Madam Speaker
Honourable Premier
Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Invited guests from the education community including the representatives from
Teacher Unions and Governing Body Associations
Officials of the Department of Education
Comrades and friends
In his State of the Nation Address on 11 February 2010, President Zuma boldly stated that education is the nation’s top priority. In his words: We have placed education and skills development at the centre of this government’s policies.
To understand why education and skills development is so central, we need to recognise the new emphasis in government. Over the past decade and a half, our government has been effective in promoting equity, access and redress. Increasingly, if not comprehensively, we are taking care of the basic needs of many disadvantaged South Africans. We have built houses roads and clinics, and extended water and electricity services. We have expanded the safety net by providing child-support grants, old age pensions and disability grants.
Of all these accomplishments, we should be proud.
Within the education sector, we have opened the doors of learning. Almost all children, and most teenagers, can now go to school. We have correctly eliminated fees for most poor learners, provided buses to transport them to school and are providing free meals at school.
But simply ensuring access to social services is not sufficient to address the developmental challenges facing the nation. We now recognise that we need to move from our original focus on equity, redress and access to focusing on the educational requirements of a developmental state. This means providing education that ensures all those at school become educated and leave our institutions with the values, knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give them the best chance of success in their adult lives.
Not only has the President singled out the central role of education, but he has suggested an approach to addressing this challenge. The President has consistently emphasised the need to get the basics right for us to put in place what he calls the non-negotiables. We must have simple but critical targets. We must ensure that all learners and teachers are in school, in class, on time, learning and teaching for seven hours a day. In addition, the targets set by the President emphasise the importance of our learners becoming competent and confident readers and writers who are proficient in mathematics and science.
This message resonates with the Gauteng Department of Education’s mission statement, to “ensure that quality learning and teaching takes place in the classroom every day”.
Madam speaker, today’s budget speech will show how the Gauteng provincial education budget will address this challenge with its programmes, initiatives and projects. The 2009/10 year was a year of careful listening, reflection and planning. In this financial year, we begin the process of putting into action what we have heard and found. It is a year in which tangible signs of change will be evident in schools and other education institutions in the province.
Budget and key priorities
In the 2010/11 budget year, the Gauteng Department of Education has been allocated a budget of R22.48 billion. This budget represents a real after-inflation increase in allocation over the medium term expenditure framework period. In quantitative terms, the allocation will grow from R19 billion to R25 billion between 2009/10 and 2012/13. The 2010/11 budget amount represents a 15.6 percent increase from the allocation of the previous financial year.
Madam Speaker, in light of the new mandate of government, the Gauteng Department of Education has adopted four strategic goals that will guide its activities over the next five years. These are linked to the national plans of action relating to education and to Gauteng’s vision, mission and provincial priorities.
The four strategic goals are:
* Strategic goal 1: To ensure that Gauteng has effective schools and learning institutions.
* Strategic goal 2: To ensure that GDE head office and district offices provide relevant, coordinated and effective support.
* Strategic goal 3: To enable young people to make the transition from school to further education and /or work that provides further training opportunities.
Strategic goal 4: To strengthen GDE’s partnerships with all stakeholders, resulting in education becoming a societal priority.
In simple language, our goals are to improve our schools, ensure our provincial offices provide useful support to schools, and to ensure that young people have relevant skills and knowledge as they move into further and higher education and the world of work. We are also committed to working closely with our partners to make education the top priority, not only for government but for our society.
Interventions
Honourable members, budget prioritisation is the key instrument for achieving our strategic goals. The first step in this process is the translation of the four strategic goals into concrete objectives linked to the budget.
These objectives include, among others:
* To improve the quality of learning and teaching in all schools
* To expand Grade R provision across the province
* To expand Adult Basic Education and Training programmes and align these programmes with job creation initiatives such as the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
* To improve school infrastructure by providing ongoing teacher development and better human resource management
* To build and work with civil society to ensure oversight and achieve quality education.
These objectives are reflected in the education budget as several changes in the allocation of funds for specific programmes.
The largest programme in the budget, public ordinary schools (which includes all public primary and secondary schools in the provinces) will receive a nine per cent increase. This increase will go toward salaries of new teachers recruited to ensure that the province stays within the prescribed maximum teacher: pupil ratios. It will also allow us to re-prioritise the quality of learning, to provide and maintain decent school buildings, to support the no-fee policy, and to provide nutrition and scholar transport programmes.
Second only to the increased allocation for pubic ordinary school is the substantial increase in spending on further education and training. The allocation to FET colleges has increased from R599 million to R919 million. This is in line with the need to address the skills shortage and to improve access to the world of work for young adults in the province who are currently not in education, employment or training.
Another major budget increase is the programme for Early Childhood Development. The allocation has increased from R280 million in 2009/10 to R557 million in 2010/11. Again, this is consistent with the need to expand early childhood and Grade R learning opportunities for young children across the province. International research over the past four decades has consistently proved that providing quality early childhood education produces long-term returns in improved school and social outcomes.
Finally, there is a substantial increase in the allocation to programme 8: Auxiliary and associated services. This includes funds for examination related activities, funding for the Gauteng City Region Academy and special projects. Special projects include those that meet the skills challenges of our economy by channelling learners to areas of scarce skills and ensuring they have the necessary information and resources to follow further education in these career choices.
At the centre of all we do is a commitment to deliver quality education in the classroom every day.
To do this, we must meet the needs of learners, teachers and management. The department will provide effective support, not only from our education districts, but from the head office as well. The framework acknowledges the central role of social partners, and that effective education requires societal change. We need strong, sustained and deep support from many corners of civil society, from our unions, SGB-elected representatives and from faith-based communities.
Several special interventions have been initiated to ensure that appropriate resources are allocated to teachers, learners and department officials.
We have identified targeted intervention programmes in four phases:
* Foundation phase
* Senior primary phase
* Transition from primary to secondary school
* Senior secondary intervention programme.
These intervention programmes will align the existing system of support and accountability, and ensure that we use our scarce resources in a targeted school-based approach that supports classroom practice.
Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight these initiatives, interventions that will become household names across the province in the months and years ahead.
We have four levels of interventions across the schooling system. These include:
* A strong secondary schools improvement programme to boost our pass rates
* School clusters to change how we deliver services to schools
* A primary literacy strategy to get children reading and writing
* A multifaceted mathematics, science and technology strategy (MST) to strengthen the pipeline of scarce skills into the world of work.
Madam chair let me now provide some details about these important initiatives.
Secondary school improvement programmes
One of immediate priorities for the Gauteng Department is to address Grade 12 results in 2010.
We have identified a range of challenges within the education department relating both to institutional and learning factors. Institutional factors include conditions of poverty and social deprivation, degraded infrastructure and lack of safety and security within schools. Learning related factors include poor curriculum coverage and management, weaknesses in service teacher training and a lack of resources such as libraries, laboratories and appropriate textbooks. In the past, interventions have made short-term gains, but these were seldom sustained over time. Past interventions tended to be fragmented and under-resourced, or funding was not continuous over the medium term.
The new intervention will be applied across the entire system but will be flexible enough to allow for local initiatives. With greater and more focused attention given to the foundation and primary stages of education, the system will produce more learners who are better prepared for Grade 12.
We have set ourselves a target: an 80 percent Grade 12 pass rate by 2014.
Considerable care and rigour has gone into the design of the secondary school improvement programme. The department’s analysis isolated the 276 secondary schools in most need of extra support, and the six key subjects which are likely to leverage the most improvement. Based on this analysis, the department’s strategy will include extra lessons every Saturday for the remainder of the year and extra lessons in the June/July and September school holidays. This programme is offered free to all Grade 12 learners, with additional support to Grade 10 and 11 learners in these schools.
Improving departmental support to schools
Madam Speaker, over the past ten years or more, schools have frequently expressed concern that the head and district offices do not always provide the kind of services they really need. This is not surprising, as district offices often service up to two hundred schools. District offices are often simply too far from schools, and too big, to understand the professional needs of each and every institution. As a result, district offices tend to focus on compliance instead of providing the support schools and teachers really require.
District officials who work with individual school managers, the institutional development and support officers, often have insufficient time to really get to know and understand their schools. Many schools therefore experience the Gauteng Department of Education as a bureaucratic agency.
Another aspect of the need to improve support systems is that schools in close geographic proximity often do not support each other. Schools tend be isolated entities that are competing, instead of co-operating, with each other. Resources and good practices are seldom shared between schools.
The department is exploring ways to shift the interaction between the department and the schools from the current compliance approach to a supportive approach. One viable solution is to develop powerful but small school clusters, and to use these clusters as the vehicle to deliver services. The clusters will target departmental human resource needs and deliver suitable resources to schools that need unique types of assistance.
Interventions will be delivered through these clusters include MST, Primary Literacy, Maintenance and Repairs, Safety and Security, School Sports, Transport, and Extramural Activities. A common basket of services will become the core work of the clusters each cluster will receive a coach/mentor, an experienced retired teacher to assist with the advancement of the cluster schools.
In addition to becoming the most effective way to deliver services to schools, the clusters will also serve as an important site for networking. Teachers and principals will be in a better position to interact and support each other.
Madam Speaker, I have recently had the privilege of visiting a model cluster programme sponsored by Imperial Holdings and Ukhamba Community Development Trust working in Orange Farm schools. Initially concentrating on a cluster of primary schools, the Trust provides a comprehensive set of reading and mathematics resources and related training to the cluster of schools. To ensure reading practices are consolidated, the Foundation has also recognised the need for school libraries, and has donated bar-coded libraries with over 2000 books. The foundation correctly identified that schools need to be attractive places, and provided funds for paving, for administration offices, soccer fields and netball courts.
On behalf of the learners, educators and parents of this province, I hereby acknowledge and express gratitude for the many examples of effective and generous corporate support which have created valuable improvements like those at Orange Farm.
Gauteng primary literacy strategy
The Gauteng primary literacy strategy is the department’s vehicle to achieve the President’s commitment to improve primary literacy. The President has undertaken to improve achievement on Grade 3, 6 and 9 literacy and numeracy tests from the current average of between 35 and 40 percent to at least 60 percent by 2014.
The primary literacy strategy has four pillars that are closely aligned to the Department of Basic Education’s policies and programmes. The four pillars include measuring literacy through provincial / national annual assessment; strengthening literacy teaching; improving programmes of learner support in primary literacy; and improving the management of literacy teaching and learning.
One of the key elements of the primary literacy strategy is the effective use of the annual provincial / national assessment of literacy and numeracy for Grade 3, 6 and 9 learners. The provision of workbooks and parent guidelines is also being rolled out in 2010/11. During the budget year, the Gauteng Department of Education will assess the appropriateness, effectiveness and cost-feasibility of the workbooks and other packages of resources. During the initial year, emphasis is placed on dynamic monitoring and external evaluation to guarantee judicious use of funds.
Currently, few of our under-achieving schools have reading books and phonics programmes. We plan to change this. Drawing on international experience, we will select and distribute complete sets of high quality readers, textbooks, and literacy workbooks for Grades R to 7 in the targeted 790 schools. The comprehensive provision of well-designed textbooks, workbooks and readers is a basic condition to improve the teaching of reading and writing.
While providing literacy resources is important, support to teachers using these resources is vital. Teachers need ongoing support and capacity development. One of the innovative approaches to be introduced in this budget year is the deployment of 100 experienced educators to work closely with teachers on an ongoing basis in school clusters.
The focus of the Gauteng primary literacy strategy is on shifting classroom practices. But the strategy also recognises that to improve reading and writing skills for all children requires engagement both inside and outside the classroom. The learner support programmes extends to parents, to reading at home and to reading in the community. This will align the focus on classroom reading with the work of community libraries.
We will spend R155 million on the literacy strategy for the 2010/11 financial year.
Mathematics, Science and Technology Strategy (MST)
Given the importance of science and technology for growing the economy, there have been several efforts in the past decade to focus on improving this aspect of the education system. While initiatives like the Dinaledi Project are making a difference, certain aspects of the new national curriculum may have exacerbated the problem by overloading schools and teachers with too many changes in a short period of time.
To address these challenges and to grow the pool of mathematics, science and technology school graduates, the Gauteng Department of Education has initiated the Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) Strategy. The MST uses a single coordinated, integrated and inclusive approach to mathematics, science and technology across general and further education. Over the medium term, the MST strategy will provide a significant post-school stream of new entrants into the economy, directly and via higher education and training. It will also ensure that the province has a pool of highly competent and highly motivated mathematics, science and technology teachers.
This exciting venture addresses all the following subjects:
* Numeracy
* Mathematics
* Mathematical Literacy
* Natural Science
* Life Science
* Technology, including General Technology at GET level and Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Engineering and Graphic Design at FET level
* Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Computer Applications Technology.
To achieve improved teaching in these subjects, the initiative concentrates on initial and in-service professional development of teachers. MST establishes a formal teacher in-service policy and structure that will guide all activities relating to teacher training. It lists a series of training and support interventions that offer a basket of professional capacity building and skills improvement opportunities to MST teachers.
Better trained teachers are important but not sufficient. The MST Strategy will ensure distribution and use of innovative modes of delivery in schools, as well as the provision of basic MST resources to all schools. The value of textbooks is recognised, and interventions to provide learners with basic texts are included.
In-class and supplementary programmes aimed at improving learner achievement in the short and long term are a central component of MST. The strategy lists a range of interventions that focus directly on learners. This includes supplementary tuition in MST and career education, participation in a range of MST activities, events, competitions and other opportunities that are designed to improve knowledge and skills and attitudes to post-school careers in science, engineering and technology.
The MST Strategy ensures that there is a positive and conducive environment for MST education in schools and districts. A range of interventions are improving the teaching and learning environment and the management of MST education in schools. Models of excellent practice are replicated by creating opportunities for collegiality and sharing among teachers and school managers. These practices will be further disseminated by MST facilitators, who are teachers providing peer support in MST.
In 2010 we will provide relief teachers to schools to allow 160 under-qualified teachers to receive intensive 45-day training at a cost of R7 133 823. We will expand the MST teacher capacity by providing training and support programmes. We are training and supporting 6 000 foundation phase, 5 000 teachers from Grades 5 to 9 and 2 500 teachers from Grades 10 to 12 in curriculum content, instructional skills assessment and ICT skills at a cost of R19 435 467.
The department will improve MST resources in disadvantaged schools by providing technology kits to all 790 under-performing schools at a cost of R4 300 per kit, totalling R3 397 000. To assist in improving mathematics in the underperforming schools, we will supply Mental Maths and Numeracy kits. Each school receives two kits at a cost of R2 392 per school, costing a total R3 779 360. The procurement of scientific equipment for Quintile 1-4 schools is estimated to cost R1 500 000.
Teaching in our under-performing schools has become priority and MST lesson plans are being developed. We are providing lesson plans and teaching resources to all teachers in both GET and FET from under-performing schools. The cost for the development of materials and service providers totals R2 950 000. To further strengthen teaching in FET schools, e-learning lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations are being procured and distributed, along with top-ups on current resources to FET schools. The total cost of this initiative is R5 000 000.
Changing the learning environment of learners at schools requires a change in learner attitudes and awareness of the benefits of MST. The department is improving attitudes, awareness, engagement and achievement in MST by facilitating annual programmes and activities in line with the curriculum at a cost of R10 000 000. An academic support broadcast network is being established at districts and hosted by master teachers to expose learners to the best teaching practices. This will cost R3 000 000, including infrastructure and operating costs. To further prepare FET learners for post- school training, the department is providing career education services to learners and career education teachers at a cost of R6 799 970.
It has been proved that poor performance in schools is due mostly to poor management. The department is embarking on a pass rate improvement incentive programme for under-performing schools to improve and motivate MST managers and School Management Teams at the 276 schools participating in this programme. An academic target of 70 percent should be achieved.
The cost of this initiative is R300 000.
To improve MST management in the future, the Department is initiating MST research and an MST study to analyse the impact of the resources provided to schools at a cost of R 3 000 000.
In total, we are spending R102 355 620 on the MST strategy for the 2010 year.
Other key challenges and budget initiatives
Honourable Members, while the focus of my speech has been on initiatives that will get the basics right the National Senior Certificate pass rate, reading, mathematics, science and technology - we cannot, and will not, neglect urgent challenges confronting the education system in this province. These challenges have a significant bearing on getting the basics right. Improved school security, improved services for children with special needs, and providing boarding facilities for children from isolated communities will contribute to achieving our education goals.
Inclusion, screening and special schools
Three key challenges have been identified in the provision of services to children with special needs. Firstly, the department has identified a mismatch between the special needs of learners and the services provided to them. In some instances, children with learning difficulties are receiving education in institutions designed for learners with severe disabilities. In other cases, children with severe disabilities are not being served or are enrolled in schools that do not have the resources or expertise to provide appropriate education.
Secondly, the learning programmes and curriculum programmes in special schools are not always adequately adapted to meet learners’ actual needs.
Thirdly, the infrastructure and resources provided in special schools, particularly those in townships, are inadequate.
To address this, the Gauteng Department of Education has adopted three programmes. The department has begun a programme of early identification and early screening in all Grade R classrooms. This will ensure better matching of children with special needs to programmes that are appropriate. The process of early screening and matching will be rolled out to older children over the medium term. The department has initiated advanced training programmes for teachers to help them to adapt curriculum and learning support materials to meet the needs of learners who require additional assistance.
Finally, the department is proud of its commitment to improving both infrastructure and resources for schools providing specialised education in township areas. We recognise that these dedicated institutions need to be custom designed to accommodate a wide variety of physical and learning challenges. The department is using both conditional grants and funds from the equitable share to address the quality of both the infrastructure and resources at these institutions.
Currently just over four percent of the overall budget is allocated to special schools. The total budget allocated to special schools has increased by over 20 per cent from 2009/10 to the 2010/11 financial year. The increase is due to the provision made for increased spending on salaries, curriculum support, policy interventions and infrastructure. Currently there are four full service schools in the province. In addition to learners enrolled in these and other special schools, 2713 learners with special needs are enrolled in public ordinary schooling.
School safety
Madam chair, school safety and security is a challenge that consistently attracts a great deal of attention and concern from learners, educators, parents and the public at large.
A number of well- publicised cases have focused concern on the lack of safety in some schools. Research conducted by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention noted that school violence is evident in different kinds of schools and takes a variety of forms.
Since 1994, several partnerships and programmes have been developed to tackle school safety, security and discipline. These programmes have included the Department of Education, the Department of Community Safety, the Department of Health and Social Development and the National Youth Commission. However, many of these programmes met with limited success due to uneven and differentiated roll out; inadequate resourcing; weaknesses and misunderstandings between school leadership and departmental officials on policy and responsibilities.
Madam Chair, I am pleased to note that our new school safety and security initiative is remedying these limitations in the following way:
* It provides an integrated framework and approach to all aspects of school safety and security issues
* It clearly identifies the roles and coordination mechanisms of the various role players from the GDE, Department of Community Safety (and SAPS), Department of Health and Social Development, NGO’s and the private sector
* It sets up a clear structure to implement and monitor the roll out of the strategy at school, departmental and societal level
* It sets out clear resourcing of the strategy
* It sets out monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, including a call centre to aid communication.
This initiative is based on these principles:
* Standardised school policy development and implementation: Ensuring all schools develop safety and discipline policies that are understood and implemented consistently and timeously by school management, school governors, educators, learners and parents
* Psycho-social support and promotion of alternatives to corporal punishment to help schools to deal with inappropriate behaviour, troubled learners and victim support
* Advocacy programmes involving learners, educators, parents and the surrounding community, NGOS, the faith-based community and the Department of Health and Social Development to prevent substance abuse, vandalism, theft, bullying, sexual harassment, racism and xenophobia
* Active law enforcement partnerships with the SAPS, Metro Police, Community Policing Forums and Community patrollers to ensure a rapid response to criminal activity in school environs; conducting search and seizure operations for weapons and drugs on school premises; enforcing liquor by-laws and ensuring learners do not patronise taverns and that truants are identified and returned to schools.
* Effectively securing the physical environs of schools by means of fencing, burglar bars, guarding and armed response; SAPS and Community patrols.
The emphasis in our safety strategy is on prevention instead of reaction, and on working with communities to minimise the potential safety risks at schools. Communities in the vicinity of schools will be given the tools to audit and evaluate hazards and risks. Financial resources are allocated to proactively remedy identified gaps and potential risks to school safety.
In the 2010/11 financial year, we will spend more than R40-million on promoting and introducing school safety and security measures. For a successful preventative programme to be realised, schools will have to put in place effective measures to create a safe environment for effective learning. This will include the expansion of the Hlayiseka programme, the progressive fencing of the 1066 under-performing schools starting with the highest risk schools in 2010/11, and getting schools to formulate school-based safety and security policies.
We have already had a range of meetings with Faith-Based Organisations and other community-based organisations and are finalising plans for the introduction of lay counsellors. We have also budgeted for the auditing of schools to determine the level of compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
ABET and skills strategy
The restructuring of education at national level means that Adult Education and Training will become a national competence, but for the interim period the province retains responsibility for this important area of education. The Gauteng Department of Education is planning to focus on institutional arrangements for adult centres, particularly as they are a key agency in our national effort to address the needs of young people who are not in education, training and employment (NEET). We plan to renovate vacant schools to ensure that adult learners have appropriate places to learn.
In the 2010/11 financial year we will focus on the role of Adult Centres in providing quality services for learners at NQF levels 2, 3 and 4. A key problem is supporting adult learners that have completed ABET level 1 programmes and need support as they move into ABET level 2 education and training. Our ABET centres need to become more effective in supporting adults as they make the transition from the mastery of basic literacy to integration into further levels of learning, skills development and vocational training. At the same time, we need to ensure that the large number of learners currently enrolled at the ABET centres for NQF Level 4 and the NCS matriculation examinations are provided with quality support.
The Adult Basic Education and Training and FET College sectors play a decisive role in addressing the massive problem of youth and adult unemployment in South Africa. The allocation for skills development in Further Education and Training college sector has increased dramatically from R600 million to R910 million. The budget for this programme is allocated as a conditional grant in line with the new Department of Higher Education. The sector is migrating to the Ministry of Higher Education.
The GDE plays a supervisory role in FET colleges, providing support to staff. Working with the new Department of Education, we will be taking steps to enhance the college sector and improve the quality of teaching and practical work. The colleges will soon operate as fully autonomous institutions which are regulated and subsidised by the state to provide world class education and training, and to address the needs of out-of-school and unemployed young people.
This massive increase supports efforts to increase enrolment in FET colleges across Gauteng, to deal with salary adjustments and to continue resourcing the new curriculum offerings at FET colleges.
Meeting the Needs of Rural Learners
Madam Speaker, some of our young people in rural and peri-urban areas have to travel long distances, suffering harsh weather conditions and leaving them little time for homework and effective learning. We are setting up a pilot project to ensure access and equity for high school learners from rural communities in the province. The emphasis is on providing accommodation, after-school supervision and homework support. Various residential options are currently under investigation, including the option of using under-utilised residential houses. A feasibility study is underway in the Magaliesberg and Fochville regions. It is estimated that in the Magaliesberg area alone the programme can support 1200 learners.
School infrastructure
One area which we are deeply committed to is the maintenance and improvement of school buildings. The pride communities have in their schools is often linked to the conditions of the physical infrastructure. The Department has reviewed its infrastructure priorities and dramatically increased its allocation for rehabilitating, renovating and refurbishing schools from a revised estimate of R28 million in 2009/10 to R420 million in 2010/11. An amount of R53 million has been provided for urgent repairs to schools. Linked to school security is the problem of fencing. In the next three financial years, funding for school fencing is due to increase from R100 million in 2010/11 to R130 million in 2012/13.
In the 2011 academic year the following schools will open.
In Ekurhuleni:
* Kingsway Secondary School
* Winnie Mandela Primary School
* Katlehong South Primary School
* Thulasiswe Primary School
In the Metsweding District Municipality:
* Bronkhorstspruit Primary School
* Sikhulisile Primary School
In the West Rand District Municipality:
* Rietvallei Primary School
* Simunye Primary School
In the City of Johannesburg:
* Diepsloot Secondary School
In the Sedibeng District Municipality:
* Polokong Primary School
In the City of Tshwane:
* Mamelodi East Secondary School
The following schools will start construction in the 2010/11 year:
In Ekurhuleni:
* Chief A Luthuli Primary School No. 2
* Phomolong Primary School
* Buhle Park Primary School
* Oosrand Secondary School
* Palmridge/Eden Park Secondary School
* Tsakane Ext 8 Primary School
* Metsweding District Municipality
* Steve Bikoville Primary School
In the City of Johannesburg:
* Doornkop Primary School
* Freedom Park Secondary School
* Naturena Primary School No 2
* Noordwyk Secondary School
* Northriding High Secondary
* Slovoville Primary School
City of Tshwane:
* Olievenhoutbosch Primary School
* Lotus Gardens Primary School
* Mamelodi East Primary School
To improve special education, planning has started for the Nokuthula Special School in the City of Johannesburg. In addition, the following four schools are being converted to full service schools which will be equipped to make them accessible to disabled learners with forms of disability that can be accommodated in mainstream education:
* Baxoxele Primary School in the City of Tshwane
* Lakeview Primary School and M C Weiler Primary School in the City of
Johannesburg
* Ntuthuko Primary School in Ekurhuleni
In addition, incontinence clinics are being built at eight schools.
The construction of new brick and mortar Grade R classrooms at 30 Schools will also be completed during the 2010/11 financial year.
Girl learners
The GDE promotes gender equality in schools through special programmes aimed at improving the performance of all learners, especially female learners, and to increase their chance of gaining access to institutions of higher education. Girl learners have been encouraged to enrol for mathematics, science and technology. In 2009, 52 percent of girl learners passed physical science in grade 12 and 59 percent passed mathematics. It is worth noting that the class of 2009 achieved a pass rate of 71.8%.
In 2010/11 the Department aims to encourage greater enrolment of girl learners in the scarce and critical subjects. This will enable them to acquire the rare skills needed by industry, allowing them to participate meaningfully in the socio-economic development of the country.
Bridging the gap between school and the world of work
To enable young people to make the transition from school to further education, or to work that provides further training opportunities, the department aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop their talent through exposure at school, tertiary and work level.
The department strongly affirms that “inkuzi isematholeni”, the future of our beautiful country is in the hands of the youth. The Department also aims to enhance the employability of young people by familiarising them with labour market requirements by the time they leave the education system, providing career guidance and counselling for Grades 8 and 9 and developing support material for the dissemination of information on career opportunities, financial aid and bursaries. We will strive to allocate three percent of bursaries to people with disability and to progressively move to 10 percent within this term of office.
The department aims to target all learners in Grades 1 to 7 with career guidance. This programme will be intensified in Grades 8 to 12 by providing psychometric assessments for aptitude interest, holiday programmes, career awareness and career-pathing, workplace exposure and career expos. Bursaries for top students from poor backgrounds will be provided through the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, the Gauteng City Region Academy and other higher education institutions.
Concluding remarks
Madam Chair, my concluding comments are addressed to the questions that I am often asked when addressing community structures, parents and ordinary citizens of our province: What can citizens do to contribute to education in this province? How can we contribute?
To that I say, “Imbila yaswela umsila ngokulayezela”. We call on the community and all education stakeholders to take the initiative and make change happen. It starts with you; it starts with each of us, individually and collectively.
I often speak about the importance of ordinary citizens holding principals and SGBs accountable for the performance of learners in their primary and secondary schools. Ordinary citizens need to encourage school managers to implement their improvement plans. Ordinary citizens need to support holiday and weekend lessons by promoting attendance of both learners and teachers.
Parents need to monitor the use of textbooks and other learning resources used in their children’s classes. Parents need to be made aware that they need to monitor homework and take responsibility for their children’s behaviour in school. We need to encourage parents to regularly clean up schools, look after grounds and plant vegetables, and participate in special events such as primary school graduations, prize-givings, and cultural days. We need to ensure our school governing bodies meet regularly and place quality on the agenda at each and every meeting.
Governing bodies, alongside the provincial government, must put in place and monitor school safety and community safety plans, particularly when they relate to taverns next to schools.
And to those who came from disadvantaged schools, we need to “plough back”, to show learners that graduates of disadvantaged schools are successful people. We need role models. We need to mobilise bursaries from these successful matriculants. And as I say frequently in my meetings across the province, we need to mobilise and work shoulder to shoulder with the faith-based sector to visit schools and provide pastoral support and moral guidance.
I would specifically like to thank my colleagues, the Members of the Provincial Legislature, for their contribution to the Back to School campaign. Their presence in schools signalled the importance we attach to schooling to communities, and was also an example of the “giving back” I referred to earlier. Schools and learners benefit from interaction with prominent members of our society. This is at the core of the giving back, as we have seen particularly in Alexandra schools through the Vincent Tshabalala Education Trust.
I would like to conclude with the words of Nobel economist, Amartya Sen, made famous by his work on development and human capabilities. Sen reminds us, “Basic education is not just an arrangement for training to develop skills (important as that is), it is also recognition of the nature of the world, with its diversity and richness and an appreciation of the importance of freedom and reasoning as well as friendship. The need for that understanding that vision has never been stronger.”
I would like to express my humble and sincere appreciation to:
* The many thousands of our learners, our educators, principals, the SMTs, all support staff in our schools, SGBs and parents who continue to work very hard throughout the year to ensure that the President’s vision of quality learning and teaching for not less than seven hours every day is realised
* Premier, for her sterling leadership and guidance in ensuring that delivery of quality basic education is indeed priority number one, both in expression and in deed
* My colleagues in Executive Council for their support
* Chairperson of the Education portfolio committee, Cde Patricia Choeu, and all the members of the committee, for their diligent oversight, constructive criticism and unwavering support
* My Comrades in my home, the ANC and the alliance partners, and all education stakeholders for their boundless energy in ensuring that education becomes a societal priority and a better life for all is realised
* My Head of Department, Mr Boy Ngobeni, for his passion, energy and drive that he brings into the department in prioritising classroom practice as a unit of change in the delivery of quality basic education
* All GDE senior managers and staff for their support, commitment and hard work.
“Dyondzo i xitlhangu”, a spear of the nation, that is the only certainty for an African child to conquer poverty and unemployment towards a better life for all. Let us all unite in a partnership to deliver quality basic education for a better Gauteng and South Africa.
“Inkomu”
I thank you
For more information contact:
Charles Phahlane
Cell: 071 860 4496
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
1 June 2010
