debate on the education Budget Vote 2006/07, National Council of
Provinces
23 May 2006
Chairperson, Honourable Members, the education sector has made significant
progress in the past year. The huge investment that our nation makes in
education compels us to interrogate our progress constantly and to be impatient
with inadequate achievement and waste of precious national resources.
Budget allocations
The 2006/07 budget allocation to education increases by 12,8% from 2005/06.
Education spending as a percentage of government spending, although relatively
stable at around 20%, decreases from 20,1% in 2006/07 to 19,8% in 2008/09.
Education spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains
relatively stable at around 5,5% over the same period.
As Members know, the bulk of education expenditure R79 billion in 2006/07
R87 billion in 2007/08 and R94,9 billion in 2008/09 is transferred to the
provinces via the equitable share.
Provincial executive committees determine the allocation to each department;
what we have noted over the past three years is a continuing decline in
allocation relative to overall budget growth.
Provincial education expenditure is projected to slip from 45,7% of
provincial expenditure in 2005/06 to 42,4% in 2008/09.
This is a very worrying trend as it indicates a continuing downgrading of
provincial education as a spending priority. This is puzzling, given the role
of education in empowering people and driving economic growth. Education and
social welfare spending need to be in synch in provincial treasuries to
significantly improve the quality of learning and the quality of schools.
In addition to the equitable share, part of the R14 billion budget of the
Department of Education is also transferred to the provinces in the form of
three conditional grants.
The first conditional grant is for the National School Nutrition Programme.
The purpose of the programme is to provide school meals for children so as to
enhance active learning capacities and to improve attendance patterns at
targeted schools. For 2006/07 we intend to provide meals to about 5,5 million
learners at 17,000 schools. The grant increases this year to around R1,1
billion, a 20,4% increase over last year. Part of this increased funding will
be used for a baseline study of the Primary School Nutrition Programme. The
results of the study will provide information against which the Programmeâs
implementation and impact will be assessed in the future.
The second conditional grant is for the implementation of HIV and AIDS
awareness and educational programmes. The purpose of the grant is to coordinate
and support the structured integration of life skills and HIV and AIDS
programmes across all learning areas in the school curriculum; to ensure access
to an integrated system of prevention, care, and support for children infected
and affected by HIV and AIDS; and to deliver life skills, sexuality and HIV and
AIDS education programmes in primary and secondary schools. The grant increases
this year to R144 million, a six percent increase over last year. In this year
600 master trainers will receive training on the integration of life skills and
HIV and AIDS programmes across all learning areas of the curriculum, and 25,000
educators will be trained to integrate the programmes across all learning areas
of the curriculum.
We intend to improve the impact of our programmes of education on HIV and
AIDS. Young people must understand and practice prevention. They must have a
full understanding of the pandemic so that when they make lifestyle choices
about sexual activity they do so fully alert to the implications of their
choices and behaviour. They will be taught about the ABC campaign and will know
that if they choose to engage in sexual activity they should protect themselves
by using condoms. The programme will benefit from recently published research,
which indicates that a complete programme of around six weeks should be offered
in schools in order for conduct to be influenced and changed.
The third conditional grant is for the Further Education and Training
Education (FET) college sector. The purpose of this conditional grant is to
recapitalise the 50 public FET colleges to improve their capacity to contribute
to skills-development training. The plans include re-skilling staff to offer
responsive programmes, upgrading physical infrastructure of FET colleges, and
providing relevant equipment and enhanced skills development R470 million has
been allocated for the 2006/07 financial year, R595 million for 2007/08, and
R975 million for 2008/09, which brings the total amount of the grant to a
little over R2 billion.
I have been informed that by to day not all colleges have received their
allocations. Only two provinces have acted to ensure we do not inhibit the
ability of colleges to accelerate our recapitalisation and skills development
plans. We are two months into the new financial year MECs should insist that
all colleges receive funding indications by Thursday.
It is clear from these budget allocations that each province has resources
that allow it to make a difference in education.
Infrastructure
Honourable Members will recall that in 2004 an undertaking was given that we
would work to build sufficient classrooms to end the phenomenon of children
schooling under trees and that 179 such schools were identified in 2004. I am
glad to report that provinces have said as of 30 April 2006 there should be no
child schooling under trees.
This achievement is largely the result of a better working relationship
between the provincial public works and education departments. However, we are
working on strengthening it further. An inter-ministerial task team (Education,
Public Works and National Treasury) has been established to elaborate on a
multi-year budgeting and planning framework to align planning, funding,
budgeting and delivery of projects.
A range of factors impact on our ability to overcome this problem:
unpredictable migration into or out of provinces and other events. We can
neither predict population migration patterns nor weather catastrophes that may
lead to this phenomenon re-emerging. However, our reporting processes have been
improved so that we are able to detect problems early and respond timeously. We
also now receive monthly reports from provinces on the number of incidents,
provincial infrastructure targets, and progress in meeting the targets.
Chair, the challenge of infrastructure delivery has not ended with this
progress, we still have thousands of unsafe and mud schools that we must
rebuild and refurbish provinces have committed to intensified attention to
infrastructure provision. We also plan to focus more closely on the maintenance
of school buildings.
We have initiated a comprehensive national schools needs register survey of
over 30,000 schools. A full report with recommendations is expected at the end
of March 2007, 10,000 sites have been visited and I am expecting a mid-term
report in July of this year on 15,000 sites.
The education sector is also considering an education-renewal Expanded
Public Works Programme. This will see thousands of parents invited to
participate in school, site-based skills-training in painting, concrete repair,
carpentry, window replacement flooring, paving and other needs in our schools.
It is our hope that we can use this national action for school reconstruction
to build and strengthen links between parents and the schools attended by their
children.
The outcomes of the school needs register survey will be used as the base
information for the roll out of this infrastructure renewal plan.
Teacher performance
As I have announced previously we have taken concrete steps to improve
teacher remuneration. Two landmark agreements were signed in March this year.
They begin an important reorientation of teacher service conditions and it is
our intentions that as the agreements improve salaries they will also support
and encourage a substantial rise in teaching quality and learner
performance.
Honourable Members know that we are particularly worried about the poor
learning outcomes in the majority of our schools and that we are taking
decisive steps to address these.
The first intervention is QIDS UP, a targeted affirmative action programme
for the poorest schools. The Heads of Education are currently working out a
detailed plan for this intervention. An additional amount of around R6 billion
has been made available nationally for this financial year and further amounts
are indicated for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
The second is a focus on improving learner attainment at grade 12 level.
Earlier this year, I asked MECs to send me copies of their intervention
strategies, as I intended to inform Parliament formally of our action plan to
improve learning outcomes at the senior high school level. Unfortunately, not
all provinces acted on my request and thus I am not able to indicate to
Parliament how provinces intend to ensure that we are arrest the decline in
pass-level that we saw in 2005.
My colleagues have informed me that they all have focused âlearner
attainmentâ strategies and that these are being implemented.
Improving the education bureaucracy
The ambition of excellence that all of us share requires an accountable,
responsive, and high-performance public service.
Our provincial and district officials must execute their mandates
properly.
At the administrative level, we are receiving more and more complaints from
retired teachers about the non-payment or late payment of pension benefits. No
employee should have to wait for the payment of pension benefits. I had the
unpleasant task of writing to MEC Motshekga about such a case only last month.
All the pensionerâs policies had lapsed, her medical aid cancelled, and
enormous hardship visited on a teacher who gave the best years of her life to
the education of children and public service.
I often receive reports of rude responses over the telephone. I hear of a
total neglect of our duty to practice Batho Pele in the education sector.
The time is drawing near when I will introduce premiers and journalists to
the most rude and unresponsive employees in education departments.
Effective support for districts is vital to education success. District
officials need to act as competent dynamic knowledgeable resources for schools.
All of us know that schools require informed policy and curriculum support.
District officials should school themselves to provide such expertise.
We need well functioning, informed and responsive provincial departments.
Provinces cannot escape scrutiny. They play a leading and critical role in
advancing quality and performance. Increased resources are being given to them
for education. Their resource use must make a difference. Departments should
have the pulse of every school at their fingertips; they must be able to
anticipate failure and must be competent at promoting success. Lacklustre
attention to ensuring adequate numbers of teachers, to devising efficient
Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) delivery systems, to achieving quality
and success for all, can no longer be tolerated and excused.
Perhaps we need specific public service rules that govern education public
servants. Inadequate actions ruin lives, so penalties in service should be
strict for Ministers and MECs as well.
All of these challenges imply much more focused and carefully constructed
action to promote and achieve quality outcomes.
* Support for teacher development.
We have almost finalized the long overdue teacher development framework. We
will support the framework by ensuring well designed and relevant teacher
development programmes in schools. It is clear that writing and reading are key
areas of need at all levels. So our programmes will target these first.
* We will improve the provision of resources for learning to schools.
The recently launched reading programme that has affected the delivery of
books to 5 200 primary schools and 710 high schools is a beginning. We intend
to complement this initiative by supporting the promotion of literacy and
numeracy. The Department will make information on expected standards available
to all schools. Many schools meet these standards already, but we want to
ensure that all schools meet minimum standards.
* We will focus on measuring performance through tracking learning
outcomes.
Teachers in all schools will be encouraged to develop learning strategies
for each learner so as to focus on success. Schools will be required to devise
learning improvement strategies and to focus on supporting learners to
succeed.
* The role of language in learning must be given attention.
The role of language in education has to be clearly communicated to parents
and to educators. Parents will be informed of the important need to support our
increased promotion of the use of mother tongue at the early phases of
schooling. Research evidence clearly shows that a strong foundation for
learning can be built through mother-tongue-based education.
* We intend to redouble our efforts to make parents our partners in
education. The system cannot work without active parental participation at all
levels of schooling.
* We plan to offer new and exciting opportunities to learners through the
creation of focus schools of technology and in other disciplines. The Western
Cape has made significant progress in this regard.
* We intend to strengthen our evaluation and support structures at the
national level, so that we have an accurate picture of school performance,
school educational needs and the contribution of district and province to the
achievement of national norms and standards.
School supervision
Specific attention will be given this year to developing the framework for
creating an education evaluation unit that will combine school-based evaluation
with external evaluation structures and tools. Government policy sets national
norms and standards. We need to move these beyond pen and paper to actual
practice in schools.
Such evaluation and support will add to our ability to ensure effective
responses in support of Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA). As already indicated we intend to expand access to skills
training opportunities. To achieve these schools must offer quality outcomes
that will benefit from new skills development initiatives. School-leaving pass
rates must improve in quality and quantity. More students must study and pass
technology, science and mathematics.
This will provide us with a pool of talented young people for our newly
capitalised FET college sector.
Our skills focus must also respond to the needs of school leavers who do not
go to college or university and to adults who seek training opportunities. All
provincial departments have announced stronger commitment to literacy training.
The report of the ministerial committee on literacy will support and strengthen
existing initiatives and create new opportunities where necessary. It is clear
that much greater attention must be given to second chance opportunities, as
many people have been left behind.
Social cohesion, social segregation and safe schools
We often focus our attention on quality outcomes in academic learning areas
when we refer to transformation at the school level. This has resulted in the
development of high levels of neglect of key non-academic quality issues. Few
schools see themselves as linked to advancing the national project of
transformation beyond the enduring legacy of apartheid education.
This year our country celebrates ten years of the adoption of our
Constitution. The principles of the Constitution and its core values still need
to be made a full part of our education institutions at all levels.
The Constitution aspires to create a South Africa that is democratic,
non-sexist and non-racial. To what degree do our schools promote these values?
Thousands of young people seem to believe that issues are won through breaking
desks and breaking windows. This raises questions about the degree to which
conflict resolution and democratic decision-making form part of our
institutional culture.
On the subject of non-sexism many institutions clearly fail the test. Girls
do not feel safe in our institutions and in our communities. Our statistics
reveal that 40% of all rape cases reported are child rapes. Young men have not
developed respect for their female peers as equals. We also need to look at the
degree to which the curriculum content promotes positive values and new images.
Schools must do more to promote gender equity. The recent incidents of violence
in our schools paint a worrying picture. Why should children carry weapons to
school undetected? Why do some teachers also reportedly bring weapons to
schools? How will we create places of learning out of sites of war?
The issue of school safety is another non-academic area that must be
addressed. The truth is not all our schools are safe places. The department is
committed to promoting safety, but every stakeholder must play a role.
Communities should end violence within the community, parents should support
teachers in promoting discipline, and learners should be assisted by
professional staff to control violent reactions and to solve problems and
conflicts peacefully.
We need to also develop education support services that can assume
responsibility for severely disruptive learners. In the short to medium term it
may be necessary to appoint safety officers in schools with the greatest number
of incidents of violence. In order to have our information delivered to the
most vulnerable schools district offices will be asked to assist schools in
developing incident registers that will assist us in pin pointing the schools
that are in greatest need of help.
The objectives of non-racism, unity, and diversity also seem intractable in
education. Most of our schools have staff rooms that do not reflect diversity.
There are schools where principals still display the apartheid flag in their
offices, schools that pretend South Africa has not changed. Attempts to
encourage diversity in staff have been met with resistance and accusations of
imposed racism. Perhaps we should consider rewarding and recognising
transforming schools, schools that are proudly multi-lingual, schools where
equality and dignity are promoted and schools where democratic participation is
firmly encouraged.
School governing bodies have a vital role to play in promoting learning
achievement and positive values and principles. These bodies are given
wide-ranging powers in our legislation; they should use these to align school
practices and outcomes with the values I have referred to. Our departments need
to devise development and support programmes for SGBs.
In instances where SGBs do not play a positive and effective role we should
use the Act to ensure school operations and the interests of learners are not
jeopardized. Nevertheless, the sterling contribution of thousands of SGB
members is a welcome indicator of South African commitment to education. We
hope the SGB elections that are presently underway will serve as further
evidence of positive progress in the democratisation of school management in
South Africa.
Closing
In closing chairperson, let me thank the honourable Members of Executive
Councils for their support and hard work in education, the Director Generals,
all Heads of Department, and the entire Team Education for their commitment and
hard work.
The select committees of education and finance have played an important role
in exercising their oversight functions in an energetic and focused manner we
thank them for their interest in our work.
Issued by: Department of Education
23 May 2006
