Opening address delivered by the Minister of Basic Education Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, at the Minister’s meeting with District Directors, Sol Plaatje House, Pretoria
Programme Director
Deputy Minister
Acting Director-General
DDGs
District Directors
Chief Directors
Officials and Staff
I thank you for making the time for this crucial interface between the DBE and District Directors. In our view, District Directors are a vital cog in the chain to get the sector into high gear in terms of performance. I am therefore grateful to all DBE officials who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this meeting a success. I also extend my words of gratitude to many District Directors who have made this meeting despite conflicting demands on their schedule.
This meeting takes place at the significant period in our school calendar i.e. mid-year. By this time we have a clearer picture of learners’ performance across all Grades and we can to some extent gauge the success or lack thereof of various improvements plans and interventions.
At the heart of various improvements plans lies the elephant in the room i.e. Progressed Learners. At this time of the year, we ought to have some sense of their progress or lack thereof. If we had deployed our monitoring tools appropriately, we should by now be able to reflect on how they are doing and how to strengthen our support to them in the remaining quarters of the year.
Similarly this meeting comes at the opportune time as the sector gears itself for the largest controlled examinations in our school calendar i.e. the Annual National Assessment (ANA). For 2015 academic year over nine million learners from Grade 1 to Grade 9 will sit for the Annual National Assessment examinations from 15-18 September.
Overall, the 2014 results showed that the system is responding to the unrelenting focus on underperformance and inefficiency within the system. For instance 12 out of 81 districts achieved average percentage scores of 50 percent and above in Grade 6 Mathematics. What these districts did was to use the 2013 ANA diagnostic results to map out improvements plans – and it worked. This shows ANA’s positive utility in no unmistakable terms. This confirms the role of ANA as a diagnostic tool to help the sector to self-correct.
Our Achilles' heel as a sector remains the unacceptably low performance in Grade 9 Mathematics. Sadly, we must admit that 2014 marked the annus horribilis for Grade 9 Mathematics. All ANA results and diagnostic reports have flagged the problem of Mathematics teaching and learning throughout the system. We hope that this year’s cohort of learners will do better after the implementation of our “Business Unusual” approach – the 1+4 Model. We are interested in hearing from District Directors on how learner performance is looking this year ahead of ANA, particularly Grade 9 Maths.
I implore you to learn from each other and share best practises because 2015 is the year for accelerated learner performance across all Grades. We owe it to the current generation of learners to create for them the opportunity to succeed in education and life in general.
Yesterday while I was addressing the 4th OR Tambo Debate: Implementing the NDP held at Wits School of Governance I quoted research which proves that basic education is more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. According to the (GCE, 2010) basic education helps to fight poverty and spur economic growth and is a prerequisite for tackling poverty and promoting short and long-term economic growth. No country has achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40% of adults being able to read and write
It is within this context that we emphasise accountability across the system and in particular the centrality of districts’ performance in the accelerated learner performance. Our National Senior Certificate and ANA results have consistently demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the best performing schools come from the well- functioning and well-oiled districts led by men and women with requisite skills and necessary drive to improve schooling in their districts.
We want to re-emphasise our commitment to strengthening districts even more, and in fact the focus on districts performance is a trend world-wide. The notion of the centrality of districts in school reform suggests that taking the district system as the “unit of change” is essential to advancing equitable and sustainable reform.
Looking at international best practice many countries are beginning to focus on districts or equivalent in their efforts to fundamentally alter the learning and teaching landscape of their schooling systems. For example, Rubinstein and McCarthy (2010) assert that in the United States of America (USA) for most of the past decade the policy debate has centered on teacher quality. It has taken many forms including standards, teacher evaluation, etc. - all measures aimed at greater teacher accountability and quality. In this debate, teachers and their unions have often been seen as the problem, not part of the solution. What was missing in the discussion, however, was a systems perspective on the problem of public school reform that looks at the way schools are organised, and the way decisions are made.
Most public schools today continue to follow an organisational design better suited for the 20th century mass production than the ICT laden needs of the 21st century learners. This means that we need to look at how districts operate with a different eye that is attuned to the 21st century. It also means looking at efficiencies in how districts do their work without relying heavily on labour intensive means that are too costly to sustain. Our use of technologies will have to be improved and taken to another level.
Our singular goal is to improve the quality of teaching and learning within the entire schooling system in our lifetime. This goal can only be achieved by working in collaboration with the provincial departments, you (districts directors) and schools’ based management teams. Hence we have identified districts as an apex priority in the drive to radically transform education for all schools in the current MTEF period.
In a bid to continue in this trajectory, we will continue our sustained focus on accountability focusing amongst others:
- Ensuring the right people in the right jobs through strengthened recruitment and selection criteria making use of competency assessments;
- Clarifying roles, responsibilities and strengthen accountability and performance management using key performance indicators (KPIs);
- Filling critical vacancies; and
- Capability building.
In our 2014 monitoring of provinces, it became clear that there was inconsistent provision and lack of the minimum resources to the districts. I am talking here about the most basic tools of trade such as computers, laptops and 3G cards, telephones, cell-phones vehicles and adequate office space. These were found lacking or inadequate in most districts.
Fortunately, after a sustained focus on the need to empower districts with requisite resources, there is indeed a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. We have seen great movement across the system and are truly grateful to HoDs in provinces for taking this matter very seriously.
I am happy to report that in Limpopo some 134 circuits’ offices have been resourced with computers and printers. At least five districts have received additional vehicles in 2014 alone. In the Eastern Cape laptops have been provided for circuit managers. In the Northern Cape a total of 40 desktop computers and 30 laptops were distributed to districts in 2014. This year circuit managers have been prioritised to receive laptops, data projectors and network printers. The province has also committed to upgrading all district ICT infrastructures in the current financial year.
These are just examples but we are pleased with what is happening to resource districts and circuits appropriately. These developments are indeed encouraging.
As part of our ongoing efforts to support provinces, the DBE has provided resources to the worst affected districts in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces. We have made available 60 laptops and 45 desktop computers to districts in the two provinces so that they can be able to support their schools effectively.
We must also indicate that although we have seen movement in the filling of critical posts, we will continue to work with provinces to monitor this area closely. It is important to note that the filling of these vacancies is about improving the capacity of the state to deliver quality education.
Currently our vacancy rate as a sector is well above 10% which is extremely high. This does not bode well for our relentless efforts to improve the quality of education offered by the State. Of particular concern for me are vacancies at school level. In this area every one of you has a role to play in ensuring that all schools are fully recruited. It is highly impossible for schools to truly turn things around when critical vacancies remain open – including management posts in some schools. Our children should never ever not have a teacher in front of them. Let alone having to sit for exams year-on-year while having had no teacher for some of their subjects.
In line with our commitment to ensure system accountability at all levels, monitoring of performance will be heightened. In this regard, you must have no doubt whatsoever that there will be consequences for those who continue to operate in lackadaisical fashion.
We still encounter some challenges which retard progress towards district effectiveness. Both the DBE and provinces must work together to create stability in the districts so that more time is spent supporting schools. Some structural issues do not at all assist with performance management and accountability. In the oversight we provide, and our visits to provinces, we find it quite alarming that district officials spend most of their time in meetings or workshops convened by the Provincial Education Departments’ Head Offices. Currently there is no clear standard calendar of activities for districts resulting in lack of predictability for districts. This must be dealt with without delay as we begin to plan for 2016.
And as I conclude, we wish to continue to share best practices and look forward to hearing from you at this meeting. We want to hear from you, people on the ground, what to expect at the end of this year with respect to learner performance.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you and the Grades 1 to 9 of 2015 success in the upcoming Annual National Assessment. You know this is not just another event on our school calendar – but a crucial diagnostic tool aimed at improving the overall quality of learning outcomes for our children.
I thank you.
