DA's Plan for Growth and Jobs - Democratic Alliance

SA’s global education rankingsIndicator Global Rank (out of 142)Secondary school enrolment 51Tertiary education enrolment 97Quality of education system 133Quality of maths and science education 138Internet access in schools 100Table 6: Despite significant gains in the number of learners enrolled at secondary level, thepoor quality of South Africa’s education system means that school-leavers are ill equippedfor the job market. The problem is particularly marked in the lack of maths, science and ITskills. Source: World Economic ForumSHORT-TERM POLICY PROPOSALSPolicy outcome: Improved education outcomesTraining workshops for teachersIntroduce training workshops for teachers during school holidays to improve their literacyand numeracy teaching skills. Workshops will draw on international best practice teachertraining and will be followed up with annual testing of literacy and numeracy skills of primaryschool learners, in order to refine literacy and numeracy strategy.Improved outcomes strategy for grade 12sDevelop an improved-outcomes strategy targeted at Grade 12 learners in underperformingschools. The strategy will include setting targets for improvement, providing learner andsubject-specific support through the provision of textbooks and a "tips for success" bookletwhich will help learners with preparation for the NSC, and additional teaching supportthrough the implementation of tutoring and telematics programmes, which will provideunderperforming schools with high-quality lessons via satellite.Extra classrooms at high-performing schoolsBuild additional classrooms at high performing schools in order to accommodate morelearners. This will increase capacity at these schools and ensure that more learners from adiversity of backgrounds, most especially from disadvantaged communities, are givenincreased opportunities to gain entry into successful schools thereby expanding access toquality education.Regular teacher testingIntroduce regular testing of teachers in the subjects they teach in order to determine subjectknowledge and competence. This serves two key purposes: (i) providing much-needed dataon subject knowledge deficits so additional training and resources can be directed to fix theproblem; and (ii) introducing an incentive for teachers to constantly monitor their subjectknowledge and ensure that it is up-to-date.47 | P a g e