National planning commission chairperson Trevor Manuel recently released the much-anticipated national development plan aimed principally at tackling the structural economic problems of high unemployment and pervasive poverty. This is not our first attempt at formulating strategies to deal with these challenges. Many other growth strategies have been published since 1994 with similar fanfare. The latest attempt is indeed a fresh and inspiring restatement of what is already known!
The question we need to ask, and seriously reflect on, is why is it that the intended outcomes in all these plans have proven so elusive?
In my view there is a fundamental principle that must be strictly followed and respected in any exercise of strategy crafting: a brilliant strategy has no value if you cannot deliver. In essence, a realistic strategy must be executable.
There are three fundamental and key conditions that must be met for any strategy to be successfully implemented:
* There must be a very clear and comprehensive identification and understanding of the challenges and the environment in which they exist. South African developmental challenges have been analysed to death. The national planning commission (NPC) plan brings a simple but logical approach to the narrative. Its approach is therefore exciting and inspiring.
* The organisation must have the capacity and capability to implement the strategy. The prevailing evidence and opinion is that most state institutions and organisations lack visionary and effective leadership and corruption is rife. The state delivery machinery will therefore need to be transformed radically at all spheres of government to meet the new challenge.
* There must be a clear understanding of constraints that may hinder effective strategy execution and an appropriate strategy and plan must be in place to eliminate constraints or mitigate their effect.
These simple criteria will always provide a reliable yardstick for measuring the potential success of any strategy. Identifying and dealing with constraints has always proven very problematic. The real challenge is whether leadership is honest enough to face reality and make the right choices.
To illustrate the point, let us review the evolution of our education strategy and policy choices.
The outcomes-based education strategy was adopted in spite of overwhelming evidence that: 1) It was the wrong approach given our legacy and the challenges we face. 2) Our education system and the parental support it required was totally inadequate to provide the support necessary to enable us to achieve the anticipated outcomes. These positions were not motivated by an uninformed resistance to change. They were the considered opinions of experienced education planners and specialists who warned us, based on sound and credible research, not to follow this approach. Yet we chose to ignore this advice and pressed ahead.
Education has always been placed right at the top of our development priorities. The NPC’s new plan has also allocated the top slot to education. If the above development criteria were honestly applied, it would not have been possible to adopt the choices we made.
There are important lessons to be learnt as we are now being invited to participate in yet another exercise in developing our strategic vision for 2030. The critical test will be whether there will be sufficient political leadership to deal with the constraints that have hobbled our development progress in the past.
One of the short-term measures recommended by the NPC for advancing access to quality education and teaching is the need to decisively exclude the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) from interfering with the appointment of principals and teachers immediately. Sadtu has predictably denied that it has a corrosive influence in the normal running of public schools in predominantly poor areas. There is evidence to substantiate this accusation. Given the influence of Sadtu within the alliance, I hope the NPC plan will not just be a fuzzy dream.
Sadtu is, and has been, a serious constraint in achieving access to quality education. Unless we are determined to deal decisively with this constraint, attaining the anticipated outcomes will be impossible.
‘Sadtu is, and has been, a serious constraint in achieving access to quality education. Unless we are determined to deal decisively with this constraint, attaining the anticipated outcomes will be impossible’.
Absolutely bang-on Thabang! The same goes for NEHAWU and DENOSA in health, although SADTU is by some way the greatest problem. The most necessary reforms in the education and health sectors is to:
1) Ditch this ridiculous idea that the public sector unions are co-managers with government. Managers are supposed to manage, teachers are supposed to teach, etc.
2) Our politicians must grow some cojones and tell these unions where to go when they approach for a ‘political solution’ to problems which are essentially administrative.
3) These unions must be pegged back into their right and proper place of representing their members on employment conditions of service.
4) Managers must start to insist on the basics from public sector employees, namely that they are in place on time and working. If they can’t do this, they must be strongly disciplined and ultimately kicked-out. Teachers are supposed to be professionals, not a revolutionary vanguard!
Every year a new plan. Will there ever be an implementaion plan? keep shifting the goalposts and nver be measured. Trevor must rank as the best salesman the ANC has ever had.
SADTU is no constraint; it’s doing its job of protecting its members. The government must see to it that the union does not, in any adverse way, affect the functioning of the state in its quest to provide quality education. The main constraint is lack of appropriately skilled personnel as well as corruption. Sort these out, everything will fall into place and the future of this country will be secured.
One other criterion for the successful implementation of any strategy is that you must have a “champion” to drive the process. Someone who will passionately push, bully, agitate, caress, coax and guide the outcomes of the strategy.
Strong and resilient leadership is the key ingredient and in the case of Manuel’s development plan he must veer away from the current practice of cronyism and party deployment. These incumbents may mean well but have been chosen by a system that usually appoints people who lack the skills, capacity and dedication for successful implementation. We then land up with another round of endless and costly “talk shops” that come to nothing.
There are many suitably qualified people who can get the job done, use them.
Equality for all, financially, is a pipe dream. All men are born equally but that is where it ends. Some will strive for the top whilst other will be happy to coast along.
We all have equal opportunity and there is nothing to stop us other than ourselves. The Government should provide the training ground for all (schools) but as we know they are too busy plundering the treasure chest to worry about that. Education is the starting point but if it is not good, some can still reach the heights they seek. Einstein, Henry Ford and Jacob Zuma are just a few examples.
We are, or should all be equal before the law but as we know some are untouchable and others are not, so equality cannot survive here.
We have and always will have the ‘have nots’, who in many cases are the ‘will nots’, and then we have the ‘will do’s’. Some of our top people have fought their way through adversity to be the successes that they are today. The entitlement mentally that has been created by the ANC will hold our people back and it may never be overcome.
The only helping hand you will ever find is attached to the end of your own arm.
We need to help the poor by helping them to help themselves. A meal today does not provide for tomorrow.
Well said!
I don’t see anything fresh or inspiring in the report. It seems to be a 300-page excuse for doing nothing to actually facilitate development, while pledging to hand everything but the kitchen sink over to rich foreigners.
SADTU is only part of the probel. We have to understand why so many children drop out before ending their schooling. Why do so few pass maths and science? How will we ever fill the hundreds and thousands of skilled jobs when we aren’t producing anything lie enough skills?
Trevor’s iseas are a pipe dream until we recognise what is slowing our children down.
I hope Manuel’s plan replaces rewarding girls with a child subsidy for having babies to rewarding girls who stay at high school/college and maintain a pass rate with a student subsidy.
SADTU does not allow teachers to be assessed as individuals – teacher assessment is essential if standards and delivery are to be raised.
God speed with the new plan! I want it to work.
Men are not born equal in the first place – some are musical and some are tone deaf, some are clever and some are retarded, some have sporting ability and some do not, some are colour blind and some are not, some are hard working and some are lazy,some are blind or deaf.
That men are born equal is a myth.
I have read and analysed Trevor’s document (June 011?) and felt highly disapointed with the report. This was produced by a group of lauded academics and business people at a significant cost.
Content: mosty a rehash of old refernces to apartheid and colonialism. As it was a “statement of the current situation” one could not comment. Nothing new from this “report”.
I have not seen the planning report. I do agree that Cosatu is the maor hinderance in progress and improvement of the education system.
On a positive note: the new sport minister, Fikile (ex ANCYL president), has come with a valid proposition on “transformation” in sport. Abandoning quota and start creating facilitiies for disadvantaged communities.
Hope he succeeds and not disturbed by the current ANCYL before he books some tangible successes.
Placing such emphasis on SADTU and education is misleading at best and actually belongs in a separate discussion. The “PLAN” is neither realistic nor that original, albeit a summary of what is necessary in order to improve our lot. Having educated masses who remain unemployed helps very little at best and the main point is that a growth projection of >5% sustainable for 20 years is the most important to the success of this PLAN. That is totally unrealistic, Trevor knows it and so do we all. We can dream away and indulge in rhetoric which may comfort those who cannot think for themselves, but for the others realistic plans need to be formulated and put into practice in order for the inhabitants of this planet to survive and so far we are not even close to setting the path correctly. If all we can see is unmitigated growth then we in for a surprise. Nothing is forever and everything has it’s limits. When is enough actually enough? When we work that one out we may have a chance. As long as we remain dissatisfied with our lot, we are done. Simply saying that unless we remain dissatisfied we will never progress and achieve what we have so far is truly ridiculous. The question is ” what have we actually achieved that is so amazing?” Be honest now and think clearly about that and consider that the lilies of the field are better arrayed than all our achievements. We are not as clever as we think we are, in fact we are really pretty stupid because we always made wrong choices.
@Thabang – I agree with you about the negative role of public sector unions. But most importantly I think you need to quantify your expectations. What is it exactly you’d like to see in South Africa to say there’s progress. Me thinks to just dismiss previous plans without telling us what your delivery expectations of those plans were, is disingenuous.
No government in the world has managed to eradicate unemployment completely, so tell us what levels of unemployment will indicate to you that government plans are working.
@Thabang – would you care to tell us how exactly education brings about economic growth. If economic growth is dependent on education how do you explain the many unemployed graduates roaming the streets. By the way entrepreurship doesn’t depend on education. I think it’s wrong to give young people false hope that by acquiring education their economic problems will be solved. I think our insistence on education should be on the basis that it makes one a better person.
I wonder which companies in South Africa have declined business orders because of lack of capacity to deliver.
The IMF has said our labour laws are impeding growth much more than the flexibility of the rand. For once I agree with them.
And there are unemployed graduates all over Africa – people with degrees from the Sorbonne waiting at tables or acting as security guards.
Why get a degree anyhow if the top jobs go to the politically connected from the majority tribe?
According to Robert Calderisi 70,000 graduates emigrate from Africa annually.
A degree does not get you a job – unless in something like medicine or accounting, and even then you are better off overseas, even now.
It is entrepreneurship that makes cash – and statistically only 5 percent of the population have these skills. Also in the Western World 4 out of every 5 businesses fold in under 10 years.
This blog is spot on and is hitting in the core of the problem, the leadership willing to implement great plans however unpopular. Until we have that leadership in correct spheres of government and unions able to respect the role of other and only ensuring CoS are met by the leaders in implementing these strategies we not achieve the intended objectives. Trevor has been in government since advent of our democracy and should know better that great strategies or plans on paper are only great if implemented successfully. It is now time we pull up our sleeves and implement what we believe is right for our country and stop to try score political score by stopping things for sake of stopping them to prove a point. We need to work together for the better life of all our people.
Sipho, you are smoking your socks dude. there is no doubt that being appropriately educated will get you out of poverty. E.g. I would be very surprised if there are engineering or B.Comm Accounting graduates “roaming the streets”. I am testimony to that and so are millions more around the globe. The vast majority of the unemployed are undereducated (read this up dude; its not rocket science). Why do you think that people of Indian or Jewish or Caucacian origin place so much importance on educating their children?
Education will also assist an entrepreneur to envision the art of the possible better. There are not many uneducated entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are either formally or informally educated.
There is also no doubt that SADTU are causing Black children to be undereducated – teachers are not teaching enough. When SADTU strikes, the “white” children are educated as normal….and please don’t tell me that the anwer to this is to disrupt the “white” schools as well!
Attitude is everything to success. Success cannot happen unless action begins.
Put teacher training in the hands of the union (where training historically happened) and see how long it takes for the union to realise that not all teachers are worth the same salary.
The plan needs a great project manager and I’m not entirely sure that that should be an educator. A teacher lying next to me in hospital this week says she only expects three of her 23 Umlazi Matrics to pass her subject, Maths. Their attitude is everything to their success.
She also said that the Education Dept is the greatest demotivator of teachers.
Take that from whence it comes!
@S’gubu Samampela # – thanks for the ground breaking information. Now I understand “appropriate” education equals BCom Accounting and Engineering. Anything else I supposed is not “appropriate” education. Give Sgubhu a Bells!
No plan will ever be effective in SA as long as the government love themselves and their enrichment plans more than they love this country or the people in it….
@S’gubu Samampela # can you enlighten me as to how a BCom Accounting contributes to economic growth in real terms. For an example an engineer might develop a new machinery or system to address a problem, this can be sold locally and internationally, thereby earning the country an extra income.
@ Graham Johnson
In response to the last part of your comment about needing to recognise what is holding the children back..There is a culture of mediocrity in the SA education system (as per public schools and even some technikons and ‘higher’ learning institutes). I was educated in Zim under the GCSE system where we have Ordinary Level and Advanced Level (A-level). Before delving deep into the actual teaching in the different public schools and the role of unions, let me share some things which others might not be aware of.
After one finishes Grade 7 in Zim, they go for Form 1 (which would be the equivalent of Gr 8). Form 1 to 4 is therefore ‘the same’ as Gr 8-11. When one finishes Form 4 they can then proceed to Advanced level Form 5 and 6. This means one is in high school for 6 years and not the 5 years under the matric system. At A-Level one does 3 subjects which are specialised in a particular field i.e. Commercials, Arts/Humanities or Sciences. When someone who has gone through the A-level system reaches varsity (even if they have a D symbol) they are to a great extent prepared for the demands which come with tertiary education…given the intensity of A-level, which most students coming from public schools matric might not have.
(continued below)
To illustrate the last statement, one sees institutions like UCT having extended programs for students in the science and engineering faculty, commerce and medical sciences faculty…which is a bid to address the knowledge gap which these students have.
SA has the High Grade and Standard Grade system which further compounds the problem. The SA matric on high grade is already somewhat lower than the A-level (content and length)…as per content, this is informed by people I have interacted with who have been exposed to both systems.
Add onto the above the issue of the pass mark which is used in SA. Under the O-level and A-level system…the bare minimum is 50% for both O and A level. At A level 50% will give you a C symbol similar with at O-level. Under matric minimum ‘pass’ rate is 40% which is a BIG problem. So someone doing Standard Grade and aiming for 40% can never make the cut to becoming a future scientist or engineer…unless a dramatic turnaround is done to equip them to handle what lies ahead (remember the content becomes progressively more difficult).
In all the analysis above, I have not touched yet on issues around personal motivation, family support, availability of resources (learning material and teachers who are willing to teach and who are present) and also add Unions in the mix.
A fundamental rethink of the education system in South Africa should be done. Eliminate the HG and SG system…raise the pass mark and reduce interference of unions…
An interesting conversation with our student boarder after a recent exam: Labour Law. He claimed it is a vast subject (it is), though how much so for his Business Admin year 2 course, I don’t know. He thought a good lecturer should work out a series of mind maps for students. I asked whether he knew how to do mind mapping and he agreed he had learnt at school, where the teachers did it for pupils.
To my mind, that shows a serious disconnect in an otherwise very bright, hardworking student. That he hasn’t realised that he should use all he has been taught along the way, concerns me and I broke the horrible news that he is now expected to do this sort of thing for himself. He took my point and added that all their notes are prepared and handed to them by their lecturers.
He had also mentioned that the labour law book he had borrowed from DUT library had too much information to be assimilated. When he later brought the book to my son, who had agreed to take it back to the library for him, I scanned it briefly. It was about the thickness of a Famous Five hardcover book and the text was all 14 point, written with numerous bullet-pointed sections for easy learning. Too much info, or too much, too late?
I appreciate that depending on a rotating text book leaves insufficient time for a class to thoroughly learn it’s content and that a lack of funds can influence outcomes. But had he taken the book out earlier and made thorough notes to learn from, he would have been A-okay.
@Mudzidzisi Tatenda
Having both taught in both systems and having the pleasure of outstanding Zim colleagues who are a testimony to the effectiveness of the Zim system i agree with your observations on the successful Zim system.
Nonetheless The HG, SG and LG systems of [SA's] matriculation examining were abolished some years ago now and therefore no longer apply. This does not mean that the new revised system is an improved system and as you observe universities are being forced to extend their own “teaching” which technically they are not really trained to do not actually being formal “teaching” institutions. So we are really getting the worst of all worlds.
Can it be improved. Not in its present form. I have observed on other occasions that we need to leapfrog into the 21st century and move all our learning activities on line.
Since Mr Manuel’s plan does not seem to acknowledge this requirement too overtly from the general comment thus far the plan cannot succeed in this regard. If i am wrong here please correct me.
There are no unemployed graduates in hard subjects like Engineering, Medicine, Accounting or Science and Mathematics.
The unemployed are all in the oversupplied soft subjects like Law.
In Tony Leon’s autobiography he describes how, when he was a lecturer at Wits, he would have failed the majority of the class if he had not been forced to mark up.
It is this universal tendency that has eroded the value of any degree.
The reason why Zimbabwe used to have a better education system than South Africa, was theirs used to be an external exam – set at Cambridge.
The Cambridge Course is also what many home schooling parents are now following for their children, since South Africa’s system has been so dumbed down by “Outcomes Based Education”.
@Nicholas- thanks for the corrections and confirmations. I was involved in tutoring Gr12 students and what one realises is trying to address the problem @ this stage is too late. Some students will be having problem with grasping concepts from Gr10 or 11 etc. The really shld be an outright revamp of the system. OBE though in principle a good system, didn’t work because it lacked relevance to the SA landscape…were many children lack access to family and resources to assist the learning process. Moving to online will be of help…as long as students get to have a holistic curricula which will prepare them for life.
@ Lyndall- the ‘marking up’ is exactly in line with the ‘culture of mediocrity’ i alluded to in my previous comment.
I differ with you on the reference to Zim’s system being better in past terms. Even with the economic demise which the country faced over the ‘lost decade’… I believe the Zim education level is still better than SA. Your reference to the system having been better due to ‘external exam’ seems to be trying to take away the robustness of the system. Remember; in order for the exam to be written, students need to be taught by QUALIFIED individuals (read: need for teacher training centers), curricula needs to be clear and concise and teaching resources need to be available. Although Zim made the switch to Zimsec (Zimbabwe School Examinations Council) exams, the quality did not in anyway become diminished just bcoz the exam setting…
If you read the whole proposal you will realize that this will work . Well done to Trevor and his team , this will motivate us all to work towards this dream . When implememting these systems use the people with experiance from the old regime . They know how it works and can ad value . I’m sure they all have put the past in the back and we all whant a better SA for our children . The old ministers and administrators can realy help on a consultation basis or what ever you need . They were efficient in what they did altough it was wrong by not including the non whites . But that has changed in most of the whites minds . We want to see everyone succeed in this country , so don’t exclude us in making it work . There is not enough experience in coverment and it can be seen . It is not their fault , it is apartheid that caused that . The whites has been trained to do the job . Take that negative aspect and make it a positive one by using them for training or assistance to get to your goals .