Learners being used as guinea pigs to test new curriculum

The Department of Basic Education started the roll-out of a new South African schools' curriculum in January this year even though quality assurance on the curriculum has not been completed by Umalusi -  the statutory body tasked with monitoring standards for education.

This was revealed at an Umalusi conference on standards in education and training last week. It was also revealed that the Department of Basic Education had ignored Umalusi's request to delay the roll-out of the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) until quality assurance has been completed. 

Forcing a new curriculum on children without the appropriate quality assurance is irresponsible. What will happen if Umalusi identifies the need for major changes to the CAPS that are now being rolled out?

Umalusi has indicated that it is currently carrying out quality assurance of the Foundation Phase programmes and that it has started evaluation on almost half of the subjects that form part of the new curriculum, but that quality assurance has not been completed on any subject. 

I will be asking parliamentary questions to determine:

• Why the Department has commenced with the roll-out of the curriculum despite the warnings by Umalusi that quality assurance has not been completed?
• How will the Department deal with possible negative findings by Umalusi?
• What costs have been incurred in the current roll-out of the CAPS?

The Department of Education cannot be allowed to use our learners as guinea pigs for an untested curriculum. The Minister certainly must not extend the CAPS roll-out to other grades before proper quality assurance has been completed. We will monitor this process closely and will demand answers from the Minister. 

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, May 14 2012

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