opening of the Thengwe Secondary School, Limpopo
28 September 2007
Honourable Premier
MEC Motsoaledi
Members of the School Governing Board, staff, learners
Good morning. It is an honour and a privilege to address you today. The
Department of Education recently published the final National Education
Information Management System report (NEIMS). NEIMS is a project that has
itemised the infrastructure of every one of our 28 742 schools.
The NEIMS report has detailed information, including digital photographs,
about every school - the land and buildings, their condition, as well as
teacher and pupil numbers. This information is also mapped using GIS systems,
which provides an overview of the spatial location and distribution of our
schools. NEIMS has also been able to chart the success of infrastructure
provision over the past ten years or more. For example, it has revealed
that:
* the number of overcrowded schools has fallen from 51% in 1999 to 24% in
2006,
* the number of schools with electricity has increased from 11 174 in 1996 to
20 713 in 2006,
* the number of schools without water has fallen from 8 823 in 1996 to 3 152 in
2006,
* the number of schools without on-site toilets has fallen from 3 265 in 1996
to 1 532 in 2006.
The report concludes that three in four schools are in a good or excellent
condition. However 1 in 4 schools is infrastructurally inadequate and that
means that over 7 000 schools are in a poor condition. And even in the 3 in 4
schools judged to be in good or excellent condition, there are facilities in
need of maintenance and repair - schools do not have water, electricity,
sanitation access to computers, libraries, or labs. NEIMS provides government,
for the first time, with detailed information that allows us to quantify and
pinpoint infrastructural backlogs, and to plan for their eradication.
The event we are here to celebrate confirms that education departments are
serious about providing quality schools for our learners and educators. For
2005/06, provinces reported building 101 new schools and 5 222 new classrooms
at existing schools. This progress was sustained during 2007 with 70 new
schools built and 2 900 classrooms at existing school. As a result of school
and class building in recent years, the number of overcrowded schools (school
with more than 45 learners per classroom) has fallen strongly, from 51% in
1996, to 42% in 2000 to 24% in 2006. In his letter of invitation to me MEC
Motsoaledi detailed the poor conditions in which he found this school in 2005
when he visited.
Today, we are pleased to celebrate the transformation of Thengwe Secondary
School. Thengwe Secondary is a very special school, with consistently high
levels of learner achievement, a level of achievement that has attracted both
government attention and private resources. This performance has been achieved
with limited resources: humble school buildings (and in recent years
significant overcrowding) and modest spending on more advanced facilities and
other inputs. The achievements are tributes to the management acumen of our
school leaders, the resourcefulness of teachers and the dedication of learners.
I want to say on behalf of government that we are proud of you. You are an
example to all our school managers, teachers, and parents wherever they
are.
I would like to congratulate the current principal Nemudzivhadi, who has led
the school since 1986, for all his hard work. No school can flourish without
support from community and parents. I want to thank all parents and community
members who have supported the school. Thengwe Secondary School has received,
over the years, substantial support from parastatals and businesses. This is
reflected in partnerships with Schoolnet South Africa, MTN, Kumba and Eskom.
These contributions underline not only the initiative and enterprise of school
management but also the deep commitment of our businesses to education and the
future of our country. But it is not only business that is investing in
infrastructure. Government has been giving increasing attention to resourcing,
infrastructure and facilities issues in education.
The budgets available for education infrastructure have increased
significantly in recent years. Between 2002/03 and 2005/06, education spending
on buildings and fixed structures increased from R1 billion to R2,5 billion. By
2008/09, spending on school buildings and fixed structures is expected to reach
R4 billion a year. In Limpopo, spending on buildings and fixed structures
increased from R162 million three years ago to a projected R367 million this
year and a projected R576 million next year.
We are also building other initiatives such as an information and
communication technology (ICT) strategy for education (aiming at connectivity
for all learners and educators by 2013) and the Quality Improvement,
Development, Support and Upliftment Programme (QIDS-UP) that aims to ensure
that a minimum level of facilities and resources are available at the poorest
schools. These policy directions, funding shifts, and initiatives show that the
completion of the new Thengwe Secondary School is not just a matter of chance
or an isolated event.
It flows from explicit government policy and budget decisions aimed at
providing our learners with books, teachers, and buildings that are of a good
quality. While our recent assessment of all school buildings in the country
shows that there is still a lot to do â and that the learners and teachers of
Thengwe are today much better off than many in this and other parts of the
country â we are making continued and purposeful progress to provide all
learners with the basis for a quality school education.
In closing, I would again like to thank the staff at the school, to thank
the learners, and all those driving improvement in school conditions - from
your honourable Premier and the MEC of Education to provincial staff, physical
planners, learners and district office staff. We are proud of you, you have set
many other schools in this province an excellent example.
Issued by: Department of Education
28 September 2007
Source: Department of Education (http://www.education.gov.za)
