 38 40 53 42 26 15 50 46 71
assessments of their subject knowledge.

67
TABLE 2: PROVINCIAL INDICATOR VALUES Past values (see Table 1 for year) 2019 targets
Indicator description SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC
17 The percentage of teachers absent from school on an
8 8 6 7 10 9 7 6 6 4 5 5 5 5 6 5 5 5 5 4
average day.
18 The percentage of learners who cover everything in the
 curriculum for their current year on the basis of sample- 53 27 49 85 54 46 64 46 24 76 75 60 72 92 75 71 80 71 59 87
based evaluations of records kept by teachers and
evidence of practical exercises done by learners.
19 The percentage of learners having access to the required
61 68 55 67 55 54 52 64 67 84 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
 textbooks and workbooks for the entire school year.
20 The percentage of learners in schools with a library or
40 22 67 69 34 8 50 42 38 72 70 60 83 84 66 53 75 70 68 86
 multimedia centre fulfilling certain minimum standards.
21 The percentage of schools producing the minimum set of
 management documents at a required standard, for
instance a school budget, a school improvement plan, an 52 40 46 70 48 62 52 62 57 67 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
annual report, attendance registers and a record of
learner marks.
22 The percentage of schools where the school governing
body meets the minimum criteria in terms of 81 83 86 88 75 82 73 83 76 90 90 91 93 94 87 90 86 91 87 95
effectiveness.
23.1 The percentage of learners in schools that are funded at
79 81 41 84 77 85 94 79 68 82 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
 the minimum level.
23.2 The percentage of schools that have acquired the full set
of financial management responsibilities on the basis of 76 77 55 90 75 88 35 67 86 86 95 95 90 98 95 97 86 93 97 97
an assessment of their financial management capacity.
24 The percentage of schools complying with a very basic
46 29 63 58 34 52 38 70 39 73 94 92 96 95 93 95 93 97 93 97
 level of school infrastructure.
25 The percentage of children who enjoy a publicly funded
70 82 77 50 70 88 69 85 77 45 75 81 78 65 75 84 74 83 78 62
school lunch every school day.
26 The percentage of learners in schools with at least one
educator who received specialised training in the 91 80 96 97 94 80 94 92 96 99 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
identification and support of special needs.
27.1 The percentage of schools visited at least twice a year by
88 75 96 100 91 85 98 90 91 99 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
district officials for monitoring and support purposes.

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TABLE 2: PROVINCIAL INDICATOR VALUES Past values (see Table 1 for year) 2019 targets
Indicator description SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC SA EC FS GP KN LP MP NC NW WC
27.2 The percentage of school principals rating the support
50 48 49 62 48 50 47 53 31 67 75 74 74 79 74 75 73 76 67 81
 services of districts as being satisfactory.

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Appendix B: Details on grade and age

A variety of values have been put forward in the past for the indicators in this plan dealing
with grade attainment by age. The following table reproduces key figures:

Table 1: Summary of national indicator values

Year Indicator 12.1: The Indicator 12.2: The Source document (and data
percentage of children who percentage of children who source)
turned 9 in the previous year turned 12 in the previous year
and who are currently and who are currently
enrolled in Grade 4 (or a enrolled in Grade 7 (or a
higher grade). higher grade).
2009 61 47 2011 Action Plan p. 200
(combination Annual Survey
of Schools and General
Household Survey)
2012 58.0 40.9 DBE (2013b: 20). (Just
Annual Survey of Schools.)
2013 73.4 63.1 Current analysis (Annual
Survey of Schools).

Importantly, there was a coding problem in the calculation of the 2012 figures appearing
above, and as a result the 2012 values are lower than they should be. The same applies to the
2010 and 2011 values previously published in the 2013 sector progress report (DBE, 2013b:
20). The correct 2010 to 2013 values, all calculated using the same methodology and all using
the Annual Survey of Schools dataset, are as follows:

Table 2: Indicator values by province 2010-2013

Indicator 12.1: The percentage of children Indicator 12.2: The percentage of children
who turned 9 in the previous year and who who turned 12 in the previous year and who
are currently enrolled in Grade 4 (or a higher are currently enrolled in Grade 7 (or a higher
grade). grade).
Clear Clear
2010 2011 2012 2013 trend? 2010 2011 2012 2013 trend?
EC 60.6 62.2 62.0 63.1 46.6 47.3 46.5 49.0
FS 72.4 72.6 72.1 69.4 57.5 59.6 59.5 59.5
GP 83.4 82.9 82.3 83.1 75.6 77.6 77.2 77.7
KN 74.2 74.3 75.1 75.0 63.2 64.1 64.3 63.2
LP 81.3 76.6 80.6 79.7 63.4 62.3 65.7 67.0
MP 76.0 73.7 73.7 68.5 60.6 60.9 61.6 58.4
NC 70.9 69.3 66.0 69.3 54.3 55.8 53.4 57.0
NW 68.2 68.8 70.0 70.1 * 53.6 54.6 56.2 56.8 *
WC 73.1 72.6 71.0 69.7 63.6 65.7 65.1 64.5
SA 74.0 73.5 74.0 73.4 61.3 62.3 62.8 63.1 *

A clear trend is indicated with an asterisk if (a) there is a continuous increase across the four
years and (b) the 2013 value is at least one percentage point higher than the 2010 value.

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Appendix C: Useful documents

The documents listed below all inform the current Action Plan, are all publicly available, and
are mostly available on the internet. The focus here is on more recent documents that were not
listed in the bibliography of the 2011 Action Plan.

Armstrong, P. (2014). Teacher wages in South Africa: How attractive is the teaching
profession? Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.
Australian Council for Educational Research (2013). Formative evaluation of textbooks and
workbooks.
Branson, N., Garlick, J., Lam, D. & Leibbrandt, M. (2012). Education and inequality: The
South African case. Cape Town: SALDRU.
Bush, T., Kiggundu, E. & Moorosi, P. (2011). Preparing new principals in South Africa: the
ACE school leadership programme. South African Journal of Education, 31: 31-43.
Chauraya, M. (2013). Mathematics teacher change and identity in a professional learning
community. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Cristia, J.P., Ibarrarán, P., Cueto, S. & Santiago, A. (2012). Technology and child
development: Evidence from the One Laptop Per Child programme. Washington: Inter-
American Development Bank.
Department of Basic Education (2009). Report of the Task Team for the Review of the
Implementation of the National Curriculum Statement. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2011). 2011 report on progress in the schooling sector.
Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2012). IQMS annual report 2011/12. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013a). Detailed indicator report for basic education sector.
Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013b). Report on progress in the schooling sector against
key indicators. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013c). NEEDU national report 2012: The state of literacy
teaching and teaching in the Foundation Phase. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013d). Report on the Annual National Assessment of 2013.
Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013e). Developing and evaluating the first phase of the
Grade 12 Mind the Gap study guide series. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2013f). The internal efficiency of the school system. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2014a). Second detailed indicator report for basic education
sector. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2014b). The Ministerial Task Team report on the National
Senior Certificate. Pretoria.
Department of Basic Education (2014c). Report on the Annual National Assessment of 2014.
Pretoria.
Department of Economic Development (2012). A summary of the South African National
Infrastructure Plan. Pretoria.
Farrell, G. & Isaacs, S. (2007). Survey of ICT and education in Africa. Washington: infoDev.
Fullan, M., Watson, N. & Anderson, S. (2013). Ceibal: Next steps. Toronto: Michael Fullan
Enterprises.
Gustafsson, M. (2012). The gap between school enrolments and population in South Africa:
Analysis of the possible explanations. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.
Howie, S., Van Staden, S., Tshele, M., Dowse, C. & Zimmerman, L. (2012). South African
children's reading literacy achievement. Pretoria: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment.
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (2013). Success by numbers: How using data can
unblock the potential of South Africa’s R-12 public schooling system. Cape Town.
Moloi, M.Q. & Chetty, M. (2010). The SACMEQ III project in South Africa: A study of the
conditions of schooling and the quality of education. Pretoria: Department of Basic
Education.

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Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Foy, P. & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in
mathematics. Chestnut Hill: Boston College.
Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Foy, P. & Drucker, K.T. (2012). PIRLS 2011 international
results in reading. Chestnut Hill: Boston College.
Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Gonzalez, E.J. & Chrostowski, S.J. (2004). TIMSS 2003
international mathematics report. Chestnut Hill: Boston College.
National Planning Commission (2012). National development plan 2030: Our future - make it
work. Pretoria.
Presidency (2011). National evaluation policy framework. Pretoria.
Presidency (2014). The impact of the introduction of Grade R on learning outcomes. Pretoria.
Ralaingita, W. & Wetterberg, A. (2011). Gauging programme effectiveness with EGRA:
Impact evaluations in South Africa and Mali. In Amber Gove and Anna Wetterberg (ed.),
The Early Grade Reading Assessment: Applications and interventions to improve basic
literacy. Research Triangle Park: RTI Press.
Reddy, V., Prinsloo, C., Arends, F. & Visser, M. (2012). Highlights from TIMSS 2011: The
South African perspective. Pretoria: HSRC.
Richter, L. (2012). Diagnostic review of early childhood development. Pretoria: South African
Government.
Shisana, O., Labadarios, D., Rehle, T. & Simbayi, L. (2013). South African National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey. Cape Town: HSRC.
Shisana, O., Rehle, T., Simbayi, L.C., Zuma, K. & Jooste, S. (2014). South African National
HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey, 2012. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
UNESCO: UIS (2009). Guide to measuring information and communication technologies
(ICT) in education. Montreal.
UNICEF (2010). Tracking public expenditure and assessing service delivery in early
childhood development in South Africa. Pretoria.
World Economic Forum (2013). The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014. Geneva.

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