Education in South Africa became democratic in 1994 when our nation officially gained its freedom from the colonizers. Since then, education system has been brutalizing learners to this very day. This brutality is not only seen by those outside the curriculum, educators themselves realize this brutality. Educationally honest and truthful educators are not afraid to reveal the hidden skeletons of this education system – curriculum. Many educators, in different places across the country, have been speaking out against the NCS curriculum. Experienced educators and those who embark on academic development are normally in the forefront in criticizing the NCS. This is because they have been teaching for far too long and they have realized the deadly shortcomings of the NCS. Other educators, through their personal academic development, embark on research and from that they realize the irrelevancy of the curriculum. The intention of this paper is to share educators’ experiences and realizations of the irrelevancy of the NCS. These personal experiences are a conclusive proof that, the Simnandi education independent entity`s position on the current curriculum is correct and relevant and is of concern to many people in our country.
Matthew Botsime is now an educationist and community developer, he taught both under NCS and IEB. Taken from Inside Education under the title Curriculum dynamics continues to fail teachers and learners in South Africa (https://insideeducation.co.za/2018/03/27/curriculum-dynamics-continues-fail-teachers-learners-south-africa/) here`s Mathew`s NCS brutality personal experience that proves the relevancy of the dire need of the introduction of Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) as an alternative curriculum for our nation as Simnandi Solutions has proposed it:
‘’I completed my BA degree in 2009 at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). I then I enrolled for a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at Rhodes University in 2010. Here, we were introduced to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum which was still a proposed curriculum at the time. I started my teaching career in 2011 and a year later, in 2012, CAPS was formally introduced. In 2013 I went for two days training. At the time I taught Arts, Culture and Life orientation for Grades eight and nine. The subject was suddenly changed from Arts & Culture to Creative Arts.
We were now expected to teach four art forms: Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Art and Dance. My learning area manager and I came to a conclusion that we will only offer Drama and Dance because of the resources that would be required for each art form. The point I am making is, after all these changes made to the curricula, and the two days training, I was not confident enough to impart the knowledge to the student. The current curriculum is not doing justice to the teachers and learners. Teaching and learning are not occurring as much as they are supposed to occur.
I once read an article on how the CAPS curriculum is causing harm to the learners. The article mentioned that the curriculum was too rigid and too assessment oriented. It made the argument that the curriculum also made no time for consolidation, and that there too much homework given to the learner. I share same sentiments. I taught for 8 years in South Africa and I was overwhelmed as a teacher.
I taught in both private and public schools. The last school I taught in South Africa was private school which followed the Independent Examination Board (IEB) curriculum. However, the curriculum was also aligned to CAPS. Still, I found that I enjoyed teaching at schools using IEB more than the state school because in the IEB there has flexibility. Here, I was the curriculum designer for Life Orientation for grades nine and 10. I had the autonomy to choose what and how I want to teach unlike in the state schools where the teachers are restricted by pace setters.
In state schools, the pace setter forces you to teach and assess your students regardless of whether the concepts learned were understood or not.
The IEB curriculum is more flexible and it allowed us to stretch the learning unit to the following term. We used inquiry and simulation-based learning approach in our classes. We taught learners concepts and we would give them adequate time to inquire and simulate what they have learnt through presentations, role plays and reflections.
Another issue is that of assessments. We need to look at when it is necessary to assess our learners and change the current South African assessment age. For example, Finland is ranked number one in education. The country is said to have the best education system in the world.
In Finland, teachers have autonomy to choose what they want to teach and they are allowed to primarily focus on teaching and learning. Learners in Finland do not write exams until age 16. This may be one of the many issues with the education system in South Africa. A grade one learner writes his or her first assessment in their first term of school. Have we considered what the long-term implications of this might be?
When we look at the pressure experienced by teachers caused by changing policies prescribed by the department of education; the pressure for teachers to adhere to a pace set by the department as well as early and excessive assessments, I firmly believe that a review of South Africa’s education system is much overdue. Teachers should be given the freedom.’’
This personal experience challenges whoever is reading this to sit back and reminisce about the future of education in south Africa, the future of the innocent learners, and the future of teaching profession in this country. Personal experiences such as these are the very reason personalized education curriculum system (PECS) is robustly proposed. The solution to all the problems mentioned in this article is PECS introduction. Schooling system in South Africa is damaged to the core! No matter how much we change policies, those policies will never fix this unfixable curriculum. We are left with one solution, Simnandi Solutions continuously preach of that solution every week – personalized education curriculum system (PECS).
Know more about PECS: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/personalized-education/ – Click on PECS Powerpoint presentation.
Please answer these 3 questions and submit: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/pecs-questionnaires/