Appendix 9

Open Learning and GET-related Policy

 Introduction 

The current South African government’s immediate priorities when coming into power were to replace divisive apartheid education policies with a new set of policies that aimed at promoting equal access to educational resources and generally redressing the imbalances created by ages of apartheid. The process of formulating new policies has required significant amounts of energy over the past six years and successfully ensured that there is now policy in most areas of our education system. In acknowledging these efforts, the Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, recently asserted that, South Africa has arguably ‘created a set of policies and laws in education and training that are at least equal to the best in the world.’[1] 

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.

This paper starts by examining policies relating to General Education and Training (GET) band with specific reference to schooling in South Africa. The purpose is to ascertain to extent to which these policies would accommodate the notion of open learning. The paper goes on to examine various other education and technology policies which relate to education in general and would be of relevance in enhancing open learning.

 Policy relating to general education and training 

The General Education and Training band of the NQF comprises of early childhood development, Foundation phase (grades one to three), Intermediate phase (grades four to six), and Senior phase (Grades seven to nine). These levels are generally referred to as schooling, and practically refer to the ten-year period of compulsory education. The band also caters for levels one to four of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET). This section focuses only on those policies relating to schooling.

First Education White Paper

The first education White Paper (1995) established clear policy commitments to education generally. The established general philosophy, goals, values, and principles for the new education and training system do show alignment with some of the basic principles of open learning. Some of the values and principles of education and training as articulated in the White Paper include:

•      A commitment to increasing open access education and training of good quality;

•      State to provide support, appropriate care and educational services;

•      Policy must enable all individuals to value, access to, and succeed in life-long education and training;

•      Policy must provide an increasing range of learning possibilities, offering learners greater flexibility in choosing what, where, when, how and what pace they learn;

•      Implementing learner-centred and outcomes-based approaches to education and training in order to achieve quality learning based on recognized national standards.[2]

Most of these values and principles are congruent to open learning principles and values articulated in chapter one.

In chapter five of the White Paper, the department goes on to  propose the establishment of a National Open Learning Agency (NOLA) whose mission would be to promote the open learning principles and undertake research and development on open learning. The White Paper defines open learning as follows:

Open learning is an approach which combines the principles of learner centredness, lifelong learning, flexibility of learning provision, the removal of barriers to access learning, the recognition for credit of prior learning experience, the provision of learner support, the construction of learning programmes in the expectation that learners can succeed, and the maintenance of rigorous quality assurance over the design of learning materials and support systems.

South Africa is able to gain from world-wide experience over several decades in the development of innovative methods of education, including the use of guided self-study, and the appropriate use of a variety of media, which give practical expression to open learning principles.[3]

Most of the principles found the department’s definition of open learning are also found in what the chapter 13 of the White Paper referred to as broad policy principle underpinning a commitment the provision of a free and compulsory general education. These principles include:

•      Access – The department acknowledges need for building extra schools and classes to ensure that there is space for every learner. The department also commit it self to ensuring that the schools are adequately staffed, they are located where they are needed and are accessible to learners.

 

•      Remove barriers – The white paper has identified a number of factors as barriers that prevent some learners from going to school and it important that these are removed. Such barriers include; distance and lack of transport, hunger, disability; looking after younger siblings, herding; household tasks, lack of parental guidance, homelessness, having to find work; and inability to pay for uniforms.

 

•      Equity – the department committed itself to ensuring that all children of school going age who are out of school, are catered for.

 

•      Efficiency and Sustainability – To achieve these, the department committed itself to reducing repetition and drop-out rates. This means that the department is committed to providing learners with enough support and chances to succeed.

 

•      Democratic governance – This would ensure that schools are owned by the communities that they serve.[4] 

Open learning is about removing barriers and increasing access to education. In terms of the values and principles outlined above, there is no doubt the government is committed to removing barriers and increasing access to education. Such commitment is confirmed by the move to provide free and compulsory education. In the White Paper, the department of education also acknowledges need to ensure that learners have access to sufficient textbooks and instructional material, decent physical facilities and quality teaching.

As the White Paper envisaged, adequate provision of resources and removal of injustices and obstacles to schooling would ensure that learners have access to a decent environment for learning which will in turn increase learners’ chances of succeeding in their educational programmes. 

These principles and commitment as articulated in the White Paper, are not about open learning, however, it is clear that they are congruent with principles of open learning.

 School governance 

In 1996, the South African Schools Act set out a new framework for the ownership, governance, and funding of schools.[5] A full year of reports, white papers, and bills preceded this. The 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.

According to the Act, governing bodies have the responsibility of promoting the quality education in schools, draw mission statement for schools, and support teachers in their professional work. The Act also gives them the right to apply to the Head of Department to take responsibilities in areas of raising funds for schools, purchasing books and other material for teaching and learning, pay services for schools determine the extra curricula activities and the choice of subjects in the school. 

They also have responsibilities such as ensuring that learners are not refused admission to school on the basis of finances, race or disability; administering and controlling school property; and encouraging parents, educators and learners to render voluntary services to the school. Through the establishment of governing bodies, the South African Schools Act gives parents more powers in terms of how schools should be governed and should be its mission. This would have implications for open learning.

Firstly, although schools may not be a prerequisite in open learning, they will remain as important spaces for learning. Governing bodies are particularly important in that they may decide on how a school should be used and for controlling access to the schools. Through informed and enlightened governing bodies, schools may be turned into vibrant centres for community learning as is the aspiration of the Ministry of Education.

 Curriculum 2005 

Open learning is not only about increasing access to institutions of learning, it also requires changes in the way teaching and learning take place. Learner-centredness, which is one of the basic principles of open learning, advocates that learners should have more say on what they want to learn, how, where, and when. A specific policy area of interest 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 NQF and SAQA. Both SAQA and the NQF 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’.[6]

The intention of Curriculum 2005 is to create nationally agreed outcomes, as well as 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, all of which are basic principles for opening learning.

 Education policy relevant to open learning 

This section explores various educational policies that are in line with open learning. The policies discussed in this section do not specifically relate to schooling. However they are also of relevance to the latter section of the education system. In particular the section focuses on the extent to which these policies encourage or discourage open learning as a means for expanding access to education.

 Priorities of the Department of Education 

The Minister of Education’s recent Call to Action statement – released in July, 1999 – is the most recent policy statement seeking to shape education and training in South Africa. In this statement, the Minister not only gave credit to South Africa for formulating policies that are equal to the best in world, but also publicly admitted the dysfunctionality of elements of our education and training system. He made specific reference to, amongst others, inequalities in schools, problems of governance and management and low teacher morale, and poor quality of learning. Given these challenges, the Minister announced the following as priorities of the department of education:

1.   Make our provincial system work by making cooperative governance work.

2.   Break the back of illiteracy among adults and youths in five years.

3.   Make schools centres of community life.

4.   End conditions of physical degradation in South African Schools.

5.   Develop the professional quality of our teaching force.

6.   Ensure the success of active learning through outcomes-based education.

7.   Create a vibrant further education and training system to equip youth and adults to meet the social and economic needs of the 21^st century.

8.   Implement a rational, seamless higher education system that grasps intellectual and professional challenges facing South Africa in the 21^st century.

9.   Deal urgently and purposefully with HIV/AIDS emergency in and through the education and training system.

These priorities are not particularly new, nor were they pronounced in a vacuum. Of particular significance is that the Minister does admit that large parts of our education and training system are dysfunctional, and openly recommits government to working towards eradicating in equalities in schools, ensuring proper management, and ensuring that both young men and women and adults can access education.

These priorities do also not refer to open learning in particular. However, some of them are in many ways in line with principles of open learning as articulated in Chapter 1 of this document. For example, saying that schools must become centres for community learning, as the Minister clearly articulated, may be understood as embracing concepts such as life long learning in which schools will not only be centres for traditional schooling and vocational learning but centres that lead people to self-development or self-actualisation.

Schools as centres for community learning may also embrace concepts such as flexible learning, wherein learner needs are taken care of and learners (both young and old) are able to choose what they want to learn, how they want to learn and when they want to learn. When schools operate as such centres, learning would be opened.

The priorities articulated by the Minister of Education are in many ways preceded by a number of policy documents, to which we now turn our attention.

 The National Qualifications Authority (NQF and SAQA) 

The conceptualisation of SAQA and the NQF as the central pillar of the government’s strategy for human resource development also seem to embrace principles of open learning comfortably.

The idea of a National Qualifications Framework for South Africa emerged in the early 1990s from the intention of transforming the nature and quality of education and training in South. It is described as:

A human resource development system in which there is an integrated approach to education and training which meets the economic and social needs of the country and the developmental needs of the individual.[7]

This means that different forms of learning, whether they be full-time or part-time, distance learning, work-based learning, or life experience, will be recognized, accredited, and registered within this new framework. This integrated approach to education, training, and development is designed to enable individuals to learn regardless of age, circumstances, and level of education and training. That is, it will allow individuals to integrate the full range of their knowledge, skills, understandings and abilities, providing them with a platform for further learning, should they so choose, and with the capacity to bring these integrated understandings to bear upon the improvement and development of their own lives and the lives of those around them.[8]

The South African Qualifications Authority Act of 1995 established SAQA as the organization responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the NQF. The primary function of SAQA is to pursue the objectives of the NQF. With regard to development of the NQF, SAQA is responsible for:

•     Formulating and publishing policies and criteria for registration of bodies responsible for establishing education and training standards or qualifications; and

•     Accreditation of bodies responsible for monitoring and auditing achievements in terms of such standards or qualifications.

With regard to implementation of the NQF, SAQA is responsible for:

•      Registration or accreditation of national standards bodies and accreditation bodies;

•      Registration of national standards and qualifications;

•      Ensuring international comparability of registered standards and qualifications; and

•      Ensuring compliance with accreditation provisions.

All SAQA’s functions are to be executed in consultation and cooperation with the departments of state, statutory bodies, companies, bodies and institutions responsible for education, training and the certification of standards that will be affected by the NQF. Not only is SAQA required to establish standards bodies, but also to put in place quality assurance processes.

 

It seems, at this point that the conceptualization and establishment of SAQA and the NQF were done to, among other purposes, provide tools to enable recognition and accreditation of learning that takes place anywhere and anyhow, while still maintaining quality. As we have seen earlier, recognition of prior learning is one of the basic principles of open learning.

 Technology-enhanced learning investigation (TELI) 

The development of policy on technology-enhanced learning is of particular relevance to open learning as well. According to Bosworth (1991), new technologies have allowed for a more flexible presentation of learning materials. For example, Bosworth argues that electronic devices such as computer and videodisc make more random access to material possible. Therefore, a sensible use of educational technology theories and technological devices can provide a truly open system.[9]

TELI is important because it establishes a clear commitment to a particular approach to making decisions about using technologies in education and training.  The TELI Discussion Document stresses the importance of examining teaching and learning environments in depth before choosing which technologies to integrate into those environments. Further, it suggests that it is necessary to identify strengths and weaknesses of different technological options, and to use this to inform decisions that are taken. 

The report stresses throughout the danger of allowing technology choice to drive educational decisions about how to integrate technology use into teaching and learning environments. It offers a decision-making framework as a strategy to overcome this problem (this framework has recently been converted into a digital tool by the Department of Education to provide further support to decision-making processes). The emphasis is on appropriateness of technological choice to educational context and need as a prerequisite to ensuring that scarce resources are used as effectively as possible. The decision-making framework contained in the TELI Discussion Document poses interesting challenges for implementation planning processes for any technology-enhanced learning strategy, and provides an essential starting point for any investigation of the possibility of using different technologies to support education and training.

The intention of this approach is to guard against technologically driven educational projects, which invariably do not provide effective or sustainable educational solutions. Questions posed in it remain a crucial reference point for any planning processes focused on using technologies (including broadcasting) to support schooling. They help to locate the use of technologies within broader teaching and learning environments and to identify where the gaps and potential weaknesses of the use of such technologies lie. This information can then be used to try to fill these gaps and remedy weaknesses through the establishment of appropriate partnerships with educational providers, government departments, educational resource developers, and other key agencies.

The warning that choice of technologies needs to take into consideration weakness and strengths of those technologies is relevant. In the same manner, Lockwood (1994) warns that choice of technology needs to take into consideration needs of learners. He argues that ‘the past 20 or so years are strewn with the technological corpses of media applications designed carelessly of the needs of students and their tutors.’[10]

Also of relevance is the TELI implementation plan and list of proposed projects. The plan outlines nineteen related projects, of which six were identified as lead projects. Currently, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education at the Department of Education is engaged in the following projects emerging from the TELI plan:[11]

•     Audit of information and communication technologies in South African schools. The University of Western Cape, EPU has produced a report on ICT in schools.

•     Multi-Purpose Community Centres. The centre has carried out research and produced a report on The Role of Technologies in Supporting the Development and Provision of Education and Training through Multi-Purpose Community Learning Centres. This report is discussed further in chapter three.

•    Technical Standards and Protocols. A Departmental Committee is developing technical standards and protocols for educational technologies. Responsibility for this project has recently been allocated, and initial meetings to establish the scope of the project has been held. An unofficial draft document has been circulated to the project’s reference group.

•     Clearing House of Information. A tender for the design and development of a web site of information relating to technology-enhanced learning initiatives in South Africa has been awarded. A printed version of aspects of the information available on the web site will be available, and distributed quarterly as part of The Teacher.

•     Coordination of Library Services. Responsibility has been allocated for this function, which includes investigating the future of library services and norms and standards for school libraries.

•     Educational Broadcasting. SAIDE has produced comprehensive reports for the SABC relating to School Based Educational Broadcasting Service for South Africa and Educational Intervention in the Field of Adult Education and Youth Development: Scenarios for the SABC. Besides these reports and a substantial strategic planning which has been conducted for SABC, this study into the feasibility of establishing a channel for South Africa is the most significant development in this area.

·               In many ways these research projects emerging from the TELI plan are very important for open learning. For example it is important to know how many schools have access to information and communication technologies because as we have seen earlier, access to technologies may increase access to knowledge and make learning easy. Emerging projects such as Telecentres are also very important for open learning in that not only do they maximise access to technologies and to information but they provide space for learning. On the other hand, research on the role that radio and television could play in supporting schools, adult education and education for out of school youth is also of particular importance to open learning. The use of radio and television would mean that learners would have more support to supplement other learning materials that they may be having access to.

 Criteria for distance education 

The Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education has developed a framework of quality standards for distance education. It is important, because it contains several value statements that can effectively be used to measure the quality of any educational project. 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, it is becoming clear that many of them 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 design and course materials. Specifically, the framework endorses the broad TELI approach in the following standards:

•      The choice of media and type of technology is integrated into the curriculum design, and is justified in the light of the aims of the course, the required learning outcomes and learner needs and contexts.[12]

•      Learners are supported to a considerable extent by the provision of a range of opportunities for real two-way communication through the use of various forms of technology for tutoring at a distance, contact tutoring, assignment tutoring, mentoring where appropriate, counselling (both remote and face-to-face), and the stimulation of peer support structures. The need of learners for physical facilities and study resources and participation in decision-making is also taken into account.[13]

 Technology policy and its relevance to open learning 

Broadcasting Policy

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 was only relatively recently completed. In this discussion, we will focus first on the development of the IBA and then on the White Paper on Broadcasting. In looking at the latter document, our focus will be on comments of educational broadcasting and on convergence issues.

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’,[14] setting up the IBA for this purpose. In describing the purpose of the legislation in more detail, 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.[15]

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.[16]

• 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.[17]

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’.[18]

White Paper on Broadcasting

The White Paper on Broadcasting contains many references to educational broadcasting. It refers back to the green paper, broadcasting requirements set out by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), and various models for the SABC. It devotes a chapter to ‘Broadcasting and Human Resource Development’, in which two distinct areas of broadcasting in the human resource strategy of the country are outlined:

•        The use of broadcasting to support the provision of education and information to the South African population; and

•        The Human Resources Strategy to develop broadcasting practitioners and skills.[19]

The first is obviously most directly relevant to public educational broadcasting, as it relates to the use of broadcasting as a resource in support of both the formal and informal education. In this context broadcasting is a tool for the dissemination of educational materials to learners in all corners of the country in a timeous and cost effective way. Broadcasting is used as a support structure in the provision of materials for human resources development aiding the educators, teachers, trainers and learners wherever they may gather for educational purposes.[20]

The white paper articulates objectives for broadcasting in human resource development and roles for the public broadcasting sector, the commercial sector, and the community sector. In this, the role of the public broadcaster is articulated as follows:

The public broadcaster must shoulder the main responsibility to provide programming that is educative as well as curriculum and skills related through its Public Broadcasting Services. These services target a range of audiences that need and require different educational resources and can therefore go a long way towards developing a culture of life-long learning.[21]

In contrast to the public broadcaster’s role, the paper separates the commercial sector’s contribution into two components:

•     ‘commercial educational services’, which refers to the role of broadcasters in providing educational materials with the convergence of technologies; and

•      ‘social contributions’ which refers to educational contributions to priority areas as part of contributing to the Public Interest.[22]

The paper states that the community sector ‘is ideally placed to deliver developmental and educational programmes at a grassroots level’.[23] It goes on to state that:

The Government is of the view that education should be included as an integral object of the community sector. Educational institutions and developmental organizations should be encouraged to forge partnerships with the community sector for the provision of educational and developmental programmes.[24]

School-Based Educational Broadcasting

In April 1998, SABC Education and the national Department of Education commissioned a strategic planning exercise, which culminated in a report entitled, A School-Based Educational Broadcasting Service for South Africa - Strategic Plan Developed for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The aim was to prepare for the phased implementation of a school-based educational broadcasting service that supports teaching, learning, and whole school development. The report describes a strategic plan that will ensure educational relevance and financial sustainability. 

In developing an understanding of the nature of the service, the point of departure was that the research would support implementation of a school-based service. This is important because it implies that broadcasting will occur during school hours, and will be used by learners and teachers at schools. The process developed a clear in-principle understanding of the implications of establishing such a service. In doing this, it located a school-based service within a broader broadcasting service supporting schooling through a wide range of broadcasting interventions. 

The in-principle approach required an exploration of the relationship between education and broadcasting. This closed off unnecessary debate about whether or not there was any educational role for television or radio. In South Africa, this has already been resolved in the affirmative. This changed the focus of the planning significantly, because it recognizes that the public broadcaster has an educational mandate that it must fulfil. The plans were therefore informed by broadcasting prerogatives, not just educational ones. Linked to this, too, was the fact that other role players and policy makers have – during earlier planning processes – prioritized school education as a focus for SABC Education. Consequently, these plans focused on roles that a broadcasting service could most usefully play in supporting school education, in terms of:

•         Curriculum support;

•         Professional development of teachers; and

•         Governance, management, and administration of schools.

The school-based educational broadcasting service was launched early in 1999. There are several conceptual and logistical challenges associated with this. Therefore, the initial focus of school-based educational broadcasting is limited to Foundation Phase education.

Telecommunications Policy

• Official policy and legislation now governs telecommunications. Perhaps the most immediately obvious aspect to this policy, which was released in 1996, is that it granted a period of exclusivity to the existing terrestrial telecommunications carrier – Telkom SA – in certain areas:

Telkom will be licensed to operate the PSTN [public switched telephone network] and the public switched data network (PSDN) for a period of exclusivity with clear-cut contractual obligations and performance criteria, as determined by the Regulator. The rough aim is to install 20 telephones per 100 population by the year 2000, recognizing that this in part depends on demand, which itself depends in part on affordability. Telkom’s stated plan to double the existing network and fully modernise it is seen as a viable means to accomplish the universal access/service goals.[25]

The policy does, however, map out clearly how this period of exclusivity is expected to pan out, as this figure indicates:[26]

In addition to this, however, the policy, and legislation which flowed from it has also established two important new mechanisms. The first is the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA), which takes responsibility for regulating telecommunications activities in South Africa, both in areas where monopoly has already been eroded and in those areas reflected in the figure above where it will be removed gradually. This regulatory authority will be merged with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) by the year 2000. The second is the Universal Service Agency, which has been tasked with the responsibility of extending telecommunications access in South Africa’s historically disadvantaged communities.[27]

The Universal Service Agency

The Universal Service Agency (USA) is a statutory body established by telecommunications policy[28], with a mandate to provide universal access to telecommunications to all South Africans. Its mission is to

promote affordable Universal Access and Universal Service in Information and Communication Technologies for disadvantaged communities in South Africa, to facilitate development, empowerment and economic growth.[29]

As a primary strategy for achieving this, the USA has followed up on one of the initiatives proposed at the ISAD Conference, namely the establishment of Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs). It intends to support this initiative through the establishment of telecentres. Telecentres are intended to serve particular communities, and, as well as providing telecommunications, many are intended to provide other services such as small business support, health, and education and training services. In this way, many people will use telephones for different purposes, making telecommunications provision economically viable while meeting the needs of the community.

The USA notes that, for telecentres to provide a long-term solution, they must become sustainable. Thus, it has committed itself to working with other organizations, including schools, libraries, churches, existing community centres, and civic organizations. The key point is not just to run a few projects, but to develop a replicable model of running telecentres effectively in disadvantaged areas.

The USA also acknowledges the need for a range of support services. These include: development of partnerships with other initiatives; establishing a national training scheme; monitoring of telecentres; and establishment of a computer clearing house. To support this work, a Universal Service Fund has been established, which will mainly be financed through licence conditions established by SATRA for telecommunications carriers. The first few centres were established in 1998.[30]

Of particular interest is the USA’s involvement in the supply of equipment to telecentres and schools. Many personal computers that have become too old for new generations of software in industry and commerce are still usable in community centres and schools, which have lower-level computing requirements. Consequently, the USA has started a project called the Universal Computer Project:

The Agency has established the Universal Computer Project (UCP), a Section 21 non-for-gain organization. The Universal Computer Project coordinates the identification, collection, storage, repair and dissemination of new and used computers from technology companies and corporates to telecentre, schools and rural based community organizations and centres. The UCP also identifies and coordinates training programmes for the people working in these centres on the use, repair and maintenance of computer equipment, thereby promoting technology related skills and ultimately better communication links between communities, government, business and non-governmental organizations.[31]

Information and Communications

The Department of Communication has released a position paper entitled South Africa’s National Information and Communications Superhighway. The paper asserts that ‘South Africa will have an advanced Fibre Optic-based communications network in place in the next three years’.[32] This is based in large part on the assertion that:

The idea of consolidating government networks and to ensure that the various existing networks talk to each other is vital for the attainment of a fully automated government that is accessible 24 hours day and to all citizens. The government is the single most important producer of information and has a special obligation to share its information with the public.[33]

Further recommendations approved by South Africa’s cabinet and document in this paper are:

•      Consolidating government’s network and technology in order to ensure efficient service to the public;

•      Establishing a ministerial information and communications technology investment cluster in order to further speed up the growth of a sector that has massive potential and which will place South Africa on the global communications highway. This will be convened by the Department of Communications;

•      Defining and developing the One-Stop shop concept

•      Preparing legislation for e-commerce, digital signature and multimedia convergence and encryption;

•      Setting up a Centre for Information and Communications Technologies as an advisory body comprised of both the public and private sectors; and

•      Continuing work to lay out a high-speed information network throughout the country.[34]

These projects have only recently received Cabinet approval, and thus have not yet started in any meaningful way, although there are some pockets of activity.

Postal Policy

Finally, the Department of Communications released a White Paper on Postal Policy in May 1998. A number of points emerging from this policy document about new technologies are worth noting.

•         Through its universal distribution network the Post Office is thought to be in a good position to provide the bridging network between the different levels of technology.

•         The Post Office commits itself to providing access to technology to developing communities through its multi-purpose centres which are intended to give public access to e-mail, facsimile and Internet services; and

•         ‘Hybrid electronic services’ are being investigated by the Postal Sector. These are described as follows in the white paper:

Hybrid services involve both the delivery of a hard copy version of a message that originated from the sender in electronic form, and the translation of a hard copy communication into electronic form for transmission to a recipient by modem or other electronic networks. These services speed the transmission and delivery of hard copy communications.[35]

•         The white paper devotes a paragraph to explaining its Volume Electronic Mail (VEM) service, which is labelled as being ‘at the forefront of development’.[36] VEM is being investigated for the delivery of large volume, point-to-multi-point, regional delivery. A Hybrid Data Interchange service is envisaged to provide  a bridge between trading partners at different stages of adopting electronic communications technology, a fax-on-demand document storage and retrieval service.[37]

 Related policy positions 

Information Society and Development Conference

In addition to educational, telecommunications, and broadcasting policy, there are other policy positions that focus specifically on the development of an information society and are relevant to this study. In many ways, these policy processes were ushered in by the Information Society and Development (ISAD) Conference, a G7 Conference held in South Africa in 1996. At this Conference, South Africa put forward a position paper, which articulates a range of national initiatives designed to foster an information society in South Africa. The paper notes that:

The information revolution is changing the world very rapidly. These changes are global and inescapable. Further, the rate of change in the information revolution continues to increase exponentially. This will have enormous economic consequences, and great potential for spreading benefits currently enjoyed by developed countries. This great rate of change demands a very flexible approach to policy formulation. However, the challenges facing developing countries are different in many respects to those facing developed countries. In developing countries, the Information Society must serve national development needs, and focus on the disadvantaged sectors and under-developed areas.[38]

In response to this challenge, the paper identified a range of national interventions, each intended to contribute to serving these ‘national development needs’. These were:

1.   Establishment of Centres of Excellence to develop applications meeting the needs of the communities they serve;

2.   Establishment of Multi-Purpose Community Centres for universal access, in which IT will be the backbone for a range of services defined by their communities;

3.   Development of a Government Online pilot project to support the development of open and efficient government;

4.   Development and implementation of a national qualifications framework for IT; and

5.   Support for the establishment of a Contemporary African Music and Arts Archive to record and promote South African national cultural and artistic heritage.[39]

Communication Task Group

Another relevant policy process is the work of the Communication Task (ComTask) Group. The ComTask report emerged from the activity proposed at ISAD of supporting open and transparent government by development online governmental services. This task group, which was commissioned by then Deputy President of South Africa, consulted over an eight-month period with South African institutions, professional bodies, and all levels of government.

Its purpose was to compile a set of recommendations on an information strategy for the South African government. As the report points out:

A new communications system is an economic and political imperative for the ‘information age’. Its purpose must be to provide a network throughout the country which provides every citizen with the information required to live and to control their lives.

The ComTask report analyses government communications strategies in 1996, explores the South African media, sketches out development challenges, presents international perspectives on government communication systems, and then presents a set of recommendations on the way forward. These include recommendations on the introduction of new structures (and dissolution of some existing ones), on personnel and training within the government, on roles for the Department of Foreign Affairs to improve South Africa’s image internationally, and on developing and increasing access to information.

The establishment of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), in May 1998, followed this report. The GCIS: is envisaged as a system of government communications headed by a Secretariat characterized as:

•      A strategizing body located in the Presidency dealing with issues of government message, communications strategy, and corporate image.

•      A body to integrate, coordinate and rationalize the work of all communications structures in government, including training.[40]

The GCIS sees the implementation of the structural changes recommended by the ComTask Group Report. The following were initial objectives of the GCIS for its first year:

•      Development communications: The aim of this is to ensure that all South Africans are empowered to know their rights and to take full advantage of the socio-economic opportunities. In this regard GCIS expects to play an important role in servicing tele-centres and multi-purpose community/information centres.

•      Streamlining the government communications system: It is envisaged that the Secretariat shall hold regular meetings with ministerial and departmental communicators. It is also envisaged that the relationship between the GCIS and the provincial structures shall be defined during the course of 1998. Areas of collaboration within the system will include that of strategy and message; international image-building; bulk-buying of advertising space, and training.

•      Training: One of the immediate ComTask proposals that GCIS will be attending to is the establishment of a National Training Board for government communication. This will service the whole of government.

•      Building partnerships with the Media: The GCIS relationship with the media shall be built on the recognition of the principle that they share a common responsibility and obligation: that of keeping the public informed. At the same time, GCIS shall explore avenues to ensure that a diversity of voices can be heard through the South African media.

•      Better utilization of Internet Technology: It is envisaged that the GCIS Website shall provide a single entry point for government information, with all government departments being encouraged to develop their own websites.[41]

The GCIS offers the following services to the government departments, bodies, private sector and NGOs and the public at large.[42]

•         Broadcast production Services;.

•         Exhibitions;

•         Event Management;

•         Campaign Planning;

•         Graphic design and layout;

•         Information enquiries service; and

•         Internet support services

It has also established an Interim Government Communications Training Council (IGCTC). It is envisaged that the IGCTC will in a later stage be transformed into an Education and Training Quality Assurer in line with the requirements of the National Skills Development Act.

The IGCTC has developed and adopted the following programme of action.[43]

1.      To develop a skills plan for government communications;

2.      To develop government communications learnership;

3.      To assess education and training in the sector; and

4.      To build awareness of the NQF process.

Department of Arts, Culture, Science, and Technology

Another government department responsible for examining issues related to the developing Information Society is the Department of Arts, Culture, Science, and Technology (DACST). This Department has also released a policy document on science and technology, which refers to the importance of developing a South African vision for the information society. The paper poses the following questions:

•      What should we do to prevent being marginalized by the accelerating rate of innovation in information technology in the world?

•      How can we participate globally without merely throwing open our markets to foreign products, thus increasing our dependency on the developed world?

•      How can we empower ourselves with a capacity for IT innovation?[44]

It then sets out a range of strategies for encouraging innovation and diffusion of science and technology throughout South Africa, many of which represent efforts to find answers to the above questions.  

As part of its work, DACST has approved plans to establish 43 arts and culture centres in disadvantaged communities within South Africa. This project is worth mentioning, both because it represents a different intended use for centres from those conventionally stated (conventional uses mostly being health, education, and telecommunications) and because sites have already been identified for the project to begin. DACST is keen to ensure that these centres are not only used for arts and culture purposes, however, particularly as this would not lead to the implementation of sustainable structures. Hence, it is seeking suitable partners to find a range of alternative uses for the centres.  

DACST has also just completed the National Research and Technology Foresight Project. The first questionnaires for this process were circulated in December, 1998. Its intention was to canvas the opinions of a wide range of key players in South African society, with a view to identifying and proposing future ICT sector research and technology areas and related market opportunities over the next twenty years.  

 Conclusion 

In this appendix, we have provided an overview of policy positions relating education in general, the General Education and Training sector in particular, technology, broadcasting and telecommunications policies. The chapter has also clearly demonstrated an in-principle commitment to increasing access to education through various ways including an environment in which a range of technologies is appropriately used to support education. The policy environment is only one indicator of a country’s potential to make use of technologies in meaningful and appropriate ways to increase access to education and to support learners.  

 Footnotes 

[1] Asmal, K (1999). Call to Action: Mobilising Citizens to Build a South African Education and Training System for the 21^st Century, Statement by Professor Kader Asmal, Minister of Education, Tuesday 27 July 1999

[2] Department of Education. 1995. White Paper on Education and Training: Notice No. 196 of 1995. Capte Town, 15 March 1995: pp21

[3] Ibid: pp28

[4] Ibid:pp73

[5] 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 Cooperation Agency. In Quarterly Review of Education and Training in South Africa, 5, 3.

[6] Department of Education. (1997). Curriculum 2005: Lifelong Learning for the 21^st Century: A User’s Guide. Pretoria: Department of Education. p. 32.

[7] Department of Education, 1997. Directorate: Adult Education and Training. A National Multi-Year Implementation Plan for Adult Education and Training: Provision and Accreditation.  Final Draft. Department of Education: Pretoria. p. 6.

[8] ibid., p.11.

[9] Bosworth, D.P. 1991. Open Learning. London, Cassell Educational Limited

[10] Lockhood, F. 1994. Material production in Open and Distance Learning. London, Paul Chapman Publishers:pp5

[11] Tshenye N, Personal communication and public presentations, September 1998.

[12] Department of Education, 1996, A Distance Education Quality Standards Framework for South Africa, Discussion Document Prepared by the Directorate: Distance Education, Media and Technological Services, Department of Education, Pretoria, p. 61.

[13] ibid, p. 63.

[14] Parliament of South Africa. (1993). Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 153 of 1993, Cape Town. http://wn.apc.org/iba/legis.htm

[15] Parliament of South Africa. op cit.

[16] Independent Broadcasting Authority. (1995). Triple Enquiry Report. Johannesburg: IBA. p. 16

[17] IBA. op cit, p. 11.

[18] ibid. p. 12.

[19] Department of Communications. (4 June 1998). White Paper on Broadcasting Policy, http://www.polity.org.za/govedocs/white_papers/broadcastingwp.html

[20] ibid.

[21] ibid.

[22] ibid

[23] ibid.

[24] ibid.

[25] http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/telewp.html

[26] ibid.

[27] Of course, in addition to these developments, the policy covers a range of issues on telecommunications and development, market structures, ownership, radio frequencies, tariffs, and other relevant issues. The full document can be viewed at: http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/policy/telewp.html.

[28] Telecommunications Act (1996)

[29] http://usa.org.za

[30] Universal Services Agency, http://usa.org.za/, http://usa.org.za/works/bplan.htm.

[31] Universal Services Agency, http://usa.org.za

[32] http://www.doc.gov.za/docs/pr/1998/pr0304a.html

[33] ibid.

[34] ibid.

[35] Department of Communication. (May 1998). White Paper on Postal Policy, http://www.polity.org.za/ govdocs/white_papers/postalwp.html

[36] ibid.

[37] ibid

[38] Mbeki T, (April 1996) The Information Society and the Developing World: A South African Perspective, Draft Five, Version 5.1, presented at the Information Society and Development Conference,  http://wn.apc.org/nitf/ppexec.htm

[39] ibid.

[40] Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), http://www.gcis.gov.za/