Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier of Gauteng Province, David Makhura Members of the Executive Council
Chief whip of the Ruling Party and Leaders of Opposition Parties Honourable Members
Ladies and Gentlemen
Dumelang!
Congratulations Honourable Premier! Congratulations because you have made your intentions very clear about your vision to take Gauteng forward. After your State of the Province Address we, the people of Gauteng, feel that this government is in good hands. An entrepreneur in any of our townships now has a sense of optimism about their prospects, all thanks to you. The Honourable Premier was eloquent in expressing his commitment to creating a better environment where children receive quality health services and quality education. Honourable members the Premier have outlined the 10-pillar programme of radical transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation. We are fully in support of this plan and we commit to work towards realising its objectives.
Let me pause and reflect on the profound words of one our liberation stalwarts the late Comrade Harry Gwala who once said: “No one is born to be poor.” That short statement expressed the vision of the liberation movement whose goal is to bring about change and achieve a better life for all.
Honourable members, the Premier has indeed confirmed our long held view that Education is the only tool to break the shackles of poverty.
We are pleased by your gesture to honour a martyr of our time, the late Cde Sam Ntuli. This, we believe, will go a long way to healing the wounds of other families particularly those whose loved ones perished in our quest for freedom. I refer to families of Emma Sathekge, Brian Mbulelo Mazibuko, Hendrick Nkuna, Jerry Mahlangu, Vincent Tshabalala, Andrew Zondo and many other cadres who paid the ultimate price.
Last week the Premier declared the funeral of the Father of Tembisa, the Reverend Phineus Makgale Mapheto a special provincial funeral thus allowing us to bid farewell, in a dignified manner, to a hero and stalwart of our liberation. For this the people of Tembisa are indebted to you and, of course, your administration.
Turning to the education; we are ready, willing and certainly able to deliver in this area. One of the key deliverables is what we call the “classroom of the future”. We refer to classrooms with facilities that will transform the conditions and raise the standards of our education even higher. We are working toward creating a classroom that will provide technological support to all our learners and educators. This classroom is no longer a dream, Honourable Premier.
We are working on a concept called Innovation Thursdays. We expect entrepreneurs to come forward with ideas that can help turn our schools into centres of excellence. Honourable Premier we strive to innovate as we work towards building a brighter future today.
Consistent with this vision, we have now commissioned a team to commence with the preparations. Key among the considerations of creating this type of classroom is security features to protect the equipment as well as training of our educators and learners.
While we cast our eyes into the future we need not lose sight of the basic needs. What is not negotiable is that a teacher must be in class on time teaching for the required number of hours a day. Learners must come to school on time spend the required number of hours a day paying attention and participating in all the activities in the classroom. This is the only way ladies and gentlemen we can improve on learning outcomes.
If learners and teachers do their work, we will also do our work of ensuring that all our schools should have proper sanitation. School infrastructure is one of our priorities. The provision of water and electricity is part of our programme of action within the first 100 days. Any school with bucket or pit toilets should be prioritised and these inhuman conditions be addressed without delay.
Of the 2055 public ordinary schools in the province, only 10 schools still had pit toilets in 2014. The Gauteng Department of Education inherited 43 schools with pit latrines. These schools were inherited from the North West province.
Schools with broken windows and falling ceilings will also be fixed. We are in process of appointing 08 unemployed personnel per ward with the objective to ensure all our township and rural schools are clean at all times.
Lawlessness
I am certain we will all agree that gangsterism continues to grip our communities. The tide is turning. Together with our partners we are daily taking deliberate steps to deal decisively particularly with the gang leaders who mislead our young people. I have a warning for them wherever they are – You have no place in our society. We will flush you out!
Honourable Members, the department has finally taken a decision to recruit only the best individuals to be teachers and principals in schools. Our recruitment policy will now be influenced by capability, talent, skill and qualifications. A membership to any political party or teacher union will no longer be a free passport to promotions and appointments. From henceforth, all principal posts will be monitored by the department and only duly qualified personnel will be shortlisted and appointed.
I have approved the establishment of a permanent Teacher and Learner Tribunal to deal with all cases of misconduct of learners and educators. These tribunals will be chaired by 8 different chairpersons with 8 prosecutors to ensure all cases of misconduct and ill-discipline are tackled with speed. Gone are the days where teachers spent many months on paid leave awaiting disciplinary cases to be concluded.
We have moved swiftly to deal with teachers of a school in Daveyton who allegedly were recorded on video in compromising positions using the resources of the school. We will not accept any corrupt behaviour among educators and learners. Schools are supposed to be safe zones.
The matter of the history teacher at the National School of Arts who allegedly implied that black people are demons is also receiving attention.
Last week I received the preliminary report on this matter. This report confirms that action needs to be taken against this history teacher for her utterances and conduct. I have now instructed our officials to go ahead and initiate disciplinary measures through the South African Council of Educators.
Honourable Premier, we mean business when we say, we will tackle lawlessness head on. We warn our educators and learners to avoid finding themselves crossing the line. We will act mercilessly and swiftly as well. We have now moved to protect the girl child in our education system without neglecting our responsibilities towards the boy child. In my first 21 days in office, we have already terminated the services of almost 10 educators who were found in compromising positions with our girl children.
Madam Speaker, last Monday thousands of our Grade 12 learners started to brave the cold winter to attend our UN Prize Winning SSIP classes in preparation of the upcoming final examinations.
The winter classes are part of the Gauteng Department of Education’s Secondary School Intervention Programme (SSIP) which provides extra tuition to Grade 12 learners on Saturday and during the school holidays. The SSIP caters for priority schools; these are schools that the department has identified as performing below 80% matric pass rate.
Classes will be offered at 157 sites throughout the province and caters for about 60 000 learners.
We would like to ask parents to encourage their children to attend these classes. It is crucial for each and every learner attending a priority school to make an effort to use this opportunity to gain more knowledge.
SSIP is symbolic of the department’s determination to lift the quality of education in schools and to see improved levels of achievement, particularly in those schools which have struggled to consistently achieve the benchmarks the department has set for the province.
There are only 135 school days left before grade 12 learners write the final matric examination. October sounds like its far, but your dedication to your studies on a daily basis, listening to your teachers, and attending SSIP on Saturdays and during the holidays will help you.
Mme Barbara wrote to the Premier about her worry with the implementation of the Gauteng Primary Language and Mathematics Strategy.
Mme Barbara worry no more. We are going ahead with the implementation of this strategy.
The GPLMS works in 1050 priority primary schools to improve language (home and first additional) and mathematics performance.
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At the core of the Strategy is the coherent implementation of:
- detailed daily lesson plans,
- provision of high quality and innovative learning materials (textbooks and readers) and
- in-classroom instructional coaching and just-in-time training.
- Data show that from a low base in 2010, there has been an improvement in performance in ANA in Grades 3 and 6.
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Due to the success of the Strategy, Departments of Education in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape have requested permission to use and adapt the Lesson Plans for their provincial use.
So Mme Barbara you will be pleased to know that we are now considering converting GPLMS from an intervention to a component of mainstream curriculum delivery.
So Honourable Premier, I will schedule a meeting with Mme Barabara on your behalf to share with her these exciting developments.
But what worries me more is how long it takes for government to pay out the pension of our long serving educators. The pain of going unpaid for too long for these educators is both unbearable and unjustifiable. I have committed myself to meet with relevant authorities to remedy the situation. I personally feel our elderly educators deserve better treatment when they retire.
In the next few weeks, we will outline our education priorities and plans backed by a solid strategy to realise our goals.
The Founding manifesto of the People’s army Umkhonto We Sizwe declared: “There comes a time in any nation, to submit or fight” We will not submit but we will soldier on and fight for quality education in our lifetime.
I thank you
