Dialogues, seminars and summits

Report on rapid dialogues with key education stakeholders.

Report on the Basic Education Minister’s Dialogue with Civil Society

In December 2017, as part of its commitment to promoting deep listening and reflection, Education DialogueSA brought together key stakeholders to explore the meaning of decolonisation in the context of basic education, and to consider proposals for the decolonisation of schooling in South Africa. The call for a decolonised education system has been growing in the past two years, particularly in the context of higher education. Recently, the NECT observed that similar questions and proposals are being posed in the basic education sector. These include whether the current offerings pose epistemic injustices, devalue indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems; and how historical and cultural inheritances can enrich the current education system.

In March 2016, the NECT convened a national summit of NGOs. The summit brought together NGO leadership, government and funders to explore how NGOs could be better strengthened to support the NDP implementation.

In December 2015, the NECT organised a national school safety summit involving over 200 stakeholders representing business, government, labour, SGBs, NGOs and independent and academic institutions. The summit resulted in the adoption of a school safety declaration by key education stakeholders. Forty leaders from government, business, teacher unions and civil society met to talk about how to work together to implement the NDP chapter on education. As a result of this dialogue a decision was taken to develop and an Education Collaboration Framework which will guide the collaboration of partners to improve education.

The NECT, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, Wits School of Governance and the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation hosted a dialogue focusing on the role of parents in promoting reading and the proposed development schools model for public schools.

The NECT, in collaboration with the Limpopo Department of Education, convened a teacher professionalisation dialogue in August 2014 which was attended by stakeholders including business people, traditional leaders, district committee members, educationalists, university academics, school governing body (SGB) associations, student associations, labour unions, youth organisations and academic analysts.

The second national dialogue was held in June 2014 and focused on identifying ways of improving the professionalisation of the teaching profession. In particular it focused on the role of the South African Council of Educators (SACE) as the chief guardian of the teaching profession in South Africa and the role of unions in professional development.

In November 2013, the NECT convened its first national dialogue which focused on the topic “Making Schools & Teachers Effective”. This was the first dialogue held since the inaugural meeting of the leadership collective held in December of the previous year.

Developed in 2013, Protocols for Education DialogueSA provides the framework for implementing the DialogueSA programme whose purpose is to create an avenue for open, honest engagement among key stakeholders such as the teacher unions, student organisations, civil society organisations, business and Government.

In December 2012, a leadership collective initiated a national discussion, beginning with a Leadership Dialogue, which reflected on what has gone well or not gone well over the past years and what needs to be done going forward.