'Overseas fads hinder progress'
2008-01-28 21:05
Pretoria - Overseas fads were hindering South Africa's progress, Democratic Alliance leader in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature Jack Bloom said on Monday.
Touching on education in his weekly online newsletter Bloom said the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) approach which was first introduced in 1997 was a "disaster" in South Africa.
"Matric pupils this year write an exam on the curriculum that grew out of the Outcomes-Based Education approach."
OBE had a very mixed record in countries like Britain, Australia and New Zealand. It had been a disaster here, especially in poorer schools where teachers were inadequately trained in its implementation, said Bloom.
Bloom said Education Minister Naledi Pandor had sat in on a class and wondered why nothing had been written on the board, with the teacher replying that she had been instructed that OBE meant that one should always face the pupils.
"Textbooks were abandoned as OBE was interpreted to mean that there was no set curriculum, and teachers and pupils would jointly construct it.
"This could only work in better resourced schools where teachers were properly qualified and motivated."
With the reinstatement of the Revised National Curriculum Statement in 2002, textbooks and content were reinstated.
"Attention is returning to the teaching of basic literacy and numeracy in which we score miserably even compared to neighbouring countries like Swaziland and Lesotho," said Bloom.
Bloom added that education was not the only area for concern.
"Instead of routine testing and partner notification as with other sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/Aids prevention has been hampered by an excessive focus on the privacy rights of infected individuals as opposed to the rights of others not to be infected."
He said that doctors in the country could not test people without their permission if a person was suspected to be infected with HIV/Aids.
It was a general trend imported from overseas to continually expand the definition of "rights", which were elevated over duties, said Bloom.
- SAPA