transformation in schools
15 February 2006
Last week marked another tragic week in our school calendar as we lost two
little kids during the flooding in Ekurhuleni from Job Maseko Primary school
who were so thirsty for education that they unfortunately gambled with their
lives and subsequently drowned. Our condolences to their parents, school and
their community.
Today I want to proudly say that our education is so exiting and we have
increased access that there is over 1, 8 million learners who are in our
system.
The 2006 academic year poses a number of challenges in relation to education
delivery in Gauteng. These challenges includes declining learner performance in
the Senior Certificate examinations, increased pressure for classrooms and
resources, which is a result of increasing enrolments in all grades especially
in the secondary grades, and greater pressure in alleviating poverty through
the elimination of school fees and increased investments in resources to
schools.
We are however ready for these challenges and will continue to develop
healthy, skilled and productive people who can actively participate in the
economy of the province and the country.
As the Premier announced in his speech, 2006 provides a major milestone in
education transformation through the implementation of the National Curriculum
Statements in Grade 10 in all public and private secondary schools.
The National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General) represents a policy
statement for learning and teaching in schools located in the Further Education
and Training band. The National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General)
gives expression to what we as South Africans regard to be knowledge, skills
and values worth learning. It is based on among other things, the principles of
democracy, human rights, social justice, equity, non-racism, non-sexism, and
Ubuntu.
The National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General) will provide access
to Higher Education for a certificate, diploma or degree; based on actual
learner performance due to subjects not having differentiation between higher
and standard grades. The curriculum will also lay a solid foundation for
lifelong learning and different career paths.
The kind of learner that is envisaged is one who will be imbued with the
values and act in the interests of a society based on respect for democracy,
equality, human dignity and social justice as promoted in the Constitution.
We want to note that our educators are key contributors to the
transformation of education in South Africa. The National Curriculum Statement
Grades 10-12 (General) visualises teachers who are qualified, competent,
dedicated and caring. They will be able to fulfil the various roles outlined in
the Norms and Standards for Educators.
* Last year over 8200 grade 7 and over 14000 grade 10 educators received
Teacher development programmes that provided orientation on the new
curriculum
* The provision of LTSM for the grades implementing the new curriculum received
the minimum expectation of textbooks and stationery and we further procured
scientific calculators, English, mathematics and science dictionaries, science
kits and other scarce resources such as microscopes for each secondary and
primary school.
FET sector
The department will ensure that an adequate curriculum review is conducted
to ensure a response of the FET sector to the needs of the province. During
2006 FET colleges will also begin to implement their recapitalisation plans to
support the transformation of the colleges into highly effective centre of
learning and to support the growth strategy of the province.
GautengOnline
I am happy to report that currently, up to 1 million school children and 22
000 educators, many from the poorest communities, have access to the most
up-to-date computers, with Internet and e-Mail. For most of them, this has been
the first time that they had used computers. But, they are learning very
quickly.
The rollout of GautengOnline continues with 80 schools being completed
before the end of March this year. We will do 220 schools in the 2006 and 2007
period and thereafter we are committed to completing the rollout by Dec
2009.
I want to challenge our communities to be vigilant and guard jealously
against those that continue to break into our computer laboratories and deny
our learners the opportunity to experience the benefit of technology.
Early Childhood Development
In further advancing our investment in our youngest citizens, the province
will begin implementing our early childhood development (ECD) strategy for
pre-Grade R focusing on children at risk and in the most disadvantaged
communities. The strategy, which will be rolled out over five years, includes
expanding our ECD services, increasing the number of qualified ECD
practitioners, advocacy and awareness programmes focusing on parents and
caregivers.
Senior Certificate Examinations
The department has noted the decline in the performance of learners in the
Senior Certificate Examinations in 2004 and 2005. This is despite the increased
monitoring curriculum delivery in Grades 10, 11 and 12 and the intervention
programmes at school, district and individual level. The 2005 Senior
Certificate results, however, show a decrease in performance quantitatively but
shows improvements in the quality of the learnersâ individual performance
subjects. The department has already reviewed the 2005 performance of schools
and is developing school level interventions to ensure that all learners
receive the necessary support so that they perform very well in their senior
certificate examinations
Admissions - 2006
The 2006 academic year has begun with a tremendous increase in learner
enrolments. 2006 also saw large number of learners who did not apply for
admission to schools in 2005 and arriving at schools in 2006 for admission. The
department had developed a strategy to address this problem in the light of the
difficulties experienced in 2005. The department made provision for additional
teachers, pre-fabricated classrooms and scholar transport to ensure that all
learners were adequately accommodated in schools.
School Infrastructure
We also like to welcome the announcement by the Premier that money will be
allocated to renew old townships. We would like to indicate that indeed some of
our schools have were badly built and planned to an extent that they will need
to be seriously upgraded. Apartheid planning did not give our township schools
facilities such as play grounds, libraries laboratories, specialist rooms and
proper staff rooms etc. We intend to provide our schools with such facilities
and we believe the money allocated by the premier will go a long way in
addressing these needs and bring equity in our schools.
In conclusion, I want to assure the citizens of Gauteng that we will
continue to provide scholar transport to eligible learners, provide quality
public education, train and develop our educators and give support to our
SGBs.
For more information contact:
Mbela Phetlhe
Tel: (011) 355 0909
Cell: 083 700 1076
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
15 February 2006
