Western Cape features in world education study

McKinsey & Company, the international management consulting firm, has included the Western Cape in a study of improving education systems in 20 countries

“We are pleased to note that McKinsey & Company sees the Western Cape Education Department as an example of good practice,” said Donald Grant, Western Cape Education Minister.

“We have a long way to go, but the study suggests that we are on the right road. We’ll study the report carefully to see how we can fine-tune our strategy, so that we can move from good to excellent in the not-too-distant future.”

McKinsey released its findings today (Monday, 29 November 2010). The report is entitled “How the World’s Best Performing School Systems Keep Getting Better”.

The study sought to answer questions such as: “how does a school system with poor performance become good?”, and “how does one with good performance become excellent?”

McKinsey included the Western Cape in the latest study because of the improvement in the province’s literacy results in Grade 3 and 6 over the past eight years.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is implementing a comprehensive strategy to improve literacy and numeracy performance, which includes annual diagnostic testing of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9.

McKinsey organised an international, online “webinar” today (29 November 2010) to discuss the results. Participants included education specialists in Canada, Hong Kong and the Western Cape, moderated by McKinsey partners.

Brian Schreuder, Deputy Director-General, Curriculum Management at the WCED, represented the Western Cape.

McKinsey researchers interviewed 200 system stakeholders and analysed 600 interventions in 20 countries.

McKinsey says that the report identifies reform elements that are replicable for school systems elsewhere as they move from poor to fair, good to great and to excellent performance.

The report identified eight key findings, namely:

1.

A system can make significant gains from wherever it starts. The report notes that “even systems starting from low levels of performance, such as Madhya Pradesh in India, Minas Gerais in Brazil, and the Western Cape in South Africa, have significantly improved their literacy and numeracy levels within just two or four years, while making strides in narrowing the achievement gap between students from different socio-economic backgrounds”.

2.	There is too little focus on “process” in the debate today. The report identified three important intervention types, namely, education structures, resources and process. Most successful interventions highlight “process”, or how instruction is delivered, rather than content.

3.

Each particular stage of the school system improvement journey is associated with a unique set of interventions. The report found a striking similarity between interventions in different countries that managed to achieve improvement, for example, from poor to fair and upwards, irrespective of culture, geography, politics or history.

4.	A systems context might not determine what needs to be done, but it does determine how it is done. While interventions were similar, the report found considerable variation in how interventions were implemented.

5.

Six interventions occur frequently at every performance stage for all systems. Common interventions included: teacher and principal training; student assessment; improving data systems; policy and legislative improvement; revising standards and curriculum; and ensuring appropriate rewards and remuneration.

6.	Systems further along the journey sustain improvement by balancing school autonomy with consistent teaching practice.

7.	Leaders take advantage of changed circumstances to ignite reforms. Three circumstances typically triggered reform. These included a socio-economic crisis; a high-profile, a critical report; and notably, a change of leadership.

8.	Leadership continuity is essential. The study found that leadership is essential for both sparking and sustaining reform. Some regions had managed to maintain continuity despite changes in political leadership. These included Armenia, the Western Cape and Lithuania.

Key elements of the WCED’s literacy and numeracy strategy include diagnostic testing and analysis, target setting, teacher training and support, coordination, critical engagement and ensuring sustainability.

The full report is available here (pdf size: 3 891 KB)
The executive summary is available here (pdf size: 219 KB).
To view the video presentation, click here

For comment by McKinsey & Company, contact
Marlynie Moodley at 011-506-8186

For comment from the Western Cape Education Department, contact
Brian Schreuder at 082 373 5989

WCED prepared and ready for 2011

Statement by Donald Grant, Western Cape Education Minister

Tomorrow marks the end of the 2010 academic school year.

It has been a challenging year for education. An enormous amount of effort has been put into ensuring that our learners receive a quality education in the midst of various disruptions this year.

The extended June/July holiday and the public servants strike are two such examples.

However, I am proud of how our Department, districts and schools have rallied together to offset the effects of these disruptions. I am also pleased with the significant progress we have made this year in reaching our overarching objective of improving education in this province.

Examples include the passing of the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Bill, the expansion of literacy and numeracy testing, the rollout of extra textbooks, targeted interventions in underperforming schools and the successful implementation of our infrastructure programme.

We do realize though, that we still have some way to go in ensuring that every child receives a quality education.

In 2011, we will continue to build on the foundations we have laid this year, specifically targeting the early phases of learning and the literacy and numeracy skills of our learners

Some of our plans include increasing textbook provision in grades 2 and 3, the provision of maths textbooks for every child in Grades 2 to 7, and the distribution of reading schemes for home languages and first additional languages for primary schools.

In September, we issued a School Planning Calendar for the 2011 school year in order to prepare teachers, principals and parents well in advance about education activities planned for 2011.

The calendar included a schedule of dates for training programmes, meetings, tests and examinations, as well as, other important administrative deadlines.

This has allowed schools enough time to pro-actively plan ahead and prepare for the upcoming year.

Another major focus for 2011 is the protection of instruction time.

Therefore, officials have been working around the clock to ensure that teaching and learning will start on the first day of new school year, helping schools to finalise timetables and to resolve staffing, administrative and security issues, where necessary.

The Department does expect some late enrolments by learners, especially those that have migrated from other provinces, and have therefore identified areas where there might be high levels of demand. These include, Kuilsrivier, Mfuleni, Hout Bay, Delft, Du Noon, Wallacedene, Plettenberg Bay, Mosselbay and George.

We are expecting 83 000 learners to qualify for enrolment in Grade 1 next year.

In terms of the holiday period, the Western Cape Education Department's Safe Schools Division has arranged a number of holiday programmes at specific schools.

Most of these programmes will run in the week of 13-17 December and will occupy learners with sport activities, arts and crafts and discussions about drug awareness and safety.

In terms of school safety, Safe Schools will put in place 24 hour security patrols at 130 identified schools and 240 schools will receive cluster patrols during the holiday period.

I am also calling on the community to be vigilant and to report any suspicious behavior at our schools during this period.

Finally, I would like to wish all our educators, learners and staff a happy and safe holiday. Thank you for your support and dedication.

We can all be proud of our efforts this year and look forward to what we can achieve in 2011.

The 2010 literacy and numeracy results will allow us to determine new targets for primary schools, as well as, where to focus our strategies, and it is with great anticipation that we will wait for the release of the 2010 NSC results. These results will determine whether the strategies we have put in place this year have been successful and will provide us with new targets for 2011.

Teachers hard at work marking matric papers

About 3700 markers are hard at work marking about 800 000 scripts submitted by Western Cape candidates for the 2010 National Senior Certificate examinations.

Brian Schreuder, Deputy Director-General: Curriculum Management at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said that marking began yesterday (Wednesday, 8 December 2010) and would end on Wednesday, 15 December 2010.

The markers are marking papers for a total of 64 papers under strict security. The WCED has employed 450 students to check the marks before they are captured. The department has deployed 71 officials to administer the marking process.

Here's to a great Festive Season and a Prosperous New Year!