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Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement

Schools enter new phase

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:07

The Department of Basic Education has confirmed that the new CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) will be implemented at all Schools in 2012. The new CAPS will be phased in over 3 years, commencing with Grade 10 and Grades 1 to 3 next year.

The CAPS are single, comprehensive and concise policy documents to replace the current Subject and Learning Area Statements, Learning Programme Guidelines and Subject Assessment Guidelines for all subjects listed in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Grades R to 12.

It will provide clear guidelines on what teachers ought to teach and assess on a grade-by-grade and subject basis.

The CAPS follow a report released in 2009 by the Ministerial Review Committee, which raised questions about the lack of clarity in the NCS.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) appointed a panel of experts to investigate the nature of current challenges and to streamline the National Curriculum Statement.

As recommended by the committee, the Department tasked the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements Ministerial Project Committee with developing CAPS for each grade.

The introduction of the new CAPS in 2012 will create a challenge for the tens of thousands of Schools throughout the country. In order for the new CAPS to be properly understood and effectively implemented, teachers will need to become aware of the new requirements.

Publishers of school textbooks have had to meet tight deadlines to ensure that their textbooks are approved by the DBE and are registered on the National Catologue. The approved textbooks for Grade 10 in 2012 were published on the DBE's National Catologue.

The key changes of the CAPS implementation:

• The focus of the CAPS will be on ‘back to basics’. Group work will be replaced by individual work.
• Learning Areas and Learning Programmes will be called Subjects.
• Learning Outcomes and Assessment Standards will be replaced with Topics.
• The CAPS break down each Subject into teaching weeks and outline the topics that need to be covered per week.
• The number of Subjects in the Intermediate Phase (Grade 4 to 6) will be reduced from eight to six:

• The common tasks for assessment for grade 9 learners have been discontinued with effect from January 2010.
• The number of projects for learners will be reduced from the year 2010.
• Learners will be introduced to the English First Additional Language in grade 1.
• For foundation phase, teachers should focus on the CAPS and not the milestones.
• Annual national testing of Grade 3, 6 and 9 will be fully implemented by the end of 2011.

Eazi Study Publishers and The School of Business have designed a Teacher Toolkit "Teaching the CAPS way" to guide and support teachers and schools with implementation.