The strategic policy framework on disability for the post-school education and training (PSET) system intends to create an inclusive PSET system for people with disabilities, guide PSET institutions in the creation of an enabling environment for people with disabilities, and provide the department of higher education and training with a monitoring and evaluation instrument to ensure that disability compliance is mainstreamed in all PSET institutions.

The national reading strategy has the vision to ensure every South African learner becomes a fluent reader who reads to learn and reads for enjoyment and enrichment. It underpins South Africa’s participation in United Nations development campaigns, including; the UNESCO Literacy Decade 2003-2013, and the Education for All (EFA) campaign, which aims to increase literacy rates by 50% by the year 2015.

The government is using the period covered by the strategic and operational plans to collaborate with provincial governments, NGOs, and social and private partners, to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of education, so as to ensure that all elements of the system are subjected to rigorous scrutiny. The goals and objectives contained are anchored on the overarching goal of the department: to ensure quality education for all.

The guidelines are premised on the sixth white paper on Special Needs Education Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. They serve as steps towards making all ordinary schools, full-service/inclusive schools. The guidelines contain criteria for schools, districts, and provinces, to measure progress towards inclusion; incentives are also offered, as a form of rewarding excellence.

The strategic plan outlines the building blocks necessary to ensure a strong foundation for the educational system. It strives to ensure that the skills needed to drive South Africa’s economic growth and social development are delivered at an increasing rate for both young people and adults. The revisions apply to the sub-programmed of universities, related to their academic planning and management.

The interim policy is in recognition of the critical importance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) as a fundamental pillar of the foundation for lifelong learning. The government aims to incorporate ECD into the components of the policy framework for education and training in South Africa. It seeks to leverage programmes and strategies to help families and communities meet the needs of children from birth to at least nine years of age. The policy will “holistically cover the development of the young child and ensure an environment characterised by safety, protection, anti-bias and cultural fairness, to ensure that attitudinal and psychological healing, reconciliation and the start of nation-building can take place at a young age”.

This serves as a call for comments on the Action plan for 2014. The plan is a draft document of the Department of Basic Education intended to elicit public input.

This represents the white paper on special needs education in South Africa, towards building an inclusive education and training system. It highlights the resolve of the national government to audit special schools, develop investment plans to improve their quality of education and accommodate learners with severe disabilities. It overhauls the process of admitting learners, and it makes provisions for structures acknowledging the central role played by specified stakeholders, as a form of replacement. The white paper, together with the white paper on early childhood development (ECD), serves as the completion of seven years of post-apartheid policy development and policy-making on education and training.

The 2007-2011 strategic plan represents the department of education’s reaffirmation and commitment towards the transformation of the education system in South Africa. The 4-year plan focuses on improving support to schools, educators, and district offices. The strategic plan is anchored to the broad priorities of the department: dealing with poverty, skills development, quality improvement, health and education, and institutional development.

The statement of policy and commitment by the department of education. The statement highlights the achievement in the education sector, as the country celebrates its first decade of freedom. The department pushes to build on the achievements; it seeks to enhance the professional status of teaching, and address infrastructural inadequacies in the education sector.

The amendment operates under the South African Schools Act of 2006. It sets out the national norms and standards for school funding, it deals with the procedures to be adopted by Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) in determining resource allocations to schools, and it replaces all previous school funding norms issued in terms of sections of the South African Schools Act. The norms and standards deal with the public funding of public schools, the exemption of parents who are unable to pay school fees, and public subsidies to independent schools. They apply uniformly in all provinces.

The Strategy forms part of the implementation of education white paper 6 – Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. The strategy allows children facing educational barriers to exercise their basic education rights, and access to support services. It introduces new roles, and responsibilities for the
education support system in the country: the district-based support teams, special school resource centers, full-service schools, and the institution-level support teams.

The equitable policy sets out to address the persisting inequality challenges and inadequacies in allocation and access to basic school infrastructure services; laboratories, computers, and classrooms. The policy seeks to fill the gap of the lack of specific national and provincial policies. It serves as a framework to guide the development of physical teaching and learning environment.

This plan includes valuable strategic pointers for ensuring that government’s substantial, yet limited, resources are used effectively to accomplish South Africa’s education mission. The emphasis in this Plan of Action is on ensuring that the poorest 40% of learners in South Africa continue to experience improvements in the quality of the schooling they receive and that all barriers to access, such as distance, school fees, or some other barrier, are removed by 2006.

The policy stipulated in this document applies to public ordinary and special schools and those independent schools that offer the National Curriculum Statement Grades R – 12, which comprise; Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements for all approved subjects listed in this document; National policy pertaining to the programme and promotion requirements of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R – 12; and National Protocol for Assessment Grades R – 12.

These regulations apply to all schools. The main objective is to provide minimum uniform norms and standards for public school infrastructure.

The purpose of this policy is to promote punctual and regular attendance at public schools and provide public schools and provincial education departments (PEDs) with standard procedures for recording, managing and monitoring learner attendance.

This document provides an amendment of the curriculum and policy and policy statement of the national curriculum statement to provide for minimum outcomes and standards and a national process and procedure for the assessment of learner achievement. It also provides an amendment to the national policy pertaining to the programme and promotion requirements for grade R-12.

This is an Act for the establishment of the Education Fund, specifying the Powers and Functions of the Fund, management, financial provisions, and other general provisions.

This policy aims to expand access and equity, improve the quality and effectiveness of the education system, develop scientific and technological competence, expand tertiary education, promote good governance of education, and provide a safe and healthy environment for teaching and learning.