C Dugmore: Western Cape Education Prov Budget presentation

19 April 2007

The Chairperson, Ms Joyce Witbooi
Members of the Standing Committee
The Secretary-General Mr Ron Swartz and other officials
Ladies and gentlemen
Gallery fellow colleagues and members of the media

I present to you today a Budget, which is essentially; I believe a good news
budget. It is good news all round for educators, for learners, for their
parents, for officials in government, and for the country as a whole. This
budget is about responding to the challenges of building the economy, growth
and shared development.

President Thabo Mbeki, in his State of the Nation Address earlier, said "it
was imperative to move forward as quickly as possible to build the South Africa
defined by a common dream", by implementing detailed programmes intended to
inter-alia and speed up the process of skills development".

The allocations by my colleague Finance MEC Lynne Browne, built on the
positive allocations made by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. And this was
mostly additional funds for teacher development, incentives for school
principals, administrative capacity and extra resources to strengthen our
districts to give real hope to parents, teachers and schools. The fund
injections would be used to entrench quality education.

Honourable members, the expenditure on education in the province has grown
by on average 9,7 percent per annum in nominal terms since 2003/04.

Education continues to receive the bulk of the available provincial funding
with 37,1 percent of the 2007/08 provincial budget being allocated to
education. For 2006/07 this share was 36,7 percent.

A number of features in this Budget are aimed specifically at improving the
quality of our schools. Our commitment to education is demonstrated in the
steady rise in per capita spending since 2002/03.

In 2007/08, the department is planning to spend R6 507 per capita on public
ordinary school education. This is R445 more than the national average and the
third highest in the country.

By far the greatest portion of the budget goes to the primary and secondary
school system including schools for Learners with Special Education Needs
(LSEN). In the schools system, personnel are equitably allocated in terms of
the post provisioning norms according to reported learner numbers, community
poverty rankings and subjects offered.

Norms and standards funding is allocated according to national poverty
quintiles with the poorest quintile receiving on average six times more than
the least poor. Emphasis has been placed on skills development, teacher
development, and remuneration for teachers and administrative personnel.

The focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD), Further Education and
Training (FET) colleges, and general education through the Quality Improvement
and Development Strategy (QIDS-UP) project, builds quality throughout the
system. We will use this injection to build human capital in the province and
take further steps to entrench quality education.

Quids-Up is a national initiative, led by Minister Naledi Pandor, which aims
to allocate new resources to schools, especially in poor and disadvantaged
communities.

The programme includes all primary schools in quintiles one and two. Many of
these primary schools are feeder schools to secondary schools that have poor
results. It also includes about 80 high schools with poor Senior Certificate
results.

Funding has been provided for the following national Education Sector
priorities, as approved by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM):

* for the 2006 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), i.e. for the period
to 2008/09
* quality through re-capitalisation through the Quality Improvement
Development, Support and Upliftment Programme (QIDS-UP) for public
schools
* access and equity with the implementation of no-fee schools and the expansion
of Grade R to ensure universal access
* curriculum delivery with the implementation of the National Curriculum
Statement (NCS) in Grades 8 to 12 and teacher development
* monitoring and evaluation by enhancing the Education Management and
Information System (EMIS) and improved human resource systems and capacity.

For the 2007 MTEF, i.e. for the period to 2009/10, the national sector
initiatives target improving the quality of education. These included systemic
evaluation and in-service training and teacher development programmes to
enhance the quality of teaching in critical subjects such as mathematics and
life orientation, Grade R and overall school management improvement.

About 1 528 billion rand in total has been allocated over the 2007 MTEF
period for adult mass literacy campaign (MLC). This will be done through
partnerships with non-governmental organisations, adult basic education centres
and volunteers.

The national Department of Education has in the first year set aside R28
million to develop and launch the campaign in 2007/08 to address the challenges
of basic literacy both as a human right and a contributor to social
cohesion.

The preparations for the MLC start this year with implementation scheduled
for 2008 onwards. All funds are voted for the Department of Education and not
for provinces. This has been tabled at Heads of Education Departments Committee
(HEDCOM) and Council of Education Ministers' (CEM) and generally seems to be
acceptable. This is in addition to the significant increase of 10,54 percent
for the Adult Basic Education and Training Program, from R23,571,000 to
R26,056,000.

This year will also see:

* The number of no-fee schools being expanded by 233 for 2007, by including
both the poorest primary and secondary schools in national quintiles 1 to 3,
bringing the total number of no-fee schools to 652.
* The development and introduction of an improved salary dispensation for
principals and improving the administrative support for schools.
* The implementation of a pilot course for school business managers in
2007
* The further extension of Grade R with 6 000 learners in approximately 200 new
sites, including allocating the increased subsidy formula to more sites in poor
and rural communities. The department has committed R150 million over the 2007
MTEF for EPWP programmes in the area of Early Childhood Development. The funds
will be used to provide resource kits to ECD community sites, to increase the
number ECD practitioners in poor communities, and to upgrade the skill level of
those practitioners. We will add 1 500 practitioners to the 900 practitioners
currently enrolled in accredited training through this programme.
* Access to FET Colleges widened with R26 million allocated to promote equity
and provide bursaries to poor and academically deserving learners.
* Teacher development programmes aimed at upgrading the qualifications of
existing teachers, while specific training programmes will improve the
leadership and management skills of school principals. An amount of R121
million over the 2007 MTEF has been specifically earmarked for this
purpose.
* The implementation of the Re-designed WCED. The Cabinet approved the new
macro structure for the WCED on 13 February 2007.

Over the 2007 MTEF an additional amount of R809 million is allocated for
personnel related issues in education to:

* improve the level of remuneration of teachers
* increase the number of clerical and support staff in schools and
districts
* hire teaching assistants especially in the foundation phase of the schooling
system
* provide targeted incentives to teachers in critical subjects.

Honourable members, I am aware that infrastructure provisioning remains a
challenge, but we are exploring a number of options to supplement this
allocation, but I believe this budget gives us considerable space to work
towards greater equality and equity in the education system.

I thank you for the opportunity to present this to you today, and I am
looking forward to engage with you in the interest of building on the positive
framework provided by this budget.

I thank you

Enquiries
Paddy Attwell:
Cell: 083 261 7699

Gert Witbooi
Media Liaison Officer
Tel: (021) 467 2523
Fax: (021) 425 5689
E-mail: http://www.wced.wcape.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
19 April 2007