Presentation by: Dr S Mannah Department of Basic Education 13 March 2013

United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child: Section on Department of Basic Education (DBE) Presentation by: Dr S Mannah Department of Basic Education 13 March 2013

PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Introduction • The Right to Education • The aims of education (article 29) with reference to the quality of education & education on human rights and civic education • Human rights and civic education • Cultural and linguistic rights of children (article 30) • Rest, play, leisure, recreation and cultural and artistic activities (article 31)

Introduction • South Africa ratified the UNCRC on 16 June 1995, presented its first report in 1998 and received the Committee’s concluding observations in 2000. • A main achievements during this reporting period was the establishment of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) in 2009 to improve the coordination of policies and monitoring mechanisms for children • South Africa has made remarkable progress to accelerate the implementation of the Convention since its first report and basic education is one of the areas that shows progress

The Right to Education • The State has undertaken system-wide reforms over the last decade to improve the availability and accessibility to education. Measures include: • the restructuring of the education system into a unified whole • an increased education budget • infrastructure development, and • special measures to ensure the inclusion of especially marginalised children including: • children living in poverty, • children living in rural areas and • children with disabilities.

The Right to Education (Cont’d) • The DBE has restructured to improve availability of pre-primary, primary and secondary education • The current system makes available: (a) early childhood development (ECD) for children aged 0-4 through private ECD facilities; (b) The General Education and Training (GET) band covering Grades R to Grade 9 (for children aged 5 – 15). This band represents the compulsory phase of education (c) The Further Education and Training (FET) band includes Grades 10 – 12 at schools (the senior secondary component)

Education Expenditure • The combined basic and higher education budget has increased substantially over the last decade from R147.2 billion to R207 billion. • Education now constitutes more than 21% of government’s total allocated expenditure and accounts for 6% of GDP. • The budgets for ECD at Grade R level have also increased substantially from R 691 million in 2007/08 to R3.2 billion in 2011/12.

Access to Education • Making educational institutions available is not sufficient to realise the right of all children to education hence, additional measures are necessary. • Efforts have resulted in significant improvements in access to education, namely: • Access to ECD facilities (not including Grade R) almost doubled from about 16% in 2001 to approximately 30% in 2011 • Grade R enrolments have also doubled from 300 000 in 2003 to 705 000 in 2011 (Statistics South Africa, 2012)

Access to Education cont. • Near universal primary school enrolment rate of 99% in 2011 • In addition retention rates have improved. 88% of learners completed Grade 9 in 2010 compared to 80% in 2003. • Gender equality has largely been achieved within education • The number of children between the ages of 7 – 15 with disabilities attending school increased by more than 20% between 2002 and 2010. • The rate of access for those aged 16-18 also increased from 51% in 2002 to 68% in 2010

Mitigating Measures • Numerous measures to promote inclusion and retention were introduced which include policies and laws that promote equal access to education and educational facilities. Namely: • The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No. 4 of 2000, • The South African Schools Act (1996), • The Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools Act (1996) • White Paper 6 (2001), and • The National Policy on HIV/AIDS for Learners and Educators in Public Schools (1999)

Mitigating Measures (cont’d) • The DBE has strengthened its framework governing the monitoring of learner enrolment and attendance to identify and address absenteeism of vulnerable learners. • The National Policy on Learner Attendance (2010) obliges all schools to actively monitor learner attendance and to intervene where learners are absent for a prolonged period of time.

Mitigating measures (cont’d) • The most common drivers of exclusion of vulnerable children, such as poverty, disability, and teen pregnancies have been addressed in the following way: • Pro-poor funding policies that ensure preferential funding for schools in the poorest income quintiles (b) A programme of action for the identification of learners with disabilities and other learning barriers

Cont. (c) Measures to prevent early pregnancies and provide support to ensure the return of girls to school who have had their babies; and (d) The systemic integration of care and support for teaching and learning for vulnerable children within the whole education system (e) The development of a social cohesion toolkit and the Quality Learning and teaching Campaign to support schools

The aims of education (article 29) with reference to the quality of education & education on human rights and civic education: • The poor quality of education and low educational outcomes especially among poor learners, rural learners and Black learners has been caused by a number of underlying factors both historical and current. • However, current education policies and programmes are focused on remedying the historical exclusion and under-resourcing of education for the majority of Black children in South Africa. • Furthermore, the curriculum has been further revised and streamlined to include education on human rights and civic education

Mitigating Measures for Quality Education • The basic education sector has introduced a number of intensive reform interventions over the last few years to address the underlying causes of poor education. • These include: (a) improving access to, and the quality of ECD services; (b) improving the content and quality of the curriculum; (c) the introduction of annual national assessments (ANA) of all learners using international benchmarks;

Cont. (d) The introduction of the holistic Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa 2011 – 2025 aimed at improving the minimum qualifications, competencies, and the number of teachers, especially in under-serviced areas; (e) Ensuring that all children have access to adequate learning and teaching support materials, especially their own workbooks and text books; and (f) Measures to improve planning, coordination, management and monitoring systems to ensure improved, standardised and equitable funding and implementation of national education policies across all provinces and districts.

Mitigating Measures for Quality Education • These above-mentioned measures have already started yielding positive results. • There has been a marked improvement in the pass rate of learners in Grade 12 (the National Senior Certificate). The pass rate was alarmingly low in 2009 (60,6%). In 2011 the pass rate reached 70% and climbed even higher in 2012 to almost 74%. • The percentage of Grade 12 learners that qualify for university entrance has increased from 23,5% in 2010 to 26% in 2012, which bodes well for achieving the 2014 target of 175 000 learners. • There are also improvements in the performance of learners in the 2012 ANA examinations.

Human Rights and Civic Education: • The education system has a number of mechanisms in place to secure children’s knowledge of, and respect for their rights and the rights of others. These include: • The establishment of a dedicated Social Cohesion and Equity in Education Directorate within the DBE to promote mainstreaming of human rights teaching and practices within the system • The inclusion of human rights education in the curriculum (BOR, Gender Equality etc.) • The development of an Integrated Strategy on HIV and AIDS 2012 – 2016 to ensure a comprehensive and integrated response to HIV and AIDS throughout the education system;

Cont. • Practical curriculum, training, awareness-raising and other interventions to address gender-based barriers and violence in schools; and • The establishment of peer education groups in schools like the Girls Education Movement and Boys Education Movement (GEMBEM) • Training on human rights and constitutional values for School Governing Bodies (SGBS) and Representatives Council of Learners (RCLS)

Cultural and linguistic rights of children (article 30) • The Constitution recognises and protects the rights of all people to participate in and practise their religion or culture. • This means that no school policy or practise may exclude or otherwise discriminate against a student on the grounds of his or her religion or culture. • The South African Schools Act (1996) provides that schools may observe religious practices, subject to the proviso that it is done on an equitable basis and no person (learner or teacher) can be forced to participate. • National Policy on Religion and Education was published in 2003 to support schools in the development of constitutionally compliant religious practices and education at schools.

Cultural and linguistic rights of children (cont’d) • The State recognises that the right to use and be taught in one’s home language is critical to maintaining the cultural integrity and the right of equal access to education • Policies include: • The Language in Education Policy (LiEP) (1997) and the National Curriculum Statements (2011) which require that learners be taught in their home language in the Foundation Phase • More recently, the Education Laws Amendment Act 2011 strengthened the protection of the use of official languages by providing that the governing body of a public school must ensure that (a) there is no unfair discrimination in respect of any official languages

Rest, play, leisure, recreation and cultural and artistic activities (article 31) • Section 6(1)(e) of the Children’s Act (2005) recognises the “child’s need for development and to engage in play and other recreational activities • The Department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA) and the DBE have developed a national pro-poor Integrated School Sport Framework (2011) with the objective of regulating access to, and the delivery of school sport for all learners, irrespective of their ability, based on the principles of equity and access • The DBE has also published a Draft School Sport Policy an enabling framework for the implementation of school sports. The initiatives have received the highest priority within the SRSA which has increased its 2012 school sport budget from R27,3 million to R42,6 million

Conclusion • The Department has developed the Action to plan to 2014 towards realisation of schooling 2025. this plan is aimed at realising the rights of the children and improve the quality of education • The basic education sector is also working collaboratively with the other government Departments such as DWCPD, DSD, Arts and Culture, Justice and Constitutional Development to ensure that the rights of children are realised in South Africa • Furthermore, the Department has close working relationship with international development agencies such as UNICEF and UNESCO in protecting the rights of children.

THANK YOU!!!

Presentation by: Dr S Mannah Department of Basic Education 13 March 2013