Freedom Day on 27 April is a declared South African public holiday which celebrate our freedom and commemorate the first post-apartheid election held on that day in 1994. South Africa has made significant progress towards achieving the vision of a racially integrated society. Eradicating the past is impossible, however, working for a better future for all is something that all South Africans can do. Education remains the driving force to building a prosperous nation that we can be proud of. The South African Schools Act of 1996 (SASA) scripted the ambitious policy undertaking of post-apartheid education. Education policy has, since then, been through various development-implementation-revision cycles. School access, governance, curriculum, teacher development and re-deployment have all undergone transformation. This has resulted in a number of unintended consequences and contradictions that are manifested in implementation.
Both educators and learners have borne the brunt of the ambitious education policy and many other initiatives aimed at transforming education over the past years, namely;
-National Curriculum Statement (NCS),
- Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS)-Outcome Based Education (OBE),
- Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and
- The introduction of the National Assessments (ANA).
Teachers are expected to acquire the necessary training and continuously improve their capabilities to improve and deliver quality education. NAPTOSA continues to provide opportunities for teachers to develop themselves through various programmes and courses offered by NAPTOSA’s Professional Development Institute in all provinces.
NAPTOSA has served education since 1904 and celebrates ten years as a Union in 2016 and has proved that it is possible for a Union to not be affiliated with any political party and focus on teacher professionalism and putting the needs of the child first. NAPTOSA has a diverse membership that best reflects what the historic event on 27 April 1994 hoped to achieve. NAPTOSA is proud of its contribution to making South Africa a much better place than it was pre-1994.
