Deputy President, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe
Deputy Minister for Basic Education, Mr Enver Surty
CEO of First Rand, Mr Sizwe Nxasana
CEO of JET, Mr Godwin Khosa
Esteemed colleagues
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
Deputy President, I’m glad this moment has finally arrived for us to launch formally this important and unprecedented National Education Collaboration Trust.
We’re glad to do so with The Presidency and with South African companies, organisations and patriotic individuals.
The National Development Plan (NDP) calls on all citizens of the Republic to collaborate to seek creative solutions to the challenges that confront us as a nation, most of which have been inherited from the apartheid past.
This national launch indeed says that we have heeded the NDP’s call to action. A great South African, Sizwe Nxasana, had taken the lead by convening an education stakeholder dialogue in December 2012.
A convening committee chaired by Mr Nxasana worked tirelessly since then to ensure that we reached this historic milestone.
Today we launch the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) as the first practical embodiment of the National Development Plan. We are aware that grand plans are not going to change the lives of our people. It is implementation that matters the most.
The NECT will bring together the key stakeholders in education to work together to address the many challenges we continue to confront in the basic education sector.
Government, business, labour and civil society have all committed to work together to improve learning outcomes for all our children.
The NECT, to be guided by the National Education Collaboration Framework, does not intend to usurp the primary role of government in education, which is to manage and administer the entire basic education system. Government remains responsible for the basic provisioning of the system.
As government we will also continue to provide overall stewardship of the sector. In this regard it is important to appreciate that government will continue to set and direct the reform agenda in basic education.
The NECT aims to support the reform agenda of government. It aims to accelerate the reform strategies of government by targeting twenty education districts. Six districts located in the poorer provinces will be targeted in the first phase of the implementation of the Education Collaboration Framework.
The initiative will focus on six key change levers in these districts that are to be addressed by all partners before and during implementation.
The six themes are:
- Professionalisation of the teaching service
- A call for effective and courageous leadership
- Improving government capacity to deliver
- Improving resourcing in order to create conducive and safe learning environments: teachers, books and infrastructure
- Community and parent involvement
- Learner support and wellbeing.
We know from international change theory that these six levers are most closely associated with educational success.
What distinguishes this initiative from the rest are three important features:
Firstly, it is a systemic intervention, it is system-wide and therefore not fragmented in approach.
Secondly, the scope or impact is huge, focusing on districts not individual schools.
Thirdly, it is sustainable, with promising prospects for lasting impact. I trust that it will scale up work done by non-governmental organisation (NGO) and in no way undermine their role and the work they have done.
It is sustainable because it will help us to find synergy and eliminate wastage and duplication in the work we do as government and NGOs. Certainly this is not about competing with the NGO sector.
It is sustainable because it will help us to share our experiences.
It is sustainable because it will really help us to create space for a form of collaboration ensuring communities have a channel to air their concerns and to work with us to make education a societal issue.
And so this is really to create a platform for engagement for everyone to be able to say something about education and to do something about education.
Programme Director,
I have no doubt that the National Education Collaboration Trust will make a major contribution to educational reform and improvement in South Africa.
I am particularly pleased that we are taking the lead in implementing our long term developmental framework as articulated in the National Development Plan.
I am also pleased to announce that our department is launching the “One School per Week Campaign” in terms of which we will handover newly-built schools in the Eastern Cape, meant to replace the mud schools and unsafe structures.
It will be remiss of me not to acknowledge the father of our nation, Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, as we prepare to celebrate his 95th birthday on Thursday 18 July.
We have asked schools to hold an assembly on Thursday morning wherein millions of learners across the country will sing happy birthday to Madiba. They will also pray for him and reflect on his values and his example of service to others.
Last but not least, I wish to thank the Honourable President, Mr Jacob Zuma, for his unwavering support for basic education and his commitment to improving the quality of schooling in our country.
I also want to thank the Honourable Deputy President, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, for his continued support and guidance.
We remain indebted to all South Africans from all walks of life who’ve been and continue to be committed to education.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I now invite the Honourable Deputy President to address us!
