Education department must prioritise STEM schools

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga. [Photo source: GCIS]

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South Africa's basic education sector needs to increase the number of schools that focus on critical learning areas such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, as well as the arts.

This was one of the main recommendations presented by the Basic Education Lekgotla to the Department of Basic Education (DBE), in line with efforts to improve the education system.

South Africa's education sector often draws criticism for not doing enough to advance subjects that will enable learners to participate in the ICT sector. In addition, the declining pass rate in subjects such as mathematics and science exacerbates matters.

Delegates from provincial education departments and teacher unions believe establishing schools focused on critical skills will help increase the number of learners who attain the necessary skills and produce a stronger pipeline of learners entering varsity.

In working towards decreasing the skills shortages in the country and meeting the National Development Plan targets, the lekgotla also stressed a need to align the curriculum with industry and business to allow for synergy and collective agreement in meeting the skills needs.

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga pointed out it has been recommended that the department should continue to foster partnerships and collaborations.

Motshekga said the lekgotla report will be presented to the heads of education departments committee on 12 February.

"All of these recommendations will be developed into implementation plans that contain short, medium, and long term plans.

"The provinces will convene their provincial makgotla and come up with recommendations that are school-specific, to ensure this does not end up as a high-level talk shop, but filters all the way down to school level."

At provincial level, the Gauteng Department Education (GDE) has been focused on creating "learning facilities of the future" with a core focus on subjects such as engineering, maths and science; ICT and commerce and entrepreneurship.

Championed by education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, the GDE is reorganising a number of schools around the province into specialised facilities that offer technical and vocational content.

Lesufi previously explained this move is part of his department's commitment to change Gauteng's historical reliance on the mining sector into one that is focused on ICT, commerce and entrepreneurship.