by MEC Angie Motshekga
20 June 2006
Quality education for socio-economic change
Madam Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
This year is an important milestone in our struggle for democracy. This year
being the tenth anniversary of the Constitution and the thirtieth anniversary
of the 1976 uprising, I believe that this opportunity to address the
Legislature is an ideal opportunity to review our progress made in realising
the vision of our constitution and show that the our successes in education go
a long way to realising the struggle of the seventies and to make sure that the
youth that died during the uprising are celebrated for putting us on course to
realise a true system that promotes peoples education for peoples power.
Last week on the 16th June the nation celebrated the 30th anniversary of the
Soweto Uprising in which our youth took the lead in the resistance against the
oppression of apartheid education. But, as in the words of former President
Nelson Mandela in 1994, "this is no longer a day of protest by an excluded
majority". We should approach the commemoration of this day, as former
President Mandela said, "from the point of view that the heroes of those
struggles had a noble mission. In 1976 they were inspired by a thirst
for knowledge:
* knowledge which knows no colour;
* knowledge acquired through persuasion and hard work;
* knowledge that taps talents and releases creative energies; and
* knowledge that puts South African youth on par with the best in the
world."
We honour those young people by taking specific actions in order to address
the issues put before us by the heroes and heroines of 1976. We are obliged by
their noble mission, courage and dedication to ensure that we transform our
society to one that we are proud of and one in which the human dignity of each
and every one of us would be highly valued and society that will provide the
opportunities for all of us to become the human beings that we really can and
should be. We also acknowledge the vital role education plays in this
transformation of our South African society. And it is on this challenge that
we respond by announcing specific programmes and plans to take us further and
to meet the demands put before us.
It is generally accepted that education contributes largely to the
transformation of the fabric of society in such a way that it would promote
nation building as it is a key lever for social engineering. The building of a
strong winning nation, inspired by democratic values, and contributing
positively to the development of the African continent and the promotion of the
African Renaissance, should be the most positive and visible future outcome of
our education system. All action plans and programmes that we plan and carry
out should have this as the main goal: preparing our learners to take their
rightful place as highly skilled citizens and human beings being members of a
winning African nation with its own South African identity, embracing all the
values enshrined in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and strengthened
by the values of the African Renaissance and a deep sense of respect and
appreciation of humanity and the environment in which we live.
We will continue to promote a national value system which transcend class,
gender, language and culture and that makes life meaningful in a diverse
society. We strongly believe that education does not only exist to simply serve
the market, but also to serve society as a whole in order to establish the
common good for every individual. This means that education should instil in
our learners a broad sense of values that can emerge from a balanced exposure
to the sciences as well as the humanities. The inclusion of life orientation as
a fundamental and compulsory learning area and subject is an investment we are
making to ensure that the kind of barriers envisaged is removed and we are able
to honour the rights enshrined in our Constitution.
As an ANC government, we have worked very hard over the last twelve years
travelled far in transforming the education sector of this country to honour
the rights of the constitution. We have achieved unprecedented levels of
stability in education that we have not seen in the history of this country
especially schools serving black communities. This is the single most important
achievement for commemorating the Class of 76 who wished away what they termed
gutter education or half-a-loaf! This also reminds me of the graffiti in the
East Rand which read "Theron (a district director) Please don't give us
Korobela".
Through a single provincial administration of education, guided by the
National Minister of Education and the national education policy framework we
have achieved the following:
* An access rate in education that equals many developed countries and
surpasses most developing countries.
* The curriculum redress policies including the introduction of outcomes-based
education and the national curriculum statements have ensured that schools
provided learning opportunities that did not add to the marginalisation of the
youth of our country. We have introduced appropriate subjects and learning
areas that will ensure that learners leave school with more opportunities than
ever before. The curriculum redress is based on the principle of increased
access especially to those schools that have very restrictive and limited
curriculum offering.
* We now deploy educators in an equitable way and in a pro-poor manner. The
increased investment in personnel, and specifically in increasing the number of
educators in the system, have ensured more manageable class sizes across all
communities than was seen prior to 1994.
* We have invested substantial funds over the last few years to
institutionalise a governance and school management system and is marvelled by
most developed and developing countries as the most progressive innovation in
educational management and governance. As a result of this investment we have
seen stability in schools that have not been a feature of education in the
twenty to thirty years preceding democracy.
* In addition, we are progressively increasing access to Grade R.
* We have improved school infrastructure including renovations to school
buildings, facilitating electrification and the provision of telephone lines to
schools and notable is the introduction and rollout of GautengOnline to schools
in Gauteng with the aim of having functioning computer laboratories in all
schools.
* As a caring government and working in the interest of the poor and
marginalised we have put into place a social security package that ensures that
there is access to learning in the classroom. We are providing social grants,
nutrition programmes, scholar transport and provide preferential education
funding that is both pro-poor and equitable. One must not omit the recently
passed legislation introducing free schooling in the neediest communities.
Despite all these successes, we are not complacent of the challenges still
facing education and instead we continue to strive to consolidate the gains
made and tackle each challenge head-on.
Despite the improved resourcing levels and the need to continue and
intensify the adequate resourcing of learning we have seen marginal gains in
the quality of learning. While the flow-through rates are increasing in all
phases across schools we will continue to strive to improve the quality of the
education to open the doors to more quality life for all of our citizens. The
general performance of the system in respect of Matric examinations, learner
achievement testing and the review of internal school assessment outcomes show
gains in the quality of learning but we are working
intensively to ensure a sustainable improvement in the quality of learning
across the system.
The Constitution guarantees the right to education. This is a social right
that not only guarantees access to education but also demands that it is a
quality education. The Constitution promotes a vision of a society where every
child grows up to aspire for great things and where people have opportunity to
realise a better life. While there are many factors that contribute to social
mobility from what happens in the labour market to levels of poverty,
government can and is making a significant impact in forging an education
system characterised by both the highest degree of excellence but also with
greater equity and redress. Overall standards have radically improved and
crucially under this government all groups are doing better irrespective of who
their parents are and where they live.
From the interaction with communities and stakeholders in various meetings
and fora, we have recorded the views and demands of parents to address the
shortcomings in some schools and in some learning areas. In addition, we are
also acting on the findings of research conducted both locally and
internationally on learner attainment.
A number of key findings have emerged from the National Grade 3 and Grade 6
Systemic Evaluation Studies and the Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS). In short the following challenges were identified in the
National Grade 3 and 6 studies that:
* The socio-economic status of the learners has a direct impact on the
quality of learning;
* The role of the parents and their involvement in the education of their
children is critical to their success;
* There is a need to increase access to and the volume of information and
resources available in the home, schools and the community;
* Schools fees are a barrier to access in some cases;
* The quality of the initial training of educators and the lack of continuous
professional development by teachers affects their performance in class;
* Language is barrier to participation in learning in the classroom;
* Attendance and discipline in schools, as well as safety in schools; and
improving throughput rates as repetition does not necessarily improve
performance.
Similarly, in the TIMSS study, challenges just mentioned were also
identified as contributing factors to South Africa's poor performance in the
Study.
Addressing these key challenges facing education and raising standards must
be and is our single goal. I must state categorically, that I have no illusions
about the scale of this task. I believe that we can and must use the medium- to
long-term priority of this province as set out in our five-year plan to deliver
not just higher standards but also an education system where everyone's
potential is realised. We should not see this as a luxury but as an absolute
necessity. In a globalised world we need all our young people to get the best
start in life regardless of their socio-economic status or their background. We
must learn from developed countries such as Finland and Canada who show what is
possible in combining high excellence with high levels of equity. In the same
breath, we need to review the performance of poor and developing countries,
such as Cuba, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, which are producing higher
levels of learning at a much lower cost to what South Africa spends.
I believe that virtually every child has the potential to achieve and that
it is our job to help them do that. I want to indicate that during my visits
across the province to meet local communities and education stakeholders I was
continuously inundated with the view of the parents that there is now hope in
areas where historically there was none or very little worth making a fuss
about.
Improving learner attainment for all our children and especially those from
deprived backgrounds is at the core of our strategy. Indeed the Constitution
makes it very clear that we have a duty to unlock the educational potential of
every child and of every adult. In order for us to exercise this right, I
appeal to all learners to take responsibility for their own learning and
development to enable our strategies to succeed.
The province has progressed well in delivering materials and services in
support of the thrust for quality over the last few years. This has been
consistent with the goals of our five year plan and the commitments made by the
Premier in his opening of the Legislature address.
The 2006/07 budget sees an increase of 13,6% from R10,360 billion to over
R12,285 billion. While this increase is substantially above the inflation rate,
it is more important to note that personnel as an expenditure item is less
dominant compared to previous years. Personnel are now 80% as compared to 97%
in 1995. This is as a result of an intensive strategy of the provincial
government to promote and sustain quality education across the system and to
support the education thrust to intensify government's quality improvement
strategy.
Curriculum Redress and Support
Education quality initiative is an integrated strategy to improve the
general quality of learning and attainment and is addressed through many
programmes and interventions. The core of our work is to enhance and expand the
quality of curriculum delivery, improve the performance of educators in the
classroom, resourcing of the learners, resourcing the classrooms and the
performance of institutions.
In order to guarantee our learners the best possible experience of the GET
band and the new Further Education and Training Certificate, and a firm
platform for life opportunities, it is imperative that we offer strategic
direction and support to schools in their choices of curriculum offerings. This
is necessary to ensure that:
* the spatial distribution of offerings across districts and across the
province is equitable and aligned with provincial human resource needs;
* the distribution of offerings in districts will facilitate learner
choice;
* schools have adequate posts and trained educators to implement the NCS
(Grades 10-12) effectively; and
* the schools have adequate learning, teaching and support (LTSM) materials to
implement the subject offerings.
These challenges require that we initiate a process of consultation with
schools and school communities to ascertain their understanding with regard to
the curriculum that will be offered at schools, in the context of the national
and provincial curriculum strategy.
We are currently in the second stage of the project which is the development
of a costed five-year provincial curriculum redress plan. This plan will
address the province's short-term and long-term teacher development and all
resourcing needed to deliver the curriculum.
This year the department will spend R 62 million on providing curriculum
support to schools and learners, as well as implementing site based support
through districts. In addition, we are spending R287 million on LTSM to support
the implementation of the new curriculum. This is in addition, to the R240
million schools spend on LTSM through subsidies they receive from the
department.
I am now going to focus on specific actions we are taking to realise the
curriculum vision of the country and of the province.
Language of Learning and Teaching and Mother-Tongue Education
Despite the diverse language backgrounds that learners may be coming from,
the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 guarantees the right to
equal access to education. A significant clause of this document is that there
must be no discrimination on the basis of language. The democratization of an
education system has brought with it many exciting but also daunting
challenges. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the relationship
between language and learner performance; the role it plays in hindering, as
well as advancing learner performance. South Africa and Gauteng in particular
is being plagued by challenges relating to multilingualism, especially classes
of monolingual learners coming from a
variety of languages that result in classes with a multilingual learner
component but with monolingual teachers. In some cases these educators do not
speak any of these languages. In other cases educators may speak one or two of
these languages.
South Africa is in the process of development and education is a priority
among our strategies for development. Furthermore, education very largely
depends on the communication of knowledge and language is indispensable for
this communication of knowledge. Therefore, language plays a central role in
education.
The South African Schools Act (SASA, 1996, Government Gazette No.17579)
states with regard to language policy that the governing body of a public
school may determine the language policy of the school subject to the
Constitution, the South African Schools Act and any provincial law. However, no
form of racial discrimination may be practiced in implementing policy, and a
recognised sign language has the status of an official language for purposes of
learning at a public school.
The Language-in-Education Policy elevates the principle of additive
bilingualism, which involves language maintenance, access to additional
languages and the principle of individual choice.
Mother tongue education remains a legitimate and useful strategy for
increasing learner access to quality education, in the sense that learners are
provided with an opportunity to acquire formal education in a language familiar
to them and used on a daily basis. Research suggests that learning through home
language provides strong foundation for learning additional languages and
mathematics and science. The research by Kathleen Heugh who is currently with
the Human Sciences Research Council (2005), has shown that eight years of home
language for African learners in South African schools during the Bantu
Education (1955-1975) increased the pass rate in Grade 12 and since the
curtailing of home language education from 8 to 4 years contributed decline in
learner performance from 83% to 44% in 1992.
The mother tongue education serves as useful resource to advance
constitutional imperatives and a powerful symbol in society. Professor Ayo
Bangbose (1998), from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, in his presentation:
Language as a Resource: an African Perspective argues that the role of language
in society and in nation building can not be narrowed to its communicative
function. Therefore mother tongue education should be perceived as a strategy
to eradicate high levels of illiteracy and poverty which hamper development in
developing countries. In this context, mother tongue education will not only be
a communicative tool but also a means for preserving cultural identity. Through
mother education learners will have access to indigenous knowledge imbedded
within the indigenous languages.
The Language in Education Policy acknowledges that language has an important
role to play in learning and that it can be used to improve teaching and
learning conditions. All learners learn through language by listening, reading,
speaking and writing. Therefore, every lesson, even a lesson in Mathematics,
can also be regarded as a language lesson. If learners begin school in a
language they speak at home, often referred to as the mother tongue they can
understand what is being taught and can start to read and write. Once these
skills have been developed, learners can start learning other languages.
2006 is a year in which we commit ourselves to complete our research and
planning to promote the implementation of mother tongue instruction. I will be
convening a colloquium in the next quarter with language and curriculum experts
to assist us in developing a provincial policy that is practical and
implementation friendly. Members should note that we are the most multi-lingual
province in the country and that all 11 official languages are dominant across
the province. A key challenge to address in this process is the parental
perception of the so-called "economic value" of English.
In addition, the department has initiated a literacy programme to initially
focus on the quality of reading and writing in the foundation phase. I would
like to welcome READ and JET as key partners in this process. Phase one of the
project would be to complete a detailed study of the factors influencing
the quality of reading and writing in the foundation phase. I hope that with
private sector support we will be able to raise the necessary resources for a
sustained programme that will raise the reading and writing levels of all our
children and youth.
This programme will be rolled out over a period of 5 years from the 2006/07
financial year starting with base line assessment of where schools are with the
teaching and learning of literacy and language with a view to implement
responsive programmes.
The intended outcomes of the strategy are to:
* Improve the literacy levels of learners across all bands of education
(GET
and FET);
* Improve teaching and learning of language literacy skills through capacity
building of educators as well as monitoring and supporting of schools;
* Provide classrooms with reading materials in all the languages; and
* Develop a network of departmental officials, educators and service providers
all committed to effective education throughout the province.
Institutionalising the Mathematics, Science and Technology Strategy
Mathematics, science and technology have become a national focus and have
been included in Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) and
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) as one of
the key pillars to addressing the skills shortage in the country.
It is important to note that the department has been actively resourcing
schools and teachers to improve performance and attainment in maths, science
and technology. We have built over 50 laboratories and 10 district education
centres to support the MST strategy of the department.
We will continue to renovate science laboratories where they are dilapidated
and not being used for science purposes. We will ensure that schools have
access to science and technology materials and equipment even if it means
schools that have the required apparatus having to share with schools that do
not have.
The national Department of Education has unveiled a national Dinaledi
Schools programme aimed at doubling the number of learners passing mathematics
and science on the Higher Grade by 2009. The province is supporting this
initiative and has already identified 70 schools to participate in the
programme. A needs analysis of the Dinaledi schools was also distributed to
stakeholders at the meeting convened by DoE.
Our commitment to increasing access and enhancing learner performance in
mathematics and science has seen the province provide all secondary schools
with the following resources as part of the implementation of Grade 10 NCS;
* Scientific calculators;
* Mathematics dictionaries;
* Science dictionaries;
* Two science kits; and
* A set of maths and science charts
We have also resourced all primary schools as part of the implementation, of
the National Curriculum Statement with science kits and maths and science
dictionaries. This year all secondary schools will be further resourced in
preparation for Grade 8 and 9 and Grade 11 implementation in 2007. The
resourcing of schools will focus on languages, in particular English 2nd
Language where learner performance needs to be enhanced.
The department acknowledges a number of partnerships programmes that focus
on the enhancement of the MST strategy in the Province. I would like to thank
Mayor Masondo of the City of Johannesburg for his support of the education
programme for girl children in Johannesburg, it would be highly appreciated if
all other councils could display similar interest in the education of citizens
in their municipalities.
We are happy to announce that the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre is nearing
completion in respect of the building works and is currently operating on a
scaled down programme due to building works. The Sci-Bono Discovery centre
remains our flagship science education centre and will become the core leader
of our maths, science and technology programme.
Continuing to support senior secondary learners through Matric
Interventions
We are continuing with the Senior Secondary Intervention Programme (SSIP) to
assist under-performing schools to improve their performance in Grade 12,
especially in critical subjects like Mathematics and Science. Learners have
access to experienced educators through a tuition programme that takes place on
Saturdays and school holidays focusing on gateway subjects. The focuses of the
classes are on examination preparation and curriculum content per subject. Last
year there were 71 SSIP schools in the province targeting 9697 learners and
SIPP schools showed an 8,41% increase in pass rates on average. This year we
will spend R18 million on this intervention targeting over 100 schools. This is
an increase of 50% over last year's budget.
Integrated Quality Management System
It has become of utmost importance for organizations in both the private and
public sector to introduce in their operations some mechanisms for quality
control. The primary aim of these control mechanisms is to improve customer
satisfaction. But in order to come to the point of customer satisfaction,
procedures have to be developed that integrate the individual's desire for
growth and development with the organization's goal for efficient and
qualitative productivity.
Education is very complex and a large number of interdependent components
parts can be distinguished. It is not possible to effect a general quality
improvement in education without considering, and also improving, the quality
in all of the components as well as taking into account how the different
components relate to one another. Every part of the system is dependent on
every other part of the system as well as the people in it. It therefore makes
no sense to focus all efforts and energy on improving the quality of one or two
parts of the system and then to expect the whole system to improve. Seen in
this light, I therefore wish to emphasize three realities. In the first place,
the whole education system, and everything within an education department, is
brought into being because there are learners who need to receive education.
The learners are our clients and should be the focus of everything educators
and an education department do.
In the second place, we have good education legislation and policies in
South Africa and in the Gauteng Province. However, it seems as if we often find
it a problem to effectively implement the existing policies. I want to
emphasize that it is people who make policies happen, and therefore people at
all levels of our education system need to be made competent and confident to
implement policy while the rest of the system needs to provide the necessary
support and guidance. Thus: quality depends on human resource development at
all levels of our system. In the third place, educators constitute the
interface between the learners and the rest of the system. Our educators come
under scrutiny when quality improvement initiatives are considered. This is
often done in isolation without considering how all other parts of the system
provide an enabling and supportive environment.
The Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) within the education sector
is one of many initiatives aimed at ensuring quality outcomes for our education
system. It aims to promote teacher development, teacher performance management,
school improvement and whole school evaluation in an integrated quality
framework. The Department has built capacity to effectively manage IQMS and has
provided Integrated Quality Management System training as well as support with
its implementation and monitoring to all school-based educators and officials
who are responsible for providing support to our schools. At present all
school-based educators in public schools of the Department have now been
provided with the necessary training and support for them to start the process
of implementing IQMS. However, during the past financial year, this process
faced numerous challenges that had to be addressed and will continue to receive
our serious attention in the 2006/2007 financial year. We will ensure that
teachers are paid out
their pay progression adjustments, as an outcome of IQMS evaluations, by the
end of July 2006 long before the agreed deadline of December 2006.
Teacher Development
Teacher development is the single most important lever for quality
improvement across the system. We will invest over R92 million during 2006/07
on personnel development with over R60 million specifically for teacher
development. The department will focus on the training of educators to support
the introduction of the National Curriculum Statements (NCS) in Grades 8,9, 11
and 12. Last year a total of 14 430 Grade 10 educators were trained on the new
NCS subjects who have been implemented in all secondary schools in 2006. We
have also successfully implemented the National Curriculum Statements this year
after an intensive training process.
In addition, we will provide educators and staff the opportunity to realise
their growth needs which was identified through the performance evaluation
processes under IQMS.
At this stage, I want to recognise the work of teachers, who, sometimes, in
desperate conditions produce high quality learning against all odds. I strongly
believe that all teachers with the necessary support and guidance can also
produce high quality learning in their schools. Through our school monitoring
programme, we are identifying schools where the culture of the school is
negatively affecting the environment and become a barrier to effective teaching
and learning. In these schools we will intervene to resolve personality clashes
between teachers and between teachers and governing bodies in order to restore
the education culture of the school.
GautengOnline
The GautengOnline Program is currently in its third year of rollout. To date
significant progress has been made with approximately 1070 schools having
received ICT laboratories as part of the Phase I&II rollouts which started
early in 2004. In the 2005/06 financial year, a new phase (Phase V) 80 schools
were earmarked for deployment and rollout is currently underway and will be
completed within the next month of this financial year. In addition to the
Phase V rollout, 80 Phase I&II LSEN schools became part of an additional
rollout phase, (called Phase IV), wherein specialised hardware and software
devices are currently being installed to address various special education
needs at these schools. This is a very exciting development which should
transform teaching and learning practices in schools for learners with special
needs. The current roll out to schools with special needs has just been
completed. The types of cutting edge devices include inter alia head mice,
touch screens, roller balls, joysticks, special switches, talking word
processors, talking dictionaries, talking calculators, web page readers,
Braille printers and a range of software to take profoundly handicapped
learners through to literacy.
In addition to the rollout, significant progress has been made with respect
to various security solutions to address the ongoing issues of crime and the
theft of computers and the threat this poses to the safety of the schools and
the protection of the investment made in the ICT equipment. A security tender
was issued in May 2005 and awarded to security service providers who over the
course of this first part of the 2006/7 financial year have started to
implement a number of these solutions. One such solution has been cluster
guarding in high risk areas. This has had a noticeable effect on the reduction
of security incidents as well as the volume of equipment that is being stolen
or damaged in security incidents.
A comprehensive "reconceptualisation" project was also undertaken to address
the various issues and questions around the sustainability and cost
effectiveness of the current Program model. This has resulted in new ideas
around both technology and vendor models, governance frameworks and
institutional requirements that could work to ensure the continued
sustainability of the Program. Certain key ideas are currently being tested as
well as other ideas being incorporated into a tender document to be submitted
mid year 2006 for future rollout phases. Once this tender is completed and
implemented a further 70 schools will be completed in this financial year.
The GDE has begun a process of exploring the possibility of establishing
GautengOnline as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in terms of the Public
Finance Management Act. The GDE is conducting a pre-feasibility study on this
and will be available before the end of the financial year.
The GDE has recently established an eLearning Directorate which will focus
on assisting schools in utilizing the laboratories and their technologies for
teaching and learning purposes.
The budget has increased from R100 million in 2005/6 to R200 million
in
2006/07 financial year.
Improving school management and governance
The department is investing R20 million to support and improve school
governing bodies, school management teams and representative councils of
learners. The department is working closely with the Mathew Goniwe School of
Leadership and Governance to implement development and improvement strategies
in support of school functionality.
At this point, I want to thank the principals and other school managers for
their sterling effort in turning schools around over the last few years. Most
of our schools, with the exception of 5% of schools, perform optimally and
deliver quality learning. We want to challenge a large percentage of schools
serving poor communities who are operating on the verge of success to make
extra effort in becoming more successful.
Addressing the Socio-Economic Factors
To deal with the socio-economic factors influencing quality, the department
will exempt children who attend schools in the poorest communities from paying
school fees as from January 2007. We have done much work in this regard
especially in developing a poverty profile of communities so as to improve
targeting the poor as precisely as possible thus ensuring that all needy
learners will benefit from these exemptions. This will allow us to rank schools
according to the national quintiles when the percentage of qualifying schools
is determined by the National Minister. Based on current assumptions, it is
estimated that there are over 180 000 learners from 250 of our poorest schools.
In order for the national quintile 1 schools to adjust to no fees in January,
the department has set aside R28 million to allocate to schools as an
adjustment to the subsidies received for the 2006/07 financial years. The
subsidies to ordinary schools amount to R413 million.
To address the phenomena that many learners go to school hungry every day
and that this impacts on their performance at school, the province through a
conditional grant provides free meals to all identified needy learners. Over
378,903 learners benefit from the programme. This is an increase from 317 000
when the programme was initially transferred to the Department of Education
from the Department of Health. During 2006/7 the department will spend almost
R100million on the National School Nutrition Programme. The provincial
programme of the National School Nutrition Programme forms an important part of
the Bana Pele Programme, which is led by the Department of Social Development
targeting vulnerable children towards accessing all services of the Gauteng
Provincial Government.
Five schools were piloted as multi-purpose centres and 8 schools, mainly
rural, are members of the Food Garden Foundation. The schools utilize the Food
Gardening projects as a learning resource as well as producing vegetables which
are used to make soup for children. In addition, on the 18 July, we are
launching an initiative with the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg
Fresh Produce market, to promote healthy living and a focus on good nutrition
and eating habits. We would like to challenge the other councils and their
fresh produce markets to respond in a similar way to the City of
Johannesburg.
In order to increase learner access to education, free and safe scholar
transport has been provided to identify learners who live more than 5km away
from the nearest school. Some of the learners particularly in farm areas had
poor attendance because of long distances they had to travel to school and
scholar transport for these learners has eased their situations.
Last year scholar transport has been provided to over 47 000 learners in the
province and in so doing has ensured access for learners that reside in farm,
rural or informal settlements. It should be noted that the problems experienced
last year, forced the department to review its targeting and to improve on the
efficiency of the programme. As a result of this review, we have reduced the
number of permanent roués required through better admissions planning and
routing. However, the lack of available schools and classes in some areas has
warranted the establishment of temporary routes while new schools and/or
additional classrooms are being built. We have already provided 10
pre-fabricated schools and over 100 classrooms since January this year.
Special Schools Education
The strengthening of the special schools sector has been declared a national
priority. The department has put into place measures to improve the resourcing
of special schools with a view to modernising the curriculum delivery
environment by providing state of the art assistive devices. During 2005/6, the
GautengOnline project delivered computer laboratories in all the special
schools as highlighted above.
The department will spend over R638 million to provide education for
learners with special education needs in special schools. The department will
provide subsidies and resources to the value of R95 million. The department
will spend over R1,2 million to improve curriculum and institutional support.
We will also spend R1 million for in-service training and teacher development
in the LSEN sector.
Subsidisation of Independent Schools
We have made a provision of over R176 million for subsidies to independent
schools that qualify. The department is applying the norms for funding as per
policy and will not fund schools that do not meet the criteria. We will however
consider allowing some schools to continue serving communities where public
schooling may not be available. We will also spend R0,6 million to improve the
monitoring of schools as well as increasing the number of site visits for
institutional audit purposes.
Further Education and Training
In gearing our Further Education and Training colleges to support the
economic thrust of the province, I am happy to report that a conditional grant
for the recapitalization of the colleges was approved this year for
implementation in the next financial year. All colleges have submitted detailed
business plans to transform the FET colleges into cutting edge institutions
that will provide a world class technical and vocational education that will
make learners that complete their programmes highly employable and self
employable.
We will begin to popularize and affirm the profile and prospects of further
education and training. FET colleges will become leading skills-training
centres which focus on key economic growth sectors. A conditional grant of R106
million for the modernisation and development of the FET sector has been
allocated by National Government.
In our FET colleges high-level vocational skills will be offered, especially
in the areas that are critical for our province and country's economic
development. In this recapitalization of the FET sector we will engage the
private sector to come on board of this process, and also forge links with the
local government authorities in our province.
Adult Basic Education and Training
There are eight percent of people in Gauteng who have no schooling and
surely many more of the population who are functionally illiterate. We are
addressing the challenge of illiteracy within this sector by initiating
programmes that will target all stakeholders in the Adult Basic Education and
Training
(ABET) sector. We embarked upon an ABET Teacher Development and capacity
building programme where all district ABET facilitators were trained. A total
of 65 ABET facilitators and 250 centre managers were trained through a 9 day
capacity building workshop. We are also focusing on building the skills of our
young people through the promotion of learnerships focusing on the out of
school youth and the unemployed. We currently have over 69 000 learners in ABET
centres across the province.
We will spend over R147 million to provide for adult education formal ABET
programmes. The department will allocate R11 million for Educational Resource
to support ABET Programmes. We will also spend R1 million to support and
develop ABET educators. We will also spend R2,9 million to support the
curriculum and institutions to ensure greater learner performance in this
sector.
Early Childhood Development
To further increase our investment of our youngest citizens we have
implemented our early childhood development strategy focusing on children at
risk and in the most disadvantage communities. We have concentrated on
increasing the number of qualified practitioners and a total of 533
practitioners attended a NQF Level 5 accredited ECD training programme.
We have established the ECD Institute in realizing the government's
commitment to raising the quality of care our children receive in the early
years. The focus of the ECD Institute is to set up systems that allow for the
integration and coordination of programmes and projects, to avoid duplication
and fragmentation of services to children. The first draft of the Strategic
Framework and Implementation Plan for Early Childhood Development has been
completed.
This programme has received R79 million from the Province to support the
introduction of Grade R. This is an increase of R30 million over the 2005/06
financial year.
In-School Sports, Arts and Culture
Sport, arts and cultural activities are the most effective tools for
nation-building, developing social cohesion and more importantly provide a
healthy and well-being society. These activities are more focused in providing
learners and educators to develop values in society and thus become valued
citizens.
We are in the process of finalising the collaboration with the Department of
Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation. This collaboration is also informed by the
signed National Framework for Collaboration between the Ministry of Education
and that of Sport Recreation South Africa.
This Collaboration is based on ensuring effective and efficient service
delivery of sport, arts, culture, recreation and library information services
during any activities. This collaboration will also ensure effective and
efficient budget utilisation and equitable redistribution of wealth, resources
and service support. The collaboration is also expected to filter down to ward
and school level. It will also involve the Local Municipality through the
partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.
Sport Federations and Arts and Cultural formations will be brought in at a
later stage for curriculum delivery focusing on the implementation of Life
Orientation Learning Outcome 3 relating to Recreation and Physical Well-being
in Grades 10 - 12 and Learning Outcome 4 relating to Physical Development.
In order to redress the imbalances of the past, the Department of Sport,
Arts, Culture and Recreation established clusters and hubs as part of making
Gauteng the 'Home of Champions'. The officials of the two departments are
collaborating to promote inter-school sports and support programmes through
these hubs and clusters. The two departments will also monitor the
implementation of the interdepartmental school sport strategy.
I also want to announce that the department together with local government,
primarily the City of Johannesburg, is launching a programme to promote
swimming as a necessary life skill. This is not only in response to the high
number of children drowning annually but also to ensure that we promote
swimming as a sport among black communities.
During 2006/7, the department has increased the allocation for
in-school
sport and culture to R15 million from R10 million in 2005/06.
School Safety combating Schools as soft targets for crime
As indicated in the Manifesto on Values in Education, being safe and secure
at school is essential to learning and teaching. For too many learners and
educators, MAKING SCHOOLS SAFE in which TO LEARN AND TEACH, AND ENSURING THE
RULE OF LAW IN SCHOOLS, is a desperate challenge."
Following some incidents where learners have been mugged outside their
schools, or while on their way either to school or home, as well as the
incident where criminals even entered the school premises and harassed and
mugged the educator and learners, my Department will consider ways and means on
how schools can further be assisted with safety precautions.
During 2006/7 we will spend R1 million to develop and implement with schools
measures to improve safety and security in schools. The measures are aimed to
improve the utilisation of current resources in place for safety and
security.
Capex
In line with the President's commitment that all schools will have access to
water, sanitation and electricity by March 2006,I am proud to announce that all
schools have water and sanitation and only a total of 3 schools in Gauteng do
not have electricity. This is as a result of the fact that these schools are
situated in areas without access to the electricity network. There are no mud
schools in the province, no learners learning under trees and asbestos schools
are being refurbished with a special coat of paint.
We have conducted an in depth analysis with regard to the backlog of new
schools and it was established that there was a need for 125 secondary schools
and 49 primary schools. The Department set aside R101million for the
continuation of schools under construction, the activation of 48 new schools as
well as 10 alternative construction schools. A total of 6 new schools have been
completed last year. A further 2 schools reached the stage of virtual
completion and 56 schools are in the tender and construction phase. By March
2006 we have completed 168 classrooms, 24 toilet blocks, 6 administration
blocks and 6 media centres. In addition, a total of 100 mobile classrooms were
distributed to schools in the province.
We are in the process of completing a preliminary assessment of the quality
of the infrastructure in all our schools with a view to developing a
maintenance strategy that would also prioritise the schools in the twenty
townships identified by the Premier in his opening of legislature address.
Gauteng Human Resource Development Strategy
We are also the Department leading the formulation of the Human Resource
Development strategy for the Province. The purpose of such a strategy is to
assist the Province to strategically prioritise its focus and interventions in
an already complex provincial human resource supply, demand and development
environment. We have completed the draft strategy after a broad-based
consultation process. The strategy is underpinned by the Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy, the Global City Region Strategy (in its development form)
and the envisaged Social Development and Sustainable Development Strategies
Promoting Batho Pele and Service Delivery Standards
In May 2004, after I had taken over the Education Portfolio of the Gauteng
Provincial Government, I emphasized that service delivery in the Department
would be of utmost importance. Following my statement in this regard, the
department undertook a process of formulating generic service delivery
standards informed by the Batho Pele Principles.
This whole process the GDE embarked on was guided by the Batho Pele
revitalization strategy launched by the Department of Public Service and
Administration that is aimed at supporting departments to improve service
delivery and to comply with the White Paper on Transforming Service Delivery.
In the light of this, I launched the Service Charter of the
Department during February of this year. In launching the Service Charter of
the Gauteng Department of Education, we commit ourselves to entrench the spirit
of Batho Pele in all the activities of our Department.
In order to improve openness and transparency, the newly-developed Service
Charter outlines the level and quality of service that our learners and
citizens may expect from the Gauteng Department of Education and guides our
staff on the level of service they are expected to deliver to all our clients.
More importantly, it outlines the course for redress if the expected level of
service is not delivered. In this regard, I condemn in the strongest possible
terms the non-payment of salaries of educators on time. Equally I have
instructed the department to look into the delayed payments of service
providers and contractors as well as pensions due to ex-employees.
We cannot deliver education without the support of parents, business
and
organised civil society.
Parental Participation
If we are to succeed in improving standards and boosting aspiration of our
learners, then we also need the support, energy and commitment of parents and I
am not speaking of governance in this case. We aim to encourage and support
parents to become more involved in their children's education. This will not
only pay dividends in the classroom, it will also result in children and young
people who are more motivated and better equipped throughout their lives to
fulfil their potential. Most parents have the single biggest influence on their
children's life and that is at the core of why we need to do our best to reach
all of them. We are currently piloting a programme with selected schools that
have been previously poorly performing. The programme's objective is to equip
schools on strategies to improve parental involvement in their child's
education. The first programme run by the Education Action Zones team was on
the new curriculum and its assessment practices. The programme explains in lay
terms what the expectations of the curriculum are and suggests roles that
parents can play both at home and at school. What is so exciting of this new
project is that it will give schools practical advice on how to support and
build partnerships with parents but it will do that on the basis of research
and what is already happening.
Partnerships
It is through the collaborative efforts of business and education that
greater opportunities exist for maximizing the effectiveness of education
delivery. The Department wants to recognize the critical role of the business
sector in the development and provision of education. Through interventions,
inter alia, the provision of key infrastructure facilities, promoting universal
access to early child development, building safe and sustainable communities,
the department is successfully securing and harnessing the tremendous potential
that exists with prospective business partners. Our sincere appreciation to our
business partners Anglogold Ashanti, De Beers, ABSA, Mittal Steel, Samancor,
Oracle, City of Johannesburg, XSTRATA, and Oprah Winfrey Foundation, amongst
others, who have assisted in promoting the pursuit of excellence in our
schools. We want to also acknowledge the role of the following governments who
have provided us with technical expertise and field study tour opportunities
for educators and school management. The French Government through partnerships
with the French Embassy and Ille de France, the Cuban Government and the UK
through the British Council.
To date the Gauteng Education Development Trust has been the development
vehicle of the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre with the GDE being the main sponsor
together with other key partners such as BHP Billiton, Transnet and the other
private sector trustees.
We also want to acknowledge the commitment of Oprah Winfrey to education in
Gauteng and in South Africa. She has become a true ambassador of goodwill to
the South African people. We are grateful to Oprah Winfrey, who has been
extremely generous with a substantial donation to build a residential school
for girls here in Gauteng. The school will open its doors with effect from the
beginning of 2007 and cater for 450 girl learners by 2010.
Public Participation
We have also developed extensive public participation programmes over the
last few years. We will continue to ensure that fora and Imbizos are used to
promote plans and targets of the department and to receive feedback and
interact with our communities and partners. We would, for example, want to have
a forum where on an ongoing basis we have formal interactions with our school
principals to discuss different issues affecting our work and our
responsibilities.
In the consolidation of democratic participation in all forms of governance,
the department will also look at the various aspects of effectively
strengthening the role of the school governing bodies. As we finalise the
election new school governing bodies, I wish to sincerely express my gratitude
to all school governing bodies for the role they played in advancing quality
education. We indeed value your support.
May I also thank all our Advisory and Statutory bodies for their continued
support in the development of education policies, as well as all those
stakeholders that participated in our consultative education summit.
Combating corruption
My Department's continuous battle to eradicate all forms of corruption has
borne more fruit during the past financial year, and we are continuing this in
this financial year of 2006/07. Earlier this year I commissioned an
investigation be done around the whole issue of the school bus service rendered
to the Department by different bus companies. This service to our learners is
of utmost importance but over the past couple of months it has become evident
to top management in my Department that everything is not above board regarding
this issue.
I want to assure you: Gauteng Department of Education will not tolerate any
form of corruption no matter how "small" it may be deemed by the perpetrators.
Government does not view any corruption to be small it is crime and it is a way
in which public officials are stealing from the public. And I will deal with
incidences of corruption in a harsh way as mandated by the relevant
legislation. Concluding Remarks and Acknowledgements
I want to place on record my continued gratitude and appreciation for the
sterling leadership provided by most of our principals and to ask them to
effectively utilise the resources afforded by this budget to ensure effective
education and quality learning.
I commit myself to continue to support teachers who have committed
themselves to ensure quality learning in a safe and secure environment and to
provide the care necessary for all developing children.
The role of the PS personnel in schools cannot be understated. They provide
meaningful support to teachers and learners regarding both administrative
matters and school facility maintenance. For this I am deeply grateful.
I want to thank members of all political parties for their support and to
reiterate my commitment to resolve all the matters they refer to me, especially
the ANC which has done a lot of work in support of grassroot communities.
May I take this opportunity to thank the Head of the Department, Mr Mallele
Petje and staff, the staff in my office, the Chairperson of the Portfolio
Committee, Mr Amon Msane and members of the portfolio committee, the Premier,
Mbhazima Shilowa for his continued support, fellow MECs especially those in the
Social Cluster Sub-Committee and the MEC for Finance Paul Mashatile for his
understanding of education pressures, my family for their continued support, as
well as all education stakeholders.
The path towards quality education is now paved; a smooth delivery of
quality education is on track!
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
20 June 2006
