Question NW365 to the Minister of Basic Education
24 March 2020 - NW365
Sukers, Ms ME to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1) Whether, with reference to her department’s meeting on 24 January 2020 with internal stakeholders (details furnished), she can confirm that the Scripted Lesson Plans (SLPs) in the Educator Guides and learner workbooks are not compulsory sources that teachers and/or schools could use to achieve the mandatory minimum outcomes set by the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum for the Life Skills and Life Orientation subjects; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether, given that section 6A of the South African Schools Act, Act 84 of 1996, empowers only the Minister to determine the minimum outcomes as set forth in the national curriculum statement and not to dictate the sources teachers and/or schools are to use to achieve such minimum outcomes, her department intends to make the SLPs in the Educator Guides and learner workbooks mandatory and the only source for achieving minimum outcomes set by the CAPS curriculum for the Life Skills and Life Orientation subjects; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. The Scripted Lesson Plans (SLPs) are not the only source that teachers and/or schools can use to achieve the mandatory minimum outcomes set by the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum for the Life Skills and Life Orientation subjects. Since sexuality education has been offered since 2000, teachers have been using different sources to develop lesson plans. The SLPs are being piloted in a select number of schools at the moment.
2.It is not my intention to make the SLPs mandatory in schools.