in Gauteng! only 03 out of 2251 schools without electricity!
20 June 2006
âWe have broken the last apartheid backbone of differential budget
allocationâ says Education MEC as she tables her R12,285 billion budget at the
Gauteng Legislature. The Education budget is the single largest budget of any
department in the Gauteng Provincial Government. It represents almost 35% of
the Provincial Government Budget.
In paying tribute to the youth of 1976 Uprisings, the Education MEC
announced that budget allocations have now completely moved from apartheid
orientation of race based resource allocations to needs based formula. This
means, for the first time next year, all schools identified to be located
within the poorest areas of our province; the learners will no longer be
expected to pay school fees. The department has set aside R80 million to
realize this commitment.
âIt is clear from the budget, that school and learners are the major
beneficiaries of this yearâs budgetâ says MEC Motshekga.
A total of R527m will be utilized for curriculum support as well as
implementing the new curriculum. A total of 1146 schools are connected to
Gauteng Online.
The GDE has now introduced eLearning Directorate which will focus on
assisting schools in utilizing the laboratories and their technologies for
teaching and learning purposes. The budget of has increased from R100 million
to R200million.
As part of alleviating learners from poor communities, the department has
set aside R100m for School Nutrition Programme and R40m for Scholar Transport
while learners from identified poor areas will from the 01st January 2006 be
exempted from paying school fees.
âI am proud to announce that Gauteng has fully responded to our President,
Thabo Mbekiâs call to eradicate a system where learners learn under the tree.
In Gauteng thereâs no school that has learners learning under the tree, there
are only 03 schools without electricity mainly due to lack of electricity
network in that communityâ says MEC Motshekga.
The Department will spend R638 million to provide education for learners
with special needs, while R1,2m will be utilized to improve curriculum and
institutional support.
As part of defending our schools against crime, we have set aside more than
R1m to provide assistance to our cluster policing. We will jointly with safety
enforcement agencies develop mechanisms that will ensure that our schools are
not soft targets.
We have allocated R176m as subsidies to independent schools that qualify.
This is meant to ensure that various forms of education remain accessible to
all South Africans.
As part of introducing Grade R in our schools, R79m has been set aside for
Early Childhood Development.
Educator salaries remain the single highest expenditure even though it has
been slashed from 97% in 1995 to 80% this year. This represents a major
consolidation of the benefits due to educators as well as their well being.
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 which 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.
The Department has now firmly finalized its preparations to ensure mother
tongue learning and teaching takes place in all public schools in Gauteng. Even
though the South African Schools Act (SASA, 1996) empowers School Governing
Bodies (SGB) to determine the language policy of a public school, however no
form of racial discrimination may be practiced and the department commits
itself to provide all the necessary support including learning and teaching
material. Further more, as part of ensuring quality education; we will spend
R18m on intervention programmes targeting over 100 secondary schools. This is
an increase of 50% over last yearâs budget.
âWe remain convinced that the future of our children is well catered forâ
concluded MEC Angie Motshekga.
Enquiries
Panyaza Lesufi
Chief Director: Office of the MEC
Cell: 083 256 7933
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
20 June 2006
