Ministers
10 August 2006
At its scheduled meeting in Pretoria on 7 August 2006, the Council of
Education Ministers (CEM) agreed to the Minister of Educationâs proposal to aim
for a target of 40 percent of all learners to attend no-fee schools in
2007.
This month the Minister of Education will gazette the proportion of learners
in no-fee schools in each province and also gazette a list of no-fee schools in
each province.
In 2006 a total of 7 687 schools with 2 556 550 learners (over 20 percent)
chose voluntarily to be no-fee schools.
MECs also reported that the provinces were ready for the senior certificate
exam at the end of the year. Matric improvement programmes were in place to
support schools in which learners had performed badly in previous senior
certificate examinations.
A team from the national Department of Education visited eight provinces to
check their state of readiness for the 2006 senior certificate examination and
will continue to monitor progress in the run up to the exam.
CEM agreed to a proposal for a new range of assessment procedures in grades
10 and 11. The Department of Education will set and pilot exemplar question
papers for grade 10 set the national question papers for grade 11 and organise
the writing of an external examination in grade 11 in 2007. These are important
steps towards the successful holding of the national senior certificate in
2008.
A representative of the Lansdowne Counselling Project presented a report on
a new method of ensuring safety in schools, the Lansdowne Counselling model.
This is part of the ongoing imperative to develop strategies to ensure safety
and security of learners and educators in schools throughout the country. The
CEM emphasised the need for co-ordination with the South African Police Service
(SAPS), the Department of Safety and Security and other departments.
The CEM expressed concern over reports that some educators elected as local
councillors had not adhered to the law which prohibits full-time teachers from
being full-time councillors.
The CEM noted progress in the implementation of the National Curriculum
Statement (NCS) grade 10 â 12. The Department of Education has completed
teacher training in 13 of the 15 nationally co-ordinated subjects. The national
catalogues for textbooks, literature and resources in grade 11 have been
distributed to provinces.
Finally, the CEM re-iterated the central role of the Further Education
Training (FET) Colleges in meeting the intermediary skills needs of the
country. Progress was being made in the re-capitalisation and particularly in
the preparation for implementation of the National Certificate Vocational (NCV)
in selected learning areas in 2007.
Enquiries:
Lunga Ngqengelele
Cell: 082 566 0446
Issued by: Department of Education
10 August 2006
