Bobby Soobrayen, a veteran South African Indian educationist, has secured a key position in the Ministry of Education, an appointment that entrusts him with the job of improving the apartheid-battered system.
Soobrayen has been appointed as the Director General of Basic Education, in a permanent capacity after serving in the position temporarily for six months, during which he was required to develop an action plan to improve the quality of education and functionality of schools.
Innovative ideas on improving the apartheid-battered education system secured Soobrayen the job, amidst concern over poor results. The cabinet approved his appointment, along with some other key positions.
Among the plans that Soobrayen will oversee is regularly testing of learners at various stages in their schooling for literacy and numeracy to ensure that at least half of them perform according to their age levels by 2014.
In the apartheid era, the minority white government restricted Mathematics and Science subjects in schools for the majority black population, something which the country's education authorities are still wrestling with to correct.
Soobrayen served as deputy director-general of planning and systems in the first Education Ministry headed by Kadar Asmal after the democratic elections in 1994, but left to pursue a career as Director-General of the South African Management Development Institute before being called on to
assist the current Education Minister, Angie Motshekga.