year
9 January 2007
Greetings to you all and best wishes for 2007!
May I thank you for coming here this morning. The purpose of this briefing
is to provide a report on the state of school readiness in Gauteng and further
clarify some matters that may have been incorrectly reported.
Firstly, I want to once more congratulate our educators and principals for a
job well done during our 2006 Matric Examinations. I remain deeply humbled by
the 78,3% pass rate, the highest since the establishment of this
department.
We note with deep concern that about 100 schools in the province produced a
less than 50% pass rate in grade 12 for the academic year of 2006. I have since
instructed the Chief Director of districts to work with the different district
managers to get these schools to submit a turnaround strategy by the end of
January. These will then be used to form a support and intervention strategy to
assist them to improve performance in these schools
We are also proud that we have successfully declared 421 schools in Gauteng
as no fee paying schools thus directly benefiting more than 50 000 learners and
parents.
With the need to strengthen our district for them to successfully monitor
and provide support to schools, the department is at an advanced stage to
reposition our district offices to do so.
Admissions
We are aware that even at this late stage there are learners still seeking
admission in public schools in Gauteng. Preliminary figures indicate that the
school-going population of this province will again increase by more than 12%
thus putting pressure on a school population of more than 2,6 million in
Gauteng.
Of the more than 36 000 learners who registered late for the 2007 academic
calendar, we have successfully placed some of them. Of the remaining 4 000, and
those that will be presented to us tomorrow, we will find them places very
soon.
Documentation required for registration
All learners, other than Grade 1 learners, must have a valid birth
certificate, the final 2006 school report and an official transfer card.
Grade 1 learners must have a valid birth certificate and an immunisation
certificate.
To ensure that all schools are running effectively as from 10 January 2007,
officials from the Gauteng Department of Education have been deployed to
schools to deal with any unforeseen problems.
The influx is mostly felt in Tshwane, the southern suburbs of Johannesburg
and Ekurhuleni. Plans have been made to provide relief to extremely overcrowded
schools through the provision of mobile classrooms during the first term.
In some parts of Ekurhuleni where mobile classrooms cannot be placed to
provide relief, provision of additional scholar transport for these exceptional
circumstances is under consideration.
The completion of eleven schools for use at the start of the academic year
will bring some relief for children in Cosmo City, Kaalfontein, Duduza,
Etwatwa, Windmill Park, Greenfields, Phomolong, Lotus Gardens and
Rethabiseng.
All late registrations (including those learners changing from independent
schools, and moving from other provinces) are managed through the local
District Office or the identified satellite office. It should be noted that NO
registration fees are required.
Learners will be provided with a signed letter from the District Office
indicating their late placement in a particular school.
School furniture
Sufficient school furniture will be delivered to all new schools and
additional mobile classes before re-opening of schools. By September 2006 an
amount of more than R3.62 million has been paid for school furniture with
further commitments of R17 million for top-up furniture to existing schools
experiencing shortfalls and will be delivered during the first term.
Learning Teaching Support Material (LTSM)
All learner and teacher support materials will be delivered to schools
before schools re-open, however, schools without sufficient safe storage rooms
will only receive their LTSM in the first week of January 2007.
Post provisioning
The Department has made posts available to districts for those schools where
there is growth in learner numbers.
The additional number of 3 634 educator posts were allocated for the 2007
academic year; this is 8,91% more than 2006. Adult Basic Education and Training
(ABET) centres will get 44 additional educators, which represents a 29,33%
growth in this system. The Exceptional Learners with Special Education Needs
(ELSEN) staff will be enlarged with another 231 posts.
Appointment of permanent and temporary educators
The Education Department advertised more than 4 000 educators' posts during
the last vacancy list. These posts are in a process of being permanently filled
and 1 446 newly appointed educators will start at their new posts as from 2
January 2007. The remainder of the 4 000 will be appointed during the first
term of 2007 and will assume their duties in their new posts as from day 1 of
the second term.
Temporary educators that are in the posts that have not yet been filled with
permanent educators will remain at the schools until such time that the new
posts are filled by permanent appointments.
Grade 11
You might be aware that our new national curriculum is about to be rolled
out this year to Grade 11s thus creating some form of uncertainty to those who
failed the old curriculum.
After assessing possible options of placing these learners with ABET centres
or Further Education and Training (FET) institutions, the Gauteng Department of
Education has now taken a decision to allow these learners to repeat Grade 11
within our schools.
Last year we had a 29% failure rate in Grade 11 as compared with a 30%
failure rate in 2005.
We are currently formulating a circular to schools as well as a letter to
the national department to outline to them our position on these matters.
Scholar transport
Our scholar transport service will continue to ferry learners to school when
the school reopens.
Conclusion
It is with great pleasure to announce that the Gauteng Department of
Education is ready to roll out the 2007 academic calendar. We undertake to
ensure that everything proceeds smoothly and that we create the best education
environment for all of them.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
9 January 2007
Source: SAPA
