At the offices of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), in Sandton, the National Education Collaboration Trust announces the recommitment by its founders – government, private sector, teacher unions and civil society – to support the initiative to improve education in South Africa for a further five years.
The meeting attended by over 70 people representing private sector funders of the NECT, government officials, civil society members and educationists noted that by 2018, the NECT had mobilised over 5 592 South Africans to implement education improvement initiatives informed by the National Development Plan (NDP), directly engaged over 4 500 people in education dialogues pertinent to the NDP, engaged 1 430 experts and over 60 organisations, and raised over R1,1 billion for this cause. The NECT has created a powerful and effective national convening authority, demonstrating in practical terms the idea of ‘active citizenry’ that runs through the NDP. The four and half years’ NECT outputs include the design and publication of 144 teacher development modules covering Mathematics, Science and Language by grade, presented in seven official languages which were distributed to 61.5% of schools nationally. These materials include daily lesson plans pitched and paced against curriculum policy requirements, teaching methodologies and relevant assessments with the purpose of promoting common routines across South African classrooms. In excess of 84 128 teachers from all provinces have been trained and supported in their classrooms, 671 (30%) subject advisors in the country have been part of the design and the implementation of the programme. Teacher unions have also played active and direct roles in the design and implementation of these programmes. A total of 11 916 members of the school management teams from 5 692 schools have benefited from this programme. A new district planning approach has been rolled out in 45% of the 75 districts in the country and the computer-based school administration system is being modernised through a partnership between three philanthropic funders, the DBE and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). Commenting on the five years of the NECT work, the chairman of the NECT Mr Sizwe Nxasana said, “We are pleasantly surprised by the work that we have covered, literally in four years since we started working in the schools in earnest. The success is owed to the commitment of Government, the private sector, teacher unions and the civil society organisations that joined hands together in the spirit of the National Development Plan”.
With the refreshed mandate, the NECT will focus its energies on the institutionalisation of the teacher professionalisation initiatives which have already reached 61,5% of the schooling system, collaboration with the teacher unions to further strengthen their professional development programmes, facilitation of a process of defining a South African relevant school management philosophy, introducing a national reading initiative (National Reading Coalition) that will coordinate and align government and non-governmental interventions more comprehensively, modernisation and rollout of the revamped school management system, convening of education dialogues, provision of further support to the DBE to research and design effective and scalable parent involvement initiatives and to rollout the Care and Support for Teaching and Learning, piloting and onboarding of 21st Century learning approaches, and providing project management and technical support to strategic initiatives as and when it becomes necessary. Lauding the NECT, the Minister of Education, Ms Angie Motshekga said “The NECT helped the sector and the education partners to focus on improving classroom processes, the core business of education. We reiterate our gratitude for the support from all stakeholders and commit Government and the Department of Basic Education to continue to collaborate with partners under the NECT umbrella”
Issued by the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT)
Contact: Thulare Matlaba
083 257 2938 or 012 752 6200
thularem@nect.org.za
www.nect.org.za