Education in South Africa: Problems and future possibilities

TEXT BOOK DELIVERY
In 2012, the media was awash with reports of non-delivery of textbooks to Limpopo schools. Anticipating further problems with textbook procurement and delivery in 2013, Civil Society lobby group SECTION27 sought a court order in October 2012 imposing a deadline of 15 December 2012 for delivery of textbooks for the 2013 school year. The court order was granted, and all eyes were on the Department of basic Education (DBE) to see whether there would be an improvement on delivery of this basic entitlement, which there was.
“It became clear during the course of 2013 that the data used by the DBE to plan textbook procurement and delivery was wildly inaccurate. At one stage, the DBE did not even have accurate data as to how many schools and learners there were in Limpopo,” Reported Nikki Stein in The Daily Maverick in January.
Textbook delivery improved again in 2014 although some Schools reported that they were receiving the wrong textbooks, or the correct textbooks in the wrong languages. The quantities of textbooks delivered to them in many cases did not correspond with their enrolment figures.
There is still no independent system to monitor textbook delivery across Limpopo and this is crucial to accurately identifying all shortages and ensuring that they are corrected in the future.

COST OF TEXT BOOKS IN SCHOOLS (CAPS IMPLEMENTATION)
Across the country middle-class high schools had to shell out hundreds of thousands of Rands for their books as the new CAPS curriculum was rolled out to three grades at high schools in 2014. Schools have had to replace textbooks at massive costs and the publishing and bookselling sectors have been working hard towards making sure that the transition from Outcome-Based Education, to CAPS happens smoothly in Grade 8, Grade 9 and Grade 12 this year.
High schools have had to provide roughly eight textbooks to each pupil at about R100 apiece. The Governors’ Alliance spokeswoman Kathy Callaghan said she knew about two Gauteng schools that had paid between R600 000 and R900 000 for textbooks out of school funds.

TERTIARY EDUCATION FAILURES
In South Africa, although there was much jubilation at the 78.2 percent matric pass in 2013, inequality remains high. In the 27 percent of schools across the country serving the poorest communities (Quintile 1), only 13 percent of pupils received “Bachelor”-level passes, and only 38 percent of these schools had pass rates of between 80 and 100 percent.
“The reality in South Africa today is that, roughly speaking, a student who enrolls for a three-year Bachelor’s degree has a one-in-four chance of dropping out by the end of first year. If she survives beyond first year she has less than a one-in-three chance of graduating in the three-year minimum time,” said Suellen Shay, associate professor and dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development in the Sunday Independent.
Apparently half of our enrolled students will never graduate at all. Most severely affected by this “revolving door” are South Africa’s african and coloured youth of whom only 5 percent are succeeding in higher education.
“Poor completion rates are a global higher education phenomenon, but in South Africa they are exacerbated by a low participation rate to begin with. This is a double blow and means that higher education is unable to produce the number and quality of graduates necessary for a socially and economically vibrant society,” says Shay.
There have been many reports written on the subject, with few offering a solution. The Centre for Higher Education Task team has put forward a proposal to extend all degrees by one year. Though the curriculum would be flexible enough to allow students to move through the system faster if they do not need to access the extra 120 credits provided for foundational provision.
In this day and age of technical advances and digital access, one could ask if eLearnin g and Open Access to education would offer a much needed solution. Do these solutions have a place in South Africa and are they viable?

eLEARNING IN SA
In developed countries, learners taking eLearning courses have their own computer and connectivity and in this situation, eLearning may be the perfect tool. However, the situation is drastically different in developing countries where computer and Internet penetration is low. In South Africa, many learners would have to rely on communal facilities such as their school, libraries, or internet cafes to access the eLearning courses.
However we live with many great disparities in this country and in some instances, eLearning will be successful. In March 2013, Sunward Park High School in Johannesburg, successfully made the transition from physical textbook to tablets when the tablet project initiative was officially launched by the Basic Education Deputy Minister, in partnership with Modern Information Business (MIB). 
Pupils at the school can now access their etextbooks, a digital library and video tutorials via their tablets on the schools’ open Wi-Fi Network. In 2014, 88,000 Huawei tablets will be distributed to 2200 public schools in Gauteng as part of a new eLearning initiative. Whether these children will be able to use these tablets at home for after school work remains to be seen.

THE SHIFT TO MOBILE

“Mobile is thriving in Africa and local eLearning developers are increasingly focusing on apps as the most effective way to deliver learning content. According to UNICEF, South Africa houses the third-largest number of mobile subscribers on the continent and experts predict that 69% of mobiles in Africa will have internet access by 2014.
Analyst firm IDC has predicted that by 2017 87 per cent of all connected devices will be tablets and smartphones. George Lossius, CEO at Publishing Technology says that while reading on devices is undeniably on the up, researching isn’t. This is largely because, for the most part, academic publishers have been unable to optimize content for mobile and reproduce successful online user experience strategies for portable devices.
The device space is moving fast – Apple iOS devices now come in six different size /resolution combinations and HTC has as many as 12. Subsequently the industry is struggling to keep up and could do with a one-size-fits-all solution. Web designers are starting to experiment with an approach called Responsive Design, which lets publishers maintain one site that serves all devices and screen sizes.
“In my view, this will be a key area for academic publisher investment in 2014, one which will allow them to tap into a lucrative growth market that has yet to be exploited and one which will also see mobile usage at universities, libraries and institutions really take off,” says Lossius.

GAMIFICATION
Gamification, the process of using game thinking and game dynamics in order to engage audiences and solve problems, has taken the world by storm and is another thing that should be firmly on all educational publishers radar’s.
“According to the analyst company, Gartner, more than 50% of businesses that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes by 2015 and more than 70% of the world’s largest companies are expected to have at least one gamified app by then end of 2014.” Says Chadwick

OPEN ACCESS EDUCATION IN SA
Open Acces Education has many forms. The Open Educational Resource university, or OERu – a project of the UNESCO-Commonwealth of Learning OER Chair network appears to be the open educational resource movement’s answer to MOOCs, massive open online courses, offering somewhat more structured, credit-bearing learning in partnership with a university network and including mOOCs, or micro-open online courses.
“The OERu makes affordable education accessible to everyone,” said Dr Wayne Mackintosh, director of the OER Foundation. “All you need is an internet connection and you can study independently from home, with access to world-class courses from recognised institutions around the globe.

The LATin Project
Perhaps more interesting to the South African audience however, is The LATin Project, set up by university researchers from over nine Latin American universities and funded by the European Union. The project “seeks to tackle the decrease in textbook use among university students in the region (who favor photocopies) by developing open source textbooks written by Latin American teachers,” says Xavier Ochoa, coordinator of the LATin Project
According to the project’s website, the average yearly cost of textbooks to study a university program in Brazil’s largest public university reaches €1,900, at 67% of the Brazilian minimum wage, which dents heavily into low-income families’ budgets and prevents students from gaining the full benefits of university education. Budget cuts at university libraries have also significantly impacted students.
“This challenge had already been identified in a 2011 article in The Economist which pointed out that literacy levels in Latin American countries were worrisome and books were viewed as luxury goods. The relation between the number of bookshops and the number of people, according to the article, is alarming. Publishers argued that the high price of textbooks was a result of short print runs and the high cost of imported paper.” So writes Andrés Delgado Darnalt in a review of LATin. He may as well be talking about the South African Situation and referring to the SABDC’s research into the cost of books in SA a few years ago.

PAPERIGHT
Like Latin America, the supply chain for textbooks in South Africa is unnecessarily long, accounting for up to 70% of the retail price of most printed textbooks. Of course, in theory, e-books could solve the long supply chain problem, but they come with a rather long list of requirements and challenges as listed above. Paperight’s print-on-demand model shortens the supply chain by replacing traditional retail, printing, shipping and warehousing with a simple copy-shop print-out, purportedly slashing up to 40% of the final price for textbooks.
As Paperight sets its sights on Students, founder Arthur Attwell will need to face some challenges – including a wobbly relationship between publishers and copy shops after years of rampant piracy. Then there’s the dilemma of copy shops who will now effectively be playing the role of booksellers, promoting books, making sure they can cope with the sudden rush of students at the beginning of each new term – imagine 2000 Bcom first year students all arriving at their local copy shop and needing their POD textbooks for their lecture the next day? Where does print on demand stall and preparedness/sales forecasting step up? Also, booksellers have carefully fostered relationships with lecturers and universities over many years, will copy shop owners do the same? Thankfully, many university bookshops have exclusivity on campus

MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCS)
MOOCs have become increasingly popular over the last two years, mainly due to their accessibility, as well as the fact that the courses are generally offered free of charge. While MOOCs currently don’t have standardised quality assurance in place, this will likely change in the near future.

Many critics have come down hard on the courses citing unhealthy (90 per cent plus) drop-out rates, raising doubts over teaching methods and casting skepticism over their ability to promote education to the masses, as many set out to do.
“However, the signs are that many academic publishers see the growth and popularity of MOOCs as an extremely appealing business opportunity and a new route to market for textbooks and e-textbooks. With five major publishers piloting a program with provider Coursera back in May and Elsevier teaming up with edX later in the year, I would imagine more publishers will be pursuing partnerships with MOOCs providers in 2014,” predicts Lossius.

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
There are a variety of mitigating factors that limit access to eLearning to South African students, many of which are the same as those that also exclude disadvantaged groups from traditional educational models and stem from financial, geographical and educational disparity. In practical terms, sustained participation in a MOOC or any eLearning course requires a set of resources and infrastructure that is a privilege.
A reliable electricity supply, frequent and uninterrupted access to a device capable of going online and playing video and sound, and a secure, unrestricted Internet connection are essential starting blocks – as is a safe and comfortable space in which to learn.
People also need to know how to learn and if these skills have not been imparted to them in the school system, independent online courses will be of no help. A “basic level of education and the ability to study” spans everything from essential literacy and numeracy to self-motivation, being able to pursue independent research and practice of writing academic papers. Learners without these skills, let alone the foundation knowledge required to follow a university level course, will no doubt struggle to remain engaged.

Limpopo’s 2014 textbook delivery: Vast improvement, but still a way to go, NIKKI STEIN SOUTH AFRICA 23 JAN 2014 12:45 (SOUTH AFRICA),

Textbook replacement draining school funds, KATHARINE CHILD | 21 January, 2014 00:36

World Bank, Coursera to take MOOCs to developing world | Peta Lee18 October, 2013.

All eyes on Department of Basic Education to get books on desks, by Sue Blaine, 21 January 2014, 18:58

LATin: South America’s Open Education Publishing Project, Andrés Delgado Darnalt, January 30, 2014

5 Trends for Academic Publishing in 2014 | George Lossius, January 15, 2014

Debate: Lessons from class of 2013 | January 12 2014 at 12:21pm

Section 27 commends education department on textbook delivery, 20 JAN 2014 17:24 SAPA

E-learning trends for 2014 BY: Kirsty Chadwick | 21 January 2014 06:36