Department of Education Budget Speech Vote three delivered by MEC for Education Namane Dickson Masemola 22 March 2011 Lebowakgomo Legislature

Honourbale Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourbale Premier, Mr Cassel Mathale
My Colleagues in the Executive Council MEC’s, Members of the Provincial Legislature,
Chairperson of Education Portfolio Committee Hon Mr Mashamba Executive Mayors and Mayors of Municipalities,
Director General and Heads of Departments
Leadership of the ANC Stalwarts and Veterans of our Struggle
Leaders of Opposition Parties
Leadership of chapter nine and ten institutions
Our esteemed Majesties and Royal Highnesses here present
House of Traditional Leaders and CONTRALESA HOD of Education and your team Heads of Further Education and Training (FET) colleges,
School Principals and chairpersons of school governing SGB’s present,
Leadership of Teacher Unions, Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) and other Labour Unions;
Our donor partners;
Chairperson of National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) Representatives of youth structures and Women Structures;
Leaders of Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and South African Student Congress Organisation (SASCO)
Leadership of various Religious formations
Leadership of Business
Media guests
Comrades,
Ladies and gentleman

Introduction The January 8 statement of the ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) this year, calls on all the people of South Africa to work together to consolidate people’s power for a National Democratic Society. The society characterised by non racialism, non sexism and democratic country, with its citizens being successful, prosperous and competitive both domestically and globally, because our intellectual capabilities cannot be confined to the South African shores and remains a local resource.

The government of the African National Congress in pursuit of its national project of deepening an understanding about the essence of education and the need for a broad front capacitated sufficiently with theory and practice, has made it a prerequisite, that societal mobilisation is a necessary process to bring more adherents and raise the general level of consciousness. To ignore, delay and postpone the real approach to the situation and play about with imaginary ideas and ideals would be to invite failure and delay of the important programme of multi-skilling the nation.

It is essential that as a revolutionary leadership, we should provide leadership to the masses and not just to the most advanced and firmly set a pace which accords objective conditions and real possibilities of building a strong nation. Based on our profound understanding that the most fundamental transformation and transfer of power, sustenance and deepening of our democracy, appreciates the correctness of forces of change whose outlook and readiness to act is ever fired by the need to address the historically determined factors, which denied the working class and the poor access to quality education.

In pursuit of national reconstruction, development and positioning ourselves as a nation, education and training should be put at the centre of advancing National Spatial Development Perspective and our Provincial Economic Growth and Development Programme, underpinned by values and principles central to the quality and efficacy of our education system. We need to ensure total development of human potential, that citizen’s freedom of choices is exercised within a social and national context of equality of opportunities, and not deny others their human rights to education.

• The State has a central responsibility to fund, support and provide quality education and training.
• Redress educational inequalities and develop a national democratic culture of peace, tolerance and linguistic traditions to ensure remarkable cooperation, civic responsibilities and societal involvement on matters of education.

Honourable Speaker, the remainants of apartheid are destroyed by the advance of the ideological revolution which continue to introduce into society new values, a new content to education and culture, certainly aimed at ensuring that education as a pre-condition for development and growth, occupies the centre stage of our planning and development programme. Human resource development strategy is indeed part of a comprehensive approach to matters of taking the country forward.

The fact that the department has embarked on a vigorous programme of advancing what we call Education Revolution, is a demonstration of a conscious and irreversible effort to ensure social weight of the working class on education, because the current challenges facing us need support and commitment, so that we don’t offer conflicting diagnosis and conflicting remedies.

The following constitute pillars of the above referred programme: leadership and management, curriculum delivery, LTSM, teacher development and support, governance, infrastructure, learner support and human resource (HR) matters.

Therefore, our schools as units of change, driven by change agents, would have to ensure that they become centres of excellence and productive sites of who the workers of the mind. The President of the country, Mr Jacob Zuma, over and above what he said last year about the non negotiable, referred to Time, Teacher and Textbook as important to intensify our work around code for quality education.

As such, monitoring, evaluation and accountability would have to assess and report the performance and success of our plans and programmes. The message is succinct - the quality of the work should be seen throughout the Grades. Therefore cadres of advanced consciousness, who wield the classroom power, would have to undoubtedly ensure triumph of our education system.Thus positioning our youth appropriately to interact with the on-going complex socio- economic conditions.

Honourable Speaker, when we met last year on the same subject, I said, we are meeting at a time when our Grade 12 results are not pleasing. However, today on the 22 March 2011, we are meeting at the time when the country and the province in particular continue to celebrate the improvement of our Grade 12 results.

We have successfully arrested the decline in performance of the department. The 57.9 percent that was achieved in 2010 showed hard work, dedication and selflessness of men and women in the department. The recorded 9% growth is a great achievement. Thank you very much Education Team. As we continue to celebrate good performance and excellence, the following schools passed all their learners who sat for Grade 12 examinations. We call them 100% pass schools and I will request their principals and SGB chairpersons to rise as I mention their schools.

100% pass schools ( 50+1 candidates)