NATIONAL
CURRICULUM STATEMENT
HAS BEEN FINALISED!
There is
much confusion about the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). To give
an analogy to help our understanding, imagine that the curriculum and
its specified outcomes is the frame of a goal post. The curriculum sets
the broad parameters of the education content to be studied. The net that
is attached to the goal post would be the learning programmes, these make
up the details or the content to be studied. The learning programmes take
their shape from the goal post, i.e. the curriculum. It is true that on
the market place of learning programme providers, there are various shapes
of "nets" each informed by various philosophies, but ultimately
each learning programme (net) will have to conform to the curriculum outcomes
at some point (i.e. attach itself to the goal post).
Within the
Draft NCS, several troubling outcomes emerged from the obscure language
of the 1,400 page document. Included in these were: the testing of values,
an explicit and at times pornographic compulsory sex education, multi-faith
or "Religion Education", and these curriculum being forced on
all schools including private, Christian and home-schools. In November
last year, tensions reached a climax as over 2,000 Christians marched
to parliament and Minister of Education, Prof. Kader Asmal acknowledged
receiving over 10,000 submissions from Christians and concerned parents.
During this period of time, Minister Asmal made derogatory statements
about Christians and concerned parents. But the pressure was sufficient
to delay the implementation of the NCS, at least until emotions had died
down.
On Monday
15th April 2002, a decision was taken to go ahead with the implementation
of the NCS, this time not with a draft version, but the final thing! The
question arises, how does it differ from the previous draft version?
What must
be seen as a victory for Christians, the Department of Education has shifted
the goal post in our direction. To all who prayed and acted - well done!
However, to clarify the exact position of the final version of the NCS
is near impossible. Alan Sutherland of the ACSI (Association of Christian
Schools International), who attended the 15th of April press conference
in Pretoria, says that the final NCS is larger than the previous 1,400
page document. At the time of writing this article, the Western Cape Education
Department had no hard copies in their office and only the Overview was
available on their website. Surprise-surprise it takes ages to download.
According to Alan Sutherland, the major changes to the curriculum were
in the Languages section - i.e. promoting education in the mother tongue
and multi-lingualism. Regarding Christian schools, Minister Asmal gave
them the assurance that he would allow them to interpret the curriculum
for themselves, BUT they will have to write the GETC (General Education
and Training Certificate) at grade 9, thus limiting their freedom.
Regarding
the radical sex education, Minister Asmal said at the press conference:
"There is no sex education, although we encourage an awareness of
sexuality, which in the context of sexual abuse and HIV/Aids is essential."
Regarding Religion Education, he said, "There is no religious indoctrination,
but we encourage children to be aware of the full diversity of South African
society: the rich array of races, ethnic and language groups, and the
many religious belief systems which make up this country." These
are ambiguous statements and sound very similar to what he said at the
heat of the debate last year. They can be interpreted both conservatively
and liberally. The only genuine compromise is allowing parents to take-up
complaints as regards the sex education with the school governing bodies
(SGB), which Asmal says will have the power to revise problematic learning
programmes.
What is encouraging
is that Welfare Minister Ben Ngubane has designated funds for Focus on
the Family's Biblically-based sex education course - "No Apologies".
Courses such as this have been successfully used in Uganda to curb the
spread of HIV/AIDS. However, it must be questioned, will projects sponsored
in the Department of Welfare impact on the Department of Education DoE
and public schools? Also the Free State Department of Education have banned
sex education and Lovelife from operating in their schools. But let's
not forget - tax sponsored, government endorsed pro-abortion and homosexual
groups such as Planned Parenthood still hold the national tendor to train
teachers on "sexuality". They are the dominant learner programme
provider on sexuality and receive the vast majority of funds. After the
fight, the dust has settled. Unfortunately its their dust - Planned Parenthood
and its affiliate Lovelife are in our schools - and every Christian needs
to clean it up!
Where
to from here?
We need a bottom-up transformation. There needs to be a concerted effort
from EVERY concerned parent to take these issues up with their SGB and
force their school to use alternatives to Lovelife and the Planned Parenthood
sex education. Alternative values-based sex education include: "No
Apologies" by Focus on the Family; Scripture Union; True Love Waits;
"The Bold and the Brave" by Doctors for Life and Campus Crusade
for Christ. I encourage the same action as regards Religion Education,
although it is unclear whether Asmal has left any space open for debate
on SGB-level here.
I have not
dealt with the Marxist underpinnings of the Natural and Social Sciences
and the skewed interpretations of History. While it may be good to try
and preserve state schools, as an educator, I firmly believe if we are
going to have reformation in South Africa, we need what has happened in
the USA - a ground swell of Christian and home-schools.
My advice
to parents is, keep your critical glasses on - "the price of freedom,
is eternal vigilance." We are dealing with secular humanists, who
being evolutionists believe in "change" - they will not stand
still - they will continue to advance their agenda.
In conclusion,
no Protestant nation has ever fallen to Communism, but many have fallen
to Humanism and Secularism, and one of the first institutions to fall,
was that of Education. We need to preserve and advance our Christian culture.
To do so, I for one fully endorse the need for private solid Christian
education and schools teaching a Biblical Worldview.
By Rob Mc
Cafferty
M.Ed
For
more information and resources contact:
Christian Action Network
PO Box 23632, Claremont 7735
Tel: (+27 21) 689-4480 Fax: (+27 21) 685-5884
E-mail: info@christianaction.org.za
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