Address by the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, at the QLTC Inter-Provincial Workshop, held at the Garden Court Hotel, ORT Kempton Park
Programme Director SGB Associations Organised Labour
Organised Business Chambers Traditional Leaders
Faith-Based Organisation Representative of Student Bodies All Government Officials Present Ladies and Gentlemen
It’s an honour and privilege to address this Provincial Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (PQLTC) workshop.
The workshop's objectives are to reposition, strengthen, advance, redirect, review, and re-evaluate the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) work.
Secondly, to ensure collaboration, coordination, support and monitoring is renewed to deal with emerging challenges.
Thirdly, to recalibrate the QLTC processes to ensure that the QLTC moves as a collective, cohesive, inclusive, visible, and accountable force.
The Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) has one overriding mission to bring into reality the delivery of quality learning and teaching in our lifetime.
We must use this workshop as an opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the building of coherent responses on the envisaged measures to reboot and rebuild the basic education system post- Covid-19.
At the heart of the Covid-19 recovery plan is to do more to support vulnerable learners, increase retention and stem the tide of dropouts.
Therefore, there’s no need to use this workshop or the QLTC structures for political gain.
Political opportunism is the antithesis of a national endeavour to build a highly functioning and high performing basic education system.
We are about basic education. Basic Education is Us. End of story.
The issue is close to my heart and defines what we seek to achieve every day of our working lives: improve learner outcomes and build a high performing basic education ecosystem.
Equally important is that the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) is a collaborative effort between and amongst the political parties, Department of Basic Education, Teacher Unions, and Association of School Governing Bodies.
We also involve School Governing Bodies at a local level, parents and their associations, learners and their formations, community groups, traditional leaders and the business community.
In the QLTC structures, we are open to professional bodies such as the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), the South African Council for Educators (SACE), subject-specific associations and other interested parties inside and outside the basic education domain.
We must never lose sight of the big picture; the QLTC strives to turn all our schools into centres of excellence.
Amongst other things, the QLTC structures must do oversight, i.e. monitor the basic functionality of schools under their tutelage.
The oversight work is anchored on the following pillars:
i. Code of conduct for teachers, learners and support staff.
ii. Procedures and mechanisms of attending to learners' absenteeism, teachers and support staff.
iii. Sound leadership and management governance and relationships.
iv. Curriculum roll-out plan.
v. Provisioning of resources for learner achievement.
vi. Policies on school safety & security, disciplinary procedures.
vii. Communication strategy with Parents and Communities.
viii. Teacher Development roll-out plan.
The theme for this workshop is "reposition the QLTC to mobilise all stakeholders and strengthen partnerships to build a National Social Compact for Education!"
At the recently convened Basic Education Sector Lekgotla, I called for a new post-Covid-19 basic education social compact.
I am glad that finally, we have this opportunity to lay the foundations for a national social compact for basic education.
Our endeavour to renew and reimagine the collaboration for basic education improvement is steeped in the policy pronouncements made by various ANC leaders since the democratic breakthrough in 1994.
In his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) in 1994, our now late founding President Nelson Mandela said: "Everyone must re- inculcate the culture of learning and teaching and make it possible for this culture to thrive."
For his part, former President Thabo Mbeki said in his 2008, January 08 (ANC) Statement: "We must elevate education from a departmental issue, or even a government issue, to a societal issue – one that occupies the attention and energy of all our people".
Mbeki said education is fundamental to society's achievements envisaged in the Freedom Charter.
Speaking about the importance of teachers, he said: "Teachers are critical to our important task of ensuring quality education for all children."
He should have added that parents are the vital cog in the wheel of basic education.
Learners are the heartbeat of the basic education ecosystem, without whom the whole shebang becomes an exercise in futility.
Thus, as a nation, let's go back to the basics and ensure that we are faithful to the dictates of our forebears, such as Tata Mbeki and Madiba and reiterate that basic education is indeed a societal issue.
Furthermore, we must accept that all levers of society must be galvanised to partake in our learners' learning and teaching lives, by far the most critical asset of our country.
Sadly, we lag behind our peers in parents' participation in children's schooling, especially in historically disadvantaged communities.
Yet evidence shows that societal participation in basic education is the lynchpin to gauge the success of quality learning and teaching in developing and developed nations.
Programme Director, in his 2009 maiden State of the Nation Address (Sona), former President Jacob Zuma said: “Our teachers must commit to a set of non–negotiables–to be in school on time, in class on time, teaching for at least seven hours, no abuse of learners and no neglect of duty.”
As we gather here today, we have to ask a fundamental question: do we have a new set of non-negotiables for our teachers, parents and community leaders?
For me, the issue of non-negotiables forms the backbone of a new basic education social compact we seek to build.
As a Government, we are committed to restoring, upholding, and promoting the status of teachers by improving their working conditions, including providing care and support packages for them.
As part of non-negotiables, as a Government, we are committed to ensuring that all learners have a qualified teacher in their class.
Each learner must have quality Learning, and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) delivered on time and every time.
We must reimagine the ‘triple T’ of the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC), i.e. ‘Teachers, Textbooks and Time', as part of an arsenal in improving education.
How about computers, data and connectivity?
Our learners and teachers must have access to adequate and safe ablution facilities.
We are committed to restoring the classroom as a holy grail of teaching and learning.
For their part, I call for our teachers to display compassion towards our learners.
Compassion is vital when dealing with learners from broken communities such as child-headed households, crime-infested communities, high unemployment, and various social ills.
We are aware of security concerns in our schools; thus, we are committed to working with civil society, community leaders and relevant State apparatus to restore our schools to their former glory as safety nets for learners.
It is about time that this Government reimposes the authority of the state to protect school infrastructure from vandalism and safeguard our precious assets, learners and teachers.
Programme director, our national developmental blueprint, the National Development Plan (NDP), says: “Education, training and innovation are central to South Africa’s long-term development."
The NDP correctly reminds us that basic education is key to the nation's efforts to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality, and it lays the foundations of an equal society.
It instructs us thus: “By 2030, South Africans should have access to education and training of the highest quality, leading to significantly improved learning outcomes”.
As we know, education empowers people to define their identity, take control of their lives, raise healthy families, participate confidently in developing a just society, and play an influential role in the politics and governance of their communities.
In other words, for us to achieve the lofty ideals of an improved quality basic education as envisaged in the NDP, we must recommit to the fundamental mission to elevate basic education to be a societal issue.
We must be the change that we want to see in others.
No parent must willfully miss the School Governing Body meetings.
If we are to succeed as a country, there must be a paradigm shift in schooling communities that must-see teachers held accountable for poor learner outcomes.
I have constantly said that most community members must push back against the callous manoeuvres of a few that use public schools as a political bargaining chip.
As part of non-negotiables, the schooling of our learners must never be disrupted in the name of service delivery protest.
No school must be burned in the name of we demand a tarred road in this community.
No one must burn any school in the name of we demand clean water.
No one must burn any school for whatever reason—end of story.
Furthermore, this workshop must understand that improving the quality of basic education is part of our international obligations.
For instance, in September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development at the 70th United Nations (UN) Summit.
The mantra of the Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve: “A supremely ambitious and transformation vision of a world free of poverty, hunger, disease and want, where life can thrive”.
As we know, basic education contributes significantly to fighting poverty, improving health outcomes and realising faster economic growth rate.
As part of the global community of nations, we strive for a new world: “free of fear and violence”.
We must in our lifetime achieve a new world with universal literacy and equitable and universal access to quality education at all levels.
A new brave world where we reaffirm our commitment to fundamental human rights such as a right to safe drinking water and modern sanitation.
In our QTLC structures, we must teach respect for human rights and dignity, the rule of law, social justice, and equality.
We must abhor discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origins, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language .
We must strive to give each learner an equal opportunity to realise their full human potential, thus contributing to our shared prosperity.
I conclude this address with the wise words of author, futurist and film-maker Joel Barker, who once opined that: “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world”.
I sincerely hope that this workshop signals a paradigm shift in the context of parental activism for improved learner outcomes and quality basic education.
I thank you.
