1. Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
Progress Report
Presentation to
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
26 February 2013

2. Progress with the NEEDU Bill
Bill forwarded to Cabinet in July 2012
Treasury requested a Business Plan before the matter could proceed
Business Plan now ready
NEEDU requests advice on how to proceed:
Minister
Portfolio Committee
Director General

3. NEEDU Sampling Frame – 2012-2014 Focus: Curriculum delivery
Year
Semester
Location
School Phase
Districts
2012
Second
Urban
Foundation (G1-3)
1-15
2013
First
Rural
Intermediate (G4-6)
16-33
Multigrade (G1- 6)
34-51
2014
Urban and rural
Senior (G7-9)
52-69
FET (G10-12)
70-86

4. Work in Schools In 2012 NEEDU evaluated:
9 Provincial offices Each institution
15 District offices comments on
133 schools its draft report
National Report to Minister on 4 March

5. 15 vertical ‘slices’ of the system
Provincial office
School 1
…..
School n
District office

6. 15 District Reports condensed into National Report
…..
District 15

7. Diagnosis Are schools not doing what we expect
because they won’t (discipline) OR
because they can’t (knowledge)

8. Evidence of poor discipline
Time is important because:
Optimal use of time provides for greater opportunity to learn
Awareness of time inculcates good productive habits.

9. Time management in schools evaluated in 2012
Lax time management practices is a problem in around 30% of schools
The main problem is learner late coming
Well managed schools do not experience this problem, even in the poorest SES conditions

10. But look at School X
The school is situated in a village in a deep rural area. Mrs P has been principal since the founding of the school in The LOLT in the FP is English, and the HL of most teachers and learners is siSwati.
The principal has instituted programmes to cater for a variety of learning and physical disabilities. A total of 49 of the 619 learners in the school is differently abled in some or other way. The largest programme is a separate class for 8 hearing-impaired children.
Both teachers were able to take their children to a basic level of literacy, but then stop, instead of launching them into independent reading. Too much time is spent on repetitive chorusing. Emphasis on reading as decoding symbols rather than on reading for understanding.
Reading levels of 6 of the best Grade 2 pupils at the school are above those in the majority of schools across the country. Reading in 2 classes is at 100 wpm and 75 wpm, both well above the median score for all 133 schools in the sample.
The library had not been open to children since the librarian left earlier in the year, although teachers had access. The most interesting acquisition was an extensive set of Ladybird readers, none of which had been opened previously.

11. Arithmetic operations
Knowledge
Mathematics
Arithmetic operations
Fractions,
ratio and proportion
Algebraic logic
Rate of change
Space and shape
Total
67.15
49.68
46.51
42.30
56.44
52.39
Language
Retrieve
Infer
Interpret
Evaluate
75.06
55.21
36.61
39.73
62.99

12. What should be done? Think differently about:
Instituting discipline in schools: time
Instructional leadership: form ≠ substance
Professional development ≠ workshops
Professionalising the civil service: expertise