In 1997, in consultation with the Delta Board of Directors, it was suggested that Delta Environmental Centre projects its vision into the 21st Century, especially with the imminent implementation of Curriculum 2005 in education and training programmes in South Africa. 1998 sees the implementation of Curriculum 2005 which will focus on Outcomes-Based Education (OBE). "Environment" has been identified as a phase organiser for all learning programmes, at all levels, grades and phases of the new school system. This, together with a number of environmental outcomes, ensures that Environmental Education (EE) is an integral part of the new curriculum. This poses a challenge to educators who need to implement the new curriculum to ensure quality education and good environmental practises towards sustainable living.
What is Outcomes-Based Education?
Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) concerns a shift from teacher inputs (what teachers do) to learner outcomes (what the learners know and can do). According to Spady and Marshall (1991:67) OBE is founded on three premises:
- All students can learn and succeed (but not on the same day in the same way).
- Success breeds success.
- Schools control the condition of success.
What is environmental education?
The new constitution of South Africa enriches the right of every citizen to an environment that is not detrimental to his or her health. To achieve this, the many environmental issues which the people of this country face, will have to be addressed through:
- the prevention of further environmental degradation;
- the solving of environmental issues of problems;
- the development of sustainable living practices among all South Africans.
Environmental issues are complex and multi-faceted, and all walks of life must engage in their clarification and resolution. Environmental Programmes which only transfer information about environmental issues, will thus be futile. Education should be an ongoing process of equiping ourselves with the knowledge, attitudes, skills and commitment (action competencies) to address socio-ecological issues as they arise and change. Formal education, in a context of an outcomes-based system which emphasises the integrated development of knowledge, skills and competencies, has an essential role to play in this proccess. Programmes of Learning which include environmental concerns viewed from socio-ecological and socio-historical perspective; which emphasises the sustainable development and management of the life sustaining support systems; and which develop the action competencies needed to resolve and prevent environmental issues are thus vital to South Africa's development.
Environmental education is thus a process through which we might enable ourselves and future generations to respond to environmental issues in ways that might foster change towards sustainable community life in a healthy environment (EECI, April 1997).
E.E in the learning areas
The Department of Education has produced a new curriculum that will operate in 8 learning areas and they are:
- Language, Literacy, Communication (LLC) - Learners use language for learning
- Human and Social Sciences (HS) - Make sound judgements about the development, utilisation and management of resources.
- Technology (T) - Select and evaluate products and systems
- Mathematical literacy, Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences (MLMMS) - Measure with competence and confidence in a variety of contexts.
- Natural Sciences (NS) - Demonstrate an understanding of how scientific knowledge and skills contribute to the management, development and utilisation of natural and other resources.
- Arts and Culture (AC) - Apply knowledge, techniques and skills to create and be critically involved in arts and culture processes and products.
- Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) - Demonstrate personal role in economic environment.
- Life Orientation (LO) - Demonstrate the values and attitudes necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
Learning programmes and the new curriculum
All learning programmes designed for the new curriculum are derived from the clustering and organising of the specific outcomes from eight areas of learning into teaching units of activities which are contextualised through topics, places or activities. These contexts for learning provide the contexts in which the specific outcomes are developed, and in which learners are able to show developing competence in relation to the specific outcomes. In an outcomes-based system, there are no longer fixed syllabi as South African teachers were used to having in the past.
In outcomes-based education, lists of content which have to be covered are no longer appropriate as teachers are no longer required to teach 'content' only. Teachers now teach towards outcomes, and thus have to provide opportunities for learning which encourage the development of a range of competencies (which include knowledge and understanding, skill and attitude development as well) to teach towards the outcomes which are to be achieved by all learners by the end of the General Education and Training (GET) Band. If learners show competencies in all these outcomes by the end of GET, they will be awarded their General Education and Training Certificate (the first national qualification which will be awarded on the NQF).
If these are the requirements of teachers, and if they are no longer have a set syllabi, which are the guidelines which need to be followed to help set the direction for teaching and learning, which help to set national standards and which will guide teachers in making descisions about their teaching and learning?
In an outcomes-based system, teachers will have three levels of guidelines:
1) National Standards (policy) for each phase:
2) Learning Programme Guidelines
The national standards indicate the outcomes, assessment criteria, range statements and performance indicators for each phase.
The learning programme guidelines indicate the way in which the national standards (specific outcomes and assessment criteria) have been clustered into specific learning programmes for each phase.
3) Phase organisers to focus on the specific outcomes in each learning programme
To help teachers to cluster the specific outcomes within each learning programme, and to provide conceptual coherence to the learning within the new curriculum across the different phases, each learning programme in all the phases has six key 'organisers' which form an organising framework for clustering of the specific outcomes. These organisers are:
Adult basic education and training, environmental education and outcomes-based education
The way forward with curriculum 2005
Since it forms part of the eight prescribed areas of learning, the implementation of Curriculum 2005 is a great opportunity for Environmental Education and Training to form part of Adult Basic Education and Training. This will ensure that:
Curriculum 2005 holds implications not only for pupils from within the formal education system, but also for adult learners usually studying at ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) centres. These centres often form part of the training departments of large corporations and it is envisaged that they will become more and more important as the need for a literate and numerate workforce grows. ABET usually focuses mainly on literacy and numeracy, but for ABET learners to qualify within the same framework as learners from the formal schooling system, they will have to receive tuition and be evaluated on the outcomes as stipulated in all the eight prescribed areas of learning of Curriculum 2005.
Learners, teachers and teaching institutions are going to be expected to demonstrate, amongst other things, that they are capable of:
*a possible qualification will be attached to training;
*and that Environmental Education and Training will be integrated into training as a whole.