Education trust meets
Government and education stakeholders focused on issues blocking better school performance at the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) dialogue for change in better education.
"There is a belief that things are changing, that better education is being achieved," Basic Education Deputy Minister Enver Surty told the NECT meeting in Pretoria on Friday. It was attended by about 50 leaders in education.
"Let us not diminish the hope that South Africans have for the future even as we address the challenges of change," he said.
The meeting focused on "action-oriented" dialogue and would be held every four months to find solutions to the issues blocking progress in basic education.
Among the issues discussed at the meeting were the professionalising of the teaching service, and improving the effectiveness of schools.
Professor Brahm Fleish, of the University of the Witwatersrand, said it was important to improve teachers' instructional capabilities.
"This is about teachers understanding the subject content, how to teach it to different age learners through the effective use of books," he said.
A range of possible actions were identified and the proposals would be filtered by a task team.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga attended the meeting on Friday.
The NECT was launched in July to achieve the targets set out in the National Development Plan, and will help monitor and evaluate performance in identified districts over the next 10 years.
It has four patrons: national planning commission deputy chairman Cyril Ramaphosa, former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Leadership SA president Bobby Godsell, and National Union of Mineworkers' former president James Motlatsi.
-Sapa