The introduction of history as a compulsory subject at schools is welcome but the most important thing is: which history is going to be compulsory, as not all the history deserved to be taught and made compulsory, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, told senior officials of the Department of Basic Education at Parliament yesterday.
“The question of making the teaching of history compulsory in South Africa is regrettable as we were forced to learn the history of the painful beginnings of the subjudigation of the indigenous people of South African by Dutch settlers from 1652 onwards,” said Ms Gina.
She said the country needs to know that history is going to be made compulsory to learners, who are the future leaders of South Africa.
Members of the Committee told the departmental officials that although the Committee welcomes history as a compulsory subject at schools, but the policy must ensure that that history is a relevant and progressive one. They said it must be a history that tells the children of South Africa all the serious mistakes of racism, discrimination, exclusion and so forth; that were made in the past and the history should warn them not to repeat them in future.
“It is that history that should explain to them in a simple language how the legacy of many years did happen and how should it be undone. Furthermore, the history must stop them from repeating the mistakes that cost their beloved country so much,” said the members of the Committee. They told the officials to ensure that enough preparations are made before that history is introduced.
The Department of Basic Education appeared before the Committee yesterday to brief the Committee on the evaluation of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (Caps) on implementation, progress, successes, challenges and gaps specifically – and on the follow-up on the implementation of the introduction of African languages at schools.
Members of the Committee also welcomed the introduction of learning and teaching in an indigenous language as that, according to them, would advantage them. They said learning and teaching in English has been for a long time one of the contributing factors to the high failure rate. “An African child faces two challenges, to understand the language before understanding the course content,” they said.
But other members of the Committee believe there will be concepts which the mother tongue will be unable to translate as some come from somewhere else in the world.
Mr Suren Govender, who is the Chief Director: Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring, told the Committee the Department of Basic Education is currently making good progress on the implementation of Caps but is being challenged by, among other things, work overload and administrative burden; unclear on what and how to teach and to assess learner underperformance in international and local assessments.
He told the Committee that most of Caps aspects, such as learning and teaching in an African language, are at pilot phase in the Eastern Cape Province as a part of the preparations for the full implementation of the policy.
Ms Gina told Mr Govender the department must be serious about the implementation of Caps and ensure that the implementation is properly implemented. “We are hoping for good results from the implementation of this policy,” she said.
By Mava Lukani
1 March 2017
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