Members of SAOU
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
I feel singularly honoured to address you on the occasion of the special banquet that closes the SAOU Congress.
When we presented the 2011 Budget Vote speech for the Department of Basic Education, we recommitted to a ‘delivery-driven basic education system’ that will enable the provision of quality and equal education for all. This is a vital cog in the creation of a better life for all our people in keeping with the dictates and sacred values of a democratic society.
The National Education Policy Act of 1996 directs us to transform “the national system of education into one which serves the needs and interests of all the people of South Africa and upholds their fundamental rights”.
As unions, SAOU, National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa NAPTOSA) and South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU), when you affirmed your unequivocal commitment to the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, in January 2010, you made it absolutely clear that any “further procrastination to improve the state of education in South Africa can no longer be afforded”.
You declared firmly that “a quality education system wherein all role players comply with their respective duties and responsibilities distinguishes winning nations”.
Making this Congress even more fundamental for us is SAOU’s commitment to a high level of professionalism for all teachers and the improvement of all aspects of the working environment in the education sector.
This goal of a fully transformed education sector ties in neatly with today’s theme of “quality education and the creation of a better future”. Expressed here is precisely what the Ministry of Basic Education is striving for. It is this that makes us grateful that the leadership of SAOU has invited us here tonight together to share the vision of “a better future”.
Cognisant of the pitfalls of “further procrastination” in improving quality of education, we chose to put measures in place to refocus the system on delivery, better planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Only in this way can we realise the outputs of our Delivery Agreement.
We entered into this Agreement, in October 2010, convinced that it is through education that we can redress apartheid inequalities and roll back the tide of poverty, joblessness, crime, underdevelopment, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and other diseases.
It is precisely because of the pivotal role it plays in human development that education remains the apex priority of government enjoying the lion’s share of the national budget.
To the question posed for us by SAOU, on whether or not the South African public education system is still able to deliver quality education, we say with confidence, ‘Yes it is!’
We have made huge strides in tackling some of the challenges facing us, starting with a long-term strategy for education. Last year, we gazetted Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, which provides key outcomes and performance deliverables which should help us turn schooling around and thus address issues of quality.
We have finalised the review of the curriculum which, as you know, we had initiated on the basis of recommendations of a Ministerial Task-team appointed in 2009.
We have completed the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) and are ready to implement.
To prepare the system for the phased-in implementation of the changes, subject advisors have been trained. We will start with the Foundation Phase and Grade 10 in 2012. Provinces will use the June and September (2011) holidays to train Foundation Phase and Grade 10 teachers so that they will be ready for implementation of the revised CAPS in January 2012.
As part of efforts aimed at improving the quality of education, on 17 to 18 March 2011, we launched the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit which will provide an independent, authoritative, analytical and accurate account on the state of education and the status of teaching and learning in all schools.
To attend to the quality of learning, last year we promised high quality workbooks in Literacy and Numeracy for Grades 1 - 6 learners, and Literacy, Numeracy and Life Skills for Grade R learners. The workbooks were rolled out to schools from January 2011, but with difficulties and delays in some schools.
We have committed to improving the performance of Grades 3, 6 and 9 learners, from an average performance of between 27% and 38%, to at least 60% by 2014.
As a starting-point, this year we took learners through Annual National Assessments (ANA) whose analysis should inform the plans and strategies we must adopt to improve education.
Conducted in February 2011, approximately 6.5 million learners participated. We had planned to release the ANA report in April but had to move the date due to the enormity of the work involved. We will release the report soon, and despite some of its limitations, it is the most comprehensive data we have on the affected grades in our country’s history.
Programme Director, there can be no quality in education with no quality in teachers. You made it very clear in the January 2010 statement of the three unions that: “Educators have always, and will always, play a pivotal role in any education system”.
The 2007 Mckinsey Report on schooling excellence has also confirmed that the “quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”.
On our part, on 5 April 2011, we launched the Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development which is a key to achieving Output 1 of the Delivery Agreement – improving teacher capacity and practices.
This is a product of the Teacher Development Summit of 2009 and nearly two and half years of work by working groups made up of all stakeholders in education. Your union participated actively in this process and we thank you warmly for your role in this important endeavour.
The Framework places teachers themselves at the centre of processes of ongoing development. It provides for active and dynamic teacher participation and encourages the establishment of communities of teacher professionals. This model has been successfully implemented in countries like Brazil, China, Chile, Singapore and Finland.
The Framework, the Delivery Agreement for Basic Education, and the education sector Action Plan, all point to the critical importance of teacher quality improvement as a key factor in addressing the challenge of improving learner performance.
The overriding goal is to improve the quality of teacher education and development better to enhance the quality of teachers and teaching. This is not a simple task but a huge undertaking calling for collective efforts and partnerships.
We must sustain all efforts initiated in 1994 and use the momentum of the 2009 Summit to take our work in this area to even greater heights. In the immediate term, our focus is on targeted subject priorities, with an emphasis on schools that have performed below 60% in the 2011 Grade 12 exams and their feeder schools.
I’ve been asked to reflect also on key issues that need to be addressed to sustain delivery of education as a public service. (But I am mindful of the effects of long speeches in a Banquet!)
As a country, it is imperative to address inequalities that tear our communities apart.
Our educational outcomes continue to reflect our country’s socio-economic patterns of inequalities.
Notwithstanding our enormous gains, so much more needs to be done to overcome the huge disparities resulting from legacies of the past.
We cannot talk about quality and access without speaking to issues of equity.
To achieve quality education and build a better future, we all have a duty to contribute to the creation of functional, safe and productive schools where children are prepared for various careers and roles in society while they are simultaneously taught the values and ethos of a democratic society.
As part of our efforts to make school environments safe, the Department of Basic Education has entered into a collaborative partnership with the South African Police Services and has identified critical areas of intervention.
For 2011, we aim to have 1 000 schools per province linked with local police-stations, and to have functional safe school committees and reporting mechanisms in these schools.
All of us, as teacher unions, teachers, government, parents, faith-based organisations, learners and the whole of civil society, must do more to promote quality learning and teaching in the classroom, for better opportunities for all our children, and for a better future for all our people.
We need all your support to build a better future for the children. Education is a societal issue.
Together we can realise the President’s call for more focus on the ‘Triple Ts’ – teachers, text and time.
Lastly, I thank all SAOU members for their hard-work and dedication to education. Working together we can deliver a transformed and transformative, high-performing, quality system of basic education.
We look forward to continued co-operation with you to achieve the quality we all desire for our education system.
We cannot procrastinate any further!
I thank you, Dankie.
Source: Department of Basic Education
