By Zingisa Ngqongwa

Education is society’s investment in the form of human capital for its own development and progress. It is as much about the socialisation of a new generation to the norms and values of society and the world as it is about nurturing inquisition and innovation. It is one of the defining enterprises of the 21st century with the emergence of globalisation and increasing global competition. In the fast changing and competitive world, education and technology are the master keys for respectable survival and progress for countries determined to respond positively to emerging needs, opportunities and challenges of globalisation. Education is a key to change and economic development. Progress and prosperity of a country, in part, depends on the kind of education that is provided to the people.

Importance of Education to Development

Education increases the potential for economic, social and political adjustment of individuals in a society. It is an essential prerequisite for an efficient and equitable development process. It is a recognised fact that without a minimum education level for the entire population, a human-centred development process cannot be sustained. Human development demands special attention in order to facilitate all segments of the society. It provides people with greater opportunities and choices to improve their lives. In other words, through the process of education, human beings develop abilities, skills and attitudes that help them to modify their behaviour according to social, economic and political demands. Education is considered the most important way of human capital formation, which is a prerequisite for sustaining the development of nations.

The quality of human resource plays a critical role in the rise and fall of nations, and human resource can be developed with the help of education. A nation’s overall position and it’s standing in the world community, to a large extent, is determined by the standards of its educational system. Since education is about gaining knowledge and mastering science and technology and control of information, and it also influences a nation’s belief system, culture, civilisation and values, it represents, simultaneously, a nation’s past, present, and future.

Education and Productivity

The educational provisions within any given country represent one of the main determinants of the composition and growth of that country’s output and exports, and constitute an important ingredient in a system’s capacity to borrow foreign technology effectively. For example: health and nutrition, and primary and secondary education all raise the productivity of workers, rural and urban; secondary education, facilitates the acquisition of skills and managerial capacity; tertiary education supports the development of basic science, the appropriate selection of technology imports and the domestic adaptation and development of technologies; secondary and tertiary education also represent critical elements in the development of key institutions of government, law, and the financial system, among others, all essential for economic growth. Empirical evidence at both micro and macro levels further illuminates these relationships. At a micro level, numerous studies indicate that increases in earnings are associated with additional years of education, with the rate of return varying with high level of education. The returns to primary schooling tend to be greater than returns to secondary and tertiary education (Psacharopoulos 1994).

In agriculture, evidence suggests positive effects of education on productivity among farmers using modern technologies, but less impact, as might be expected, among those using traditional methods. In Thailand, farmers with four or more years of schooling were three times more likely to adopt fertilizer and other modern inputs than less educated farmers (Birdsall, 1993: 75-79). Similarly, in Nepal, the completion of at least seven years of schooling increased productivity in wheat by over a quarter, and in rice by 13% (Jamison and Moock, 1994:13).

Education is also an important contributor to technological capability and technical change in industry. Statistical analysis of the clothing and engineering industries in Sri Lanka, to cite just one example, showed that the skill and education levels of workers and entrepreneurs were positively related to the rate of technical change of the firm (Deraniyagala, 1995). Some countries have successfully combined openness and investment in learning and education, forming a virtuous circle: openness creates demand for education, and learning and education make a country’s export sector more competitive. Knowledge accumulation influences a country’s trade performance and competitiveness.

Education alone, of course cannot transform an economy. The quantity and quality of investment, domestic and foreign, together with the overall policy environment, form the other important determinants of economic performance. Yet the level of human development has a bearing on these factors too. The quality of policy making and of investment decisions is bound to be influenced by the education of both policy makers and managers. Moreover, the volume of both domestic and foreign investment is likely to be larger when a system’s human capital supply is more plentiful.

From a macro perspective, the ‘new growth theories’ aim to indigenise technical progress by incorporating some of these same effects, emphasising education. According to Lucas (1998), for example, the higher the level of education of the workforce the higher the overall productivity of capital, because the more educated are more likely to innovate, and thus affect everyone’s productivity. In other models a similar externality is generated as the increased education of individuals raises not only their own productivity but also that of others with whom they interact, so that total productivity increases as the average level of education rises. The impact of education on the nature and growth of exports, which, in turn, affect the aggregate growth rate, is another way in which human development influences macro performance. The education and skills of a developing country’s labour force influence the nature of its factor endowment and consequently the composition of its trade. It has been argued that even ‘unskilled’ workers in a modern factory normally need the literacy, numeracy, and discipline, which are acquired in primary and lower secondary school.

Education in South Africa

One of the major ways of ensuring that the fruits of our freedom are enjoyed by all is making quality education at all levels possible and accessible. This, then, becomes the point of departure from the apartheid system that dispensed differentiated and unequal education to different race groups. The central purpose of the sector reforms introduced in the past fifteen years has been to improve the education system by making it accessible to all.  However, something seems to be missing or lacking because we do not appear to be making significant changes for the better.

Before 1948 education among most communities (especially African) was given by missionaries. A few schools in these communities had appropriate standards but only a few students attended school. A huge section of the population was not given proper education, such that there were only 343 African students in higher education and only about 30 percent of children between the ages of seven and sixteen attended school. The Bantu education was underfinanced and could not educate the whole group—only a few got the privilege to education.

The Bantu education system was ran by the government instead of the missionaries who would ordinarily have been controlling the curriculum and the syllabuses. And the system was set to spread out and cement the message of apartheid during that time. Its purpose was to limit the ability of African people to aspire for anything beyond provision of manual labour to their White masters. As years went by there was a big increase in children participating in education. Much of the educational successes attained through missionary education, especially in the Eastern Cape, were gradually set back by the inferior so-called Bantu education. So, it was inevitable that with the advent of democracy, a new system of education would be in the offing.

Introduction of OBE

A curriculum change was necessary for South Africa to help fix the disparities existing between Black, Coloured, Indian and White education systems. It is against this background that the outcomes based education (OBE) system was introduced. The national outcomes-based qualification framework was hailed as a strategy that would bridge the differences and provide universal access to quality education for all race groups. OBE was thus identified as the only curriculum that could change the South African education system while placing a strong focus on economic growth (Malan, 1997:3).

According to Jansen (2002), South Africa needed young people with democratic attitudes to become useful citizens of the new democracy. These learners needed to be equipped with the ability to work effectively and to work in new areas of the economy. The authoritarian system of education generated a false divide between academic knowledge and its application by encouraging role learning that resulted in learners being passive recipients of knowledge.

After the adoption of this system, South Africa was faced with three major challenges in the field of education: the creation of an equitable system of education and training that would serve all citizens and accommodate learners in different programmes, the need to improve the quality of education and training for human resources to be sufficiently developed to achieve and sustain significant levels of economic growth for international competitiveness, and to create an education and training system which would be more flexible, efficient and accessible to the majority of its citizens (Du Toit, 1997:1)

OBE had its good intentions of improving the system, but major criticisms have also been made since its introduction in schools. Some believed that the system was driven by political imperatives that had little to do with the realities of classroom life. Educators were not always able to translate the vaguely worded outcomes into practical teaching and learning activities with specific content (Horst & Mc Donald, 1997:16).

On the contrary, OBE is said to have worked successfully in wealthy countries such as Norway, where the teacher pupil ration is 1:8, and each school has a social worker. However, conditions are different in South Africa, particularly in township schools that are beset with problems such as overcrowding, redeployment and rationalisation of educators. Under-trained and under-qualified educators are also a major problem. Poor and insufficient facilities and lack of a culture of learning and teaching also adds to the problem that prevents OBE from being successful.

OBE tends to put more emphasis on the outcomes that define what learners should master, most of which do not focus on the core academic content. It is assumed that a sound content base is naturally always a prerequisite for critical thinking and problem solving, which is the heart of the system.

The other problem with this system is that government did not consider and involve parents by allowing them to choose from a wide range of schooling options. A backlash of the system is that not all the stakeholders of different groups have been consulted and no consensus has been reached, which possibly may be the reason for parents opting for private schools for their children. 

The system emphasised academic tutoring, focusing on changing behaviour and holding back faster learners from moving ahead with more advanced material until every student in the class has mastered the tasks. OBE is said to have undermined traditional motivation, such as testing and scoring, as it does not permit learners to fail. It is evident that learners have ultimately not learned that in the real world there are always deadlines and time frames for the completion of certain tasks. This system of education seems to have made things worse rather than improving the quality of education as evidenced by past matric results.

Eastern Cape Matric Results for 2010

Although still rated as one of the worst performing provinces in the country, the results allegedly improved from 51% in 2009 to 58.3% in 2010. This was just marginally shy of the 60 percent pass rate target set by the province. The province managed to move from the bottom to rank seventh out of the nine provinces in the country. Despite many challenges throughout the year, the learners managed to improve their performance; although it is doubtful that the quality of education improved by as much.

According to MEC Mandla Makhuphula during the announcement of matric results, the best performing district in the Eastern Cape province for 2010 was Cradock, where 747 candidates obtained a pass rate of 75.4%, while the most improved district was Qumbu with a massive 21.5% increase. The pass rate for 2009 in Qumbu had been 35.5% compared to 56.96% in 2010. Qumbu was closely followed by Cofimvaba district which improved by 20.8%. The lowest district pass rate was recorded by Fort Beaufort at 44.01 %. Of the 23 districts in the province, 21 recorded improved pass rates ranging from 1% to 21.5%. The two districts that have disappointed the province are Libode, which declined by 5.8%, and Port Elizabeth, the flagship of Eastern Cape but whose pass rates decline every year, this time by 1%.

The Cause of Relative Poor Performance

The Eastern Cape is dominated by mostly rural areas as compared to other provinces whereby poverty and inequality persist. Before we even blame the system of education we also need to look at the inequality (gap) that exists between the private and public schools across the country. The inequality is evident in school facilities, materials, environmental conditions, method of teaching, etc. Whichever way we look at it, the Department of Education also contributes to poor learner performance for failing to deliver on its set priorities, for example supplying teachers with learner materials, maintaining buildings, providing basic services like water, toilets and a functional feeding scheme in public schools, etc. These are just some of the things that greatly affect our public schools hence the performance. South Africa is known for its great policies the world over, but it is also known for its problems and challenge of failing to implement the policies. This applies to the OBE system that has been introduced in schools. Proper training and follow-up assessment or courses for teachers should have been properly done in order to equip and capacitate our Bantu educated teachers on the new system.

There is also need for greater and more purposeful career guidance for learners so that they can be motivated to work towards their set goals. Parent involvement in student learning and performance is also one of the important things that need to be encouraged back at home. In most public schools teachers struggle with the overflowing number of students in classrooms and cannot give full attention to each student. This means that parents and teachers need to form partnerships to help monitor learners adequately. In private schools this is not much of a problem for they accommodate less numbers of students and can therefore give attention to each. However, public schools need to be increased and expanded where feasible in order to ease congestion.

Conclusion

As discussed above, education plays a vital role in the economic growth and development of a country. For a country like South Africa, in particular, overcoming social ills such as poverty and inequality calls for a strong education system that will empower ordinary South Africans to respond with confidence to the imperatives of modern society. There is a great need to investment more in teacher development, school facilities, school management and governance, bursary opportunities, etc. The quest for the improvement of education quality is one of the most significant challenges facing the South African government, and should be regarded as a national priority that requires involvement and engagement at all levels of our society. Improving the quality of education is particularly critical to ensure learning needs are met, better equipped human capital is produced to sustain the nation’s economic development, and pathways are provided for families and communities out of poverty.

References

•    Birdsall, N. (1993), “Social Development in Economic Development”, World Bank Policy research working Papers, WPS 1123, Washington DC.
•    Department of Education 1995. White paper on education and training in a democratic South Africa: first steps to develop a new system
•    Deraniyagala, S. (1995), Technical Change and Efficiency in Sri Lanka`s Manufacturing Industry, D. Phil, Oxford.
•    Du Toit, P 1997. Learning styles: Keys to education, Cape Town, UCT Press
•    Hofmeyer, J & Buckland, P, 1992. The implementation of outcomes based education in township primary schools. University of Pretoria.
•    Jamison, D. and P. Moock (1994), “Farmer Education and Farmer Efficiency in the Nepal: The Role of Schooling”, World Development, 12.
•    Jansen, J.D 2002. ‘Curriculum reform in South Africa: a critical analysis of outcomes-based education’. Cambridge journal of education
•    Lucas, Robert. (1998), “On the Mechanics of Economic Development”, Journal of Monetary Economics, July 22(1).Mincer, Jacob, (1974), Schooling, Earnings, and Experience, New York, Colombia University Press.
•    Malan, B. 1997. Excellence through outcomes. Cape Town. Juta.
•    Psacharopoulos, G. (1994), “Returns to Investment in Education: Aglobal Update”, World Development, 22(9).
•    Van Der Horst, H & McDonald, R. 1997. OBE. A teacher's manual . Pretoria. Kagiso.
•    www.ecdoe.gov.za/matic-results