CAPS Terms Glossary for Teachers

by

Use this page when a CAPS document, ATP or staff-room abbreviation is unclear. The definitions are short so you can find a term while planning, then open the official document if you need the exact rule.

This is a CAPS123 teacher reference. It is not an official Department of Basic Education glossary. If a subject CAPS document, Annual Teaching Plan or assessment protocol uses a term more tightly, follow that official document.

If you need this now

On a phone or computer, use find on page to jump to any term. On many devices that is Ctrl+F or Cmd+F.

Common abbreviations

Abbreviation What teachers usually mean
CAPS Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement, the subject policy document
NCS National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12, the broader policy that includes CAPS
ATP Annual Teaching Plan, the year’s official teaching sequence
SBA School-Based Assessment
PAT Practical Assessment Task, for specified NSC subjects
NSC National Senior Certificate
HL Home Language level
FAL First Additional Language level
LoLT Language of learning and teaching
LTSM Learning and Teaching Support Materials
GET General Education and Training, Grades R–9
FET Further Education and Training, Grades 10–12
KABV Afrikaans name for CAPS

Curriculum and assessment terms

Annual Teaching Plan (ATP)

A Department of Basic Education planning document that sequences the year’s teaching for a subject and grade. The official ATP index is still titled for 2023/24. Circular S19 of 2025 retains the Grades R–12 2023/2024 ATPs with exclusions, so check the current official file for your subject rather than assuming a new 2026 rewrite.

See: What are Annual Teaching Plans and Why You Need Them and the DBE ATP index.

Lesson plan

A teacher’s plan for a lesson, day or week. It is not the same as an ATP. The ATP sequences the year. The lesson plan turns that sequence into classroom work, activities and assessment for your learners.

Assessment

In CAPS, assessment is the planned gathering of evidence about learner performance. It includes informal or daily assessment (assessment for learning) and formal assessment (assessment of learning). Feedback should be regular in both cases. Exact forms of assessment are set in the subject CAPS, not in this glossary.

Barriers to learning

Factors that make it harder for a learner to take part or make progress. They can be physical, social, language-related, or linked to teaching methods and resources. CAPS documents expect teachers to respond to learner diversity; they do not reduce this to one classroom recipe.

Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS)

A single policy document for an approved school subject. The Department of Basic Education describes a National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement as the document that replaced Subject and Learning Area Statements, Learning Programme Guidelines and Subject Assessment Guidelines in the National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12.

CAPS documents are grouped by phase: Foundation Phase (Grades R–3), Intermediate Phase (Grades 4–6), Senior Phase (Grades 7–9) and FET Phase (Grades 10–12).

See: DBE CAPS index and the Afrikaans explainer KABV dokument.

DBE workbooks / Rainbow Workbooks

Free learner workbooks produced by the Department of Basic Education. The official FAQ describes Grade R–9 books that comply with CAPS: Grades 1–9 receive two books a year for a subject, and Grade R receives four books, one per term. The same page introduction still refers to the first six grades, so use the current official index for the file that applies to your grade.

See: A Guide to the DBE Workbooks and the official workbooks page.

External examination

The nationally set end-of-year examination used in the National Senior Certificate, alongside school-based assessment, practical assessment tasks where required, and language oral assessment for official languages.

First Additional Language (FAL)

A CAPS language level for a language the learner is adding to the home language. It is not a simple mother-tongue test, and it is not the same course as Home Language. Schools offer languages at different levels.

See: What is the Difference Between CAPS English FAL and English HL?

Formal assessment

Assessment tasks that form part of the year’s formal programme of assessment. They are marked and recorded by the teacher for progression and certification. In Foundation Phase Mathematics CAPS, formal and informal assessment mainly use observation, oral discussion, practical demonstration and written recording; Grade R assessment should be mainly oral and practical.

Formal assessment task

A planned task in the formal programme of assessment. The number, form and weighting of tasks are set in the relevant subject CAPS, not as a single schoolwide recipe.

Controlled test

A formal written test used in many GET programmes of assessment. The number, length and weighting of controlled tests sit in the subject CAPS, not as one schoolwide rule.

Formative assessment

Classroom assessment used during learning to give feedback and adjust teaching. In CAPS this sits with informal or daily assessment. It is not a separate official mark set.

Foundation Phase

Grades R, 1, 2 and 3. This is the first phase of the General Education and Training Band.

Further Education and Training (FET) Phase

Grades 10, 11 and 12. FET subjects have their own CAPS documents. For subject-content words in Geography and the sciences, use the separate FET Subject Glossary.

General Education and Training (GET) Band

Grades R to 9. It includes the Foundation, Intermediate and Senior Phases.

Grade R

The reception year at the start of the Foundation Phase. Assessment in Grade R is mainly oral and practical in the Foundation Phase Mathematics CAPS.

Home Language (HL)

A CAPS language level. It is usually the language in which the learner is most proficient, often the language used at home or in the community, but more than one home language is possible. It is not automatically the school’s language of learning and teaching.

See: English HL and FAL

Informal or daily assessment

Assessment for learning: the day-to-day monitoring of progress through observation, discussion, practical work and classroom interaction. Foundation Phase Mathematics CAPS says this should not be treated as separate from ordinary learning activities, and the results are not used for promotion and certification.

Intermediate Phase

Grades 4, 5 and 6.

KABV

Kurrikulum- en Assesseringsbeleidsverklaring, the Afrikaans name for CAPS.

See: KABV dokument

Language of learning and teaching (LoLT)

The main language used for teaching and learning in a class or school. It may or may not be the learner’s Home Language.

Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM)

The textbooks, workbooks, readers and other materials used to teach the curriculum. DBE Rainbow Workbooks are one official LTSM set. A CAPS123 lesson page is not an official LTSM item unless it is clearly labelled as such.

National Curriculum Statement (NCS) Grades R–12

The broader policy statement for learning and teaching in South African schools. The Department of Basic Education says it comprises the CAPS documents for approved subjects, the policy on programme and promotion requirements, and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R–12. CAPS is the subject-level part of that statement, not a separate curriculum brand.

See: DBE NCS page

National Protocol for Assessment

The policy document that standardises recording and reporting for Grades R–12. Promotion and progression rules also sit in the related programme and promotion requirements policy, not in this glossary.

National Senior Certificate (NSC)

The qualification at the end of Grade 12. DBE says NSC assessment comprises school-based assessment, practical assessment tasks, language oral assessment for official languages, and external examinations.

Practical Assessment Task (PAT)

A compulsory NSC assessment component for specified subjects listed on the DBE PAT page, including several agriculture, arts, technology, services, computer and Life Orientation subjects, plus the oral mark for languages. The current official page says the PAT mark must count 25% of the end-of-year examination mark. Use the current year PAT and the subject CAPS for the exact task.

See: DBE Practical Assessment Tasks

Programme of assessment

The planned set of formal assessment tasks for a subject and grade. It is set out in the subject CAPS. Informal daily tasks are not part of this formal programme.

Programme and promotion requirements

The policy that sets which subjects learners offer in each grade and the requirements for promotion. It is part of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12, alongside CAPS and the National Protocol for Assessment.

Progression

In CAPS this word is used in two ways. Curriculum progression means content should move from simpler to more complex work across grades. Learner progression or promotion is a policy decision about whether a learner moves to the next grade; those rules sit in the official promotion requirements, not in a classroom definition of “getting better”.

Recording and reporting

The official process of recording formal assessment evidence and reporting learner performance. The National Protocol for Assessment standardises this for Grades R–12.

School-Based Assessment (SBA)

Assessment completed at school that contributes to the NSC promotion mark. The current DBE SBA page, still labelled 2014, says an SBA mark is compulsory for NSC candidates and must count 25% of the final promotion mark in Grade 12. Task lists and weightings for other grades are in the subject CAPS.

See: DBE School-Based Assessment

Second Additional Language (SAL)

A further CAPS language level after Home Language and First Additional Language. Offerings and time allocations depend on the phase and the school’s language policy. Check the relevant language CAPS.

Senior Phase

Grades 7, 8 and 9.

Historical terms still found in older files

These words come from the Revised National Curriculum Statement and older outcomes-based documents. CAPS replaced Subject and Learning Area Statements, Learning Programme Guidelines and Subject Assessment Guidelines. Keep them for decoding old files. Do not treat them as current CAPS headings.

Assessment standards

Older RNCS/NCS criteria describing what learners had to show in order to achieve a learning outcome. Current CAPS documents organise work by content, skills and assessment requirements in the subject statement, not by assessment standards.

Critical outcomes / developmental outcomes

Older National Curriculum Statement outcome statements. They are not the organising headings of a current CAPS subject document.

Learning area / learning area statement

Older GET wording for a field of knowledge and its policy statement. Current documents speak of subjects and CAPS subject statements.

Learning outcomes

Older outcome statements that assessment standards were written against. Current CAPS documents do not use learning outcomes as the main planning unit.

Outcomes-based education (OBE)

The older curriculum approach associated with the RNCS. The current policy statement is the National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12, implemented through CAPS subject documents.

Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS)

The Grades R–9 curriculum statement that, with the earlier Grades 10–12 National Curriculum Statement, was replaced by the National Curriculum Statement Grades R–12 from January 2012.

Classroom language terms

Active listening

Listening in order to understand the speaker, not only to wait for a turn to talk. It includes attention, checking meaning and responding to what was actually said.

Additional language

A language learned in addition to the home language. In CAPS planning, say whether you mean First Additional Language or Second Additional Language.

Additive multilingualism

Learning another language without dropping or devaluing the home language.

Antonym

A word with the opposite meaning of another word, such as hot and cold.

Audience

The people who will listen to, read or view a text.

Auditory discrimination

Hearing the difference between separate sounds in a language, for example pin and bin.

Authentic texts

Texts that exist for a real-world purpose, such as notices, news articles, labels, brochures or radio clips, rather than texts written only as exercises.

Blends / blending

In phonics, running two or three sounds together, such as str in string. Blending is also the skill of putting sounds together to read a word.

Code-switching

Moving between languages or language varieties for a purpose, for example to explain a concept or include another speaker.

Coherent

Writing or speech that holds together. A coherent paragraph develops one idea and links sentences clearly.

Collocation

Words that commonly go together, such as make a decision or strong coffee.

Conjunction

A word that joins words, phrases or clauses, such as and, but or because.

Consonant cluster

Two or more consonant sounds together, with no vowel between them, such as str in stripe.

Context

The situation in which a text is produced or understood, including purpose, audience and setting.

Digraph

Two letters that represent one sound, such as sh in ship or ee in seed. This is not the same as a blend, where each sound can still be heard.

Directionality

In English, print is read from left to right, then back to the left at the start of the next line.

Free writing

Writing without stopping to correct spelling or grammar, used to build fluency. It is a classroom method, not a formal assessment type.

Graded readers

Books written at a controlled vocabulary or grammar level, used to give reading practice at a suitable difficulty.

Intonation

The rise and fall of the voice that helps a spoken sentence make meaning, for example the rise in many English questions.

Literacy

The ability to read and write for different purposes, and to use written information. CAPS language documents also treat listening, speaking and viewing as part of language learning.

Meta-language

Language used to talk about language, such as sentence, paragraph, sound or audience.

Mode

The form a text takes: written, spoken or visual. Moving information from one mode to another, such as from a graph to a paragraph, is part of language work.

Multilingual

Using more than one language.

Multimedia / multimodal text

A text that uses more than one mode, such as print with images, sound or video.

Phoneme

The smallest sound that can change meaning in a language, such as the difference between bat and pat.

Phonemic awareness

Hearing and working with separate sounds in spoken words, before or alongside print.

Phonic families

Groups of words that share a sound and often a spelling pattern, such as sad, mad and glad.

Phonics

The relationship between sounds and spelling, used to support word reading and spelling.

Reading vocabulary

Words a reader can understand in a text. Some of those words are also used in the reader’s own speech and writing; others are understood only in context.

Register

The style of language suited to a situation, for example a formal letter compared with a chat among friends.

Rhyme

Words or line-endings that share a final sound, such as bin and grin.

Rhythm

A repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in speech or poetry.

Rime

The part of a syllable from the vowel onwards, such as -at in sat. Words with the same rime can rhyme.

Scaffolding

Temporary support that helps a learner do work they could not yet do alone. The support is reduced once the learner can manage the task.

Scanning

Moving the eyes over a text to find a specific fact, name or number.

Sight words

Common words a reader recognises at once, without sounding them out, such as the or said.

Skimming

Reading quickly to get the main idea, using titles, first sentences and key words.

Stress

The stronger beat on a syllable in a word, such as the second syllable in reMIND.

Syllable

A beat in a word that contains a vowel sound, such as tea-cher.

Synonym

A word with the same or a very similar meaning to another word, such as tidy and neat.

Text

Any written, spoken or visual communication that can be read or interpreted.

Visual discrimination

Seeing the difference between letter and word shapes, for example b and d.

Word bank

A stored list of useful words for a topic or for writing.

Writing process

The usual stages of producing a text: planning, drafting, revising, editing and sharing or publishing.

Classroom mathematics terms

Analogue time

Time read from a clock face with hands.

Area

The amount of surface a 2-D shape covers, measured in square units.

Bar graph

A graph that uses vertical or horizontal bars to compare quantities.

Capacity

How much a container can hold, usually used for liquids and measured in millilitres, litres or kilolitres. Compare volume.

Cone

A 3-D object with a circular base that tapers to a point.

Cube

A 3-D object with six square faces.

Cylinder

A 3-D object with two identical circular ends and a curved surface joining them.

Data

Information collected to be sorted, represented or interpreted, often in graphs or tables.

Diagonal

A line joining two non-adjacent vertices of a polygon.

Digital time

Time read from a display of digits rather than a clock face.

Dimensions

The measurements used to describe a shape or object, such as length, breadth, height or radius.

Face

A flat surface of a 3-D object.

Flow diagram

A diagram that shows the steps in a process or calculation.

Grid paper

Paper printed with equal squares, used for graphs, nets and area work.

Histogram

A graph of grouped numerical data, using adjacent bars.

Horizontal

Across the page, parallel to the horizon.

Kite

A quadrilateral with two pairs of adjacent equal sides, and not all four sides equal.

Net

A 2-D arrangement of faces that can be folded to make a 3-D object.

Number sequence

A set of numbers in order, generated by a rule, such as 2, 4, 6, 8.

Parallel lines

Lines that stay the same distance apart and never meet.

Parallelogram

A quadrilateral with both pairs of opposite sides parallel.

Perimeter

The total distance around a 2-D shape.

Perpendicular

Meeting at a right angle.

Pictograph

A graph that uses pictures or symbols to show data.

Pie graph

A circle graph in which sectors show parts of a whole.

Polygon

A closed 2-D shape with three or more straight sides.

Polyhedron

A 3-D object with flat faces.

Prism

A polyhedron with two identical parallel bases; slices parallel to the base stay the same shape.

Pyramid

A polyhedron with a polygonal base and triangular faces that meet at an apex.

Quadrilateral

A four-sided polygon.

Rectangle

A quadrilateral with four right angles. Opposite sides are equal.

Rectangular prism

A prism whose faces are rectangles.

Reflection (flip)

A transformation that produces a mirror image of the same size.

Rotation (turn)

A transformation that turns a shape around a fixed point.

Solid

A 3-D object.

Sphere

A perfectly round 3-D ball shape.

Square

A quadrilateral with four equal sides and four right angles.

Symmetry

A shape has symmetry if it can be divided into two matching parts.

Tangram

A seven-piece puzzle that can form a square and many other shapes. It is used for spatial reasoning, not as a CAPS policy term.

Tessellation

A pattern of shapes that covers a surface with no gaps or overlaps.

Three-dimensional (3-D)

Having length, breadth and thickness.

Translation (slide)

A transformation that moves a shape to a new position without turning it.

Trapezium

In South African school mathematics, a quadrilateral with only one pair of parallel sides.

Triangle

A three-sided polygon.

Two-dimensional (2-D)

A flat shape with length and breadth only.

Vertical

Up and down the page, at right angles to the horizontal.

Volume

The amount of space a 3-D object occupies, measured in cubic units. Compare capacity.

Word problem

A mathematics problem written in words rather than only in symbols.

X-axis

The horizontal axis on a graph.

Y-axis

The vertical axis on a graph.

Official sources

Check the live official page for the current file, circular or year label.

This page does not replace a subject CAPS document, ATP, PAT or promotion policy.