Johannesburg – South Africa’s basic education system is set for a major overhaul should the changes announced by Minister Angie Motshekga come to fruition.
Among the changes the department has mooted is the review of the history content for grades 4-12. Motshekga has appointed a ministerial task team on the development of the subject.
The review includes topics such historiography; material culture and archaeology; African history; heritage and local history, including labour history; language, gender and culture history, inland history, and world history. Motshekga in her budget vote speech said since last year, the ministerial task team has been consulting with reference teams comprising teachers and subject specialists on pedagogy, historical skills and assessment to strengthen the history content framework.
“The ministerial task team is currently engaged in a dedicated writing session to sequence and package the identified content; to ensure alignment in terms of articulation, sequencing, progression, and conceptual development.
“The next area is that of the incremental introduction to African languages strategy, which was initiated in 2013 to strengthen the teaching of previously marginalised African languages, including isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, Siswati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Sepedi, Sesotho and Setswana in our schools,” said Motshekga.
The Department of Basic Education has also decided to expand the list of South African languages offered as second additional languages in the national curriculum statement. These include Khoi, Nama, San languages and the South African Sign Language.
“The introduction of Kiswahili second additional language in the national curriculum statement will go a long way towards decolonising education in South Africa in particular.”
The departments of basic education and transport are also finalising the draft aviation curriculum to ensure that the draft curriculum is aligned with the curriculum assessment policy statements.
“The appointment of a service provider to develop practical assessment tasks for this aviation curriculum has been advertised. We are proud that the country will introduce another uniquely South African subject offering,” she said.
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