This serves as a call for comments on the Action plan to 2014. The plan is a draft document of the Department of Basic Education intended to elicit public inputs.

The Strategy forms part of the implementation of education white paper 6 – Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. The strategy allows children facing educational barriers to exercise their basic education rights, and access to support services. It introduces new roles, and responsibilities for the
education support system in the country: the district-based support teams, special school resource centres, full-service schools, and the institution-level support teams.

This represents the first distinct and independent strategic plan of the Department of Basic Education. The strategic plan sets out the three-year objectives and activities of the department, with emphasis on implementation and performance monitoring of the basic education system. The key objectives include; streamlining of curriculum; development of strategies on the assessment of learners; recognition of the critical role played by teachers in delivering quality teaching and learning, and the role played by principals in management of schools; distribution of learning materials; and promotion of e-education strategies.

This serves as the first distinct policy of the ministry of higher education and training (MHET) dedicated to the use of distance education in higher education programmes. The MHET seeks to use the framework to chart a course towards the development of South African distance higher education as an indispensable and integral component of the nation’s higher education system. The policy is formulated as a result of the increasing growth of the distance education component of higher education in the country.

The plan outlines the goals and aspirations of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), and its specified stakeholders for 2025. The draft action plan is the DBE’s strategy to strengthen weak areas in the education system.

This represents a review of the planning framework of the department of basic education (DBE), to reflect changes in functional areas, institutional structures, and plans and programmes at the national level; and allowing for the coverage of issues pertaining to provinces in provincial programmes and plans. The areas of focus for the five year sectoral strategic plan include: provision of learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), support for rural and small schools, and recruitment and deployment of educators.

The delivery agreement are long-term, and applies to the whole government. It provides detail to the outputs, targets, indicators and key activities to achieve outcome 1; Improved quality of basic education. The agreement identifies the required inputs, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the various delivery partners. It should be read alongside the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025.

The purposes for which the report was developed include: to record progress that has been made at national and provincial level in the implememtation processes; to track progress on priorities outlined in the National Inclusive Education Strategy of 2011; to highlight models of good practice at provincial level and areas of need for additional resources; and to make recommendations on norms and standards as well as amendments required to ensure that South Africa meets its national and international educational obligations on inclusive education.

The full version of the action plan is intended for managers responsible for implementation, and people responsible for monitoring the success of implementation. It highlights the 27 goals of the action plans and specific delineations. The plan is South Africa’s foremost comprehensive long-term sector plan for schools; and it guides the ten education departments dealing with basic education education (the national Department of Basic Education and the nine provincial departments).

The full version of the action plan is directed at a broad range of stakeholders for the education sector, ranging from parents, teachers, school principals, and officials at the district, to foreign investors looking to invest in the development of the sector. It highlights the 27 goals of the action plans and specific delineations. The plan provides continuity, as it follows from the basic structure of the 2011 action. It guides the ten education departments dealing with basic education education (the national Department of Basic Education and the nine provincial departments).

An abridged version of the delivery agreement for outcome 1; Improved quality of basic education.

The curriculum assessment policy statement outlining the guidelines for responding to learner diversity in the classroom. “The guidelines are intended to provide teachers, principals, subject advisors, administrators, school governors and other personnel, parameters and strategies on how to respond to learner diversity in the classrooms through the curriculum. They are intended for school based teacher development by the Institution level support teams and district based support teams.

The national reading strategy has a vision to ensure every South African learner becomes a fluent reader who reads to learn, and reads for enjoyment and enrichment. It underpins South Africa’s participation in United Nations development campaigns, including; the UNESCO Literacy Decade 2003-2013, and the Education for All (EFA) campaign, which aim to increase literacy rates by 50% by the year 2015.

The strategic plan outlines the building blocks necessary to ensure the strong foundation for the educational system. It strives to ensure that the skills needed to drive South Africa’s economic growth and social development are delivered at an increasing rate for both young people and adults.

The interim policy is in recognition of the critical importance of early childhood
development (ECD) as a fundamental pillar of the foundation for lifelong learning. The government aims to incorporate ECD into the components of the policy framework for education and training in South Africa. It seeks to leverage on programmes and strategies to help families and communities meet the needs of children from birth to at least nine years of age. The policy will “holistically cover the development of the young child and ensure an environment characterised by safety, protection, anti-bias and cultural fairness, to ensure that attitudinal and psychological healing, reconciliation and the start of nation building can take place at a young age”.

This represents the white paper on special needs education in South Africa, towards building an inclusive education and training system. It highlights the resolve of the national government to audit special schools, develop investment plans to improve their quality of education, and accomodate learners with severe disabilities. It overhauls the process of admitting learners, and it makes provisions for structures acknowledging the central role played by specified stakeholders, as a form of replacement. The white paper, together with the white paper on early childhood development (ECD), serves as the completion of seven years of post-apartheid policy development and policy making on education and training.

The policy document intends to provide guidance and coordination on key components of the adult basic education and training (ABET) system in South Africa. It pushes to create an enabling environment for coordination of efforts within practitioners in government, NGOs, and providers in the economic sector. “The main purpose of the policy is to help practitioners and planners to promote, implement,
monitor and evaluate robust ABET practice in order to ensure that ABET occupies a central place in the development of the education and training system.”

The 2007-2011 strategic plan represents the department of education’s reaffirmation and commitment towards the transformation of the education system in South Africa. The 4 year plan focuses on improving support to schools, educators, and district offices. The strategic plan is anchored to the broad priorities of the department: dealing with poverty, skills development, quality improvement, health and education, and institutional development.

The statement of policy and commitment by the department of education. The statement highlights the achievement in the education sector, as the country celebrates its first decade of freedom. The department pushes to build on the achievements; it seeks to enhance the professional status of teaching, and address infrastructural inadequacies in the education sector.

The amendment operates under the South African Schools act of 2006. It sets out the national norms and standards for school funding, it deals with the procedures to be adopted by Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) in determining resource allocations to schools, and it replaces all previous school funding norms issued in terms of sections of the South African Schools act. The norms and standards deal with the public funding of public schools, the exemption of parents who are unable to pay school fees, and public subsidies to independent schools. They apply uniformly in all provinces.