Political Economy Country Brief - Weak Planning Impairs Education: The Politics of Improving Learning

Much of the intertwining and the complexities of each hinge on ideological narratives.26 Improving learning outcomes The Department of Basic Education (DBE) gives every impression that it is committed to maintaining the centrality of learning outcomes in a context of competing priorities. [...] Their role is to bring together the various strands and silos of the education bureaucracy in the service of the core business of improving learning outcomes. [...] The section in question requires every school to submit an annual report on academic performance to the provincial department, and requires the province to assess whether the school is under-performing, in which case the province should formally engage with the school, following certain steps.36 Each year, the provincial head should submit a report to the national minister on underperforming schoo. [...] But to what extent are the challenges in the political realm, and to what extent in the more technical realm? Much of the motivation behind the study of the politics of schooling is a suspicion that it is in the political realm that the most fundamental change needs to occur. [...] To illustrate, in the planning of teachers, where unions play a large role, a focus on remuneration has tended to crowd out proper analysis of the trade-off between the size of the teacher workforce and pay, in a context of shifting enrollments.