No.44 May 2005 |
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Introduction
The current situation surrounding South Africa’s education system
is the direct result of the Bantu Education Act (1953) and the National
Policy Act (1967). The aim of these acts was to perpetuate White supremacy
by providing them with a better quality education than the other races.
Funding was allocated on an unequal basis. Schools attended by Blacks
were under-resourced, understaffed and many teachers were either unqualified
or under-qualified. The shortage of human resources impacted negatively
on the quality of teaching and staff morale. The so-called ’Rainbow
Nation’ with its rich ethnic and cultural diversity and divide
between the rich and the poor, reflected in the relative prosperity
of the ‘Whites’ and their ready access to a developed economic,
physical, educational, communication and other infrastructure contrasted
with a ‘Black’ majority nation living under conditions of
poverty and power-related violence within a grossly underdeveloped infrastructure.
The historically segregated and differentiated education system in South
Africa, exacerbated by the social and economic divides had wide-ranging
adverse effects on school physical education that will still be felt
in the years to come. Post-Apartheid Education Reform
Post-apartheid South Africa, signalled by the 1994 election, witnessed
the launch of a massive reconstruction and development programme whereby
all systems and structures of the previous government, including education,
had to be thought through along the lines of a new ideology. Education,
according to President Thabo Mbeki, was to take on the mantle of driving
efforts in nation building through engaging in large-scale pre- and
in-service training (Asmal, 1999:1).
Curriculum change commenced immediately after the
1994 election with the purpose of laying the foundation for a single national
core syllabus. The first major curriculum statement was titled, Lifelong
Learning through a National Curriculum Framework of 1996, in which
a shift from a traditional aims-and-objective approach to outcomes-based
education was clearly evident (DoE, 2002b). In 1998 the phasing in of
Outcomes-based Education (OBE) began with the drafting of Curriculum 2005.
For the purpose of formal school education Curriculum 2005 was divided
into the General Education and Training Band that includes Grades R-9
and the Further Education and Training Band comprising Grades 10-12. The
basis for curriculum transformation and development in contemporary SA
is provided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
(Act No 108 of 1996) (DoE, 2002b). Outcomes derived from the Constitution
describe the kind of citizen the education and training system should
aim to produce and comprise 12 ‘Critical’ and ‘Developmental’
Outcomes (DoE, 2002a; DoE, 2002b). Post-Apartheid Phyical Education Reform
One of the first initiatives to reinstate physical education and organised
school sport came from the Department of Sport and Recreation in 1995.
A number of initiatives followed which eventually led to an investigation
into the organisation and placement of School Sport conducted by the
Centre for Education Policy Development, Evaluation and Management (CEPD)
and the Education Policy Unit (EPU) of the University of Natal. The
report, published in September 1999, made it clear:
“that the education system has under-rated the importance of promoting
the physical development, and therefore the holistic development, of
the child.…interventions are required by the Department of Education
and the Department of Sport and Recreation to ensure that PE and sport
have their rightful place in the lives of children” (CEPD/EPU,
1999:85).
In October 1999 the then Southern African Association for Movement Education
(SAAME) requested the Minister of Education in writing for an opportunity
to discuss the crisis in PE and organised school sport and to bring
the World Summit on PE of 1999 and the Third International Conference
of Ministers and Senior Officials responsible for Physical Education
and Sport (MINEPS III) of 1999 under his attention.
In February 2000, SAAME was invited to an Inter-Governmental Consultative
Meeting on School Sport Policy to report back on the World Summit and
MINEPS III. At this meeting it was decided that there should be a collaborative
effort to develop a policy for PE and school sport in which the Department
of Education (DoE) should take responsibility. An Inter-Departmental
Task Team (IDTT) was formed to draft the policy. The IDTT consisted
of members from the Department of Education, Department of Sport and
Recreation, the Provincial Departments of Education, the Provincial
Department of Sport and Recreation, the South African Sports Commission,
the United School Sport Association of South Africa, teacher unions
and the SAAME under the joint chairpersonship of a government official
from the Department of Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation.
It was clear at these meetings that each representative had a personal
agenda to further a particular course and to manipulate the system.
In a sense it was extremely difficult for the SAAME to state the case
of physical education. Most delegates were from the previously disadvantaged
sections of society who had no knowledge or understanding of physical
education as a school subject because of lack of experience, in spite
of a prepared document for Professor Kader Asmal MP, Minister of Education,
and Mr Ngconde Balfour MP, Minister of Sport and Recreation (Van Deventer,
2000). The document: a) provided a broad overview of concepts of physical
education and school sport; b) addressed the global problems and challenges
for physical education; c) suggested criteria for policy consideration
based on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
Berlin Agenda and the Declaration and Recommendations of MINEPS III;
d) outlined the outcomes of a physical education and school sport programme;
and e) made recommendations on immediate needs.
During the drafting of the policy both Ministers of Education and Sport
made important announcements regarding physical education and school
sport in their budget speeches in Parliament (Asmal, 2000; Balfour,
2000). Both Ministers confirmed the importance of physical education
and sport. They identified the school as the place where the foundation
for healthy lifestyles should be laid, announced that specific teaching
time should be allocated to physical education in every grade (IDTT,
2000) and proclaimed the national importance of physical education and
school sport by stating that it could aid in the
“promotion of the transformation agenda, particularly the elimination
of racism and discrimination in schools and school sport activities;
promotion of organised physical activities as a healthy life-style approach
to counter juvenile crime, promiscuity and HIV infection” (Marsden,
2001:7).
The final draft on the placement of physical education and school sport
was completed on 3 May 2000. However, the DoE initiated the Review Committee
on Curriculum 2005, whose Report, published on 31 May 2000, had far
reaching implications for the draft policy on the placement of physical
education and school sport. On 28 June 2000 the IDTT was informed that
an ‘impasse’ had been reached because of the curriculum
review issue. On 20 July 2000 members were informed that consideration
was being given to a protocol on school sport and that attention would
be given to the curriculum component of physical education separately.
The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) (Grades R-9), which
ostensibly streamlines and strengthensi Curriculum 2005, was gazetted
in May 2002 (DoE, 2002b). Within the RNCS’s eight learning areas,
the learning area Life Orientation consists of five learning outcomes,
of which Physical Development and Movement resembles physical education.
The other focii are Health Promotion, Social Development, Personal Development
and Orientation to the World of Work (DoE, 2002a). In the National Curriculum
Statement (NCS) (Grades 10-12), Life Orientation is a Fundamental Learning
Component carrying 10 credits in value; within this Learning Orientation,
the learning outcome Recreation and Physical Well-being resembles physical
education, while the other three learning outcomes relate to Personal
Well-being, Responsible Citizenship and Career Guidance (DoE, 2003b).
Both the Revised National Curriculum Statement and the National Curriculum
Statement emphasise the value of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. However,
analysis of the assessment standards reveals that only one assessment
standard in Grade 2, one in Grade 10 and one in Grade 11 refer to the
Indigenous Knowledge Systems, a feature which has caused some commentators
(Nekwhevha, 2000; Coetzee & Le Roux, 2001; Burnett & Hollander,
2002; Breidlid, 2003; Higgs, 2003) to suggest that the theoretical base
of the two Statements has a Eurocentric orientation), which leaves little
room for an Afrocentric approach to education.
The very first national research project on Indigenous Games in South
Africa, funded by the National Research Foundation and the South African
Sports Commission and conducted by Burnett and Hollander was published
in 2002. This publication can be viewed as a landmark in the research
history of sport science in South Africa and could contribute towards
developing appropriate learning programmes that reflect the Indigenous
Knowledge Systems.
Although the two Curriculum Statements do make provision for movement
as one focus area of Life Orientation very little, if any, progress
has been made regarding the state and status of physical education as
reported by the Hardman & Marshall, (2000) world audit on the state
and status of physical education in schools. Sadly, the status quo continues.
Quality physical education is not part of the school curriculum for
most schools. Therefore, South Africa has not succeeded in complying
with the recommendations in the Berlin Agenda.
Ten years down the democratic line, the problems South African policies
seek to address, remain endemic, since the proposed changes are not
materialising (Ndhlovu, 2000). South Africa spends 8% of its Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) on education, while most other developing countries spend
2-5%. Notwithstanding all the considerable advances, many schools still
lack basic utilities, teachers are still under-skilled and largely unaccountable
for what happens in the classroom (Bisseker, 2003). The question is,
why? System Failure
A former Minister of Education in South Africa stated in his budget
speech on 14 March 2000:
“Government blames teachers, the teachers blame the parents,
the parents blame the students, the students blame government and in
the end, instead of working it out, everyone gives up and goes off to
a shebeen [an informal tavern in a township] and drink themselves into
oblivion” (Asmal, 2000:7).
Education in Africa is in a crisis and the situation is deteriorating
(Samoff, 2001). Education was seen to be the principal vehicle for social
change and for redressing discrimination and inequality. There have
been exciting education innovations and reforms in Africa, but few have
been sustained and fewer still have served as models for development
elsewhere. Papers published by the World Bank in 1990 on the implementation
of education policy in sub-Saharan Africa exposed the gap between policy
intention and realisation and attempted to answer the question, Why
have these policies failed? It has been more than a decade and we can
still ask the same question (Ward et al., 2003:127).
Reality reveals that national and provincial education departments are
non-functional in South Africa. Thus, despite the huge resources invested
into the system, it is no surprise that the impact of education reforms
has been minimal (Ndhlovu, 2000; Bisseker, 2003; Skinner, 2003; Ward
et al., 2003). The heart of the problem seems to be a mismatch between
sophisticated policies of the Department of Education (DoE) and the
dismal realities that most schools experience. At the core of the problem
is that no accountability mechanism with bite exists in the education
system. The DoE is failing to assure the quality of teachers' work,
principals are failing to ensure that teachers cover the curriculum,
district officials are not supporting schools and provincial departments
of education are underspending and failing to deliver textbooks (Bisseker,
2003). The existing infrastructural problems in schools make it difficult
to properly (re-) introduce physical education. Although volunteers
are prepared to drive sport in schools, the lack of infrastructure makes
it difficult for sport to be properly engaged in in schools (CEPD/EPU,
1999).
Other problems that are faced includes the absence of teachers, their
punctuality and preparation. Teachers are not teaching five hours a
day and learners are not learning what they are supposed to be learning
because no one is holding the teachers accountable. Fear that the public
school system is unravelling is strengthened by the recent finding that
South Africa will face a shortage of 30,000 teachers by 2007 (Bisseker,
2003; Burger, 2003).
One of the positive impacts of educational policy is that over 95% of
children between the ages of six and 14 are in school, which is unprecedented
in developing countries. Another landmark event was the Whole-school
Development (WSD) policy which was launched in 2001, but is only now
being implemented. However, efforts to improve accountability will most
probably run aground at district level, since it is here where the greatest
obstacle to improving educational opportunities lie (CEPD/EPU, 1999;
Ndhlovu, 2000; Samoff, 2001; Bisseker, 2003; Skinner, 2003). Concluding Comments
The World Summit on Physical Education and its Action Agendas placed
physical education on the world political agenda, testimony to which
was the Punta Del Este Ministerial Declaration to implement ideals espoused
in the UNESCO Charter of 1978 and to accord with the policy principles
of the Berlin Physical Education Summit’s Action Agenda. In South
Africa over the past 66 years physical education has been caught up
in the practices of mono-culturalism, which have inevitably meant a
colour-blind approach to physical education curricula and pedagogy (Fleming,
1997). In the pursuit of compliance with global initiatives, South Africa
has failed dismally and the conclusion has to be drawn that physical
education and school sport has not been democratised in South African
schools. References
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Education, Professor Kader Asmal, MP introducing the debate on the Education
Budget, Vote 8 National Assembly, Cape Town, 14 March.
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Ngconde Balfour to the National Assembly, Cape Town Tuesday, 14
March.
Bisseker, C. (2003). Future imperfect. Financial
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Karel J Van Deventer,
Department of Sport Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa Email: kjvd@maties.sun.ac.za ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/bulletin-may2005.htm |