Análisis e interpretación de Resultados

Since 1994 South Africa has been undergoing significant changes on many fronts, including the education sector. Systemic change has occurred and an outcomes-based system of education was introduced in 1998 in an attempt to eradicate the inequities of apartheid era education (South Africa. Department of Education 2002:5). The many different education departments were replaced by one national Department of Education which is responsible for the national education policy. It shares a concurrent role with the nine provincial departments of education for school education and other training initiatives such as Early Childhood Development and ABET. Provincial Departments have to adhere to national policy, but may set their own priorities and implementation programmes (South Africa Yearbook 2006/07 2007).

In the earlier period of transformation emphasis was on access to education for all and the basic right to education (from Grade 1 to Grade 9) and much has been done and achieved in this regard. However, access to basic education and high enrolment figures are not sufficient. Research shows a high drop-out rate after Grade 9 and that only 52 out of a 100 learners who start Grade 1 reach Grade 11. Focus now needs to shift to quality education (South Africa. Department of Education 2005b:5; SAHRC 2006:16, 18). Education is one of the Government‟s highest priorities and 5,5% of the gross domestic product is allocated towards achieving the goal of quality education for all (South Africa Yearbook 2006/07 2007). The weighted average of government education expenditure for 132 countries for the period 2000 to 2002 was 4.9% with Kenya at 7%, the United States at 5.7%, South Africa and the United Kingdom at 5.3%, Botswana at 2.2% and Zambia at 2% (United Nations Human Development Programme 2008). Despite the relatively generous allocation of money the South African education system delivers less than it should, often by a large margin. Baatjes (2003:1) emphasises literacy as the most

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important element of quality education and yet the lack of basic literacy and numeracy competencies emerged as some of the problems experienced with the OBE curriculum (NEEDU 2009:48).

There have been many negative reactions towards OBE in South Africa including from educators and academics such as the so called father of OBE William Spady, Linda Chisholm and Jonathan Jansen (Spady 2007). Noted academic and former anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele criticized OBE and argued for a return to the “four Rs” of reading, writing, arithmetic and reasoning (Ramphele 2009; Smook 2008:7).

Spady (2007:7) defines OBE as “defining, designing, building, focusing, and organizing everything in an education system on the things of lasting significance that we ultimately want every learner to demonstrate successfully as the result of their learning experiences in that system”. The focus is on student learning and the process of learning is as important as the content to be learned. The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) for Grades R-9 and the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Grade 10-12 are the planned curriculum frameworks that underlie OBE in South Africa, but for the purpose of this discussion the concepts are dealt with as one. The RNCS is not a new curriculum, but a streamlined and less nebulous version of the original Curriculum 2005 emphasising communicative language and literacy teaching (Prinsloo & Janks 2002:33). More time is allocated to language and mathematics. The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) identified seven critical outcomes that learners at school and in higher education must achieve and which guide the OBE system. These outcomes are:

Identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking

Work effectively with others as members of a team, group, organisation and community

Organise and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and effectively

Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information

Communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes

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Use Science and Technology effectively and critically showing responsibility towards the environment and the health of others

Demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by recognizing that problem-solving contexts do not exist in isolation (South Africa. Department of Education 2002:11)

All these outcomes imply a high level of literacy, and even meta-literacy skills. Two of these outcomes specifically to “collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information” and “communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes” arguably cannot be achieved without good literacy and information literacy skills, and an effective school library. OBE emphasises that learners should be actively involved in the learning process. Its philosophical base is the constructivist approach where learners build on their existing knowledge and experience to create new knowledge and relate this to their daily life. In reality many learners attend school without the necessary information and knowledge base which are required to achieve certain learning outcomes. They need prior knowledge to make sense of and comprehend what they read (Meek 2008). De Waal (2004:68) reasons that “there exists a misalignment between their everyday knowledge (knowledge obtained at home) and the formal school knowledge with which they are expected to interact”. Neuman and Celano (2006:180) talk about the knowledge gap which refers to “the differentials in information acquired and retained by individuals”. Effective school libraries can help to bridge this divide. Phrases such as “creative thinking”, “critically evaluate” and “problem solving” refer to the cognitive information literacy skills that are necessary for lifelong learning and to create new knowledge as discussed in section 2.2. These skills are characteristic of information literate people who understand the use and organisation of information and knowledge.

Boekhorst and Britz (2004) compared information literacy training in schools in South Africa and the Netherlands and found that school libraries in the Netherlands are regarded as ICT and learning centres supporting the curriculum whereas school libraries in South Africa are undervalued. The SAHRC (2006:42) considers “adequately resourced libraries” as essential to teach within the context of OBE. De Waal (2004:64) in his study of challenges teachers face in achieving the goals of the OBE curriculum mentions the lack of school libraries as a constraint.

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This is in stark contrast to a discussion on quality education by the then Gauteng MEC for Education, Angie Motshekga (now Minister for Basic Education), who ignores libraries and only mentions the Internet as a useful resource apart from textbooks (Building quality education for all 2007:5). De Jager, Nassimbeni and Underwood (2007:141) point out that the Government focuses on information technology literacy and not on information literacy. OBE requires a holistic approach to resources; teachers should not be the main source of information, nor a textbook or a computer. Effective interaction with a variety of learning resources is essential to ensure that the critical outcomes of OBE are achieved and this includes the school library. It should be stocked with diverse sources, fiction, non-fiction, reference works, audio and audio- visual media as well as providing access to ICTs such as the Internet.