National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF) are amended by updating the National Targets table (Par. 109 of the NNSSF) to include 2015 and 2016 indicative target amounts: and the National Poverty Distribution table (Par. 111 of the NNSSF).

This document is designed to highlight the abolishment of corporal punishment in schools and to provide clear guidance to provinces, districts and schools on how to deal with issues of corporal punishment. The protocol aims to create a national framework to standardize the education sector’s response to corporal punishment and to facilitate implementation of the prohibition of corporal punishment throughout the education system and embed the positive behavior Intervention Systems programmes – in order to empower all stakeholders to respond constructively towards learner ill-discipline.

The national reading strategy has a vision to ensure every South African learner becomes a fluent reader who reads to learn, and reads for enjoyment and enrichment. It underpins South Africa’s participation in United Nations development campaigns, including; the UNESCO Literacy Decade 2003-2013, and the Education for All (EFA) campaign, which aim to increase literacy rates by 50% by the year 2015.

The government is using the period covered by the strategic and operational plans to collaborate with provincial governments, NGOs, and social and private partners, to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of education, so as to ensure that all elements of the system are subjected to rigorous scrutiny. The goals and objectives contained are anchored on the overarching goal of the department: to ensure quality education for all.

The guidelines are premised on the sixth white paper on Special Needs Education Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. They serve as steps towards making all ordinary schools, full-service/inclusive schools. The guidelines contain criterias for schools, districts, and provinces, to measure progress towards inclusion; incentives are also offered, as a form of rewarding excellence.

The strategic plan outlines the building blocks necessary to ensure the strong foundation for the educational system. It strives to ensure that the skills needed to drive South Africa’s economic growth and social development are delivered at an increasing rate for both young people and adults. The revisions apply to the sub-programmes of universities, related to their academic planning and management.

This serves as a call for comments on the Action plan to 2014. The plan is a draft document of the Department of Basic Education intended to elicit public inputs.

This represents the first distinct and independent strategic plan of the Department of Basic Education. The strategic plan sets out the three-year objectives and activities of the department, with emphasis on implementation and performance monitoring of the basic education system. The key objectives include; streamlining of curriculum; development of strategies on the assessment of learners; recognition of the critical role played by teachers in delivering quality teaching and learning, and the role played by principals in management of schools; distribution of learning materials; and promotion of e-education strategies.

The plan outlines the goals and aspirations of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), and its specified stakeholders for 2025. The draft action plan is the DBE’s strategy to strengthen weak areas in the education system.

The delivery agreement are long-term, and applies to the whole government. It provides detail to the outputs, targets, indicators and key activities to achieve outcome 1; Improved quality of basic education. The agreement identifies the required inputs, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the various delivery partners. It should be read alongside the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025.

The full version of the action plan is intended for managers responsible for implementation, and people responsible for monitoring the success of implementation. It highlights the 27 goals of the action plans and specific delineations. The plan is South Africa’s foremost comprehensive long-term sector plan for schools; and it guides the ten education departments dealing with basic education education (the national Department of Basic Education and the nine provincial departments).

An abridged version of the delivery agreement for outcome 1; Improved quality of basic education.

The curriculum assessment policy statement outlining the guidelines for responding to learner diversity in the classroom. “The guidelines are intended to provide teachers, principals, subject advisors, administrators, school governors and other personnel, parameters and strategies on how to respond to learner diversity in the classrooms through the curriculum. They are intended for school based teacher development by the Institution level support teams and district based support teams.

The strategic plan outlines the building blocks necessary to ensure the strong foundation for the educational system. It strives to ensure that the skills needed to drive South Africa’s economic growth and social development are delivered at an increasing rate for both young people and adults.

The third skills development strategy is subsequent on the integration of programmes to create the department of higher education and training. It hopes to promote the partnerships between employers, public education institutions, private training providers, and sector education and training authority. The strategy seeks to prioritise solidifying the relationship among specified stakeholders.

The strategic plan aims to improve access to learning, while combating the dual challenge of equity and development. It strives to ensure that the skills needed to drive South Africa’s economic growth and social development are delivered at an increasing rate for both young people and adults.

The Policy emphasises the important role of parents and primary caregivers in providing care, support and upbringing of their children. The national policy focuses on providing comprehensive, universally available and equitable early childhood development services. “The Policy covers the period from conception until the year before children enter formal school or, in the case of children with developmental difficulties and disabilities, until the year before the calendar year they turn seven (7), which marks the age of compulsory schooling or special education”.

The Strategy forms part of the implementation of education white paper 6 – Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. The strategy allows children facing educational barriers to exercise their basic education rights, and access to support services. It introduces new roles, and responsibilities for the
education support system in the country: the district-based support teams, special school resource centres, full-service schools, and the institution-level support teams.

This serves as the first distinct policy of the ministry of higher education and training (MHET) dedicated to the use of distance education in higher education programmes. The MHET seeks to use the framework to chart a course towards the development of South African distance higher education as an indispensable and integral component of the nation’s higher education system. The policy is formulated as a result of the increasing growth of the distance education component of higher education in the country.

This represents a review of the planning framework of the department of basic education (DBE), to reflect changes in functional areas, institutional structures, and plans and programmes at the national level; and allowing for the coverage of issues pertaining to provinces in provincial programmes and plans. The areas of focus for the five year sectoral strategic plan include: provision of learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), support for rural and small schools, and recruitment and deployment of educators.