Programme Director,
Provincial Chairperson of SADTU,
Provincial Secretary of SADTU,
The Provincial Leadership,
Comrades in Education.
Let me start by expressing my sincere thanks to you for inviting me to be part of this very important gathering. From the programme I can see that your focus is on organisational matters. May I therefore, express hope that up to now you’ve been able to engage constructively on building and strengthening South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) as an organisation.
Today I would prefer to share and engage with you on some thoughts and issues relating to challenges of managing the State, but from the education perspective. I therefore, want a conversation rather than an address.
I want to make reference to the thinking of one Francis Fukuyama, an accomplished political theorist.
Fukuyama reasons that perhaps the biggest concern in the world is not necessarily whether you have this or that other brand of democracy, including the extent to which that brand is seen. Rather he invites us to engage on whether the state is demonstrating a capacity to deliver on the interests of its people.
Indeed, I agree with him more than one hundred percent. In this case the question would be, is the Tripartite Alliance led by the African National Congess (ANC) demonstrating that capacity in managing South Africa. This is the question that causes revolutions, administrations, governments, etc. to fall or to stand. The South African revolution, in my view, as demonstrated by our Strategy and Tactics over the years, has thrived on the basis of trust and hope that the masses have on the ruling party that on their interest we shall deliver.
Many assessments since 1994 show that the direction we have taken is generally good. But as our democracy grows, our capacity to manage the State is getting challenged from outside and from within. The happenings in Limpopo seem to provide bitter evidence that we have to reckon with questions both at national and provincial levels.
And indeed we note the questions asked by the former Irish President, Ms Mary Robinson when she delivered the 10th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Cape Town yesterday with regards to education. She said South Africans need to ask themselves some very uncomfortable questions such as, why is South Africa’s education system underperforming? She further asked why is the rate of illiteracy so high in this country. And I do believe that each one of us does have their own answers to these critical question.
Now this is the focus of our department in 2012, searching for this capacity to manage and deliver better education in our province. There are a few areas that we believe the education sector in the province should focus on in order to find answers.
Firstly, it is Curriculum Management and our main focus on this is on Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM). We are asking ourselves how we can utilize our LTSM budget such that it responds to the ultimate question. Can we really not get a book and workbook for each child, in each grade, for each subject?
We believe that we can, even if it means just getting closer to the target at once, or over a certain period. We don’t believe we have any alternative. We just need to find answers for the 2013/14 financial year.
The second question still on Curriculum is: shouldn’t we vary curriculum in the province, especially in favour of these areas from which skilled people should be drawn? It is for this reason that we are working on a formula to expand Technical High Schools and Agricultural Schools in particular. It is also for this reason that we want subject packages for our learners, particularly from Grade 10, to be high perfected.
The third aspect, relates to better ways and means of equipping our classrooms such that teaching and learning becomes enjoyable to the teacher and to the learners. The fourth aspect relates to how we can garner the wisdom in the art of inspiring teachers to discharge their responsibilities with their revolutionary morality, honour and integrity. This can only flow from dedication and selflessness. But it can also be complimented by excellent, efficient and effective management which, in my view, is still lacking.
It is for this reason we are preparing to engage circuit and ward managers as well as the subject advisory services sometime in September.
May I take this opportunity to really appreciate that labour, led by Progressive Unions under Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), have created a possibility for real improvements by affording this country and the Department of Education, space to focus.
Just last Thursday, at the Council of Education Ministers, a decision was taken to establish a Ministerial Committee that will investigate promotional requirements in relation to Life Orientation, Maths Literacy as well as the 30% pass mark. Of course this is a conversation in progress.
The next question relates to infrastructure. We need to seek ways of delivering bulk infrastructure with speed, but of good quality. We are currently exploring all possibilities, including suggestions from you on how we can make this a reality and a possibility to converse. Here we want to highlight, as our major concern, the issue of multi-grading and general congestion in our schools. This question on infrastructure will have to alleviate these anomalies.
The other area of our major concern is that of our general schooling system, there are three focus areas that we are looking into. These are:
1. Rationalisation of our schools and here we are specifically looking at limiting the categorisation of schools into only two i.e. primary and secondary. We believe this would make life that much easier for all of us and for the communities. Of course we do realise that this is not something that can be achieved overnight.
2. Model Schools – wherein we are looking to partner with the private sector to achieve this. This essentially is about rewarding excellence while addressing school needs.
3. Ridding the system of all unnecessary ills in schools:
- Lack of school transport
- Eradicating late coming both from teachers and learners
- Eradicating absenteeism
- Addressing the issue of teacher accommodation, particularly in rural areas. Our aim is to provide decent accommodation because we are clear in our minds that teachers are professionals and they need to be treated as such.
In conclusion, I do want to say that you represent teaching corps and we all know the job of a teacher cannot be equated to any other profession. It is for this reason one thinker once likened a teacher to a candle, which consumes itself in order to shine the light to others. I think this is very important for all of us to remind ourselves of. As I have said before it requires of us to be dedicated beyond expectation.
I thank you for affording me this space to converse with you.
Amandla!
