Basic Education minister, Angie Motshekga, has confirmed that a number of changes will be coming to South African schools.<\/p>\n
Presenting her annual performance plan to parliament on Tuesday (9 July), Motshekga said that this would include an increased focus on Early Childhood Development.<\/p>\n
As part of its election manifesto published in January, the ANC said that it is preparing to make two years of Early Childhood Development compulsory (ECD) for all children.<\/p>\n
This compulsory enrolment will apply to all South African children between the ages of four and five<\/strong> and will take place before the child enters grade 1.<\/p>\n “The president announced the ECD migration early in 2019 in his state of the nation address,” Motshekga said.<\/p>\n “To this effect, the DBE has started to develop work plans in the first 3 months of the sixth administration to drive the work streams in ECD migration.”<\/p>\n The department highlighted three other changes parents can expect in the future.<\/p>\n Tablets to all schools<\/strong><\/p>\n Motshekga said that her department would focus on the provision of digitised material for learning on a tablets.<\/p>\n In March, she said<\/a> <\/strong>that rollout would begin at select schools in 2020, with schools receiving tablets according to their quintile.<\/p>\n South African schools are divided into five quintiles, with Quintile 1 being the poorest quintile and Quintile 5 the least poor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan will be implemented in three phases commencing with phase 1 that will target multi-grade, multiphase, farm and selected rural schools (2020 \u2013 2021),\u201d Motshekga said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second phase will target quintile 1 to 3 schools (2022 \u2013 2023), and phase 3 will target quintile 4 and 5 schools (2024 \u2013 2025).\u201d<\/p>\n She added that all special needs schools will be accommodated in all phases according to the type of disability.<\/p>\n New languages of instruction<\/strong><\/p>\n In his state of the nation address, president Cyril Ramaphosa said<\/a> <\/strong>that all foundation and intermediate phase teachers are to be trained to teach reading in English and the African languages.<\/p>\n He added that government is currently training and deploying a cohort of experienced coaches to provide high-quality on-site support to teachers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are also implementing the Early Grade Reading Programme, which consists of an integrated package of lesson plans, additional reading materials and professional support to Foundation Phase teachers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis forms part of the broader efforts to strengthen the basic education system by empowering school leadership teams, improving the capabilities of teachers and ensuring a more consistent measurement of progress for grades three, six and nine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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