Tracking the money for Open Educational Resources in South African basic education: What we don’t know

Abstract

Tracking the money for Open Educational Resources in South African basic education: What we don’t know 1 Sarah Goodier Summary This study aims to develop an understanding of government funding allocated to educational resources in basic education in South Africa. Linked to claims about potential cost savings associated with using Open Educational Resources (OER), the main intention was to establish a benchmark of public spending on educational resources in order to be able to ascertain the economic benefits of using OER. As such, the following research questions are considered: How much public money is currently being spent on educational materials in basic education in South Africa? How much public money is currently being spent on OER in basic education in South Africa? Do OER represent a cost reduction with regard to educational resource acquisition in basic education in South Africa? The study is comprised of a desk review and document analysis of publicly available information on expenditure in South African basic education. This approach was adopted in order to develop a conceptual understanding of South African government funding allocation for general educational resources as well as OER. The findings highlight the fact that individual provinces, rather than central government, have the authority to determine budget allocations for the procurement and delivery of what are termed Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM). 1 This chapter has been reproduced from the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) Volume 18, Issue 4, using a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 licence. © 2017 Sarah Goodier. 233 Adoption and Impact of OER in the Global South 234 Although each provincial Department of Education budget includes a line item for LTSM, these are not sufficiently disaggregated to determine the actual expenditure on specific categories, such as textbooks, in order to establish a benchmark for potential cost savings of OER. The findings also illustrate a possible cost-recovery model based on the local Siyavula open textbook initiative. In order to make claims about OER and their cost-saving potential in the South African education system, national and provincial government budgets will need to be disaggregated to a more granular level and made more readily available for in-depth investigation of budgetary allocations. Acronyms and abbreviations DBE South African Department of Basic Education DHET Department of Higher Education and Training LTSM learning and teaching support materials MEC Member of the Executive Council OER Open Educational Resources PASA Publishers’ Association of South Africa PDEs Provincial Departments of Education SACMEQ Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality ZAR South African rands Introduction In terms of potential cost-saving mechanisms, Open Educational Resources (OER) have been claimed, as well as found in some cases, to be a cost-effective mechanism for providing educational materials to students and educators in the USA (e.g. Allen & Student PIRGs, 2010; Hilton III, Robinson, Wiley & Ackerman, 2014; Wiley, Hilton III, Ellington & Hall, 2012). However, OER cost saving has not been investigated with regard to public funding of OER in South African basic education (K-12 equivalent) to date. This study utilises the definition of OER laid out in the 2012 Paris OER Declaration, namely that OER are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open licence that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. (UNESCO, 2012, p.1) This study focuses on the use of public funding, defined here as money allocated by the South African National Treasury through the annual budget and appropriation process. The aims of this study are to investigate whether any public funding is being channelled specifically into OER, and, if so, whether it is possible to calculate any potential cost savings 235 Tracking the money for Open Educational Resources in South African basic education: What we don’t know that have been realised thus far. The backdrop of the study, including the high costs of education in the region, the importance of easy access to learning materials and the potential for OER to reduce costs, is described below. Background The key role of education in societal and economic development is recognised in the right to primary education forming part of many international statements on human rights. This important right is also enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Republic of South Africa, 1996), which makes provision for receiving education in any one of the country’s…