Feature
No.44
May 2005
 
    

Post-Berlin Summit Developments in School Physical Education:
A South African Perspective
Karel J Van Deventer, Republic of South Africa
 

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
Asmal, K. (1999). Call to action: Mobilising citizens to build a South African education and training system for the 21st Century. Hyperlink http://education.pwv.gov.za/ 14 May 2001.
Asmal, K. (2000). Speech by the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, MP introducing the debate on the Education Budget, Vote 8 National Assembly, Cape Town, 14 March.
Balfour, N. (2000). Budget speech by the Minister Ngconde Balfour to the National Assembly, Cape Town Tuesday, 14 March.
Bisseker, C. (2003). Future imperfect. Financial Mail, : 22-24, 12 September.
Breidlid, A. (2003). Ideologogy, cultural values and education: The case of Curriculum 2005. Perspectives in Education, 21 (2): 83-102.
Burger, D., (2003). 9 September, p.2.
Burnett, C. & Hollander, W. (1999). ‘Sport for all’ versus ‘all for sport’: Empowering the disempowered in South Africa. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance (AJPHERD), 5(2): 96-115, October.
Burnett, C. & Hollander, W. (2002). Report of the national research project on indigenous games 2001/2002. Unpublished research report. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.
CEPD/EPU (Centre for Education Policy Development, Evaluation and Management and the Education Policy Unit [Natal], (1999). An investigation into the organisation and placement of school sport. Commissioned by the Department of Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation. Unpublished research report. Durban: Natal.
Coetzee, D. & Le Roux, A. (2001). The challenge of quality and relevance in South African education: a philosophical perspective. South African Journal of Education, 21 (4): 208-212.
DoE (Department of Education), (2000). Education for a global era: Challenges to equity, opportunities for diversity. Globalisation, values and HIV/AIDS. Country paper: South Africa. 14th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. Pretoria: Department of Education.
DoE (Department of Education), (2002a). Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 (Schools) Policy. Life Orientation. Pretoria: Department of Education.
DoE (Department of Education), (2002b). Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 (Schools) Policy. Overview. Pretoria: Department of Education.
DoE (Department of Education), (2003a). National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General) Overview. Pretoria: Department of Education.
DoE (Department of Education), (2003b). National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General) Life Orientation. Pretoria: Department of Education.
Fleming, S., (1997). Ethnicity and the physical education curriculum: Towards an anti-racist approach. In Graham McFee & Alan Tomlinson (Eds.), Education, Sport and Leisure. Connections and Controversies. Chelsea School Research Centre Edition Volume 2 (119-134). Aachen: Meyer & Meyer Verlag.
Hardman, K. & Marshall, J.J., (2000). World-wide Survey of the state and status of physical education in schools. University of Manchester: Campus Print Ltd.
Higgs, P. (2003). African philosophy and the transformation of educational discourse in South Africa. Journal of Education, (30): 5-22.
IDTT (Interdepartmental Task Team), (2000). Draft agenda of the meeting of the Interdepartmental Task Team on policy for physical education/human movement and school sport held on 15 & 16 March in Pretoria. Pretoria: Department of Education.
Marsden, D., (2001). Case study on policy implementation. School sport policy initiative. Unpublished PhD assignment. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.
Nekwhevha, F. (2000). Education transformation and the African Renaissance in a globalising world. Journal of Education, (25): 19-47.
Ndhlovu, T. (2000). Globalisation and transformation: An investigation of whole school development in South Africa. Journal of Education, (25): 49-62.
Samoff, J. (2001). “Education for all” in Africa but education systems that serve few well. Perspectives in Education, 19 (1): 5-28.
Skinner, J. (2003). Why (education) policy can't be implemented these days: some philosophical considerations. Journal of Education, (30): 41-55.
Van Deventer, K.J. (2000). The place of physical education and sport in schools. Unpublished draft document requested by the Minister of Education and Sport, 21 February. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University.
Ward, M., Bourne, J., Penny, A. & Poston, M. (2003). Why do education policies in East Africa fail? What's changing? Journal of Education, (30) : 127-148.


Karel J Van Deventer,
Department of Sport Science, Stellenbosch University,
Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa
Email: kjvd@maties.sun.ac.za




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