New administration brings corrections

How important the democratic process of changes in administration can be to rectify mistakes of the past was dramatically demonstrated during the past week in South Africa when firstly a major shift in policy in education was announced. Short on its heels, an about-face was made in the fight against HIV/Aids – away from the denialist approach of the Thabo Mbeki administration.

The importance of a change of administration under a democratic system, among others, is the opportunity it affords to break the shackles of the policies to which the previous administration had compromised itself.

Last week an announcement was made by the new Jacob Zuma administration that significant and fundamental adjustments are to be made to the system of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) to which the previous administration's Minister Kader Asmal had committed the country. There will be a move back to some of the most basic teaching principles of the past.

Short on its heals there was a significant change in the way the country combats one of the greatest long-term crises facing South Africa. President Zuma, in a speech on HIV/Aids to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), ushered in a new era of national action against a devastating pandemic. And in the same week, Zuma’s words were backed up with the allocation of substantial funds by the government to do this.

In 1998 South Africa followed in the footsteps of countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand in introducing OBE as an education system in schools, based on a philosophy of educational reform. This happened at a stage when the approach was already under considerable pressure in Australia, some states in the US and elsewhere, while New Zealand had put the entire system on hold as early as 1996.

Even the man regarded as the farther of modern OBE, the c, had by then adapted many of his original basic concepts.

The system involved a movement away from content-based education towards an outcomes-based system. It was to be phased in from 1998 to 2005 under a programme that became known as Curriculum 2005. Soon after its introduction, it became apparent that there were significant difficulties with almost every aspect of the implementation of the programme.

South Africa in 2008 had its first batch of matriculants who had been taught under the OBE system. At the time, an increasing number of studies emerged which lamented the reading and writing abilities of South African children, and it became clear that the system has ill prepared learners for the challenges of tertiary education.

But in November that year, then Minister of Education Naledi Pandor insisted in an interview that the Education department had absolutely no intention of ditching OBE.
Last week, the new Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga announced a “return to how many things were done in the past.” There is a move back to the classic way of teaching, in which there is worked from a set basis and both learners and teachers know exactly what is expected from them.

HIV/Aids

Through his speech to the NCOP on a new approach to the fight against HIV/Aids, President Zuma has turned a once vocal and powerful enemy of the government into a friend. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lauded Zuma’s speech as a landmark event that ended 10 years of government denialism over Aids.

The TAC clashed heavily with Zuma’s predecessor, former president Mbeki, and his then Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang over their stance on Aids, with Mbeki being accused of denialism. Tsbalala-Msimang was ridiculed worldwide for her claims that Aids could be treated simply by eating a diet of beetroot, garlic and other herbs or vegetables.

Now Zuma, a man ironically himself once blasted for his views on HIV/Aids which emerged during an unsuccessful rape trial against him, has finally taken the lead in setting things straight. This came against the background of chilling new Aids statistics from the Department of Health, Human Sciences Research Council, Medical Research Council, Statistics SA and other sources cited by Zuma in his speech on Friday, and which show a sharp rise in the number of deaths and of younger people dying.

In a welcome departure from previous policy and practice, Zuma and Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi are taking and heeding advice from experts and acting upon it. In his speech on Friday, Zuma called for national mobilisation against HIV/Aids, saying South Africans had to come to terms with the reality of losing the battle against the pandemic.