Well-trained art educators: A dying breed?

Against the background of educational change following the institution of a democratic government in South Africa, a new curriculum rooted in Outcomes –based education (OBE) was introduced in schools. Considering poor exit level results at school, and taking the outcomes of several tests that revealed poor performance in literacy and numeracy in primary standards into consideration, the minister of Education at the time announced in parliament that the national curriculum in schools had to be reviewed. A report from the task team that conducted the review of Outcomes-based Education was submitted in 2009.Following that report, a national curriculum was published for comments by stakeholders. A document named CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) which holds the amendments to the curriculum for schools and a timeframe starting in 2011 for the phasing in of curriculum was presented. At present Arts & Culture is 1 of eight “Learning Areas “that form part of the compulsory programmes to be offered in the general Education & training band (GET) in schools. Arts & culture comprises dance, drama, music & visual art.The curriculum was designed to comply with the vision for education in the arts as stated in the WESTAG Arts Education Policy document ( 1995 ,18) that excellent , stimulating , creative & enriching arts education for ALL learners is imperatives