The Gauteng Department of Education today hosted a Conference to reflect on the provisioning of public sector education in the province since the advent of democracy. The Conference arises out of an independent review conducted into public schooling in Gauteng from 1994-2014.
The review, conducted by independent academic researchers under the auspices of Wits School of Education, was commissioned by the department in 2013. “We thought it prudent that as we celebrate twenty years of democracy in our country, we should also use this time to reflect on the gains made and the road ahead,” said Gauteng Education MEC, Ms Barbara Creecy.
“How far we have come becomes clear if we turn the clock back 20 years from 1994 as a mirror to today. Systems differed for White, African, Indian, and Coloured children, with curricular for African children particularly designed - in Verwoed’s words- to produce the hewers of wood and drawers of water that white South Africa required to do the hard and dirty work,” said MEC Creecy.
The conference, which brought together various stakeholders from the education sector aimed to:
- Present the outcomes of the Review into the delivery of education in Gauteng to stakeholders.
- To provide a platform for a constructive discussion on the status of education delivery in the province.
- To discuss progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the major outcomes over the past 20 years in the education sector.
- To share new and emerging challenges as well as the defining priorities for the next 20 years in the education sector.
- To advance knowledge and research based implementation of strategies and policies in the education sector.
- To promote inclusivity and accountability amongst all stakeholders engaged in the delivery of education.
The following key questions guided the review:
- What was the nature of education sector pre 1994 in Gauteng?
- What has changed since 1994 and the key drivers for those changes?
- What is the current state of the education system in the province and its challenges?
- What broad education indicators have been achieved and not attained?
The Review outlines some of the notable achievements by the Province with regard to public education:
- Ordinary schooling has grown by 59%, from 1.3 million learners in 1994 to 2.1 million today, a massive increase of 809 334 learners.
- In special schools, numbers have risen by 65%, from 25 515 to 42 058 learners today.
- The recruitment and distribution of teachers has increased from 44 020 across the public school system in 1995 to 54 803, to meet the challenges of increasing learner numbers.
- In special schools, teacher numbers are up by 50% since 1995, growing from 2028 to 3059 teachers in 2014.
Addressing delegates at the conference MEC Creecy said: “More importantly perhaps, our rising success rates speak to the efficacy of the ANC government policies and practices in education.”
Talking to further improvements in the system, the MEC pointed out that the number of learners writing matric had increased by 33% since 1996, with numbers rising from 73,164 to 97,897. The matric pass rate increased from 61% in 1994 to 87% last year given a total increase of 43% when compared to that of 1994. The MEC also noted that the flow through rate of Gauteng learners is the best in the country. A measure used to see how many learners stay in school from grade 1 through to grade 12 showed that 65% of Grade 1 learners who started in 2002 reached grade 12 in 2013, compared with 42% who made it from Grade 1 in 1995 to Grade 12 in 2006.
"All of these successes must be seen against the backdrop of a growing number of no fee schools and this means in practical terms, that education is free for the majority of our children in Gauteng public schools,” said MEC Creecy.
The MEC also pointed out that since 1994, the department had built 153 new primary schools and 128 new secondary schools. In addition, over 7069 classrooms were built in existing schools to meet the increased demand for schools in the province and 11 946 toilet seats were provided to meet the demand or as replacements for dilapidated toilets. “We also built 300 administration blocks, 204 media centres, 443 multi-purpose classrooms and 1204 computer centres to ensure that incomplete schools were provided with the necessary structures to ensure that they became fully functional schools. Since 1994, we have also built 611 Grade R classrooms in schools where there was no available classrooms to support the universal rollout of Grade R across the province,” added the MEC.
Whilst the review pointed to some successes as outlined above, three areas were identified for focus going forward, these are:
- Teacher development
- A Social Plan to address issues such as bullying, school violence, and ill-discipline.
- School governance, including improvement of training for governing bodies.
The MEC ended her address by thanking all stakeholders who have been part of the journey to improve the education system in Gauteng.
For more information contact:
the Gauteng Department of Education’s spokesperson, Phumla Sekhonyane
Cell: 071 860 4496
Tel: 011 355 1530.
