SA education looks into subject splits

THE Department of Basic Education is toying with the idea of breaking traditional subjects up into more narrow, specialised ones.

Director-general Mathanzima Mweli said last week that in the long run, South Africa was considering “effecting some changes” to its curriculum in order to “streamline and help pupils to pursue studies at university level”.

Department officials who recently visited Zimbabwe were “quite impressed”.

“A subject like mathematics would be dissected into further components that are deemed as subjects. For instance, geometry in Zimbabwe is viewed as a subject,” Mweli said. He also said life science (biology) and physical science could be split up.

Mweli said some believed biology could be split into botany and zoology.

Of physical science, Mweli said: “There is no reason really to get learners doing both physics and chemistry in physical science, because after school they will have to choose between the two.”

If the department were to go ahead with the move, the teachers’ unions said they would fully support this. The executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), Basil Manuel, said the union approached the department last year and asked it to look at what universities were offering in terms of physical science. “And why we are presenting this as one subject,” he said.

“Physical science is too broad. It requires two completely different sets of skills.”

The National Teachers Union’s (Natu’s) Allen Thompson also said they had brought up the idea before. He said maths was made up of three components – algebra, trigonometry and geometry – but was being taught by just one person.

Leann Roos of the SA Onderwysersunie said subject specialisation and knowledge were lacking in the system and that such a move “could work”.

But, she said, the system would require more teachers and more resources.