E Surty: Open Learning Systems Education Trust

4 August 2006

Your Excellency, the Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands Ms Geeskelien
Wolters,
The Director of the Open Learning Systems Education Trust, Mr Naidoo and his
staff,
Ladies and gentlemen:

It is a pleasure for me to be here this morning to join you in the
announcement of a donation of R40 million by the royal Netherlands government
to the Open Learning Systems Education Trust (OLSET). It marks another
significant step in strengthening the bi-lateral co-operation between South
Africa and the Netherlands in the area of education.

It is also pleasing to note that we are celebrating this very generous
donation at a time that we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1976
student uprisings, the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution and
the 50th anniversary of the women’s march to the Union Buildings.

There is an inevitable link between today’s event and these historical
milestones in that they all provided a platform for the transformation of our
education system.

It is widely accepted that the best way to build a quality, coherent and
effective education system is through concerted effort of civil society, the
private sector and government. This calls for greater recognition of the
contributions of non-profit organisations particularly their role in monitoring
the progress of efforts to ensure that our people’s educational needs are
efficiently addressed.

It is against this background that I wish to acknowledge the important role
which OLSET has played and will continue to play as a development partner.

Poor learners are the major beneficiaries of your programmes and I do
believe it is important that we create a supportive environment for civil
society organisations such as yourself to continue with the good work you are
doing.

We have done so through the 1997 Non-Profit Organisation Act, which gives
you access to tax benefits. Bodies such as the Non-Profit Directorate and the
Tax-Exemption Unit in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have been
created to support the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector in terms of
the new legislation. It is clear that government values your contribution and
view your role as an integral part of achieving our national development
objectives.

It is worth noting at this juncture some of the important programmes that
has been initiated by OLSET and the benefits that have accrued to our education
system as a result of this. I wish to mention in particular your support to
provincial education departments in providing in-service teacher development
and support to foundation phase teachers as well as your ‘English in Action’
radio learning programme, which is broadcast daily on the SABC to schools
across the country. I was told that approximately 52 000 teachers have
benefited from your training programme thus far and that some 1,8 million
learners interact daily with the ‘English in Action’ learning programme.

I am personally heartened by the support your organisation provides in
developing our educators. We are facing a major challenge in ensuring that
there is a qualified and competent teacher in every classroom because every
child deserves the chance to learn from a qualified and competent teacher. We
have thousands of teachers who are qualified and competent. However, there are
thousands more who are still struggling to make real sense of their presence in
the classroom. Many of them lack the confidence to teach effectively because
they either lack the necessary pedagogical skills and knowledge or do not have
a solid grasp of the subject matter for which they are responsible.

Our goal as the Department of Education is to create a truly professional
cadre of teachers and restore the dignity of teaching as the most important
profession in our society. The national framework for the professional
development of teachers, which we will finalise this year, will provide the
basis for this.

The framework implementation plan will focus on the huge need to recruit
more competent teachers to the profession particularly in scarce skills areas
such as the foundation phase, teaching in indigenous languages and in maths and
science.

We will also intensify our efforts at increasing the supply of new teachers
through the introduction of teacher bursary/loans that are tied to service
contracts beginning with scarce skills areas such as mathematics, science,
technology, the neglected indigenous languages of South Africa and foundation
level teachers for excellence in primary school teaching. Beyond this we have
acted to address the improved remuneration of teachers. The recent Education
Labour Relations Council (ELRC) agreement on revised career pathing and
accelerated pay progression for teachers confirms this. In terms of this
agreement, teachers can progress to higher salary levels without having to be
promoted to higher posts or to leave the classroom. It also makes provision for
educators who are consistent good performers to progress quicker to higher
salary levels. This will assist in enabling the system to retain quality
teachers in the classroom where their skills are needed whilst giving them the
necessary promotions and incentives to stay in classrooms and in the
profession. In addition to these we also hope to finalise the introduction of a
system for the awarding of performance rewards in the education sector.

As you can see the Department has been very busy finding creative ways to
address the issue of teacher development. Teachers have the unique
responsibility of nurturing the talents and energies that will create our
future as a nation. Our task is to provide them with the necessary support and
encouragement. We are most grateful to OLSET for its continued collaboration in
this regard. Through your partnership with the Department we are able to expand
the pool of much needed resources to invest in our teachers so that they can
carry out their important responsibility.

We sincerely appreciate your contribution to the promotion of
multilingualism through your ‘English in Action’ programme. Multilingualism is
the glue that brings people together. It is the best guarantee to bring about
social cohesion, bringing people together and providing them with an
opportunity to learn from and respect each other's different cultural
backgrounds.

In the past, African languages were undervalued and underdeveloped. Black
South Africans had little choice over the language in which they would be
instructed. It was crucial to redesign our language policy so that it
reinforced an inclusive approach to cultural identity. We now have a policy of
mother tongue instruction in the foundation phase and the encouragement of
multilingualism throughout a child’s school career.

This must not be seen as an intention to neglect the relevance of acquiring
competence in English that would be a foolhardy objective on our part. Our
endeavour must be to ensure that indigenous languages move from the margins
into centre stage in education.

Since our teachers and learners come from diverse language backgrounds, many
of them experience difficulty with English which is mostly the medium of
instruction beyond the foundation phase. Your ‘English in Action’ programme has
become an invaluable tool in helping them attain the necessary competence in
English.

I would like to thank the Deputy Ambassador, Ms Geeskelien Wolters, for
joining us here today and I would especially like to thank the kingdom of the
Netherlands for its generous and most welcome donation. It is not surprising
that this type of support would come from your country. The Netherlands has
been a close friend and ally during our liberation struggle.

In the past seven years alone the Netherlands has significantly supported a
broad range of our department’s programmes through the Netherlands Sectoral
Budget Support Programme (NSBSP). It is encouraging to be in the position to
say that the proportion of development aid, allocated to education by your
government, has increased substantially during the last few years. We see your
kind gesture as a clear sign that your government remains committed to assist
us in the provision of quality education for everybody in South Africa.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Education
4 August 2006