Speaker of the Legislature, Hon Lydia Johnson
KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Hon. Senzo Mchunu
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Legislature
Head of Department of Education, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi
Senior Management of the Department
Our social partners
Labour movement
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
I greet you all
Introduction
Madam Speaker, I am honoured today to stand before this august House to present the 2015/16 Budget for the Department of Education in KwaZulu- Natal, a day after we celebrated 21 years of democracy.
Xenophobia
This budget speech is being presented at a time when all of us South Africans should be burying our heads in shame at the senseless xenophobic attacks that are directed at our fellow brothers and sisters.
As I indicated at the Education Summit of 24-25th April, we want to echo President Zuma’s call of “condemning the attacks on foreign nationals and urging the police to continue working around the clock to protect communities and bring perpetrators to book.”
We also want to applaud our people who have heeded the call from the KwaZulu-Natal Premier Honourable Senzo Mchunu and the Provincial Executive Council, the Mayor of Ethekwini, Cllr James Nxumalo, and his Executive Committee, the national Ministers, uHlanga loMhlabathi King Goodwill Zwelithini, faith-based organisations and NGOs to put an end to this senseless violence and embrace our fellow brothers and sisters. As the Department, working with other Departments, we are doing everything possible to ensure that the learners and schools which have been affected by these attacks are assisted. We are happy to report that all our learners have now been integrated back to their respective schools. As we continue to fight to destroy this scourge of xenophobia we must adopt the same determination we had when we were fighting for our freedom, as Oliver Tambo once said: “the fight for freedom must go on until it is won; until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of the community of man, we cannot rest.”
Thank you
I wish to acknowledge the contribution of all the oversight committees: the Education Portfolio Committee, Finance Portfolio Committee, and Standing Committee on Public Accounts as well as the office of the Auditor-General (AG). They have engaged us with constructive criticism and support to keep our focus on critical issues and helped us to be more strategic and
structured in our distribution of the budget this financial year. We have filled senior posts. We are now in the process of filling other critical posts such as Circuit Management posts and Subject Advisory posts. These processes will greatly enhance our overall performance. We have made significant progress in the area of Capped Leave which in the past has resulted in qualified audits. The work of reconstructing files where information is not electronically available is ongoing.
I am pleased to announce that funds have been allocated in this budget for the server that is required for us to run the automated systems essential to the efficient running of the department.
We continue with the audit of learner enrolment. We are concerned about the alleged inflation of learner numbers by some Principals. This has serious consequences for post provisioning and budget allocation. Madam Speaker we are equally concerned with alleged fake qualifications which are submitted by some employees. Investigations in this regard are ongoing and perpetrators will be brought to book because these are criminal acts.
Honourable Members I wish to single out the Auditor-General's Office for their support and guidance. We are diligently addressing issues that they have raised with us including strengthening the capacity to monitor the work of Implementing Agents as this is a large component of our budget.
Our strategy
Madam Speaker, the strategic trajectory of the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal is guided by policy documents such as:
- The Freedom Charter
- ANC manifestos
- Mangaung resolutions
- National Development Plan (NDP)
- Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP)
Honourable Members, 2015 has been declared as the year of the Freedom Charter by His Excellency, President JG Zuma. It is also the year of investing more in our future, by educating our children and the youth about the rich heritage of this country. Our icon President Nelson Mandela said that the Freedom Charter “has achieved international acclaim as an outstanding human rights document. The Charter is more than a mere list of demands for democratic reforms”.
Madiba's assertion was a result of the sterling work undertaken by those who gathered at the Congress of the People in Kliptown on 26 June 1955, who understood the magnitude of the responsibility bestowed upon them when they declared in the Freedom Charter that „the doors of learning and culture shall be opened! The responsibility to ensure that the doors open to quality education now rests with all of us.
On Education Madiba stated, “Without Education, your children will never meet the challenges they will face. So it is very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.” These words serve as an inspiration for us never to trivialise the importance of education as we strive to provide quality education for our children.
Madam Speaker, President Zuma has implored all of us to recognise that education is a societal issue. During the 2013 National Teaching Awards he said “We want children to look up to teachers and learn from them more than the formal curriculum. Through watching the conduct of teachers, learners must want to be successful, respectful and to be good citizens, who will take the country forward to prosperity….. through professional conduct like coming to school on time and doing their work diligently, the teaching profession will regain the respect of the community. Our teachers carry an enormous responsibility on their shoulders. They carry the dreams and hopes of the nation.”
Cognizant of the immense responsibility resting on our shoulders, our Premier, the Honourable ES Mchunu has stated that the issue of education from early childhood to adult learning remains one of the key focus areas of our government. All our efforts as the Department of Education strive towards the realisation of this goal.
Madam Speaker, the NDP recognises that the quality of education for most children is poor and states that by 2030 South Africa needs quality school education, with globally competitive literacy and numeracy standards.
The policy documents cited above have informed our ten (10) Pillars which are the strategic drivers for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. These pillars are as follows:
- Transformation of the Schooling System
- Curriculum and Assessment
- Teacher Provisioning Development and Support
- Leadership and Management
- Planning and Resourcing
- Infrastructure Development and Maintenance
- Information and Communication Technology
- Social Cohesion and Integration of Schools
- School Functionality and Community Involvement, and
- Early Childhood Development
Education Summit
Honorable members, I am pleased to report that the Department of Education hosted a very successful summit on Friday and Saturday of last week. It was attended by 1 200 delegates comprising representatives of teacher unions, SGB associations, students, principals, ELRC, SACE, Higher Education Institutions, TVET Colleges and departmental officials.
The main objectives of the summit were:
- The improvement of classroom teaching, learner attainment and performance across the system
- The reduction, and finally eradication, of under-performing schools
- The improvement of the National Senior Certificate pass rate
- The development of teaching and learning models to improve learner attainment in Mathematics, Science and Technology, and other gateway subjects
- The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT to support curriculum
- Mainstreaming the national curriculum framework for Early Childhood Development
The Summit adopted a Declaration that affirmed our broad strategic thrusts and all stakeholders have committed to take the actions necessary to improve learner performance. The Commission reports are still being processed and the detailed recommendations that were made after rigorous and inclusive discussion will be carefully considered by the department and will be used to guide implementation. I wish to thank the Speaker for gracing the Summit with her presence and to the Members of the Legislature who participated actively in the Summit and contributed greatly to its success.
Operation Bounce Back
Honourable Members, our strategic thrust for 2015 is “Operation Bounce Back” which translates into our Provincial Academic Improvement Plan. The point of departure is the performance in the matriculation examinations in 2014 where two striking observations can be made:
- The first is a drop from the performance in 2013 from an overall pass rate of 77.4% to 69.7% reflecting a drop of seven percentage points.
- The second is that the top 10 best performing candidates were either White or Indian learners with neither Africans nor Coloureds featuring. This is something that we must confront.
Operation Bounce back is consistent with and part of our medium and long- term strategies. It is more than a short-term focus on good results at the end of the year, but will contribute to the realisation of an educated nation where education becomes a holistic tool of social transformation by integrating educational experience into the life experiences of individuals. This is particularly important during the second phase of our democracy which calls for radical economic transformation. As the Department we have started initiatives to diversify our curriculum as a value-addition to the requisite skills base for radical economic transformation. For example we are starting a pilot project for the introduction of Mining as a subject in Grade 10 with effect from July 2015 in five Districts. Another example is the establishment of the Academy for Mathematics, Science and Technology in La Mercy. This specialist maths, science and technology Academy will prepare learners to enter into specialised science and mathematics fields.
Professor Paulus Zulu a senior academic and an internationally renowned Researcher has suggested that learners especially from poor socio- economic backgrounds treat content as foreign objects to be reproduced in examinations. The knowledge is not integrated into everyday life experiences, nor is it used in everyday problem solving. In short, it is not part of culture. It is an accepted fact that learning has a cultural dimension. We must make learning part of the everyday learning and living experience and not an entity that only exists for examination purposes.
At this point Madam Speaker allow me to briefly talk to the matter of our resolve as KZN to urge our learners to do core Maths when doing subjects such as Physical Science as opposed to Maths Lit. We have the experience of learners who pair Physical Science with Maths Lit and end up going nowhere with their studies beyond Matric. It is for this reason that we have resolved that our learners must do core Maths when doing Physical Science.
We are aware that this may have an impact in our results as compared to other Provinces who hold a different view but we believe that we cannot push our learners to do subjects which will never help them. Posterity will judge us harshly if we do that.
Inequalities in performance
I must emphasise that racial differentials in performance has been a constant since 1994, and before. The racial hierarchy in the levels of performance has been the most striking evidence of our socio-economic inequalities translating into unequal life chances. In a society riddled by racial prejudice, this does not augur well for social cohesion or for the nurturing of the rainbow nation.
Our nation is riddled with structural inequalities which express themselves in educational performance. This government has poured huge sums of money to bridge the material gap in education, and the educational budget speaks for itself.
Care and support
The Minister of Education, Hon. Angie Motshekga has stressed the need for the country to focus on learner well•being. Nationally, a package of interventions has been developed under the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP). The aim of the Programme is to improve children‟s health, reduce health barriers to learning and assist learners to stay in school and perform to the best of their abilities. The Programme further intends to promote attitudes and behaviours that will positively impact the current and future health status of learners. We will be discussing how we can strengthen the implementation of this with the Department of Health and Social Development.
Partnerships
Many academics and education specialists have demonstrated their goodwill by offering their services to help improve our overall education system in the province at no cost to the Department. One of these is the Ambassador Program by Risk and Reward Company which rests on a conceptual framework of partnerships between the Provincial Department of Education and professionals from the private sector, higher educational institutions and organs of civil society, who volunteer to champion a particular learning discipline, say Accounting or Mathematics in schools. Others who are offering their services are the Mazibuye and the Swarati Institute who are running a Maths and Science Intervention Program. We also now have a Mathematics and Science Ambassador who is going to source private funding to inject into our programs aimed at lifting the standard of teaching and learning in the field of Mathematics and Science.
Another partnership is with the Moses Kotane Institute which provides support to teachers in Maths, Science, Technology and Engineering.
Our partnership with the Department of Agriculture will assist us in raising the bar and narrowing the gap in our agricultural schools. The emerging farmers association, Isu Labalimi, has also pledged to support our agricultural schools.
These are just some of the many outstanding South Africans to whom I want to personally express my sincerest gratitude for their selfless gesture which has the interest of the child at heart.
JIK’IMFUNDO
In last year's Budget Speech I announced our major innovation, Jika IMfundo, which is a Provincial Initiative to Improve Learning Outcomes by supporting Teachers, School Management Teams and Districts to track curriculum coverage by learners and provide differentiated support to schools, teachers and learners. Jika iMfundo focuses on developing strong curriculum management skills at district, school and classroom level in a way that coordinates and supports the management conversations within and between all three levels.
We are learning from the pilots-at-scale in uThungulu and Pinetown districts, and I can report that the District-led training of school management was well received by the more than 3 000 SMT members who attended module 1 of the training in term 1. The Just-in-Time training led by the subject advisers was attended by more than 4 000 Heads of Department in Term 1, and I am delighted that the training for Term 2 was completely over-subscribed with some venues seeing more people attending than had been invited. Jika iMfundo has distributed 25 000 teacher toolkits that help teachers plan and track curriculum coverage and assessment; integrate available LTSM (such as the DBE Workbooks) into their planning; reflect as professionals on learner progress and participate in evidence-based discussions about their work with their HoD at school level. For Foundation phase teachers these toolkits include curriculum trackers and lesson plans in Mathematics, English First Additional Language and isiZulu Home language. The lesson plans are accompanied by high quality reading books, and 200 000 Maths learner activity books were distributed in both Term 1 and 2.
Jika iMfundo has made eLearning kiosks available to educators in these districts, and will soon launch a learner and a teacher portal that provides additional material and educational tools on the Jika iMfundo App on Mxit. Our Circuit Managers in these districts have developed a tool that is helping them interact with schools in a way that is supportive, that asks "How can I help you?‟ and which focuses on key behaviours that we need to change.
Last year I promised that this ground-breaking pilot project would be replicated to all Districts by the end of the MTEF. Today, I am proud to announce that with the strong support of our Teacher Unions, the Department will soon start planning for the full roll-out of Jika iMfundo across all Districts, and funds have been made available in this budget and in the MTEF for this purpose.
I wish to thank the National Minister, and the National Education Collaboration Trust for supporting the piloting of Jika iMfundo in the first two Districts. The rollout will strengthen districts to support teaching and learning in line with the aims and objectives of Action Plan 2019 towards Schooling 2030 and will:
- Assist districts to respond better to schools that need assistance;
- Support school management teams to lead learning; and
- Support teachers to cover curriculum and help learners do better.
I also wish to thank the Programme to Improve Learning Outcomes for supporting the Department in implementing Jika iMfundo.
Budget allocations
Madam Speaker and Honorable Members, I am presenting this budget against a financially tough period of 7-8 years, where the Department was faced with pressures arising from the high various wage agreements and the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD). Furthermore, in the 2013/14 MTEF, National Treasury took a decision to impose 1, 2 and 3 per cent baseline cuts on all spheres of government in order to curb the national deficit as public spending is growing faster than revenue collection. In addition, KZN received reduced allocations as a consequence of the 2011 Census data. The effect of this on the Department was a substantial reduction in the budget over the entire period, which amounted to R2.576 billion over the 2015/16 MTEF period, thus putting further strain on the already pressurised departmental budget.
The investment made by the ruling party government to ensure the quality of education has been greatly beneficial to the learner populace of the province. In this regard, the budget of the Department has grown from R32.8 billion in 2011/12 to R42.142 billion in 2015/16.
Whilst previously underfunded wage agreements and OSD in prior years have plagued the Department, I am happy to report that we have made adequate provision for the Compensation of Employees in the 2015/16 MTEF budget. This will greatly assist with the filling of vacant posts.
In presenting this budget, the Department is addressing the financial leakages within the system including:
- The inability to terminate on time employees who exit from the education system resulting in overpayments;
- Increased learner enrollments which may in turn cause the department to fund non-existent learners;
- Expedite the conclusion of disciplinary matters and extended sick leave to minimise the unnecessary employment of substitute or temporary educators
In this financial year, the headcount project for both learners and employees will be conducted, and the enhancement of the ICT Infrastructure for which funding has been made in the 2015/16 financial year will assist with this.
Through this budget we are moving South Africa forward to Quality education and skills development” ngesiZulu sithi “Sisonke siyisa iNingizimu Africa phambili ngeMfundo esezingeni kanye nokuthuthukiswa kwamakhono”
Transformation of schooling system
In 2014/15, the Department implemented the aspects of this programme that did not require funding.
As part of this programme, the extension of consolidation of small and non- viable schools will be pursued, particularly in the Sisonke District, where 16 schools have less than 300 learners in total. The budget of the current school consolidation programme has been allocated an amount of R15 million (2014/15 – R10 million).
While our aim is to eventually phase out multi-grading in our system circumstances currently require it. Teaching and learning in multi-grade schools has been boosted through the availability and implementation of the toolkit that assists the educators to implement the curriculum. To date about 260 subject advisors have been trained, who in turn will train and interface with educators at a cost of almost R2 million.
In support of the vision for a diversified skills base, the department will invest R21 million in the agricultural, technical and maritime schools, in order to continue with the incremental resourcing and to support the transformation of the curriculum in these schools.
The implementation of the agricultural curriculum will be boosted through the expansion of this programme to Shakaskraal High School. The 3 existing schools, James Nxumalo Agricultural High School, Western High School and Landbou Hoer Skool, will continue to benefit from the allocation.
The collaboration with various arms of the government can be witnessed through the secondment of Lieutenant Majola from the South African Navy, who is currently teaching maritime subjects at the four high schools currently implementing this curriculum and these being Izwelibanzi High School, Sithengile High School, J G Zuma High School and New Forrest High School.
Curriculum assessment
A budget of R50 million has been set aside to ensure that “Operation Bounce Back” interventions are fully implemented, and these resources are being devolved to where the intervention takes place.
The Examination budget of R562.6 million includes the costs of the marking and administration of the ANA and National Senior Certificate examinations
Teacher provisioning, development and support
In 2014/15, in this House, I highlighted the Department‟s firm decision in terms of converting the Provincial Training Academy to a fully-fledged Teacher Training Institute. An initial amount of R50 million has been made available towards the physical refurbishment of this institute, which will ensure the curtailment of expenditure aligned with training of employees.
We have adopted a “grow your own” attitude where through my office, I am making it “fashionable” for young people to pursue a career in education. An amount of R10 million has been set aside to recruit learners in the Mathematics, Science, Technology and Accounting subjects in order for them to start their teaching careers in 2016. This is over and above a commitment of R22 million that caters for the leaners currently in the pipeline.
A budget of R80 million has been set aside to honour the current and existing commitments with respect to the bursaries to all employees.
Development of strong leadership management
The implementation of the skills strategy in the previous 4 – 5 years in the department has taken a back seat due to unavailability of funds. The skills budget for the current year is R 274 million for the training of staff at all levels from Head Office to school level as well as School Governing Bodies.
Planning resources
Norms and Standards
In 2015/16 a budget of R30.850 million has been set aside towards providing the tools of trade: the procurement of vehicles, laptops, desk computers and other ancillary implements.
An amount of R2.124 billion has been set aside for the Norms and Standards in Public Ordinary Schools. The Department has increased the per learner allocation for non-fee paying schools to R955 from R932 for learners in quintile 1 to quintile 3. Fee paying schools in quintiles 4 and 5 are funded at R522 and R179 per learner. Of the R2.124 billion, R1.274 billion is earmarked for Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) whilst R859 million is transferred to schools for a variety of needs.
A budget of R77.817 million has been set aside for the independent schools that charge school fees which are within a threshold as determined by the South African Schools Act of 1996. This budget will fund almost 32 600 learners.
Quintile allocation
The national norms for school funding recommend that 67.5% of the leaners should be in schools in quintile 1 and quintile 3. Of the 2 609 556
learners in the public schools, 1 931 071 learners, which constitutes 74% are found in schools in quintile 1 to quintile 3. The Department has injected an additional R138 million towards the learners who would otherwise not have been beneficiaries of the no-school fee policy.
In order to assist learners from poor backgrounds who attended privileged schools, the Department has set aside R26 million to re-imburse schools, which are mostly in Quintile 4 and Quintile 5, in return for them granting these learners a concession with respect to paying their fees.
National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP)
The NSNP budget for the current year is at R1.287 billion and will feed an estimated 2 287 million learners. A deworming programme has been added as an objective to the grant.
School furniture
The Department has set aside R25 million for the procurement of school furniture for new schools.
Education Library Information Technology Services (ELITS)
The ELITS project has been allocated an amount of R15 million, through which the libraries in some schools will get books and the necessary support material to enhance their learning and teaching experiences.
Inclusive education
I am proud to announce that for 2015/16 financial year 101 schools are now full service schools and allocated an amount of R24 million to be resourced with special devices, procurement of the relevant furniture and equipment.
For the first time in the province, sign language will be introduced in 11 schools for the hearing impaired at a cost of R2.2 million. Four special schools for the visually impaired will benefit by R4.980 million through the procurement and implementation of braille production capabilities. A budget of R12 million has been set aside to procure additional buses for our learners with special needs. R129 million will be transferred to public schools for learners with special needs to supplement their resources.
Infrastructure development and maintenance
This programme experienced a budget cut due to the pressures experienced in the 2014/15 budget for the Compensation of Employees. Due to the recurrent nature of the wage bill, the budget cuts implemented in that year had to be carried into the 2015/16 MTEF.
The infrastructure programme is funded at a budget of R2.529 billion of which R2.290 is allocated for capital infrastructure and R239 million is allocated for operating expenditure, a large portion of which is for maintenance. As per the conditions of the grant framework, R25 million has been set aside for the recruitment of personnel in the built environment in order to enhance the implementation and monitoring of the infrastructure programme. As contained in the Department‟s annual performance plan, the following are the targets for the utilisation of the infrastructure budget in the 2015/16 financial year.
- 100 public ordinary schools are to be provided with water supply.
- 100 public ordinary schools are to be provided with electricity.
- 100 public ordinary schools are to be supplied with sanitation facilities.
- 1 450 classrooms are to be built in public ordinary schools.
- 1 000 specialist rooms are to be built in public ordinary schools
- 10 new schools completed and ready for occupation
- 29 new schools under construction (includes replacement schools)
- 338 Grade R classrooms are to be built
- 1 hostel is to be built
- 100 schools will undergo scheduled maintenance
Information and communication technology
In 2014/15 I indicated my displeasure in the manner in which most of the Department‟s processes were still reliant on manual systems. It is my pleasure to announce that for the 2015/16 financial year at least R194.5 million has been set aside to deal with a multi-pronged strategy in which the Department‟s IT infrastructure will be upgraded at R65 million (of the R194.5 million). This will ensure that the foundation is being laid in order to launch the ICT vision in the Department both in terms of administration requirements as well as school curriculum integration.
The Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) has been allocated a budget of R50.5 million in order to provide credibility to the various statistics that is sourced from the school level, including learner numbers, which is the main cost driver of the Department‟s budget. In the
current year, the focus will be on the development and management of a data warehouse for all school information. Critical to the usefulness of this data warehouse, will be the development of a Business Intelligence tool that will allow the various users within the Department to access analyze and make decisions based on credible information. In this regard, the necessary servers and other tools of trade will be provided.
The Mathematics, Science and Technology grant, with an allocation of R59.9 million will ensure that the implementation of the ICT strategy is deepened. An amount of R20 million has been allocated in order to pursue curriculum integration in or with ICT. Of this amount an initial investment of R6.6 million will be made to 100 schools which will be provided with a cabinet on wheels with 24 tablets, a laptop and a data-projector.
Social cohesion and integration of schools
The Quality Learning and Teaching Committees (QLTC) will be in the forefront in terms of implementing this programme and ensuring that society is involved in the education of our learners. A budget of R2 million has been set aside for the Member of the Executive Council to champion this cause.
Sports, Arts and Culture are important levers for social cohesion. The Department will continue to implement the accord with the Department of Sports and has set aside R24 million for implementation at district level.
Through the HIV and Aids grant, a budget of R50.5 million has been set aside for literacy programmes. School community members will be mobilised to support and participate in My Life My Future (MLMF) campaign focusing on Prevention of HIV infection, Teenage Pregnancy, Substance abuse, and other social ills. Furthermore, SMT & SGB members will be trained in the development & implementation of MLMF school plans focusing on Prevention of HIV infection, Teenage Pregnancy, Substance abuse, and other social ills.
Early childhood development
The Department has made considerable progress towards reaching universal coverage by enrolling almost 98% of learners between the ages of 5 to 15 (compulsory school age) by 2014. The expansion of Grade R has reached universal access in the province accessing nearly 240 000 learners. The focus in 2015/16 will be on the provision of quality education. In order to achieve this, a budget of R164.8 million has been set aside. One thousand (1 000) Pre-Grade R practitioners will be assisted in attaining their NQF L4 qualification through the Further Education and Training Institutions (now referred to as TVET). The budget set aside for the Pre- Grade R programme, which includes stipends payable to the practitioners is R38.5 million.
The Department has a responsibility with respect to the provision of the Curriculum Training for the 0-4 year olds. Curriculum training will be given to 2 500 care givers as well as provision of core-training material provided at a cost of R5.2 million. We will pursue and pilot the concept of model crèches. In this regard, 15 crèches in total at Umzinyathi, Othukela and Amajuba catering for almost 600 learners (0-4 year olds) will be provided with the required resources as well as get the benefit of trained practitioners at a cost R1.1 million.
Public schools with Grade R classes have been allocated a total of R108 million to cater for the furniture and equipment in those classes that are without or those that require additional resourcing, provision of Learner Teacher Support Material and to allow for the cash transfers to these schools so that they can be able to deal with the immediate requirements as and when they occur.
Budget for 2015/16
Madam Speaker and Honourable Members the 2015/16 budget for the Department is R42 142 255 billion. However of this amount R31 892 million is not available for spending as it is a first charge for unauthorised expenditure incurred in 2013/14. This leaves a budget of R42 110 463 billion and is implemented through the following programmes:
- Administration: R1,618,968
- Public Ordinary Schools: R35,070,344
- Independent Schools Subsidies: R77,817
- Public Special Education: R931,199
- Early Childhood Development: R695,420
- Infrastructure Development: R2,529,235
- Examinations and Education Related Services: R1,219,372
- Total budget for the department: R42,142,355
- First Charge due to Unauthorised Expenditure: R(31,892)
- Budget available for spending: R42,110,463
Learners and teachers of note
Madam Speaker, as I close, allow me to acknowledge outstanding achievements made by some of our learners and teachers.
The School Financial Literacy Competition is sponsored by the Department of Finance and MEC Scott is the champion of this provincial contest by schools from Circuit to District and Province.
The winner of the speech contest was Amanda Malinga from Dundee High School and the runner up was Mbali Magwaza from Eshowe High School, 3rd place was Nolwazi Zungu from Newcastle High School and 4th place was Minenhle Mthembu from Ladysmith High School. Gauteng is currently assisted on the logistics of holding this competition.
In 2014 the Department selected dedicated teachers for the National Teacher Awards. They were presented for National selection and won the National Awards in March 2015. They were on TV when His Excellency, President JG Zuma awarded them with cars.
Hard work, collectively or individually, produces proud moments - there is no short cut. They are:
- Excellence in Grade R Teaching Ms Schrade PA 1 Nyanda Primary Umgungundlovu
- Lifetime Achievement Mr Reddy G 1 Glenhaven Secondary Pinetown
- Kader Asmal Award Ms Mdlalose TM 1 Thembimfun do Special School Uthungulu
- Excellence in Mathematics Teaching Ms Willemse JAE 2 Shengeza High Umkhanyakude
Our vision is to present work conditions that support all teachers to reach this level of dedication and incentives.
Conclusion
In conclusion let me once again express my appreciation for this opportunity to present our budget to the Legislature and urge for a continued good and robust working relationship between the Department and our oversight Committees of the Legislature.
This will ensure that none of the undertakings that we make today fall through the cracks. I also want to commit that we will make sure that nothing falls through the cracks as we work together to move South Africa forward through quality education and skills development.
I also wish to thank the Department, and in particular Dr. SNP Sishi and his team, for the excellent work they have done in delivering many of the commitments we made last year, and planning for the year ahead. The team in the office of the MEC worked tirelessly to support me in the execution of my duties, and I want to thank them today for all they do in the service of education. I would like to also thank the Departmental Officials at all levels from Head Office, District and Circuit levels whose contribution always ensures that we are able to deliver the curriculum at school level. My sincerest gratitude also goes to our Principals and Educators, with special mention of those who are managing Special Schools and ECDs, who are at the coal face in ensuring that our learners receive quality education. The contribution from our partners from Labour, SGB Associations and Parents‟ Association also ensures that we are always focussed in what we do. Lastly, but not least, let me thank our learners without whom there will be no Department of Education.
Madame Speaker and Honorable members, time does not allow me to do full credit to the volume of work that has been invested in preparing this budget. Details will be discussed in the Education Portfolio Committee and I look forward to that engagement as we benefit so much from your inputs.
"I can feel the weather changing I can see it all around
Can‟t you feel that new wind blowing?
Don‟t you recognise that sound? And the earth is slowly spinning Spinning slowly, slowly changing
- Neil Young: Rumblin‟ (2010)
I thank you
