Abstract
Basic education in South Africa faces a crisis as learners fail to achieve the necessary outcomes in the related areas of language and literacy. The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we aim to describe and discuss the education crisis by outlining the educational landscape, relevant policy imperatives and implementation challenges in post-apartheid education. The systemic factors contributing to the literacy crisis are emphasised. Secondly, we argue that speech language therapists and audiologists (SLTAs) have a role to play in supporting basic education in South Africa through developing language and literacy. It is suggested that the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology must be socially responsive and population-focused in order to make meaningful contributions to development in South Africa. The potential roles of SLTAs are discussed with suggestions for further actions required by the professions to enable a contextually relevant practice in a resource-constrained environment.
Highlights
Basic education in South Africa faces a crisis as learners fail to achieve the necessary outcomes in the related areas of language and literacy
While South African speech language therapists and audiologists (SLTAs) work towards the development of contextually relevant intervention practices, they can draw on the experiences of SLTAs in other contexts around the world
The results indicated that the most adequate goals and successful language intervention were achieved in the transdisciplinary model of team functioning between SLTAs and preschool teachers
Summary
Annual National Assessment (ANA) in literacy and numeracy is performed for grades 3, 6 and 9 to continually measure the performance of individual learners and that of classes, schools, districts, provinces and the country as a whole. It provides information on individual learner performance, and informs the Department how the sector as a whole is functioning. Basic Education ‘Basic Education’ includes both primary and secondary education and is guaranteed to everyone without any discrimination or exclusion based notably on gender, ethnicity, nationality or origin, social, economic or physical condition, language, religion, political or other opinion, or belonging to a minority. The duration of which can be fixed by the State, Basic Education consists of at least 9 years and progressively extends to 12 years (UNESCO, 2007)
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