Answer to Question #206014 in English for Shivani

Question

Indicate the reasons advanced by Jansen as why South Africa continues to be ranked among the lowest in international education achievement

Answer 1

Jonathan Jansen advances various reasons as to why South Africa continues to be ranked among the lowest in international education achievement. These reasons are grounded in moral, political, philosophical and practical underpinnings. He asserts that the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) will fail because it's a policy created for political expedience and has very little to do with classroom practicalities. The language associated with OBE is quite complex, confusing and to some extent contradictory. OBE was marketed as a solution to South Africa's economic development needs as well as longstanding pedagogical problems, which Jansen perceives as impossible because the policy's transformation does not provide for classroom social relations. He further asserts that OBE contains flawed assumptions on the realities in schools. Despite its rhetoric on transformational, collaborative, flexible, trans-disciplinary, open approach to learning, it represents flawed assumptions on what happens in learning institutions, how classrooms are organized and what kind of teachers exist in the system. According to Jansen, OBE trivializes curriculum and learning areas are simplified nd overlooked. It also fails to specify subject content knowledge and leaves it in the hand of teachers, which could lead to continuities or discontinuities with apartheid curriculum depending on the school's ideological context.