Johannesburg - Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga on Tuesday outlined a forthcoming new approach and imminent improvements of existing programmes within her department, which she said were meant to produce better outcomes among primary schools up to Grade 7.
This was in response to a clarion call sounded by President Cyril Ramaphosa for the department of basic education (DBE) to ensure that “every child should learn to read with meaning by the age of 10”.
Motshekga said because “the co-ordination of our reading interventions are currently being strengthened” and that the DBE is now “paying particular attention to the teaching of ‘reading with meaning’” inspired by the president’s focus on the reading skills among school learners in the country, her department has intensified efforts to “realise further improvements in the system” to gain better outcomes in relation to “the learning foundations that children build in the early grades of primary schooling”.
“Our core business is curriculum delivery, that is, teaching and learning. Our duty therefore is to accelerate the implementation of existing basic education policies. There is consensus that we need to fix the system from the bottom,” said Motshekga.
“Our number one priority is to improve the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, especially ‘reading with meaning’, straddling the ECD (Early Childhood Development) to the end of Intermediate Phase at Grade 6, which should be underpinned by a Reading Revolution.
“We have begun the process of transforming our curriculum.
The plan is to establish National Schools of Specialisation or Focus Schools throughout the country to offer new skills-based subjects which include aviation, maritime, engineering, hospitality and tourism, arts, mathematics and science.
We are establishing Technical High Schools and Schools of Skill.”