Basic Education Policy in South Africa: From 1994 to now

The paper reviews the history of democratic South Africa’s education policies, with a focus on learning in the early grades. Foundational learning is now a high educational priority, in South Africa and beyond, to a far greater degree than three decades ago. Following intensive policy reforms to dismantle apartheid education, in 2005 new results from an international assessment indicating relatively poor learning at the primary level prompted the 2007 launch of the Foundations for Learning (FFL) initiative. While at face value, the FFL strategy was appropriate and led to an internationally recognised national workbooks programme, it was compromised by two problems common in South Africa: weak design of several intervention tools, in part due to an insufficient appreciation of South Africa’s linguistic complexities; and a lack of complementarity between the initiative’s various elements. Among risks arising from this was a weakening of the state’s position in ongoing bargaining with teacher unions. Yet learning outcomes at the primary level improved according to international assessments, suggesting that even a flawed package of interventions can have an impact. The fidelity and cohesion of policies and tools aimed at improving learning outcomes should be strengthened in the coming years to sustain the trajectory of progress. In doing this, the country should learn not just from practices in educationally successful developing countries, but also from pioneering work in pockets of the South African system.