The Complexities of Improving Learner Performance in South African Public Schools: Where Do We Start from? From the System to the Classroom or Vice Versa?

The purpose of this study is to explore the complexities of improving learner performance in South African public schools by probing whether the starting point should be from the education system itself to the classroom or vice versa. This is done with the aim of informing policy and practice towards improving the accomplishment of learners. This is a purely qualitative research study which relied on existing literature to solicit data to deal with the subject matter of this study. The literature that was used for this research study was not confined to South Africa only. The experiences of other developed and developing countries were used to enrich the data. This study found that considering the state, teachers, and learners as the major stakeholders in the teaching and learning exercise, collaboration between them is necessary. The study established that the voice of the learners as recipients of the curriculum must form an integral part of the learner performance improvement strategy. Schooling is about the learners, and therefore, their feedback from the assessments must be taken into consideration for their performance and ultimate achievement to improve. A further finding is that there must be collaboration between all three stakeholders to nurture a culture that motivates learners to learn, teachers to teach, and the state to collaborate with the teachers and learners to put in place policies that work. This research study contributed to the area of policy by emphasizing that the learners are just as important in shaping the direction of the education system as the policy-makers themselves. Put differently, education and curriculum planning that does not take the voice of the learners into account is destined to fail.