Descriptions of the context of implementation of any initiative run the risk of omission. This risk is particularly acute with regard to school broadcasting services in South Africa, and some readers may disagree with the choices made about formative processes and factors identified. What is indisputable is that the context within which a school broadcasting service will be implemented is dynamic one, where constraints can be transformed into opportunities and strengths into weaknesses. As the main point of entry into this report, care has been taken to describe the current policy, physical infrastructure, and teaching and learning realities that shape schooling in South Africa. This chapter describes the expectations placed upon a school broadcasting service by the policy environment, and juxtaposes those expectations with descriptions of classrooms as educational spaces, exploring capacity to access the service, current teaching and learning practices, and the status of learning and teaching in many schools. Descriptions of the policy environment are intended to highlight the opportunities provided by transformation processes in the educational system. The descriptions of physical resources in schools, and teaching and learning processes, however, represent an attempt to show some of the contextual challenges facing the planners and implementers of a school broadcasting service.

From an educational perspective, a range of policy processes relating to education, schools, technology-enhanced learning and distance education shape the policy environment within which a school broadcasting service is located. These policy processes were, in many ways, initiated by the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) Education Desk before it came into power in 1994. They led to the development of numerous drafts of the ANC’s Policy Framework for Education and Training and to an Implementation Plan for Education and Training, which were effectively precursors to the Department of Education’s White Paper on Education and Training.

The Two White Papers
The first educational White Paper established clear policy commitments to education generally. This White Paper is important for educational broadcasting, because the general philosophy, goals, values, and principles outlined for the new education and training system will need to form the basis of implementation plans for educational broadcasting. The Technology-Enhanced Learning Investigation (TELI), completed in 1996, summarized these as:

•    A commitment to providing access to quality education, and a right to basic education as enshrined in the Bill of Rights;
•    A commitment to developing the full potential of South Africa’s people for their active participation in all processes of a democratic society and their contribution to the economic growth and development of the country;
•    Redressing imbalances of the past through the implementation of new teaching and learning strategies for the effective and flexible delivery of services within various learning contexts and through the equitable distribution of technological and other resources;
•    Implementing learner-centred and outcomes-based approaches to education and training in order to achieve quality learning based on recognized national standards;
•    Enabling all people to value, have access to, and succeed in lifelong education and training;
•    Developing a problem-solving and creative environment in which new technologies are harnessed to produce knowledge, products, and services; and
•    Integrating technology into the strategies intended to reach these goals so as to advance South Africa’s ability to harness new technologies in its growth and development.(Department of Education.,1996)

This White Paper established a general approach to reconstruction and development in the school system. This was extended in the Education White Paper 2: The Organization, Governance and Funding of Schools and the South African Schools Act. Again, neither refer specifically to broadcasting, but the commitment to ‘an equitable distribution of education provision throughout the nation’(Department of Education.,1996), will have two general ramifications for a school broadcasting service:

1. It will need to locate itself within broader efforts to achieve equity; and
2. It will have to guard against inadvertently contributing to the dilemma of catering exclusively to those schools that have the necessary physical infrastructure and skills among their teachers to be able to use the service effectively.

The implementation plan will therefore have to focus on strategies (and roles for the SABC as public broadcaster) to extending access to physical infrastructure; and to support teachers and assist with the development of teachers’ skills in using the service effectively.

School Governance
In 1996, the South African Schools Act set out a new framework for the ownership, governance and funding of schools(Based on a contributed by Salim Vally and extracted from Vally, S.; Chisholm, L. and Motala, S. (March 1998). Poverty and Inequality Hearings: Education Theme. Background paper commissioned by SANGOCO and the Commission for Gender Equality and South African Human Rights Commission. Johannesburg: EPU Wits. Also, Vally, S. and Spreen, C-A. (May 1998). Education policy and implementation: February to May 1998. Commissioned by SIDA, Swedish Development Co-operation Agency. In Quarterly Review of Education and Training in South Africa, 5, 3. ). A full year of reports; white papers; and bills preceded it. This process was marked by severe contestation, particularly over provisions such as school fees and the composition and powers of governing bodies. The Schools Act repealed all apartheid legislation pertaining to schools, abolished corporal punishment, codified compulsory education for children between the ages of seven and fifteen, and provided the framework for a unified school system. The policy requires that governing bodies at all schools be composed of parents (the majority group); educators; pupils (in secondary schools); non-educator staff and a coopted non-parent member of the community.

The contested area of compulsory user fees contradicts previous commitments to free primary and secondary education. While the argument is made that payment of school fees by some communities will free up resources for poor schools, others feel that, in conditions of already existing disparities, it will tend to perpetuate inequality in education. A compelling view is that poorer communities who desperately require quality education will find themselves in situations where they can only afford rudimentary provision. On the other hand, more privileged communities, which benefited from apartheid, will continue to have access to superior education opportunities.

Clearly this relates to educational broadcasting strategies and a school broadcasting service. The contestation around governance and funding affects any plan to increase physical access to broadcasting services. The plans will need to devise sustainable solutions rather than simply dumping hardware on schools, forcing commitment by governing bodies to unaffordable expenses. There is a risk that physical infrastructure plans create an unhealthy and irrational culture of demand that develops a momentum of its own and derails well-intentioned ideas. This happens particularly as people feel an emotional sense of injustice if they are not in line for whatever handouts are being offered. Paradoxically, this potentially reinforces disempowerment of local communities, whose time is absorbed in trying to gain access to handouts - orchestrated by international, national, or provincial entities - rather than developing locally driven, sustainable solutions that build on existing resources. A possible consequence is community dependence on handouts, which is difficult to resolve. The White Paper’s commitment to democratic governance and growing involvement by local governing bodies in the affairs of schools provides an in-principle resolution to the problem, provided it is accompanied by appropriate capacity development.

Curriculum 2005
A specific policy area of interest to a school educational broadcasting planning process is Curriculum 2005. Of course, as with all South African educational initiatives, Curriculum 2005 exists within the broader policy framework sketched above, which sets clear philosophical and conceptual precedents.

Curriculum 2005 has, as its foundation, the establishment of the National Qualification Framework (NQF) and South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). Both SAQA and NQF were officially established in Act No. 58 of 1995 and are intended to give structural weight to transformation of education at school level. This transformation is a shift from content-based to outcomes-based education (OBE). Curriculum 2005 draws on OBE principles to build better quality educational provision at school level. It seeks to shift focus from ‘teacher input (instructional offerings or syllabuses expressed in terms of content) to … the outcomes of the learning process’(Department of Education.,1997). The intention of Curriculum 2005 is to create nationally agreed outcomes and criteria for assessing the achievement of these outcomes. This ensures common recognition and acceptance of qualifications and builds greater flexibility in the education system in terms of where and how learning takes place and is assessed. The Department of Education established learning area committees for each of the eight identified learning areas. These learning area committees were responsible for identifying specific learning area outcomes that reflect the critical cross-field outcomes identified by SAQA (where critical cross-field outcomes are general outcomes that express intended results of education and training in a broad sense).

Clearly, though, this is the first – and possibly easiest – step of implementing Curriculum 2005. The more difficult process is using this to shift teaching and learning practices in classrooms around South Africa. It is at this level that the enormity of the objectives of Curriculum 2005 becomes evident. Curriculum 2005 seeks to change some of the traditional approaches to teaching, such as the following kinds of general shifts (which are illustrative of the types of shifts and not an exhaustive list):
•    from passive to active learners;
•    from examination-driven to ongoing assessment;
•    from rote learning to critical thinking, reasoning, reflection, and action; and
•    from textbook/worksheet-bound, teacher-centred education to learner-centred education, where the teacher is a facilitator of the learning environment.

Debates about the relative merits of OBE, which have been rife as the implementation of Curriculum 2005 starts to take effect, have had the unfortunate consequence of creating polarity of opinion based on qualitative interpretations of OBE. In public debate, the new curriculum has often been reduced to either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, depending on one’s perspective. OBE is not, however, an intrinsically ‘good’ or ‘bad’ concept; its value depends on the way in which it is implemented and measurement of this value will shift significantly according to the context in which implementation is taking place. Nor does the articulation of learning outcomes constitute a measure of educational quality of any course or programme. Nevertheless, clear articulation of the intended outcomes of a course or programme does provide an essential initial tool that can be applied in measuring the quality of educational provision, and as such is an important step in establishing transparency in educational provision.

Because it challenges traditional pedagogies, the implementation of Curriculum 2005 is complex and highly contested. The implementation process has been further complicated by parallel efforts to establish democratic governance at school level and by the evolving relationships being established between national and provincial departments of education(A key feature of educational transformation in South Africa since 1994 has been the replacement of racially defined education departments with geopolitically defined provincial departments of education. This change has created complex relationships and poorly defined responsibilities. The move was intended to give provincial departments responsibility for implementation, while retaining responsibility for national policy (‘norms and standards’ and ‘conditions of service’ for teachers) at national level. The new reality is that agreements reached on policy and implementation issues at national level generate responsibilities for provincial departments of education which they are often unable to carry out, because of lack of managerial capacity, or simply because their budgets (designed and legally approved before the new mandate is received) are too small. As a result, the relationship between the national and provincial departments is evolving in two contradictory directions which need to be monitored: while there are moves to increase the autonomy of provincial departments, the decision-making and negotiation processes which might resolve the current tensions have yet to be designed.). Equally, though, the success of its implementation is a crucial element in the transformation of South African education and training, and, to be most useful, a school educational broadcasting service will need to ensure that it contributes constructively to ensuring this success, rather than impeding it.

Two related policy processes of relevance are the development of policy on technology-enhanced learning and the establishment of a framework of quality standards for distance education. The first is important because it establishes a clear commitment to a particular approach to making decisions about using technologies - of which radio and television are only two - in education and training. This decision-making approach demands a clear understanding of the teaching and learning environment and of the capabilities of different available technologies before examining the likely impact and cost of integrating selected technologies into the teaching and learning environment. The intention of this approach is to guard against technologically driven educational projects, which invariably do not provide effective or sustainable educational solutions. The decision-making framework contained in the TELI Discussion Document poses interesting challenges for an implementation planning process for any educational broadcasting strategy.

Also of relevance is the TELI implementation plan and list of proposed projects. The most relevant projects are:

• Supporting curriculum development and delivery in three key areas at grade eight level. This is relevant because of the potential links that might develop between such a curriculum development delivery process and the implementation of the broadcasting service.

• Professional development of educators in the use of technologies in education and training. This project could play a role in helping teachers to be able to make effective use of the service and related resources developed alongside the television and radio resources.

• Establishing structured relationships between the Department of Education and the major physical infrastructure providers in order to ensure that all sites of teaching and learning are equipped with basic infrastructure within five years. This project is very important because the rollout of physical infrastructure is a necessary prerequisite for many schools to be able to take advantage of the broadcasting services.

• Establishing a clearing-house of information and web site to support technology-enhanced learning. This project could establish links with strategies to develop online services to complement the broadcasting service (whether or not these strategies are managed by the SABC).

• Coordinating an audit of existing technology-enhanced learning resources at different sites of teaching and learning. This project is important because it will enable the SABC to stay in touch with the potential access that schools have to the service.

• Developing generic quality assurance and evaluation tools. Tools developed as part of this process could be used to support ongoing evaluation of the broadcasting service.

The other relevant policy process, providing a framework of quality standards for distance education, similarly does not make specific reference to educational broadcasting. Nevertheless, as a general quality framework it is relevant because it contains several value statements that can effectively be used to measure the quality of a school educational broadcasting service. These standards were, of course, designed with distance education programmes and systems in mind, but, as the boundaries between face-to-face and distance education blur rapidly, some can be applied to any educational programme or system. While all of the standards set out in the framework have potential relevance, those possibly most directly useful are the standards covering course materials. The overall standard reads as follows:

The course materials have appropriate objectives and outcomes, content, approaches to learning, teaching and assessment, and are accessibly presented. There is an identified process of development and review of course materials.(Department of Education.,1996)

This means that:

1. If existing course material is used for a particular course, its suitability is evaluated in terms of required learning outcomes and its appropriateness to the target learners.
2. If existing course material is used for a particular course, there is proper acknowledgement of the source of all quotations and no breach of local or international copyright laws.
3. The development of course material is based on a project plan which describes, for example, routines, finances and other resources, the delegation of responsibility among those involved, and an adequate time schedule for the work.
4. The course development plan includes provision for evaluation during the developmental process in the form of critical commenting, developmental testing, or piloting.
5. There are mechanisms to allow for the periodic revision of the material in the light of feedback from learners and tutors and advances in knowledge and research.
6. The course is developed with the needs, knowledge, and experience of the target learners in mind, as well as the required learning outcomes.
7. There are clearly laid out learning objectives, content, and an indication of study time, which allows learners to adopt sensible study plans.
8. The content of the course is sufficient, sequenced, relevant, accurate, and relevant to core skills and outcomes, and free of discrimination.
9. The learning and teaching approaches are appropriate, practical, varied, learner-centred, promote learner responsibility, and cater for individual needs.
10. The various elements of the course materials and different media are integrated, and the integration is clearly signposted.
11. The course materials are designed in an accessible way, and the use of language is appropriate for the learners.

These standards are useful for designing, developing and evaluating both broadcast and non-broadcast resources that form part of a school educational broadcasting service.

South African broadcasting policies, like educational ones, have developed dynamically. Because the government department responsible for broadcasting – the Department of Communication – focused much of its initial work on the pressing need for development of policy on telecommunications, the result is that the process for developing policy on broadcasting is not yet complete.

The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)
The IBA was established by Parliamentary Act 153 of 1993, which describes its purpose as providing ‘for the regulation of broadcasting activities in the public interest’(Parliament of South Africa.,1993), setting up the IBA for this purpose. In describing in greater detail the purpose of the legislation, the following relevant objectives for the IBA are included:

• Promote the provision of a diverse range of sound and television broadcasting services on a national, regional and local level which, when viewed collectively, cater for all language and cultural groups and provide entertainment, education and information;
• Promote the development of public, private and community broadcasting services which are responsive to the needs of the public;
• Ensure that, in the provision of public broadcasting services…the need for educational programmes…are duly taken into account.(Parliament of South Africa.,1993)

These provisions collectively stress the responsibility of broadcasting to play a constructive educational role. This was developed further by the IBA in its Triple Enquiry Report of 1995. This report notes the requirements of the Act that broadcasting services should contribute to education. To this end, a Task Group for the Transformation of Educational Broadcasting was established by the IBA as part of the report compilation process, and a full report by this Task Group is appended to the document. The Report itself stresses the importance of partnerships and integrated planning approaches to educational broadcasting. It states that:

The planning process would need to plan simultaneously for the production and dissemination of educational programming, the equipping of schools and community centres and the development of ongoing user support systems.(Independent Broadcasting Authority., 1995)

It also stresses the importance of local relevance and appropriateness, a mixed media approach, responsiveness to the challenges posed by new technologies, needs-driven planning, a balance between quality and quantity, and developing appropriate schedules for educational programming as conditions for the success of educational broadcasting.

The Triple Enquiry Report provides the following summary of recommendations for educational broadcasting:

•    The national public broadcaster be required to broadcast educational programming daily to address the educational needs of the public, including young children, youth and adults.
•    The national PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) should, during the course of a year, flight programming which supports the curriculum-related activities of different educational and training sectors. In doing so, the national PBS should also ensure that its educational programming covers a wide range of subjects and fields.
•    The national PBS should, over the course of a year, flight programming which supports non-curriculum related human resource development and educational needs in a wide range of social and economic sectors.
•    The proposal of the Task Team on Educational Broadcasting be accepted and the education sector be given adequate opportunity to assess the need for, desirability and viability of dedicated educational stations/channels. In the case of radio the Authority will make frequencies available for this purpose. In the case of television, the Authority will look into all technological possibilities that will allow for an educational channel.
•    Structured partnerships should be formed between broadcasters and education stakeholders and a process begun as soon as possible, to integrate planning for the production and dissemination of educational media, the equipping of schools and community centres and the development of ongoing user support systems.
•    Educational broadcasting be funded through a mix of funding sources including commercial revenues accrued by the national PBS, sponsorship, grants from non-governmental agencies and most substantially through a government grant to the national PBS.(Independent Broadcasting Authority., 1995)

The Triple Enquiry Report emphasizes local content. It proposes, for example, that sixty percent of public educational broadcasting should be South African, and the PBS must allow for ‘the equitable treatment and development of all eleven official languages’(Independent Broadcasting Authority., 1995) . All of these issues are relevant to the establishment of a school educational broadcasting service, although some of the specific recommendation have, to an extent been overtaken by more recent events.

The Green Paper
A Green Paper on Broadcasting was released in late 1997, and drafts of a white paper have now been posted on the World Wide Web. Although these drafts are not official policy - and hence carry large disclaimers indicating that they are not for quotation - it is worth exploring both the green paper and draft white paper to gain clarity on the general directions they are starting to propose.

The green paper is formulated as a series of questions, designed with the intention of eliciting public response on the main broadcasting issues. Many of these contain references to educational broadcasting. The paper refers back to the broadcasting requirements set out by the IBA legislation, including the references to educational broadcasting quoted above. An important extension of this is the introduction of various models for the SABC. Although the green paper does not prefer any of the proposed models, it does introduce in one of the models the possibility of introducing a single dedicated channel. This possibility was examined by the IBA in its Triple Enquiry Report, which outlined some of the pros and cons of such a move and committed itself to conducting technical exploration necessary to determine the feasibility of such a channel without committing itself explicitly to it. The possibility of establishing such a channel has also been mooted in various other policy spheres more recently, being debated for example at an educational broadcasting conference convened by the SABC and Department of Education in February, 1998. Clearly, the developers of implementation plans for a school based educational broadcasting service will need to participate in this debate and integrate their thinking with broader processes determining the place and extent of educational broadcasting in South Africa.

The paper also devotes a section to describing the legacy of educational development in South Africa. It goes on to state that:

Many countries acknowledge the particular role that broadcasting services can play in imparting useful information of general community interest, and, more particularly, materials that are genuinely educational in nature and support life-long learning, even to the extent of being integrated in formal programmes run by educational institutions. Concepts of distance learning and open learning are quite familiar to the broadcasting community, although they have not as yet been embraced by the South African Broadcasting System and educational institutions.(Department of Communications. (1997). Broadcasting Policy: Green Paper for Public Discussion. http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/broadcasting.html )

It adds to this that ‘it is obviously worth exploring the role that broadcasting might play in providing more and better information and education services to the children in particular’(Department of Communications. (1997). Broadcasting Policy: Green Paper for Public Discussion. http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/broadcasting.html ), a statement that provides some support to the process of planning a school based service.

The green paper then poses specific questions on educational broadcasting, which provide a useful guide to the planning process:

What is the role that broadcasting services can play in helping to address the educational needs of the country?
1. In practical terms, what can each sector of broadcasting do in the realisation of this goal?
2. How should the provision of education in broadcasting be structured and organised? Who should be responsible for producing the content? Who should be responsible for funding the provision of education?
3. Who should be responsible for creating the necessary infrastructure and support services for broadcasting education utilisation?
4. Should educational programmes carry advertisements?
5. Is there a need for a dedicated educational channel to support human resource development in South Africa?

What role can broadcasting services play in the education of children, particularly their early education?
1. In practical terms, what can each sector of broadcasting do to make provision for children’s programmes and programmes for young people? In what way could children be protected from harmful advertisements and practices?
2. In practical terms, what can be done by way of information and general entertainment programmes?
3. In practical terms, what can be done by way of formal educational programmes? (Department of Communications. (1997). Broadcasting Policy: Green Paper for Public Discussion. http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/broadcasting.html )

Like the IBA, the Department of Communication also raises questions that are indirectly relevant to the planning of a school based broadcasting service. These include issues of local content, where, for example, the following question is raised: ‘How can South Africa play a role in developing a regional production sector that is culturally and developmentally relevant to Southern Africa (e.g. educational programmes, music industry)?(Department of Communications. (1997). Broadcasting Policy: Green Paper for Public Discussion. http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/broadcasting.html )’ Likewise, the issue of language is also raised, with questions asked about the relationship between broadcasting and the development of the country’s official languages. Another important component of the paper is an exploration of the development of satellite, optical fibre, and cable technologies, as well as the development of the Internet and data/image broadcasting. Specific reference is made to the potential roles that these technologies might play in support of education. Although no specific questions are posed in relation to the use of these technologies for educational purposes, the broader policy decisions taken in these areas will clearly be of interest to people involved in educational broadcasting. This is examined in more detail in a companion research project to this, which formulates an educational approach for the SABC in relation to the use of technologies other than radio and television.

Although it is too early to quote from the drafts of the white paper, it is interesting to note that on perusal these drafts are picking up some of the common threads outlined above. There is again a strong commitment to the educational responsibilities of the public broadcaster, which in many ways confirms the importance of these planning processes. There is also reference again to language and local content issues. Importantly, much weight is given to the development of new technologies. The difficult policy issues of dealing effectively with these technologies will clearly be important for educational broadcasting, particularly as much reference is made to possible educational roles for these technologies.

The Educational Broadcasting Plan
A policy development worthy of separate mention is the development of an educational broadcasting plan, which signalled the formal establishment of relationships between the Department of Education and the SABC. The origins of this plan lay in the work of the Electronic Media in Education Forum, initiated in November 1992. The Forum, brought together a broad range of ‘stakeholders’ in media and education, and was ‘founded on the belief that the electronic media should support the improvement of the quality of, and access to, education for all South Africans’(EME Forum., 1994, P.2). The EME Forum focused on transforming broadcasting structures and policies to deal with issues of equity, access, participation, relevance, diversity, quality, and efficiency. It contributed to various policy processes including: reports on media in education and training submitted to the ANC’s Implementation Plan for Education and Training; a policy paper developed with the South African Institute for Distance Education and a high-level team of local and international consultants entitled The Use of Broadcast and Non-Broadcast Electronic Media in South Africa’s Restructured Education and Training System; and a submission on broadcasting in education and development.

The ideas contained in these documents provided a conceptual base for the Educational Broadcasting Plan released in early 1996. This planning document signalled the start of a formal partnership between the Department of Education and SABC. The initial partnership in phase one (July 1996 to December 1997) has been extended and now forms an important cornerstone of this implementation planning process. The plan itself contains details that have become irrelevant because they have been implemented. But many of the concepts contained in the plan guided educational broadcasting during 1996 and 1997, and continue to exert influence in 1998. For example, the plan suggests that broadcasting can support the vision of education set out in the White Paper on Education and Training in the following ways:

•    It can change perceptions of what education and training is all about and motivates the public to participate in ongoing learning processes.
•    Through multi-media approaches (including the use of non-broadcast media), the public broadcasting system (PBS) can offer high quality resources which form part of the educational process and which support teachers, trainers, teachers and learners.
•    The airwaves can be used to distribute educational materials cheaply to users around the country wherever they may gather for educational reasons (in homes, learning centres, factories, churches, schools, civic centres, credit and trade unions) at times that are convenient.
•    Broadcasting can provide feedback and encouragement as open learning initiatives and distance education programmes get underway.(Department of Education.,1996, P.5)

The plan also makes a distinction between educative and educational broadcasting as follows:

Educative broadcasting comprises programming which is of general interest to the public and which is produced and flighted in almost all sections of a public broadcaster. It includes informative programming and generally relates to programmes, which increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of their context and the world. While educative programming plays an important role in all spheres of public interest, including education, it usually stands alone and does not depend on a close relationship with the processes of educational provision. Sometimes educative programming is referred to as informal educative programming.

Educational broadcasting, on the other hand, needs to follow a holistic approach, supporting integrated approaches to education and training, and life-long learning. It can be defined to include programmes, activities and events which support structured educational processes, whether they be of a formal of non-formal kind. Two characteristics distinguish educational broadcasting from educative broadcasting:

•    First, educational broadcasting is closely related to the task of educational provision. The educational task needs to be established by the relevant education provider. Then decisions need to be made as to how the curriculum or the course will be designed and delivered, and what role educational broadcasting will play in the delivery. As a result, the strategies for the design, delivery and usage of these programmes are quite different from that of educative broadcasting.
•    Second, while the public broadcasting system must treat South Africans’ needs for education, information and entertainment in a holistic way, educational broadcasting must function at different levels and, where necessary, meet the special educational needs of audiences (e.g. for classroom support, adult basic education and training, teacher development, professional skills development, etc.)(Department of Education.,1996, P.12)

The plan identifies various needs for educational broadcasting. Those that are most relevant to a school educational broadcasting service are:

•    A culture of learning campaign;
•    Teacher development and support;
•    Support for Senior Secondary School Students;
•    Supplementary Curriculum-Related Learning Resources; and
•    Science and Technology.

In attempting to select a range of programming based on the plan’s needs analysis, a set of decision-making criteria was used. In summary, the criteria covered:

•    Reach and access;
•    Scheduling and marketing;
•    Relevance and quality;
•    Appropriateness of media mix;
•    Use of existing materials;
•    Broadcasting capacity; and
•    Availability of suitable airtime.

Each of these areas is described in more detail in the plan itself. Together, they provide one useful starting point for examining an appropriate in-principle approach and focus for a school educational broadcasting service.

While many of the suggestions made are important, other contextual factors need to be taken into consideration, and will determine whether or not the various needs for educational broadcasting will have an educational impact and be of educational benefit and equity. It is to these factors, to which the discussion turns.

In black schools, apartheid education led to minimal levels of resources, inadequately trained and few staff, poor quality learning materials, shortages of classrooms, and the absence of libraries and laboratories(Vally, S. et al ). Data collected from the School Register of Needs’ survey and Sentech’s coverage maps have been used to generate a description of primary and secondary schools’ potential to access a school service and to provide an overview of areas of greatest need and greatest potential impact.

Signal Distribution (Information on signal distribution and national coverage was obtained from discussions and maps provided by Sentech (Pty) Ltd)

Teachers’ and students’ access to educational resources broadcast on either SABC’s three television channels or eleven regional radio stations depends primarily on signal distribution infrastructure and the extent of coverage provided to particular areas in which a school is located. This means that a school’s ability to access radio broadcasts of educational programmes will be affected by the quality of signal transmitted. If signal strength is poor, then additional equipment is required to boost reception of the broadcast material. The issue of universal distribution is therefore central to these discussions, and will affect whether or not school budgets will be eroded by technological equipment purchases that are rendered redundant by poor quality signal distribution.

Providers
Currently, signal distribution is provided by three main entities: Sentech; Orbicom and Telkom. Sentech was unbundled from the SABC in 1995, and has broadcasting terrestrial transmission facilities for radio and television. It is licensed as the common carrier. Orbicom, owned by MIH Holdings Ltd., provides signal distribution infrastructure for Multi-Choice Africa and has a bouquet of terrestrial transmitters, fibre, microwave and satellite links. Telkom provides infrastructure, which allows signals to be carried from source to transmission towers over short-distance links in metropolitan areas or for back-up purposes. All other providers rely on Telkom for some part of their activities. In this report, we will focus only on Sentech, as it is the main signal provider for SABC television and radio.

Terrestrial Transmitter Infrastructure
Sentech has more terrestrial transmission infrastructure for radio than for television, and this is concentrated in metropolitan rather than rural areas. Sentech owns a total of 714 radio transmitters and 463 television transmitters, which distribute as follows:

Signal Distribution Penetration - Radio
Sentech states that it provides radio coverage to all of the major populated areas of South Africa, achieving between 85% to 90% radio penetration. Universal coverage (100% penetration) is therefore an attainable goal for radio, even though cost will be affected by whether transmission is terrestrial-based, via satellite, or using other means. While most South Africans can receive a radio service of some kind, significant potential exists, which at present is being determined by the transmission distribution infrastructure available.

Sentech coverage maps shows that the ten regional radio stations cumulatively cover between 80 and 90% of South Africa. The Northern Cape is provided with significantly less radio stations from which to choose than other provinces. Radio stations broadcast overwhelmingly to areas that are defined by language group concentrations or groups that would potentially access the stations’ broadcasts. For example, Umhlobo Wenene FM is a Xhosa language station and broadcasts to the Eastern Cape and parts of the Western Cape, southern KwaZulu-Natal, central Free State and Gauteng.

Some overlap of coverage exists especially in Gauteng and Northern KwaZulu-Natal. Although signal frequencies do not interfere with each other, there are implications for schools in that area. A dilemma would be which radio stations to rely on to access school broadcasts. Radio stations would therefore need to develop complementary educational broadcasting schedules, but this may infringe upon a station’s autonomy.

Signal Distribution Penetration - Television
Television penetration is lower than for radio, and approximately 30% of the South African population either cannot afford television or receive any television broadcast signal. Extending infrastructure to achieve universal coverage for television requires proportionately larger capital investment than for radio, both because of the lower reach and more expensive equipment.

Sentech states that SABC 1, 2, and 3 provide 83%, 85.5% and 70.5% of the national population with television coverage respectively. Given that SABC 3 has lower penetration than the other channels, it is unlikely that schools in rural areas of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Western Cape, North West and Free State would be able to access broadcasts on that channel.

Overlap of Channel 1 and 2 signals exist so educational broadcasting schedules will need to be carefully planned if teachers and students are to benefit from any simultaneous broadcasts.

Signal Distribution Penetration - Multi-Channel
Multi-channel signal distribution is still in an embryonic state in South Africa. Concerns with providing multi-channel services (radio and television) will affect and be affected by the distribution platforms used. Currently, 0.3% of the population (a total of 120 000 South Africans) can access multi-channel services.

Signal Distribution Penetration - Converging Media
The convergence of telecommunications, data storing and processing, imaging technologies and broadcasting leads to complex descriptions of penetration that fall outside of the scope of this report. Nevertheless, South Africa as a country has greater access infrastructure and potential than most other African countries. Within South Africa, however access to Information Highway is skewed, and determined by a range of factors, including gender, class, race, and geography.

Inside South African Schools

Approximately 70% of the 27 864 schools falling inside of South Africa’s borders are primary schools. Some deviation between provinces exists, but by far the most interesting and significant deviation is in the Free State where primary schools make up 84.1% of all schools. Plans for a schools service will therefore need to consider whether the service will focus on primary school education – a focus of school services in many countries – or target secondary school education, given the obvious lack of secondary school facilities within the country. The following table summarizes the number of schools by type in each province:(Based on information provided by EduSource)

Huge demand is placed upon existing schools in South Africa. For example, almost seven million students attend schools in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Northern Province alone. Although 62% of schools have less than 500 enrolled students each, Gauteng schools tend to have slightly higher enrolments. Schools with 1000-plus students do exist, most of which are located in KwaZulu-Natal.

Data on teacher-classroom ratios offer a more precise indication of the demand on classrooms as educational spaces. As a general trend, teachers in the Northern Province, Eastern Cape, and North West share classrooms, teach outside or use non-teaching areas. Many teach to classes ranging between 44 students (Northern Province) to 51 children (Eastern Cape). The potential of classrooms of this type to function as physical, social, and psychological spaces that facilitate children’s creative expression and interaction with their world is inhibited by the material realities of the school. Overcrowded spaces in combination with inexperienced teachers have the potential to lead to authoritarian and inflexible educational experiences.

The focus on enrolments and teacher-classroom ratio is deliberate because it has financial implications for schools that must make decisions about whether or not one television set can effectively serve the needs of a school with 500-plus students.

Educational Spaces
Effective implementation of Curriculum 2005 depends on a range of factors, but one of the most neglected and ignored is educational spaces: the important convergence of architectural design with school curriculum. The central issue here is the extent to which the design of the building enhances or inhibits attainment of educational outcomes.(Criticos, C.,1998)

Effective integration of various technologies and media in classrooms is dependent on a range of factors. One that is most often ignored is educational space. Designing educational spaces therefore ought to consider convergence and compatibility of architectural design with audio-video learning resources and the curriculum. Central questions include: ‘To what extent does the design of the building enhance or inhibit the attainment of educational outcomes?; To what extent is the design of the classroom conducive to use of television, radio, and videocassette recorders in lessons?’

For example, in KwaZulu-Natal, 39m² is the standard area allocated to classrooms. School building design is provincially co-ordinated. For example, KwaZulu-Natal provides schools with modular options from which they can choose a number of educational spaces. In the Western Cape, the need for educator participation in the design process has been recognized. A team of designers and teachers works together to design suitable educational spaces, but, in this high intervention partnership, there is also a high risk that teachers’ lack of expertise in this area will inhibit positive educational effects. In Gauteng, a ‘grand plan’ approach is used, and architects are brought in at a reduced fee to provide additional design input if required. These plans are however not responsive to technological resource implementation or Curriculum 2005 processes, the environment, or even the multi-cultural realities of the individuals who will teach, learn, or work in that space.

Provincial education budgets are currently overwhelmingly allocated to salaries. For this reason, financial factors will impact on the design and use of educational spaces. It is, however, incorrect to assume that the design of educational spaces in schools will be negatively affected solely by budgets. It will be very negatively affected by a lack of imagination and critical reflection on the relationship between technology use, curriculum, and space.

School Resources and Equipment
Learning environments consist of more than just walls, chairs and desks: learning resources and equipment are essential to the attainment of educational goals and outcomes. Data from the School Register of Need survey indicates the extent of under-resource in schools. This reveals that 82% of the country’s schools have no media equipment, 72% have no media collections and no equipment, 68% have no materials, 36% have no or inadequate stationery and 52% have no or inadequate supply of textbooks. The matriculation pass rate and findings from international and local studies suggests that South African school children’s performances are a matter of social and economic concern. (See READ’s newsletter and its description of Neil le Roux’s study on reading and writing skills in East London’s rural and Model C schools. Le Roux’s findings indicate that rural children attending disadvantaged schools were as much as eight years behind their urban counterparts. And in Grade 7, most rural children were 14.4 years old but had a reading age equivalent to 7.6 years.)

Schools’ abilities to provide for a student with special education needs are also a matter of concern. Most schools do not have the resources or equipment to meet the needs of these students. For example, speech and hearing therapists provide an essential service to children with reading delays and hearing deficits, but 23 speech and hearing therapists are employed to work in schools in KwaZulu-Natal and only two in the Eastern Cape.

The national situation in schools suggests that supportive learning opportunities are structurally inhibited, and the material conditions appear to reinforce educational disadvantage. The market demand for a schools service therefore seems obvious, but the central question in planning the service must relate to whether or not at an infrastructural level, schools can access this service.

Factors Influencing Schools’ Access
So important is the medium [of television] as a classroom resource that it would be a rare school indeed, which did not use the output.(Moses, D. and Croll, P. 1991)

As is evident from the above quotation, British state-funded schools have, over several years, integrated technologies such as television into the whole school experience. In contrast, South African state-funded schools lack basic resources such as textbooks, and it is rare for television to be used in the South African classroom. Several factors within the school influence a school’s ability to access a schools service: the most obvious being the presence or absence of technological resources.

Based on primary research conducted with 32 schools in three provinces, it is clear that the majority of schools do not have adequate audio and audio-video technological resources in their schools. Furthermore, most of these schools do not consider them a priority(Refer to Appendix Four). The prevailing view expressed by principals was that:

Money should rather be spent on upgrading the school, payment of teachers, upgrading of teachers, purchase of textbooks …not televisions or computers, and insurance but also seeing that there are adequate toilets at the school.

Maintenance of equipment was another major concern for schools. When money was not available for maintenance and repair of equipment, this equipment tended to lie obsolete in a classroom or storage room. Concerns with maintenance and repair were also linked to security and insurance worries. Security in the majority of the schools visited was inadequate, with the result that equipment could often not be stored at the school. In one extreme instance, a school television set was stored at a local supermarket. Unfortunately, security measures often mean that students cannot access such resources on their own or without supervision.

Radio And Tape Recorders (Data for this and other resources is based on pooled data from the School Register of Need survey, and thus cumulative calculations are used. For example, it has been assumed that, despite the possibility that 20% of schools could own 80% of all operational radios in a province, the data reflects a statistical assumption that 1117 operational radios in Gauteng schools are owned by 1117 schools)
Gauteng school children have a significantly better chance of accessing any broadcast service during school hours because collectively Gauteng’s 2255 schools own a radio, and only 9% of the 1227 radios are non-operational. School children in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are less likely to access this service at school because between 2 and 6% of these schools own radios. Although 19% of Northern Province schools have radios, almost half of these radios are non-operational. This substantially reduces overall ability to access a service. The presence of radios in the classroom means that children potentially can listen to live broadcasts or use tape recorders to record materials for asynchronous use. It was found that the resource of tape recorders was slightly better than for radios but over all most schools do not have audio recording facilities. Gauteng schools own 6299 operational and 172 non-operational audio recorders. Between them, 528 Northern Cape schools own 527 operational and 38 non-operational recorders, thus making these schools relatively better equipped for access. Western Cape schools also have significantly better access capacity than Eastern Cape and Northern Province schools. The following table summarizes the availability of radio and television in primary and secondary schools the nine provinces:

Television and Videocassette Recorders
The number of schools with television and/or videocassette recorders is very low, but the distribution of resources provincially is similar to that for radio and tape recorders. Between them, 4185 Northern Province schools own 316 operational and 266 non-operational televisions. Thus almost half of the televisions require repair or replacing. Eastern Cape schools are also under-resourced, as only 2% of primary schools own televisions. Gauteng and Northern Cape schools appear to be better resourced. In Gauteng, schools own 2150 televisions between them and only 2% of these resources require repair or replacement. Gauteng schools also own almost 2000 video recorders, but Eastern Cape, Northern Province, and Free State schools are severely under-resourced. Almost half of all video recorders in Northern Province schools are non-operational.

 

Upgrading Access: What To Do First?
The lack of audio and video equipment in schools is widespread, especially in the Eastern Cape and Northern Province. Therefore most of those provinces’ schools would have difficulty accessing broadcasts. But should these schools have funds to purchase additional equipment, several other issues need to taken into consideration before radios or videocassette recorders are purchased.

Given that only 41% of schools have power supplied (electrical or other), these technological aids will need to be supplied with their own power. Provinces with greatest need are schools in the Eastern Cape (81% have no power); Northern Province (79% have no power); KwaZulu-Natal (62% have no power); Free State (58% have no power); and North West (56% have no power).

Should schools be able to purchase technological aids with its own power, issues of storage and security become important. The condition of school buildings effects the security level of a school. Up to 41% of Northern Province schools are in extremely poor physical condition. While 23% of KwaZulu-Natal, 16% in the Free State and 15% in the Eastern Cape are in poor to weak conditions. There appears to be a correlation between poor physical conditions of buildings and general lack of resource at these schools, which suggests that they would have several priorities that would take precedence over purchase of technological aids.

Security levels and storage facilities in general (which includes security personnel and strong rooms) are worrying. For example, 69% of Gauteng schools have some secure storage space, while approximately 9% of Northern Province and Eastern Cape schools can securely store valuable equipment. Security guards are also not a commonly available resource at schools, especially those in the Eastern Cape. Based then on storage and security resources, approximately 90% of Eastern Cape and Northern Province schools would not be able to store any technological equipment securely. The reality is that many schools would not be able to store a television in a secure room, nor would they be able to prevent damage to equipment caused by leaking roofs or dust carried in through broken windows.

Libraries, media centres and audio-video rooms are virtually non-existent in Eastern Cape, Northern Province and KwaZulu-Natal schools. But schools in Gauteng and Western Cape have some facilities. In the Western Cape, 27% of schools have libraries, while 9% of Gauteng schools have audio-video rooms. At a national level, however, most South African schools are currently unable to access a school broadcasting service, and will remain unlikely to do so in the short-term. At a provincial level, the levels of access are skewed in favour of the Western Cape, Gauteng, and to a lesser extent, the Northern Cape. Eastern Cape, Northern Province, and KwaZulu-Natal schools appear least likely to benefit from this service until other resources are extended.

The descriptions presented here and trends identified suggest that, if a school has a library or a media centre (most do not), then there is a likelihood that the school has the necessary storage and security facilities to support the purchasing of a radio or tape recorder. The presence of these facilities would place those schools at a slightly better advantage, but would still not guarantee that the service would be educationally beneficial. A ‘one school-one television’ approach is also not viable, because most schools have 500 students, and one television would not substantially improve access in terms of technology-student ratio.

Most South African schools have access to some form of postal service. According to the School Register of Needs research data, 117 schools do not have postal addresses. Of these, 39 are located in the Eastern Cape and 27 in KwaZulu-Natal, while a significant percentage is primary schools. Given that only 117 schools are without postal addresses, the challenge is not so much to provide schools with postal services but to improve the quality of that service. This is especially important given that schools’ postal addresses are often used by rural communities as their contact postal address.

The School Register of Needs continues to show in stark terms inequalities within the schooling system. While reasonably well-resourced schools exist, the vast majority of children in South Africa continue to be educated in conditions of extreme neglect. Current estimates suggest that redressing problems outlined in the survey would require an additional R3 billion per year over the next ten years.(Vally, S. et al )

There is however a need to contextualize this within the debates currently taking place in educational circles. These debates can be summarized as follows:

There is in many educational circles, the view that improving school building and facilities will not make a difference to school quality, and that the stuff of improving the school quality lies in classroom processes of teaching and learning. What has emerged from some studies however is that in contexts where schooling has collapsed, the condition of school buildings and facilities makes an incalculable difference to the climate of learning and teaching in a school. The morale and confidence of school goers and teachers alike is deeply influenced by the physical environment. Structural improvements and the provision of facilities and equipment to schools remain an important element in the establishment of a culture of learning and teaching in schools. While these will not automatically translate into successful schools and non-material interventions remain necessary, adequate and decent facilities do create a positive environment, affect the working conditions of staff and influence the learning environment.(Vally, S. et al )

In the previous section, we described the physical and infrastructural conditions in schools. But besides tangible, material deprivation, however schooling in South Africa has also fostered unquestioning conformity, rote learning, autocratic teaching and authoritarian management styles, syllabi replete with racism and sexism, and antiquated forms of assessment(Vally, S. et al ). In this section, we discuss the classroom processes of teaching and learning, highlighting some of the challenges facing any educational initiative aimed at South African schools.

Complex and diverse realities exist within any school system. In many documents, romantic notions of the role that technologies can play in education obscure the realities of the classroom(Selwyn, N. 1997). This prevents critical reflection on many erroneous notions about children, pupil-teacher dynamics, and school operations. Naïve representations of the classroom often depict bright-eyed, innocent children eagerly awaiting instruction, or their turn ‘on the computer’. Such representations of classroom activities do not contribute to developing viable strategies for sustaining a school broadcast service, particularly in South Africa where the reality is often so strikingly different from idealized scenarios.

Policy documents such as the Report of the Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education (hereafter referred to as TCRNSTE) offer some description of these sites:

Besides inequalities, the school system is dominated in many cases by disruptive behaviour ranging from alienation from school work, teenage pregnancy, classroom disobedience, school boycotts or ‘stayaways’, to social crime, vandalism, gangsterism, violent behaviour, rape and drug abuse as well as disrespect for teachers with considerable impact on teacher performance and student achievement. Amongst teachers, this is often reflected in a lack of commitment to the profession. This phenomenon very often referred to as the ‘collapse of the culture of learning, teaching and service’ is one of the main features common in many schools, especially those in urban areas.(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997)

Many classrooms in South African schools are materially deprived, thus structurally reproducing disadvantage among students, and the interaction of material and social factors directly impacts on teachers. Many teachers work in contexts that are not conducive to learning and teaching, and most are not trained to deal with these realities.

Teacher Education Systems
South African education is attempting to transform and a key part of this is transforming teacher education systems, which are central to the development of South African human resources(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997) . But the education system characteristic, developed during apartheid, continue to influence and impact on the realities of classroom life, even though proposals and policies are in place to overcome them.

The quality of teaching is affected by backlogs in teacher qualifications, subject teacher shortages, and uncertainty facing teachers at all levels. Uncertainty and anxiety have been linked to the effects on teachers of processes that aim to: democratize society; increase access to schooling; introduce a new curriculum; and change community expectations of teachers. From the perspective of teachers, the introduction of Curriculum 2005:

Requires resourceful teaching to ensure that the outcomes set in the formal curriculum are reinforced and enhanced by the values exerted by the teacher’s whole mode of operation.

Curriculum 2005 increases teachers’ responsibilities, and changes what they do daily in their classrooms. It calls for a professional teacher, who is intellectually resourceful, imaginative, adaptable, flexible, creative, and a critical thinker(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997) . It requires that teachers be enthusiastic about their studies and participate in the growth of their own understanding, skills, and professional competence. It also requires that the system support them in becoming autonomous students, by making it habitual for them to enquire, to question, to criticize and evaluate, and to assume responsibility for the management of their own learning. These are qualities that professional teachers should develop and impart to their pupils to create a culture of learning, teaching and service(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997) . It is not surprising that teachers feel inadequate, insecure, and angry in the face of demands for wholesale personal and professional reinvention and the development of skills that very few individuals possess. Achieving the goals of Curriculum 2005 alone demands that teacher education systems require unprecedented transformation. The psychological and social processes associated with this cannot be ignored.

What many teachers might actually do in the pedagogical moment between teacher and student can at least in part, be extrapolated from information on teacher education in South Africa. The picture that emerges is very worrying. The quality of teaching in the classroom is dependent on the quality of learning and teaching to which teachers were exposed. For example, it is unlikely that teachers will act as mediators or facilitators of learning if college staff or university lecturers are

Poorly prepared [and] practice [sic] unsuitable approaches to learning ... [and] poor quality of delivery.(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997)

What is taught to teachers also affects what happens in the classroom. Many South African teachers were – and often still are – exposed to content developed during apartheid. The content of teacher-education curricula tends to be

Dominated by old-fashioned concepts, inappropriate philosophies, methodologies and modes of assessment.(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education.1997)

It is:

Overloaded with a proliferation of different subjects many of which are irrelevant to the new society. Syllabi are dated and concentrate on rote learning. There is a range of approaches and methods of learning, but the dominant approach has been authoritarian and content-based...In many colleges, students acquire only a superficial knowledge of their teaching subjects... Theory and practice have not been integrated nor do they reflect the direction of the new South Africa or the latest international advances in knowledge...Hence students [in these institutions] have been ill-prepared for contexts such as large classes, multi-cultural and multi-lingual classes and multi-grade classes in rural areas.(Department of Education.,1997, pp.31-32)

Likewise

Most [teachers] are trained in the rigidities of Fundamental Pedagogics and this does little to challenge children to actively participate, many are incompetent in English but need to teach in this language.(Gultig, J., 1992, p.4)

Exceptions to this do exist and must be acknowledged(The Sunday Times, 11 January 1998), but many South African teachers are taught to be technicians who follow orders and implement syllabi constructed from ‘above’. Education and training remains based on fundamental pedagogics tending to be characterized by rigid, hierarchical, and authoritarian attitude to teaching.

A third factor impacting on classroom teaching is the institutional culture that exists in many teacher education colleges and institutions. Many of these institutions are characterized by negative institutional cultures. Some of the institution’s teaching staff members themselves lack professionalism, teaching experience, and appropriate subject knowledge. Hence graduates of these institutions are often not trained to teach mathematics, science, and specialized education. And when faced with their own classroom of students, many graduates lack professional commitment, understanding of teaching methods demanded by the new curriculum, and/or are unable to overcome the disjunction between theory and practice.(Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Teacher Education. 1997)

The combined effect of repressive departmental control, large classes, and low salaries means that many teachers retreat into narrow textbook teaching: (Gultig, J., 1992, p.4)

We have a confluence of a number of factors, which make teachers, as a whole, likely to be even more pedagogically conservative and resistant to change than international literature on teachers suggests.(Gultig, J., 1992, p.5)

The often repeated message is that:

Insecure in their subject knowledge, never educated as innovators and caught between a repressive authority and a militant, divided and often antagonistic student community, it would be true to say that teachers, never treated as professionals anyway, have lost the culture of teaching. (Gultig, J., 1992, p.5)

The descriptions thus far have focused on policy and academic discussions of teaching processes. Teachers themselves have different and differing views about teaching and transformation. Some of these views, combined with a brief description of recent teacher mass action activities, are provided to enrich this discussion.

Some Teachers’ Views(Based on a data report by Makano Morojele and the abridge findings reported on in Morojele, M. (1998). Teachers speak for themselves and about themselves. In SAIDE. (1998). Open Learning Through Distance Education, 4, 1. )
Interviews conducted with groups of teachers in Gauteng by SAIDE researchers provide some indication of these different views of teaching and transformation, as perceived by teachers. Teachers in all groups indicated that initial teacher training did not prepare them for the day-to-day realities of the classroom or school. The theoretical nature of preparation, especially university courses, in effect meant that initial training ‘moulds you into what you should be’ but does not help teachers to cope with the dynamic nature of schools and changing requirements of what it means to be a teacher.

Confidence and AwarenessMany teachers reported that they lacked confidence and that their first year of teaching was particularly difficult. University-trained teachers were identified as the least prepared type of teacher. Overall, training did not prepare teachers to deal with classroom management, helping children with learning and emotional difficulties, teaching large classes, teaching children from diverse backgrounds, and the challenges of assessment.

Teachers interviewed were aware of significant educational policy changes, but their levels of awareness did not always reflect accurate interpretation or translate into classroom practice. For example, most participants were concerned with the ‘lack of flow of information’ on Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Curriculum 2005 between the Department and teachers. They also did not have a clear understanding of what either of these concepts meant. For example, OBE was described as something familiar because

we have been doing group work for as long as I can remember.
or
OBE is not so different. It needs a little training, retraining. It confuses us, when they facilitate it to us. We can see that it is not so different. It is child-centred, sometimes my lessons are becoming more child-centred. OBE is an additional thing to what we were already doing. They say even in language you must cover all areas, just like now - in language - we train children to count.

Teachers differed in their response to OBE principles, but all of them stated that they needed guidance and support in implementing this. They argued that contextual realities of schools had to be taken into consideration. For example, class sizes are not always conducive to group work.

Teachers also stated that implementation of Curriculum 2005 dominated professional development courses at the expense of other areas of teacher development, such as classroom management techniques or stress and time management skills. These issues were identified because teachers had to cope with large classes made up of multi-grade, multilingual and multicultural learners.

Teachers working in traditionally white schools stated that they needed help with children from ‘unstimulated backgrounds’. They gave examples such as primary level children not knowing colours or shapes and possessing very poor vocabulary. Only a small number of these children had attended pre-school. Teachers felt that these children were severely disadvantaged, and this was compounded by their parents working long hours, thus not being available to help them with homework. The process of ‘mainstreaming’ also impacted on teachers who felt ill qualified to assist and needed a range of psycho-educational skills to deal with such children.

Professional Empowerment
A key problem identified by teachers is professional isolation and the lack of communication and support networks between teachers and other role players. Most teachers stated that school governance processes were a point of concern for them as teachers, and that they experienced these structures as disempowering:

They say parents are stronger now, they can take you out of school… There are too many parents on the governing bodies, over and above the number of teachers. We want more teachers than parents.

They [parents] should have a role, but they should not pull the strings. Kids can complain about teachers, but parents should not be able to take you out. We must sit down together as staff and discuss an issue, and if there is no solution the teachers' organization must get in - then if there is no conclusion the GDE must get inside. Parents must be there too, but they should choose enlightened people, not parents who are uneducated.

An important indicator of professionalism is collegiality and communication between members of a profession. Most teachers indicated limited communication with other teachers and schools. One of the consequences of this isolation, according to these teachers, was that it was detrimental to their profession. Teachers also indicated that many interventions offered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private organizations were ineffective. They described them as boring, not innovative and facilitated by presenters with no command of the subject matter or no grasp of the realities of the schools:

I usually sit at the back of the room and if I discover that it is the same workshop,
I just leave.

The focus on content rather than method was mentioned, and some teachers complained that they had very little time to analyse or synthesize information. The rate of transformation and meant that some courses were no longer useful in the light of current policy developments.

What is clear from these interviews is that teachers are aware of the importance of professional development opportunities and that professionalism is not an outcome but a value which the system as a whole must reflect. Ensuring that teachers use and benefit from SABC Education broadcasts will depend to a large extent on whether or not the SABC is able to meet teachers’ needs and recognise them as professionals.

Teacher Mass Action (Vally, S. et al )

Recently, unions such as the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU); the National Professional Teachers’ Association (NAPTOSA); and the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwyse-unie (SAOU) threatened mass action in response to certain educational policies and practices. SADTU, in its memorandum to NEDLAC, lists some of its grievances as:

Continued inequalities in schools, overcrowding, additional costs of education passed on to parents particularly in working class areas, the lack of training for teachers and school governing body members, and the lack of textbooks.

For the sake of brevity, only some of these grievances are discussed, but it is important to realize that, in the current climate, there remains some tension between teacher unions and the national Department of Education. This will impact on the planning and implementation processes of a schools service.

No single reason exists for why teacher unions threatened mass action in May 1998. One of the many reasons was teachers’ concern with educational budgetary management throughout the education system. Budgetary reform has been crucial to wider educational reform. In order to cut down budget costs and make more efficient use of resources, government decided on a strategy to rationalize the teacher work force This strategy has been long in the making, and has taken different phases as teachers have responded in different ways. Redeployment of teachers was one of the first measures taken by the new government to address inequalities in terms of pupil-teacher ratios.

Post-apartheid budgets have prioritized formal education, with approximately 80% of expenditure going to schools and 10% to tertiary education. Despite this, as the Survey of School Needs showed, massive backlogs persist in terms of poor physical infrastructure, lack of learning materials as well as the training of teachers. Unions such as SADTU have recently denounced the national and provincial departments for

Not promoting the interests of working class communities by addressing inequalities in the education system⁴

Besides the impending retrenchment of teachers, unions criticized the government for failing to:

•    Prevent overcrowding;
•    Prevent additional costs of financing education being passed on to schools and consequently to parents;
•    Create a funding mechanism to address the disparities between previously advantaged and disadvantaged; and
•    Provide textbooks and other educational resources.
•    In rural or under-served areas, approximately 20 000 primary schools (one in five of the schools targeted) have failed to implement the new curriculum because of lack of teacher preparation or resource materials. ⁷ Not surprisingly, the provinces that have fallen furthest behind are Northern Province, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, and Free State. Conversely, in many former Model C schools, teachers have resisted attending workshops or implementing Curriculum 2005, and dismiss the proposal as simplistic, repetitive, and watering down standards.

Across the country, many teachers have expressed similar views about lack of information, resources or teaching materials for implementing the new curriculum. Combined with this is another process; that of communities developing new expectations from schools, of teachers, and curriculum reform. This is posing new challenges for teachers. Indeed, one of the greatest challenges for teachers will certainly be the implementation of Curriculum 2005, which marks a paradigm shift from a subject or content-based curriculum to outcomes-based education (OBE). This requires resourceful teaching to ensure that the outcomes set in the formal curriculum are reinforced and enhanced by the values exerted by the teachers’ whole mode of operation.

In contrast to concerns that were raised about funding, training and preparation for the new curriculum, most educators still express enthusiasm and hope for the vision set out by Curriculum 2005. The general perception of Curriculum 2005 is that it will provide new means to achieve equity and redress.

In the previous section, reference was made to the fact that information about the realities of teaching is essential to planning and implementing a school broadcasting service. In this section, the realities of learning and the needs of students are discussed in an attempt to identify strategies that might motivate South African school students to use such a service.

The School Register of Needs Survey describes the extent of the lack of physical and material resources within schools. But schools as sites of learning are more than the sum of physical parts (or the lack thereof). Classrooms are also psychological, political and social spaces, in which a wide diversity of students live and sometimes learn. The large numbers of students in classrooms impact on the quality and quantity of learning taking place during school hours. Some teachers may use textbook teaching methods as a way of coping with large classes. The potential result is that students ‘learn’ that rote learning is all that is required.

A second and equally obvious statement is that many students in South Africa do not have adequate learning materials. In both the School Register of Need survey and in a report on library facilities(Karlsson, J.; Nassimbeni, M. and Karelse, C-M. 1996), it is clear that:

Students largely from African schools have not been exposed to school libraries and are therefore disadvantaged in their studies.(Karlsson, J.; Nassimbeni, M. and Karelse, C-M. 1996)

This lack of resources can have several consequences for students: it reinforces rote and mechanistic learning patterns; it discourages development of healthy attitudes to learning (for example, that learning is a fun and pleasurable activity); development of information skills (including information seeking, accessing and integration) is limited; and some students do not become active and continuous or lifelong readers(Karlsson, J., 1996). Many teachers have not been trained to understand the role of libraries and fail to develop learning tasks that encourage students to use library resources. The use of the ‘chalk and talk’ method or monologue approach to teaching

Limits the child’s expression and inhibits their use of information and their creative development.(De Andrade Antunes, W., 1996, p.68)

As stated earlier, it is not possible to describe a typical South African student within a typical South African classroom. Complexity and diversity are the norms. It is, however, necessary to repeat the warning that if one does not acknowledge that school children are not all bright-eyed, innocent, eager to learn, or (should the resources be available) willing to use broadcast materials to enhance their school performances, motivating students to use the service will be impossible.

South African students are not a homogeneous group. Differences exist in terms of gender, urban-rural locale, special educational needs, and community violence levels, among other factors. Some of these issues are briefly described. Clear differences exist in terms of male and female students’ learning behaviours and performances. High dropout and force-out rates among female students due to teenage pregnancy, violence, rape (ranging from date rape through to ‘jackrolling’) is increasing(Swartz, S. 1997). According to a Mail and Guardian article, the main reasons for African adolescent girls’ failure to finish their studies was that they were either forced out or dropped out of school because of pregnancy, or rape, or both.

The classroom is more than just an educational site. For adolescent students it is also a social and psychological space in which they negotiate identity, relationships, sexuality, and political commitments. Consequently, success in the classroom does not relate only to academic success(Meyer, J.; Loxton, H. and Boulter, S. 1997). Anxiety associated with relationship pressures or physiological changes can detrimentally affect a student’s school performance.

Students are also political beings, some of whom are actively politicized, while the learning of others is affected in the long-term by the political processes underway in the wider community and society. Educational transformation processes have had varying effects on students. For example, they have

Left many teachers as well as pupils in a state of confusion as to what they will be taught and what will be expected of them.(Meyer, J. et al, p.123)

The levels of violence within the school and/or adjacent community impacts on students and their performances. For example:

The number of people killed or injured in acts of political violence during 1993 was 8737. Of these, 874 were children. During the period 1991 to 1994, 26 790 children were displaced due to conflict in 36 areas in KwaZulu-Natal. This constituted 42 per cent of all displacees.(Duncan, N. and Rock, B. 1997)

Although, in some instances, the school - by virtue of the calming influence of routine - aids in a child’s resilience and coping strategies, in others, the effects of violence for children, at primary as well as secondary levels, may result in underachievement, loss of motivation, or truancy.(Gilmour, D. and Soudien, C. 1991)

Classrooms are places of overt and covert struggle(Marsh, C. 1992). Students will experience, participate in, and be affected by these struggles to differing degrees. Different schools, and even different classrooms within the same school, exhibit different types of learning and benefits from that learning. In unsupportive environments, learning can be disrupted or inappropriately developed. For example, poor teaching and sexism underlies ‘maths phobia’, a response learnt by many children - and particularly young girls, black and working class children, who are ‘taught’ that they do not possess natural abilities in logical and mathematical thinking(Macloed, C. 1995). ‘Maths phobia’ therefore impacts on subject choices (for example ‘dropping’ Mathematics and focusing on Home Economics in grade 10) and consequently career pathways. School leavers enquiring about a distance learning access course were reported to be unaware of tertiary educational subjects and faculties, and, in some cases, had been provided with incorrect career information by their teachers:

A group of Matrics [attending a career fair day in Matatiele] asked me whether they could study at [the University of] Natal to be bank tellers ... Apparently guidance lessons are ‘free’ lessons.(Interview with Linda Mdaka, former Liaison Officer at the Regional Access Programme in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.)

The issue of students’ awareness of educational opportunities that are provided in further and higher educational sectors are important areas of need. Limited career information resources and appropriate career counselling opportunities are real in many schools.

Structurally created cognitive disadvantage and high levels of disability (physical and cognitive) among impoverished South Africans mean that proportionately more students will have special education needs(Parekh, A. and Jackson, C-A. 1997) than among student populations in developed countries. It has been estimated that as many as 25% of all children are disabled by socio-cultural factors(Parekh, A. and Jackson, C-A. 1997). Students with special educational needs will therefore require a different type of intervention.

Special educational needs are not, however, the only forms of difference. Other types of disadvantage and inequality exist. For example, reading skills created by differences in class and urban/rural locations exist. In 1996, Neil le Roux’s research on reading and writing skills compared the skills base of children enrolled at a Model C primary school in East London with children enrolled at READ project schools and other ‘control’ schools in rural areas around East London. The results

Showed that rural children at disadvantaged schools seem to be, on average, eight years behind their urban counterparts in reading levels. The Grade 7 rural school pupils has an average reading age of 7.6 years while their chronological age was 14.4 years. If these pupils advanced to secondary school, they would be faced with textbooks written for the 16-year language competency level. They would be unable to access the information in these textbooks. The situation highlights the plight of the rural school pupil. In some cases the child may have been able to read, but stopped because there was no material and he then lost the facility to read. This leads to a huge fallout because children are so discouraged. These youngsters, on the whole, will never have the opportunity to overcome the handicap of poor language competence and are unlikely to get high-level employment.(READ, 1998)

The learning needs and experiences of children in these different types of schools and geo-economic areas indicate strongly that different types of interventions are required.

While it may not be possible to describe different levels of literacy among all students, it is possible to make some general statements about literacy skills (or the lack thereof). First, illiteracy is stigmatising and alienating; and children with literacy difficulties do face alienation from more competent classmates. Second, literacy is a prerequisite for further and higher education. Children with limited literacy skills are less likely to continue their education beyond school. Third, there are different levels of literacy competence, ranging from passive reading through to active forms of reading that transform children by stimulating their imagination, intellect, moral thinking, and other abilities. Mechanistic teaching and rote learning methods do not encourage the development of active literacy, but keep children in an arrested state of functional literacy. Fourth, reading has been linked to proficiency in additional languages(Hugo, C. 1996), and, in South Africa, multi-lingual children have improved social, learning, and employment opportunities.

Many South African students have different, and sometimes less effective study skills than other students. Moller’s study on homework examined the social context within which studying occurs. Some participants reported studying alone while others, more male than female, reported doing homework with friends. According to Moller,

Survey results indicate that many high risk students seek to compensate for the poor quality home environment by studying at school with friends. Their efforts appear to go unrewarded. Other results from the study ... indicate that participation in study groups has little positive influence on academic achievement. This suggests that the compensation strategies of most pupils from poor quality home environments are not working well and additional measures need to be devised to assist pupils to make academic progress.(Moller, V. 1994)

This trend is supported by findings from other sources. At an anecdotal level, descriptions about students participating in a distance access course in Durban indicated that students are encouraged to set up study groups but reported that they do not because they do not know how to study effectively in groups(Selikow, T.A. 1998). More detailed information about these students’ study skills (not reported in the article) showed that they spent as much as eight hours reading a four to ten page extract; used a dictionary on average five times per page; were not able to summarize effectively; and developed inappropriate or inaccurate understanding of the content of the extract.

At a theoretical level, South African psychologists such as Anita Craig(Craig, A. P. 1991) and Ronny Miller(Miller, R. 1992) have argued that students are disadvantaged by learning opportunities that do not provoke learning (change) in students, and thus the disjuncture between past learning and the demands of different learning opportunities is always extended(Bradbury, J. 1993). Disadvantaged students approach learning tasks with an ‘indigenous epistemology’ or a belief that

There is an assumed, unchanging and ‘final truth’ which must be uncovered. This ‘truth’ therefore can be simply stated, requiring no evidence or argument.(Bradbury, J. 1993)

Craig and Miller’s work on ‘indigenous epistemology’ suggests that these students make and seek out knowledge claims in which truth is revealed through reference to the real world, and can be captured in blurred and sweeping statements(Bradbury, J. 1993). An example of this would be the statement that ‘it is "true" that all women want to be mothers because I want to be a mother’. This type of thinking supports rote learning methods because if a student believes that the truth derives from authorities such as a supernatural being or experts, then accessing the truth or knowledge demands little more than passively receiving it. Broadcast formats that do not support interaction and encourage additional activities beyond the broadcast will not challenge this, and have the potential to reinforce rote learning methods. Similarly, once-off interventions are unlikely to make a positive impact on challenging these learning patterns.

The real needs and abilities of students need to be acknowledged. This acknowledgement is difficult for a range of reasons. The reality is that student needs and abilities pose incredible challenges, and the introduction of radio or television will not result in an educational and technological transformation of students, teachers, and classrooms. Romantic notions of technology and education obscure this when they claim that:

Instructors and students usually take on new roles when they use learning technologies effectively. Typically the changes focus on de-emphasising the lecture format, which is centred on delivery of the instructor’s knowledge, and on increasing the use of other formats that develop the learner’s capacity to acquire and create knowledge(Burge, E.J. and Roberts, J.M. 1993)

Educational Attainment
Parents have various roles and responsibilities in their children’s lives, one of the most obvious of which is that they have a direct impact on the educational attainment of their children. According to Moller, family life impacts on students’ attitudes to homework activities((Moller, V. 1994)). Students from disharmonious families are less likely to undertake homework at home, doing it instead at school. It is clear from the study that under-achievement is linked to a lack of family support.

Parents appear to influence the educational attainment of their children in two ways:

Firstly, parents can decide where to send their children to school. Secondly, once their children are enrolled in school, parents can support the educational efforts of their children and encourage them to remain in school and prepare their lessons. The latter parental influence essentially means seeing that children complete their homework and other school assignments and study for examinations.(Moller, V. 1994)

Some comments need to be made about parental roles. The most obvious is that, in the modern industrial society, the main responsibility for education has been removed from the family. In South Africa, and in other developing countries, many parents have shifted responsibility for the education of their children to professionals. Public education does not, however, mean that parents are excluded from the learning process altogether. Current thinking is that:
Parental input is not dispensable but represents an important positive influence on academic development(Moller, V. 1994).

School Governing Bodies
Parental involvement can include participation in school life for example, by joining governing bodies, being aware of the importance of supporting children’s schooling, or by becoming involved in, for example, repairing broken technological equipment. Volunteerism (willingly and freely giving of one’s resources, such as time or expertise), an assumption underlying many claims about parental involvement in schooling, is however, not always a practical possibility. Philpott points out that:

Volunteerism ... is not a reality for working-class, poor women in both developed and developing countries. Women who are poor may not have the time or the energy to care .. or volunteer support.(Philpott cited in Parekh and Jackson. In de la Rey et al. Op cit. p. 49)

Parental involvement in school life has traditionally been conceptualized as participation in governing bodies and decision-making bodies that carry out management activities and decisions. In Britain, changes in the Educational Acts have given parents additional rights such as: the right to membership as equal partners (with teachers and principals) of school governing bodies; the right to a wider choice of schools for their children; and the right to receive a report on their school annually. Simultaneously though, parents lost certain rights, such as power over curriculum decision-making because of the introduction of the National Curriculum, which is designed and assessed centrally. In Australia, parental participation has varied widely according to school type. ‘Alternative’ and parish schools tend to have smaller learner enrolment numbers and hence parents have a greater ‘say’ in the management of the school. In Canada, parental participation extends to involvement in district-level school boards.

Marsh provides some useful ideas about why parents should be involved in their children’s educational activities, for example:

•    A student’s level of learning at school will be increased if he/she is positively supported and reinforced by parents in the home environment.
•    Parents will have a greater understanding and appreciation of the complexities of schools if they have first-hand experience of it.
•    Parents have the legal and long-term responsibility of their children and therefore should have a say in the decisions that affect their life chances.
•    It fosters the development of common purpose between teachers, parents and students.
•    By increasing the number of interest groups involved in education there is a greater likelihood that the interests of all students will be taken into account.
•    There are greater opportunities for a school to develop a strong sense of identity.(Marsh, C., p.167)

Encouraging parental involvement does have associated with it, several disadvantages such as:

•    Parent and community groups can interfere in what is seen at the teacher’s professional responsibility.
•    Inequalities will increase as participatory democracy tends to favour upper income, educated communities - a ‘power hungry, articulate elite’.
•    Few parents have the time to take an active and informed role in decision-making.
•    School staff members are sometimes reluctant or opposed to parent participation activities.(Marsh, C., pp.167-168)

The ideal is that parents will be interested in, willing and able to participate in their children’s school experiences. The reality is very different. The introduction of Curriculum 2005 in South African schools has marginalized parental roles, because it introduced technicist and specialist language that alienates most parents.

Other Agents in the Adult Support Network
A false dichotomy often exists in discussions about families between parents and other agents. The reason for this is that it is often assumed that the heterosexual, two-parent family is the norm(Bozalek, V. 1997). The presence of grandparents (both or one) means that in theory a school child has a deeper pool of resources on which to draw. Three-generation families have

An edge over smaller township families when allocating educational resources.(Moller, V. 1994, p.7).

In South Africa, however, grandmothers in three-generation families play an important role in pre-school childcare and education. Less information exists around the later stages of children’s schooling and development. But,

Anecdotal evidence suggests that grandparents may assist youngsters from disadvantaged social backgrounds to complete their education and attain socially recognised positions in society in spite of the odds against educational achievement. Although such cases may refer mainly to skip-generation homes, where the grandparents stand in for absent parents, there is every reason to believe that where grandparents assume titular headship of large urban families that they also wield considerable influence on the opportunity choices of the youngest generation in the household(Moller, V. 1994, p.7).

When extended family members do not support the educational attainment of school children, the student is unlikely to attain as well as his or her potential may allow. Moller reports on a 19-year-old, male, student attending a township school, whose family (made up of a grandfather, father, three aunts, an uncle and cousin) was not interested in his schoolwork:

[His] grandfather says it is his policy not to influence his grandson to do better at school.(Moller, V. 1994, p.35)

His lack of educational attainment was reinforced by (and may even have partially been generated by) lack of family support.

In developing countries, the family is often more than biologically defined, and is usually comprised of a network of extended family members who pool labour, emotional, and social resources in a strategy to combat poverty. Although economic factors such as the class status of a household influence educational attainment, other factors play a role. For example, the family and home are important sites in which literacy events occur, which develop a positive attitude to the tradition of knowledge in the form of myth, folk tales and reading aloud to one another. Literacy events are critical factors for promoting a culture of learning in the home, even among impoverished and immigrant families.(Caplan, Whitmore and Choy cited in Moller. Op cit . p. 8)

Family support is therefore an important factor, and may have more to do with creating an enabling environment in the home than actual academic support, and must therefore be promoted. Broadcasts therefore need to provide information and knowledge about the importance of positive family support of school students.