I Cronje: KwaZulu-Natal Education Prov Budget Vote 2006/07

25 April 2006

BUILDING A NATION THROUGH QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF
KWAZULU-NATAL: BEYOND BRICKS AND MORTAR

Chairperson,
Honourable Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr S Ndebele,
My colleagues in the Executive Council,
Deputy Speaker,
Honourable members of this House,
Distinguished guests,
Representatives from the private sector and non-governmental
organisations,
Representatives from the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great privilege and pleasure to present to you today the budget of
the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education for the financial year 2006/07. I
would like to extend a special welcome to all learners who are with us today
representing schools, Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and Adult
Basic Education and Training (ABET) centres in our province.

Introduction

It is indeed an honour to address this session of the legislature on my
Department’s budget 50 years after the brave women of our country marched to
the Union Buildings to protest against pass laws, a hundred years after Inkosi
Bhambatha ka Mancinza Zondi rose up against the imposition of poll tax by the
colonial establishment and a hundred years after Mahatma Ghandi led Satyagraha
on our shores.

I am also privileged to be addressing the legislature on the solemn occasion
of the 30th anniversary of the student uprising of 16 June 1976. I wish to
salute the youth of our country for the heroic role they played in fighting for
national liberation in general and equal access to education in particular.
Their continued active participation in the unfolding process of
democratisation, reconstruction and development should equally be encouraged.
We also pay tribute to all the heroes and heroines across the length and
breadth of our province that were courageous in laying down their lives to
ensure that the doors of learning and culture are opened to all our people.

As we celebrate and honour the youth of 1976 for their role in bringing
about the demise of apartheid education we need to pay greater attention to the
development of a package of measures to improve the lives of today’s youth
through amongst others the provision of quality education through our schools,
skills development through our FET colleges and improved opportunities to
participate in the economy of our country and our province.

More importantly, Mr Speaker, 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the
adoption of our democratic and progressive Constitution. As we celebrate its
coming of age we in the education sector further commit ourselves to the
promotion of human rights and human dignity through our curriculum in order to
ensure that never again shall the ills of an unequal and discriminatory society
be visited on our people.

The 50th anniversary of the women’s march of 9 August 1956 epitomises the
gallant role our womenfolk played in our struggle for freedom. We will spare no
energy in ensuring that we continue to strengthen our efforts towards improving
the lot of women in our province. In this regard we are pushing ahead with
increasing women’s participation in all areas of education management. I am
pleased to announce that for the first time ever my Department has two women in
its top management of five. Both the Chief Financial Officer and the Senior
General Manager responsible for Human Resources Management are women. Our new
Deputy Chief Financial Officer is also a woman. We are addressing the
under-representation of women at Senior Management Services (SMS) level having
increased women representation from 17 percent to 29 percent in the past year.
We shall not rest until women are equally represented at this crucial level of
management.

The Bhambatha uprising is not just an event to commemorate, it is an
occasion upon which the whole nation can rejoice in the triumph of the human
spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. South Africans from all walks of
life remain indebted to Bhambatha’s fortitude. We thank our honourable Premier
for the vision he displayed in planning to reinstate Inkosi Bhambatha
posthumously. It is in pursuance of the legacy of Bhambatha that my Department
and the office of the Premier formed a partnership with The Witness newspaper
to publish twelve weekly inserts in English and IsiZulu to conscientise
learners in our schools on the historic role played by King Dinuzulu, Inkosi
Bhambatha and others who participated in the struggle against colonial
incursions into the rights of our people.

Achievements

On my assumption of office in 2004, I outlined the vision and seven broad
strategic goals for my Department. Through our uniting and mobilising slogan
“Getting KwaZulu-Natal learning”, I committed my Department to using available
resources judiciously and responsibly to achieve these goals. Guided by our
strategic goals, we adopted several programmes that were aimed at improving
access to quality education for all our people. Mr Speaker, allow me to take
this opportunity to reflect on some of the achievements we recorded over the
past year:

Learning spaces, water and sanitation

I have regularly reminded this House of the legacy of infrastructure
backlogs that we inherited. During my first year in office I indicated that we
had a backlog of among other things 14 667 classrooms, 333 schools without any
toilets, 34 percent of schools without water on site; 60 percent of schools
without power supply. Dare I say that our achievements can only be judged in
the context of this legacy?

I am pleased to report that in 2005/06 my Department performed beyond
expectations in terms of infrastructure service delivery. During this period we
produced:

* 1 571 classrooms, 71 more than our target of 1 500
* 3 001 toilets, 501 more than our target of 2 500
* three entire new schools
* three libraries, three halls, 15 laboratories, five computer rooms, 35
administration blocks
* fences around 41 schools
* 80 percent of the installation of water and toilets at 334 schools has been
completed within a limited budget; we shall continue to systematically address
infrastructure shortages in our schools.

Education centres supporting rural development

As part of our broad strategy of dealing with education infrastructure
backlogs in our province in general and in rural areas in particular my
Department is currently implementing a programme of establishing education
centres to support rural development. The education centres programme is part
of a broad initiative in partnership with the Royal Netherlands Embassy and
several other funding partners. These centres consist of computer laboratories,
libraries, science laboratories, Internet and email facilities and serve the
teachers and learners of the schools without these facilities.

The programme, which started in May 2005, will see the establishment of 120
education centres by March 2009. The following centres have been established
and are functional:

* Six large fully equipped district centres:(Durban Teachers Centre, Phoenix
Teachers Centre, Ukhahlamba Centre, Umzinyathi Education Centre, Mbazwana
Education Centre and Abaqulusi Education Centre) These “mother centres” for
several smaller centres in the districts house a library, science laboratory,
computer laboratory, two multi purpose rooms, three offices and a distribution
depot.

* 12 free standing centres – medium sized centres built independently from
schools: Maphumulo Education Centre, KwaMashu Education Centre, Tongaat
Education Centre, Chatsworth Teachers Centre, Lamontville Education Centre,
Pholela Education Centre, Izingolweni Education Centre, Phungashe Education
Centre, Masakhuxolo Education Centre, Tugela Ferry Education Centre, Manguzi
Education Centre and Jozini Education Centre. They serve a limited number of
wards.

* Nine school based centres designed to cater for small clusters of schools
found around the centres: (Utrecht High Education Centre, Emmaus Primary
Education Centre, Nogaga Primary Education Centre, Enyaneni Education Centre,
Langezela High Education Centre, Isibanini Primary Education Centre, Mandlezulu
Education Centre and Nongoma Education Centre).

* Posts for centre managers, teacher librarians and drivers have already
been advertised for most of these centres.

Schools as centres of care and support

Who tells a child who has lost his/her parents that it’s time to go to
school, to do homework? Who deals with the emotions of a teenager’s first
love?

A crucial element of the education centre initiative is to develop our
schools into centres of care and support. This initiative is supported by our
funding partners to the tune of R95 million and receives R32 million from the
Department’s own budget. The overall goal is to reduce the negative impact of
poverty, HIV and AIDS in school communities through empowering them to develop
appropriate responses and create child friendly and safe schools. The project
is being implemented in 240 schools in the province, split into 30 clusters of
eight schools each. Most of these schools are in rural areas.

The key focuses of the initiative involve implementing a seven day a week
feeding scheme at each school and putting systems and people in place to
identify, monitor and support vulnerable children in the schools. One of the
strongest elements of this initiative is the close involvement of local
communities which ensures a continuum of support for the children inside and
outside of school.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) schools project:

Last year I committed my Department to ensuring that 50 percent of schools
in the province have at least one computer. It gives me great pleasure to
report that we have met the target we set for ourselves. During the 2005/06
financial year an additional 1 320 schools that have electricity have received
computers and printers for administrative purposes.

In addition, a number of organisations and business entities have made
welcome donations of computers and software. A further 100 schools received
five refurbished computers for teaching and learning purposes from the South
African Revenue Services (SARS). Fifteen primary schools each received a
satellite dish and a television set in a classroom, a computer in the staff
room, 34 hours of video content, associated print support files and computer
based content in mathematics and science and technology for grade four.

United Kingdom (UK) trade and investment donated five interactive white
boards to Esizibeni Sivananda Vaswani Comprehensive High Schools. The New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) initiative has set up a computer
laboratory at Isiphosethu Secondary School in our rural Zululand region.

MTN has pledged to set up 17 computer laboratories in our province. Twelve
of these laboratories of 20 computers each will be located in our districts and
an additional five laboratories will be set up in schools without electricity
as a pilot project.

Vodacom has pledged to provide hardware and a subsidy for connectivity to
100 schools. In addition 10 Special Schools will receive customised computers
from Vodacom. Approximately 2 000 schools in KwaZulu-Natal now have access to
free Microsoft software as part of an agreement signed between my Department
and Microsoft.

I am of the view that we cannot merely supply computers to schools without
providing the necessary training. In this regard we have installed computer
laboratories and Internet connectivity in most of our education centres which
will be used as training centres. Twenty school principals received training
from Microsoft. Ten schools received accredited training to teach information
technology and computer applications technology in the grades 10 to 12. Two
thousand six hundred and forty educators selected from schools that were
provided with computers received basic computer literacy training. Microsoft
conducted a pilot project on leadership training with 20 principals. In
addition 255 educators from 22 schools received on site computer applications
training.

MECs awards to 100 percent pass schools:

The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department started its own club for achievers. I
rewarded 70 public schools for obtaining a 100 percent pass in the 2005 Matric
examinations. They are now members of Club 100.

As encouragement we gave the Club 100 members:

1. R5000 library book vouchers to all 70 public schools that obtained a 100
percent pass in the 2005 examinations.

2. 394 computers and 60 printers (to the value of more than R4m) to good
performing schools that did not have computers and to some which had only one
or two computers. Schools with an enrolment of less than 500 received 10
computers and those that have more than 500 learners enrolled received 20
computers.

3. 17 schools which had computers but no laboratories, received science kits
to the value of R235 450.00

These awards were tokens of our gratitude towards the principals and staff
members at these schools, who worked incredibly hard to achieve these
results

Provision of Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM)

The late delivery of textbooks and stationery has plagued our Department
from time immemorial. This situation has never been acceptable to me from the
time when I served this House as a member.

It is for this reason that I directed the Department to seek a more
effective way of procuring and distributing textbooks and stationery. In this
regard the Department decided to make use of managing agents for co-ordinating
the procurement and delivery of LTSM. Due to various service providers
launching challenges to the tender process the appointment of the managing
agents could only be finalised in November 2005 after a lengthy process of
appeals against the award of tenders to the successful bidders.

As a result the ordering process commenced in November 2005 for all
non-Section 21 schools. Section 21 schools were also encouraged to requisition
for grades seven and 10 through the managing agents.

The distribution of LTSM to schools that have safe storage facilities
started before the end of the 2005 academic year. Distribution to other schools
only commenced when schools re-opened for the 2006 academic year.

In the face of these challenges the Department could not meet its target of
delivering 90 percent of textbooks and stationery to non-section 21 schools by
the first week of school. Stories abounded about lack of delivery from many of
our schools. This was a source of great pain to our senior officials and
me.

As a result of these unfavourable reports we tightened our monitoring of the
deliveries through the development of a delivery plan, weekly status reports,
visits to the warehouses of the managing agents and the setting up of
verification task teams constituted by departmental officials and the managing
agents.

To prevent the negative experiences we have had with the new system next
year, we have begun the process of procurement for the 2007 school year already
and we are further tightening our monitoring systems in order to hold the
managing agents to account on a regular basis throughout the entire procurement
and delivery process.

National school nutrition programme:

Chairperson, the past year was the second year in which the Department of
Education administered the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) after
taking it over from the Department of Health.

The overall objective of the programme is to provide nutritious food to
grades R to seven learners in order to improve the quality of education by
enhancing learners’ capacity to learn. In our province over 1.3 million
learners have been targeted to benefit from the programme including an
additional 123 000 learners from schools in quintiles one and two that were
added in September 2005.

Sustainable food production is the Department’s intervention towards poverty
alleviation. The nutrition programme has been crucial in promoting food
production and economic activities in schools and surrounding communities and
in strengthening nutrition education in the school curriculum.

I am pleased to announce that as part of our contribution to the economic
empowerment of local communities the Department has facilitated the formation
and training of women’s co-operatives made up of unemployed local women in each
circuit. Our FET colleges have successfully finalised the training of these
co-operatives in 41 of the 43 circuits of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of
Education. This will create employment opportunities for 429 women who will
operate in their local schools next year.

Towards the end of last year the NSNP received a once off additional funding
of R43 million which will be used to provide schools with kitchen utensils. We
have procured the utensils and delivery has already begun in some of the
schools and will continue until the end of the current month.

Implementation of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS)

In the past year we continued our rollout of the implementation of the
NCS.

In 2005 we trained grade seven educators for the implementation of the NCS.
As we speak about 35 000 educators in grades R to seven are implementing the
NCS. Afternoon support workshops are being held to support these educators.

Educators in grades one to seven have received training in integrating life
skills related to HIV and AIDS into the curriculum. We have also provided
teachers with manuals to assist them in integrating HIV and AIDS in the
curriculum.

This school year saw the implementation of the NCS in grade 10, the first
time the new curriculum has been introduced at high school. In preparation for
the successful implementation we provided orientation to 22 610 grade 10
teachers in 29 subjects.

The Department has also formed partnerships with the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University and the University of Stellenbosch to provide teachers
with in depth training in mathematical literacy and life orientation
respectively the two new compulsory subjects in grades 10 to 12. A total of 1
750 educators have been registered for a two year part time Advanced
Certificate in Education (ACE) in mathematical literacy with the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University, while the University of Stellenbosch developed
materials and conducted training for our teachers in life orientation.

The offering of IsiZulu in all our schools:

Last year the Premier and I announced the initiative to get all our schools
to offer IsiZulu to learners who wish to learn the language as a subject.
Despite the general support we received from the public this was never going to
be a stroll in the park.

In order to support the initiative I created teaching posts to be provided
to those schools that found it impossible to allocate a post to the teaching of
IsiZulu from their normal post establishment.

I am pleased to report that our initiative has been hugely successful. Last
year we had 400 schools that did not offer IsiZulu or any other previously
marginalised African indigenous language as a subject. This year 129 schools
still do not offer the subject a mere 2.2 percent of our schools.

We are aware that some of the remaining schools that do not offer IsiZulu or
any other previously marginalised African indigenous language as a subject
conducted surveys whose methodology seems suspect to establish whether or not
learners wished to choose the language as a subject. We shall be paying close
attention to those schools as our call last year was not about being passive
about a learner’s choice but required schools for the sake of building a common
citizenry in our province to encourage learners to choose isiZulu or another
African language as a subject.

Skills development through FET colleges

Chairperson, arguably the most significant development in the education
sector in the past decade is the emergence of Further Education and Training
(FET) colleges. I take great pride in the manner in which the FET colleges have
risen to the challenge of building the skills base in our province.

In the past year we have recorded many achievements through our FET
colleges. A few are worth mentioning in this House. Firstly our colleges have
trained 2 788 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to date. Secondly we
trained over 30 000 people in our co-operatives programme thus empowering
ordinary citizens with the necessary skills for collective economic
activity.

Thirdly we have significantly increased the number of learnership agreements
with various Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). The number of
learners placed in learnerships as a percentage of the total student population
in FET colleges was 1.35 percent in 2005 up from 0.5 percent in 2004.

Fourthly the throughput rate in FET colleges has been increasing steadily
from 65.8 percent in 2003 to 68 percent in 2004. Initial estimates for 2005
indicate a throughput rate of 70 percent.

Taking education to the people cannot be just a slogan. Our FET colleges
have a crucial role in the alleviation of poverty but it must be accessible to
all people. To tell a person who lives in Kosi Bay to get into a car which he
or she does not have and drive to Vryheid to receive skills that will enable
him or her to earn a living is just not going to work. The solution is to
establish delivery sites close to the people who need them. We have extended
the delivery sites of KZN’s nine FET colleges from 51 to 68. In the past
financial year we established seven new sites at the Esikhawini Ex-College of
Education, Manguzi at Shayane, Emthwalume, Pongolo, Msinga, Chief Albert
Luthili (Groutville) and Osizweni while another seven sites are being developed
at Nkandla, Nquthu, Howick, Bergville, Clermont, Ohlange (Inanda) and
Kokstad.

Chairperson we do face challenges in the FET sector despite the great
advances we have made. I wish to mention two of these. First the participation
rate of girl learners and young women in FET college programmes continues to
represent a major challenge. The participation rate was still relatively low at
33 percent in 2005. It is however pleasing that we are seeing an upward trend
in the participation of young women from 25 percent and 30 percent in 2003 and
2004 respectively to 33 percent in the 2005 academic year.

Second the funding for FET colleges comprises only 2.57 percent of the total
budget of the Department which does limit our ability to meet all the demands
made on the sector by the growing and dynamic economy of our country and our
province. This is a matter we shall be giving attention to in the years
ahead.

Adult basic education and literacy

Adult literacy for those who missed out on education through no fault of
their own is close to my heart. In the 2006/2007 financial year the Department
has increased the number of adult learners from 38 756 to 53 000. We registered
90 new public adult education centres and trained 665 new Adult Based Education
and Training (ABET) tutors.

Teacher/learner ratio

For the first time since democracy the average learner educator ratio has
been brought down to 32,35:1 for 2006. The country’s lowest after KwaZulu-Natal
is North West with a ratio of 33:1 and the highest is Gauteng with 39,6:1
followed by Western Cape with 36:1.

Reduction of “permanent” temporary teachers

We ended the bizarre phenomenon of “temporary” permanent educators that we
found when I took over in 2004. After a dramatic intervention the number of
temporary teachers (all categories, excluding substitute teachers) has dropped
from 16 938 to 3438 in January 2006.

Bursaries

The Department receives a number of applications from learners who have
passed their senior certificate examination and want to study at or are already
at tertiary institutions but are from disadvantaged backgrounds and therefore
in dire need of financial assistance.

We have been experiencing a shortage of teachers in gateway subjects such as
mathematics, science and technology. The few qualified teachers in gateway
subjects are attracted to schools in urban and semi urban areas creating a
crisis in rural areas.

A decision was then taken to change the bursary system to deal with our
needs in education instead of dishing out our limited funds to students to
study in fields not relevant to education.

An advert including detailed criteria was placed in the print media. We
received 3130 applications, which were processed to identify deserving
candidates. All applicants had to undergo a means test to ensure that the most
needy and most deserving candidates in terms of merit performance benefit from
the financial assistance.

Contracts between 53 students and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education
were signed to enable the bursary holders to study towards a teaching
qualification in fields identified as scarce and critical such as mathematics,
science, technology, computer studies, commerce, information technology,
auditing and accounting, speech therapy, occupational therapy and
physiotherapy.

We will be spending R2.20 million to fund the studies of these students,
about R40 000 each per student per year. After completion of their studies they
will be employed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education for a number of
years until they have “worked” back the money.

Maskew Miller Longman has awarded R17 000 to be used for bursaries. We
decided to give R1000 to 17 learners each who has achieved above average and
who comes from needy families. The money will not be used as school fees but
for uniforms, transport and other school expenses.

School libraries

One thousand KwaZulu-Natal schools with an enrolment of less than 300
received a starter collection for libraries and resource centres through the
school library development project. The purchase of the library books is part
of the Department’s initiative to implement the KwaZulu-Natal school library
policy in the province. The policy propagates a menu of school library models
to address redress.

Schools can start their libraries with a box or corner library and gradually
develop to a fully functional central library or alternatively schools may
align themselves to a cluster where resources can be shared from a central or
nodal point, e.g. education resource centres that can be accessed by a mobile
library.

Selected schools with an enrolment of between 300 and 499 will receive a
core collection to the value of R75 000 this financial year. Library subject
advisors in all four education regions in the province are currently running
workshops for educators in the selected schools to ensure that the material
will be integrated in the schools’ teaching programmes.

Key interventions for 2006

Chairperson, having reviewed some of the highlights of the previous year I
now wishes to outline the key interventions that we intend making during this
current financial year. These programmes include the following initiatives:

Addressing the backlog in infrastructure consolidating bricks and mortar as
I indicated earlier, bricks and mortar is still the key to the provision of
access to quality education in our province. Without the continued building of
physical infrastructure we cannot hope to reach our dream of building a nation
through quality education.

The infrastructure budget allocation of R807 243 000 for the 2006/07
financial year is an indication of our commitment to reducing backlogs in
classrooms and sanitation. The budget will allow the Department to reach its
service delivery targets of 1 750 classrooms and 2 500 toilets in accordance
with our strategic plan 2005 to 2010.

The following are the highlights of our infrastructure budget for the
2006/07 financial year:

i) An increase in the budget for the construction of new schools by R75
million (32 percent increase from 2005/06) to respond to the ever increasing
need for schools in urban areas;

ii) The Department will continue its fast track classroom construction
programme (named the “Accelerated Needs Delivery Programme” for 2006/07) by
expanding it to allow for the provision of sanitation facilities and support
spaces to those schools that received only classrooms in 2005/06. This
programme towards which R80 million has been allocated would allow for further
investigation into alternative service delivery strategies such as construction
management and materials procurement;

iii) A budget has been allocated to facilitate curriculum upgrades and
redress (R26 million) to provide appropriate support learning spaces such as
science and computer laboratories to those schools with the greatest needs;

iv) The water and sanitation programme will continue to provide those basic
services to schools that do not have or have an extreme shortage of functional,
hygienic facilities. The budget for 2006/07 for this programme is R80.78
million and includes an initiative whereby our Department together with the
Premier’s office will be creating sustainable employment opportunities for
former combatants to be involved in our infrastructure service delivery;

v) The Department will purchase approximately 300 mobile classrooms for use
by our twelve districts;

vi) The budget allocation for repairs and rehabilitation has been increased
by approximately 50 percent from 2005/06 to R163.2 million to accommodate the
growing need in this area;

vii) An allocation of R20 million has been put aside to enable us to respond
to emergency situations across the province such as storm damage and veld
fires, without affecting planned service delivery in our districts;

viii) A budget allocation has been made for preventative maintenance
programmes to be initiated and continued for all new buildings to ensure that
these buildings do not deteriorate into a state of neglect and disrepair;
and

ix) The special projects programme allows for the delivery of emergency or
ad hoc projects so as to minimise the impact on the normal planning and
delivery cycle. It also allows for the testing of alternative service delivery
strategies such as learner transport through the implementation of pilot
projects.

Strengthening our rural education centres programme

Over and above classrooms and toilets, we will also be combining bricks and
mortar to build 10 more education centres to serve schools in rural areas of
our province. I wish to express our Government’s sincere gratitude to the Royal
Netherlands Embassy (RNE) for providing the bulk of the funding for the
building of these centres. Over the period 2005 to 2009 the RNE has allocated
R160 million to the Department and to the Media in Education Trust (MiET) for
the implementation of the education centres programme.

In order to enhance the operation of the centres we have enrolled teacher
librarians attached to the centres in an Advanced Certificate in Education
(ACE) course (ACE: School Library Development and Management) at the University
of KwaZulu-Natal.

Other elements of our education centres programme that will be strengthened
this year include the training of educators on language across the curriculum,
the training of school managers on the use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) and the purchasing of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and
ABET learning materials including toys and basic literacy books.

Making our schools ICT compatible, beyond bricks and mortar:

Chairperson, we have to press ahead with our quest to bridge the digital
divide to ensure that learners and teachers in the poorest of our schools are
provided with a capacity to move beyond bricks and mortar, to access 21 century
knowledge and skills beyond the confines of the four walls of a conventional
classroom.

In line with Education White Paper seven on e-Education, which directs us to
make every learner and teacher ICT capable by 2013 my Department will build on
the successes of the last financial year by providing more schools with
computers and training more teachers in the use of ICT as both an
administrative and a pedagogic tool.

During this financial year we will work closely with municipalities to
increase the number of schools that have access to electricity thereby
facilitating the provision of computers in the most impoverished of our
schools.

The following are some of the key interventions we will make in the area of
ICT:

* This year we aim to establish fully fledged computer laboratories in 240
schools across the province.

* All grades 10 to 12 educators that are involved in the subject computer
applications technology will receive specialised training.

* By the end of March 2007 93 education centres will provide an opportunity
to integrate ICT into the curriculum to approximately 3 000 schools in the
province. Of the 3 000 schools that have computers 1 500 will have access to
the Internet through the education centres.

* In order to link ICT based materials closely with the curriculum we will
be developing electronic content in partnership with the private sector.

Expanding our capacity for skills development through FET colleges:

Chairperson, the new financial year sees the beginning of the national
programme to recapitalise FET colleges. In our province we shall be spending
R90 million in 2006/07. The national Department of Education has approved the
business plans of all nine of our colleges. The business plans elaborate on the
recapitalisation of each college based on niche programmes identified by the
college. Over R369 million has been allocated by the national department to the
KZN FET colleges to address the shortage of skills generally and engineers in
particular. This will enable the Department to create FET colleges that are
responsive to the skills needs of both employed and unemployed youth and
adults. Each college will align their programmes and qualifications to the
needs of society and the labour market. It will also assist the colleges to
connect to relevant skills development processes and initiatives as identified
in terms of the Joint Initiatives on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), a
cornerstone of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiatives of South
Africa (AsgiSA), a key element to build social cohesion and a common
nationhood.

The FET colleges are the key in helping us address the shortages in key
skills that will drive our economy to greater heights. Tool making is one of
the underrated trade fields or artisan categories in the industrialised world
today. However, it is fast becoming recognised as the career field that makes
the single greatest impact or contribution to the Gross Domestic Production
(GDP) of any manufacturing country worldwide. South Africa in general and
KwaZulu-Natal in particular needs to develop, nurture and increase its tooling
skills inventory in order to meet the competitive global environment and at the
same time maintain a vigorous “succession plan” in the face of an ageing local
tooling workforce.

In this regard I am pleased to report that we have established a partnership
between the Toolmakers Association of South Africa (TASA) and two of our FET
colleges, Coastal KZN and Umgungundlovu FET colleges, for the establishment of
a centre of excellence which would serve the tooling industry in KwaZulu-Natal.
We intend training 72 learners in tool manufacturing in the first year of the
establishment of the Tooling Centre of Excellence. This will increase to 96
learners in the second year and 108 learners in the third year. Thereafter at
least 250 will be trained annually. This training will be aligned to the
National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and will be accredited by the Tooling
Industry and the MerSETA.

Implementation of the national curriculum statement:

In 2007 the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) will be introduced in grades
eight, nine and 11. In order to prepare for a successful implementation in our
province the Department will train over 40 000 educators during the 2006 school
year.

With 2007 being the last year of the introduction of the new curriculum in
general education this year will be the last year in which mass teacher
orientation will be conducted in the general education and training band
(grades R to nine). The only remaining training will be for grade 12 teachers
in 2007 in preparation for the introduction of the curriculum in grade 12 in
2008.

With this in mind it is vital that we should shift our emphasis to the in
school support of teachers if we are to build a strong basis for effective
teaching and learning.

Technical and focus schools

While we are recapitalising our FET colleges we cannot neglect our technical
schools and other focus schools such as schools of agriculture. These schools
are expected to fully implement the new technology subjects, agricultural
subjects and consumer studies. These subjects require schools to have
appropriate modern equipment for the practical component of each of the
subjects. Many of these schools located in historically disadvantaged
communities will require significant recapitalisation if they are to meet the
demands of the NCS. In this regard our Department is providing R20 million in
the 2006/07 financial year to upgrade equipment in these schools. This would
include supplying some of the schools with new equipment and tools for
practical training, and hardware and software for IT programmes.

“No Fee” schools

One of the initiatives in which we take great pride is the introduction of
“no fee schools” in our province. In line with national policy we have selected
1 341 schools that will soon be declared no fee schools by the Minister of
Education, Mrs Naledi Pandor.

The 1 341 schools are the poorest 20 percent of schools (quintile one) in
the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The criteria used to determine a school’s poverty
ranking are the current ones that are, however, being revised as we speak. The
new criteria will take the poverty index of parents into account. The adoption
of the new criteria will lead to the re-ranking of schools according to
national, as opposed to provincial, quintiles. We hope that as a result of the
re-ranking process many of the schools that had previously been incorrectly
categorized as well to do school will be located in appropriate quintiles.

The national Ministry of Education set a minimum benchmark of R527 to be
allocated for each learner in quintile one in order for a school to be declared
a no fee school. I am pleased to report that our province already funds
learners in quintile one at an average of R569 per learner, R42 above the
national benchmark.

Enhancing the accuracy of our data through an improved EMIS

Chairperson, one of the perennial problems the education system has faced
has been inaccurate data. This has been recognised by both our Minister Naledi
Pandor and the Minister of Finance Mr Trevor Manuel, who agreed to the
provision of additional funding of R26 million, R27 million and R28 million for
the 2006/07, 2007/08 and the 2008/09 financial years respectively. The
allocation is earmarked for the development of an appropriate and effective
administrative and management system that will bring about an improvement in
the accuracy of our data.

At school level, we will be piloting a School Administration and Management
System (SAMS) to enable schools to submit their annual survey data
electronically and to introduce a learner record and tracking system.

At ward and district level ward managers and district administrative
personnel will be trained in the use of a programme known as web focus to
access management information collected by EMIS. We intend rolling out web
focus at various levels of the Department in a phased manner in the current
MTEF.

Masifundisane Adult Literacy campaign

As the Premier indicated in his State of the Province Address, this year
will see the launch of a mass adult literacy campaign, Masifundisane Adult
Literacy campaign. The campaign is aimed at providing every illiterate person
in the province with an opportunity to acquire basic literacy.

The Masifundisane adult literacy campaign will involve all sectors of
society where those of our people who are illiterate can be found. These
include government departments, the religious sector, the workplace, education
institutions and rural and urban communities.

The campaign will run for three years from the 2006/07 financial year to the
2008/9 financial year using a staged approach. Various literacy brigades will
be established to target various sectors and we shall be calling on all
partners, namely service organisations, such as non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs), business, labour and volunteers
to join us as we strive to make this province a territory free of
illiteracy.

Human resources management

Mr Speaker, one of our great successes in the past two years has been the
drastic reduction of the number of temporary teachers from 16 938 in January
2004 to only 3438 in January 2006.

This was achieved through the permanent appointment of unqualified and
under-qualified educators, the advertising and filling of posts and by
educators improving on their qualifications thus making themselves eligible for
permanent appointment.

However given the attrition rate amongst teachers of 6.4 percent per annum
we do expect that there will always be a need for the employment of temporary
teachers for various periods. What we seek is to ensure that teachers do not
serve as temporary teachers for unfairly long periods and to ensure that the
filling of vacant posts is done with greater speed than is currently the
case.

The budget for the 2005/06 financial year allowed for the appointment of 2
100 substitute educators at any one moment. For the 2006/07 financial year we
shall be aiming to provide for 2 400 substitute educators at any moment. These
posts are created to ensure that no class is without an educator. Temporary
teachers are categorised firstly as “substitute” educators who fill in for
permanent educators, who are temporarily absent from their place of work for
periods in excess of 30 days, i.e. “double parking” and secondly as temporary
educators in a substantive vacant post which still needs to be permanently
filled.

Safe schools

The alignment of all schools and school safety committees with police
stations is a major priority this year. The school safety task team consisting
of representatives of the Departments of Education, Department of Community
Safety and Liaison, Department of Transport and the South Africa Police
Services (SAPS), will present their findings and recommendations to Cabinet
soon.

We will also be implementing a pilot project in partnership with Business
Against Crime (BAC) at 50 schools to address problems associated with high
crime levels in schools such as frequent acts of aggression, a lack of school
attendance, low pass rates, vandalism, gangsterism and substance abuse.

Presentation of the Department’s budget

The following programmes are key delivery areas that the Department will be
pursuing during the 2006/7 financial year:

Programme one – Administration: (Budget R1 142 316 000)

This programme contains the funds for the executive authority and the
overall management of the Department as shown below:

The office of the MEC: (Budget R18 689 000)

The significant growth in the current budget over the previous year’s budget
is as a result of restructuring of the office of the MEC in order to improve
delivery to our vast number of stakeholders. This budget includes R4 million
provided for bursaries which are administered from this office.

Education management: (Budget R1 123 627 000)

It should be noted that the budget for this sub-programme has increased by
R164.2 million over the previous year’s budget. The significant increase is as
a result of re-aligning our programme structure as requested by the national
Department of Education. We had to move the budgets for human resources
development and provincial motor transport from programme eight to this
programme. An additional allocation of R26.727 million is included in this
programme for EMIS. The HIV and AIDS conditional grant of R32 994 000 is also
included in this programme.

Programme two: Public ordinary schools - (Budget R13 944 079 000)

A significant portion of the Department’s budget is for providing learning
facilities in our public ordinary schools. We list the key sub-programmes in
this programme below:

Public ordinary Schools: (Budget R13 599 389 000)

This budget combines the allocation for primary and secondary schools. There
has been an increase of R1.186 billion over the previous year’s budget. The
increase includes the additional funding for NCS and “No Fee” schools of
R13.227 million and R50 million respectively and the normal inflation
adjustment.

National School Nutrition programme: (Budget R239 372 000)

In 2005/06 the original budget for this programme was R198.8 million which
was subsequently increased by a once off R43.4 million. This year’s allocation
will enable us to continue supporting all the schools that we supported in the
2005/6 financial year.

In-school sport and culture: (Budget R29 000 000)

In 2005/06 there was no allocation for this sub-programme because when the
Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism and the Department of Sport and
Recreation were established all the funding for the programme moved to the new
departments. Operational activities took place and were funded through a
vehement from other sub-programmes. With the establishment of a Directorate for
Co-Curricular Services and our quest to improve school sport and arts and
culture funding for this sub-programme will go a long way in helping us to meet
our objectives.

Advisory Services: (Budget R67 806 000)

This sub-programme was moved from programme eight and increased by R3.1
million. The Department is currently facing a serious shortage of subject
advisors which is exacerbated by the emergence of new subjects and learning
areas. As signalled earlier we aim to improve on this in the coming years. We
are making a start by ensuring that, with the establishment of a new organogram
we activate 20 percent of the total number of posts we need for subject
advisors in our province.

Planning Services: (Budget R8 512 000)

This sub-programme was also moved from programme eight and it increased by
R360 000.

Programme three – Independent School Subsidies: (Budget R46 383 000)

This programme has been under-funded resulting in the portion of the subsidy
payment for the last quarter every year made in the new year’s budget. This
anomaly was corrected during the adjustment estimates in 2005/6 by an increase
of R11 million.

Programme four – Public Special School Education: (Budget R298 711 000)

This programme provides funding to 63 schools providing schooling for
learners with special needs. While this year’s budget sees a growth of R40.1
million over last year’s allocation, we still face the challenge of providing
more facilities and programmes for learners with disabilities in our province.
In recognition of this need the Department will be building three new special
schools in Msinga, Hlabisa and Kokstad and while 26 schools will be upgraded.
This will begin addressing the critical lack of special schools in rural
areas.

Programme five – Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges: (Budget R393
153 000)

The budget for this programme includes the conditional grant of R90 million
for recapitalisation which I mentioned earlier. Excluding the conditional grant
and a once off payment of R36 million which was for the expansion of FET
delivery sites received in the previous year, the programme sees a growth of
R35.1 million.

Programme six – Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET): (Budget R94 980
000)

This budget includes the allocation of R25 million for the Masifundisane
Adult Literacy Campaign. Excluding the funding for Masifundisane, the programme
shows a growth of R17.5 million in the 2006/7 financial year. The ABET budget
has increased substantially as we strengthen the war against illiteracy. In
addition to the normal ABET programmes we will be launching the Masifundisane
campaign.

Programme seven – Early Childhood Development: (Budget R102 658 000)

The programme has two sub-programmes, namely grade R in community centres
and grade R in public schools. The growth for this programme is R18.8 million.
This increase in funding will enable us to edge closer to our goal of providing
universal access to grade R by 2010.

The Department in collaboration with the departments of health and social
welfare, will also make a beginning towards the implementing the integrated ECD
plan which includes an element of the Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP).

Programme eight – Auxiliary Services (Budget R186 798 000)

Because of the programme structure changes I mentioned earlier this
programme is now catering for public examinations only. The growth for this
programme is R9.7 million when compared with the last financial year.

Conclusion

The doors of learning are being opened. We are making good progress towards
our goal of “Getting KwaZulu-Natal learning”. All around us we are seeing
windows to the future being created for our learners. These are the windows
that allow us to see beyond the bricks and mortar of the four walls within
which we teach and learn and provide a view to the future for the majority of
our learners.

It is now up to all of us to put our shoulders to the wheel and build on
what we have achieved thus far. The budget that I present to this House today
reflects our determination to build a nation through quality education for the
benefit of all the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Mr Speaker, I commend this budget to the House.

Ngiyabonga! Baie dankie! Enkosi! I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Education, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial
Government
25 April 2006