Elaine Browne.pdf - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Languages, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology, Economic and
Management Sciences, Arts and Culture and Life Orientation.
Implementation of the RNCS was also not unproblematic: The revised curriculum (which is still
in use, called NCS) is depicted as ‘descriptive’ and not ‘prescriptive’. This implied a major shift
from previous apartheid syllabi where content was specified and teachers merely expected to
transmit a particular body of knowledge and then assess whether learners were able to recall
and remember the knowledge acquired. The NCS, on the other hand, merely stipulates
‘guidelines’ and the expected ‘outcomes’ that need to be achieved at the end of each level. The
curriculum does not specify content or lesson format (Soudien & Sayed 2004, 111) and text
books are seldom used. Teachers are thus required to interpret the outcomes, design learning
programmes, facilitate learning experiences, and assess learners’ progress according to
descriptive assessment standards (Ramparsad 2001, 288). In addition, teachers are also
required to be leaders, administrators, as well as managers (DoE 2002a, 3).
South Africa’s educational contexts
The revised educational policies were met with profound criticism, as it assumed optimal
environments for teaching and learning in all schools. This, however, is not the case, as will be
discussed below:
Teacher (in)competence
Unfortunately, due to the disparities brought about by the previous South African political
dispensation, “there is … an enormous range in the knowledge and skills of the teachers”
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