Pretoria - The Basic Education Department is hoping to identify the gaps to fill before implementing its Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025.
The department and education stakeholders are currently attending a symposium, which is expected to help the department refine its strategies and interventions towards improving the quality of basic education.
The department invited the stakeholders to broaden the platform for engagement and assist the department in sharpening all efforts to achieve the goals of the plan.
Early this year, the department came up with Action Plan to 2014, which will form part of a larger vision called Schooling 2025.
The plan, which is currently out for public comment, explains the 27 national goals that lie at the heart of the vision for education.
The first 13 goals include output goals dealing with better school results and enrolment of learners in schools, while the remaining 14 goals deal with things needed in order to realise the output goals.
The 13 goals aim to increase the number of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9, and ensure that by the end of the schooling year, they have mastered the minimum language and numeracy competencies for those grades.
They also aim to increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass mathematics and physical science and become eligible for a bachelor's programme at university.
Furthermore, the plan aims to:
* Improve the average performance in mathematics of grade 8 learners.
* Ensure that all children remain effectively enrolled in school until they turn 15.
* Improve access of children to quality early childhood development below Grade 1.
* Improve the grade promotion of learners in Grades 1 to 9.
* Improve the access of youth to Further Education and Training beyond Grade 9.
Speaking to stakeholders, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the plan was a vehicle for achieving Outcome 1 of the 12 outcomes representing the top priorities of government, which speaks to improved quality of basic education.
"The question of quality explains precisely why we have requested you to join hands with us to chart a way forward for quality schooling in South Africa, using the Action Plan as a point of departure.
"One purpose of the plan is to bring greater rigour into the monitoring of the schooling system and promote better research into challenges faced by the sector," Motshekga said.
