Department of Basic Education

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has embarked on a process of reviewing its strategic plan for 2015/16-2019/20 and the subsequent Annual Performance Plan for 2016/17 based on a policy shift or focus. This exercise is informed by thechallenge of not separating the sector functions from the National Department’s functions. This manifested itself in the type of indicators that have been in the DBE plans from 2010/11 to date. The emphasis of the Department is now to focus on its role as expressed in the National Education Policy Act (NEPA), (Act No. 27 of 1996). The revised DBE’s plan is based on its role of policy development, monitoring the implementation of policy and the oversight role expected in provinces as a result of the NEPA, mandate.This revised strategic plan therefore identifies important strategic outcome-oriented goals and objectives against which the Department of Basic Education’s medium-term results can be measured and evaluated by Parliament. It should be read inconjunction with other government plans and education sector plans, particularly the NDP, Action Plan to 2019: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2030 and the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) 2014 to 2019. This Strategic Plan will inform the development of the Annual Performance Plans (APPs) of the Department over the remaining four years of the five-year electoral term.

The most important strategic priority for South Africa leading up to the government term of 2010 to 2030 relates, on the one hand, to the challenge of reconciling the immense opportunities that flow from our successes and, on the other hand, to the immense challenges arising from our country’s development agenda. The peaceful transition to democracy, delivered through the commitment and forbearance of all South Africans, was followed by rapid gains in key areas of development, including: A favourable trajectory of economic growth; Dramatic improvements in the delivery of social services such as water and sanitation, housing and electricity; A dramatic increase in social grants; and A justifiable Bill of Rights.However, many significant challenges remain. Our development agenda remains the central focus of public policy and forms the basis of collective endeavour in all spheres of our society. Some of the most intractable and urgent challenges that remain include: Poverty; Income inequality; Threats to social cohesion; Ongoing demographic (race, gender, age, class and geographic) inequities; and  The impact of globalisation.It is critical to mobilise our collective will to make credible interventions that will accelerate progress towards achieving South Africa’s development goals. The HRD-SA represents an essential intervention for promoting the country’s development agenda. The need to develop and implement a robust HRD strategy is as important today as it was at the outset of our democracy in 1994. The importance of HRD is recognised by government and shared by business, labour, non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) and the academic sectors of South African society. It also resonates with the significance attached to HRD in the ..

This plan, produced by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), represents another milestone in the journey towards quality schooling for all South Africans. This document takes stock of key developments in the basic education sectorsince the release in 2011 of the last sector plan, Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025. It reiterates many of the priorities outlined in the earlier plan, as to a large extent priorities have remained the same in recent years. However, there are also shifts of emphasis in the wake of lessons learnt and, very importantly, priorities put forward by the National Development Plan (NDP) released by the President in 2012.In line with the NDP, the planning horizon in the current plan is 2030, and no longer 2025. The medium term horizon is set at 2019, which is the end of the 2014 to 2019 electoral cycle. The current plan is directed at a broad range of stakeholders involved in the momentous task of transforming South Africa’s schools. These stakeholders include parents, teachers, school principals, officials at the district, provincial and national levels, members of Parliament, leaders in civil society organisations, including teacher unions, private sector partners, researchers, and international partner agencies such as UNICEF and the World Bank. The document also serves to share with people outside the country, including foreign investors, ideas and strategies that South Africans firmly believe will enhance our education levels, and hence our prosperity, social cohesion, and ability to contribute to global development.This plan provides continuity insofar as it follows the basic structure of the previous sector plan, ..