Programme Director: Mr. Dalin Oliver
Zenex Foundation Chairperson: Mr. Sizwe Nxasana
Zenex Foundation CEO: Ms Gail Campbell
Zenex Foundation Board of Trustees
Distinguished guests
Learners
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening, sanibonani, molweni, riperile, dumelang, lotjhani, goeienaand, ndi madekwana!
It is indeed my singular honour and a privilege to be asked to deliver a keynote address this evening as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Zenex Foundation. This is indeed a historic milestone. In the ANC circles, we would say, it’s a Good Story to Tell. I am happy to be part of this revolutionary narrative of Taking South Africa’s Basic Education Forward.
Since today is a day of pomp and ceremony, it’s important for posterity that, I highlight at least one flagship project of the Zenex Foundation that is being launched tonight, namely the Vula Bula Series. This ground-breaking initiative is focussed on the development of teaching and learning resources in the nine selected African languages.
The beauty of the Vula Bula Series is that it is a Foundation Phase Graded Reading Programme. The Series has been developed in partnership with Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy. I must say this Series herald an important contribution to literacy education in the country. Moreover, the whole Series is available as Open Education Resources and include teacher training material, classroom resources and readers.
The Vula Bula Series resonates very well with our recent resolution, namely the Incremental Introduction of African Languages in all our schools by 2016. This is part of the effort to forge ahead with the mission of cementing social cohesion while simultaneously improving literacy.
Programme Director, particularly pleasing is that the Vula Bula Series does not exist in a vacuum, but it is a key component of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT’s) District Intervention Programme, the Gauteng Province Literacy and Numeracy Strategy and is also being used in the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) Early Reading Research Study in the North West Province. It gives me pleasure to confirm that the Zenex Foundation is a key partner in all these initiatives.
Programme Director; let me recap, as we all know, the aim of the Zenex Foundation since inception has been to improve the quality of learning and teaching in the basic education sector. Interestingly, the Foundation has focussed its entire energy and resources in Mathematics, Science and Language education in South Africa. This alone makes the Zenex Foundation a natural partner for Government as we grapple on daily basis with improving learner outcomes in these gateway subjects. We all know that South Africa lags behind in the international rankings in terms of Mathematics and Science.
The Government is doing everything in its power to improve learner outcomes in these two crucial subjects. However, the problem in the area of Mathematics and Literacy is acute. Despite improvements of scores in Mathematics at the lower grades, our Achilles' heel as a sector remains the unacceptably low performance in Grade Nine Mathematics. According to the ANA 2014 results, the Grade Nine Mathematics learners achieved a paltry 10.8% average.
The situation is no better in literacy. According to the National School Effectiveness Study (NSES) study; “by September/October, one-third of South Africa Grade five children had not written a single paragraph-length piece during that whole school year”. The nature of the problem varies between former Model C Schools and historically black schools. Research indicates that the number of literacy exercises found in the “best” learner’s book (Gr5): is 75 in former white schools and only 33 in black schools.
In this regard, the National Development Plan (NDP) has set a target of 450 000 learners being eligible for a Bachelor's programme with Maths and Science by 2030. In the meantime the NDP exhorts us to increase the number of enrolments in Maths and Science. It further says 90% of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9 must achieve 50% or more in the Annual National Assessment (ANA) in Literacy, Numeracy/Mathematics and Science. To achieve this, we have made a determination that all public schools must offer some sort of Mathematics or Mathematics Literacy as of 2015/16 financial year. We are also promoting Mathematics/Science subjects choice combination for Grade 10 learners so that they can take these subjects to the Matric level.
Programme Director, I am happy to report that we have increased our arsenal in the arena of Mathematics and Science. During our 2015/16 Budget Speech we announced a new conditional grant, namely the Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) grant. This Grant is intended to promote the teaching and learning of Mathematics, Science and Technology in our schools. This Grant, an amalgamation of the Technical Schools Recapitalisation Grant and the Dinaledi Schools Grant, has been allocated a total of R1.1 billion over the 2015/16 to 2017/18 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
The allocation for 2015/16 is R347.185 million; which will increase to R367.670 million and R385.145 million in 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years, respectively. The MST Grant will strengthen the implementation of the National Development Plan and the Action Plan to 2019 by increasing the number of learners taking Mathematics, Science and Technology subjects thus improving the success rate in the subjects, and improving teachers’ capabilities in teaching these three gateway subjects.
Programme Director, the reality of the situation is that we are unable to achieve all this alone as Government, hence the need for partnerships and private sector investment in education.
Partnership between the government and business requires agreement on common objectives hence the birth of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) on the 16th of July 2013. The NECT is an organisation dedicated to strengthening partnerships among business, civil society, government and labour in order to achieve the education goals of the National Development Plan. As we know, it strives both to support and influence the agenda for accelerated change and excellence in basic education.
To demonstrate our seriousness in this collaboration, in our 2015/16 Budget Vote, we made available over R200 million bringing the total allocation over the over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to R326 million. This allocation is to support the work of the NECT for a range of programmes that seek to unlock the potential of the basic education sector as a whole.
Programme Director; it will be amiss of me if I don’t acknowledge the fact that the Zenex Foundation is an integral part of the NECT. To date, they have not only injected R6 Million towards this partnership, but also warm bodies with expertise have been seconded to the NECT. We thank you kindly for this generous and I may add, wise investment in the future of our country.
Programme Director, I want to argue that the most effective partnerships are where partners not only enrich each other but also find ways where they can mutually benefit. Our singular goal for any partnerships in education is to create space for social partners and the business community to assist in realising the achievement of Delivery Outcome 1 i.e. “Improved Quality of Basic Education”. Our partnership with the Zenex Foundation fits faultlessly within this framework of a mutually beneficial symbiosis. We therefore owe a debt of gratitude to the bright sparks at Zenex Foundation who daily work effortlessly to change the lives of our children throughout the country.
Conversely, what set Zenex Foundation apart from the rest is its contribution to the sector through research and programmatic activities. At the heart of these two distinct yet complementary activities of the Foundation is the critical element of strategic partnerships not only with Government but with other like-minded NGOs and donors involved in education delivery.
We are glad to say without any fear of contradictions that since its launch in 1995, the Zenex Foundation has been a torch-bearer in the field of investing in Mathematics, Science and Language education in South Africa. This commitment to the future of our children echoes well with the words of our international icon, the late founding President of the new South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who forewarned us:
“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
In addition, the Zenex Foundation has distinguished itself from other grant-making bodies by committing its entire budget strictly to the fields of Mathematics, Science and Language education in South Africa. The impact of the financial resources has been evaluated through extensive research and scientific enquiry, and important lessons have been learnt about how donors can support the improvement of learner performance at school level.
We really appreciate that the Zenex Foundation has adopted a two-pronged strategy to its work: on the one hand it focuses its efforts on small scale innovations to test new ideas in education, and on the other hand it works on large scale, system wide initiatives in conjunction with the Government.
We are particularly excited that the Vula Bula Series comes at a time when concentrated efforts are afoot to make reading fashionable. In this regard, as some of you might know that we have upped the ante on the issue of reading and literacy. In July, we launched one of the most ambitious educational initiatives since the dawn of democracy, the 1000 School Libraries Campaign. Our plan is to ensure that every year until 2019; we activate and/ or make available 1000 Libraries per annum.
At the programme launch, we had wonderful support from the private sector as well as non-governmental organisations. This campaign was launched in July this year to coincide with the International Nelson Mandela Day activities.
Amid the fanfare of the 1 000 School Libraries Campaign, we have also moved with requisite speed and launched the Drop all and Read Campaign. We are surely but slowly igniting a reading revolution in our country. At the heart of this campaign is that all our schools have been advised through a circular to observe at least 30 minutes per week of mandatory reading as part of this programme. Beyond the reading at schools, we are encouraging families, churches and communities to reinforce the Drop All and Read Campaign at home and at various community engagements.
Our ultimate prize is to make Drop All and Read Campaign a regular established part of both children and parents’ daily routine. The message is perfectly simple: Drop All and Read.
The second most heartening contribution of the Zenex Foundation over the past two decades is the singular focus on Mathematics and Science. However, this singular focus is predicated on the firm belief that literacy functions as an entry point to success in Maths and Science.
Over the past 20 years, the Zenex Foundation has thus supported the integration of language education into Maths and Science interventions. The research shows that language proficiency and basic reading and writing skills are the foundation for success in Maths and Science. Of relevance here as I said before is the Foundation’s work in literacy in African languages and English First Additional Language through teacher development, resource development and research.
Programme Director, there are a plethora of innovative programmes that the Zenex Foundation is involved in - either on its own or through the NECT. We acknowledge that the Zenex Foundation has since its inception developed meaningful partnerships with various spheres of Government, NGOs, other donors and schooling community.
We note with appreciation that during this period Zenex Foundation delivered education programmes through a practise of using evidence from evaluation and research. To date the total investment stands at R671 million.
As the Ministry of Basic Education, we are truly indebted to the Foundation for the brain power, innovation and financial injection behind our partnership.
Conclusion,
In conclusion, I wish that our partnership in education continue to flourish so that in our lifetime we can realise our mission of providing State-funded quality education for all. We are very excited to be where we are, we agreed, we would work together to Move Education Forward, and we are doing so daily without any fanfare. In the words of the President of the Republic uBaba uJacob Zuma:
“We are making steady progress. But we have to do more. We have to improve the quality of Matric passes. We need to train more teachers, including principals, so that they can teach and manage schools better.” (NECT President Zuma Opening Remarks, April 24, 2015).
I thank you!
