Dugmore
6 March 2007
The Western Cape provincial budget tabled today is good news for education
in the province and builds on the positive allocations made by Finance Minister
Trevor Manuel, says Education MEC Cameron Dugmore.
Finance MEC Lynne Brown today unveiled in the provincial budget that
education has been allocated the biggest share of 37% of the total budget, with
an emphasis on skills development, teacher development, remuneration for
teachers and administrative personnel, and infrastructure provisioning.
MEC Dugmore commented as follows: "The focus on Early Childhood Development
(ECD), Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and general education
through the Quality Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment Programme
(Quids-Up), builds quality throughout the system.
"The additional funds for teacher development, incentives, school
principals, administrative capacity, and extra resources to strengthen our
district management capacity, gives real hope to parents, teachers and schools.
We will use this injection of funds to build human capital in the province and
take further steps to entrench quality education."
"Infrastructure remains a challenge but we are exploring a number of options
to supplement this allocation. When one considers allocations to sister
departments, which will also assist education generally, for example social
development funds to fight substance abuse, and allocations for promoting
school sport, safety and skills development, it means even more good news."
Editor's note:
The Quality Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment Programme
(Quids-Up) is a national initiative, led by Minister Naledi Pandor, which aims
to allocate new learning 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.
On the basis of findings of an initial audit, the Western Cape Education
Department (WCED) will develop a strategic plan to intervene over three years
by providing human resources, physical resources and material resources to
schools, for example, management training, teacher training, laboratories, and
libraries.
For enquiries, contact:
Gert Witbooi
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 550 3938
E-mail: gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
6 March 2007
