Theme: Beyond Brick and Mortar– Why Education is an Apex Priority?
Programme Director
MEC for Education, Ms Debbie Schäfer
Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Ms Alderman Patricia de Lille
Principal of the school, Mrs M.B. Kiewit
SGB Chairperson and Members present
Die Duine teachers and parents
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
It is an absolute pleasure and honour to be able to officially hand over the first Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) School in the Western Cape. Before I carry on, Programme Director; please allow me to explain what ASIDI is? I have to explain this because it is the first time we are on ASIDI mission here in the Western Cape.
ASIDI is an acronym that stands for Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative. It was conceptualised during the first term of our Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. When she first arrived at the Department, she immediately asked what was being done about schools built from inappropriate materials – some referred to as mud, plankie and asbestos schools. Officials in the department then began a process of identifying all schools that needed urgent attention. After due diligence processes were completed, we made a submission to the National Treasury for a ring-fenced funding for ASIDI. As education had already been declared an apex priority by President Jacob Zuma, National Treasury acceded to our request.
The R8.2 billion public-private programme, one of the government's Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs), aims to eradicate the 496 "mud schools" in the country, and provide water and sanitation to 1 257 schools and electricity to 878 schools, by March 2016.
Delivering his State of the Nation address to Parliament in Cape Town in 2014, President Jacob Zuma said the country needed "engineers, electricians, plumbers, doctors, teachers and many other professionals to build our country's economy.”
President Zuma further asserted that: "Education therefore remains an apex priority for this government. We will continue to promote universal access to education by ensuring that all children between ages 7 and 15 are in school. We will increase the number of Grade 12 learners who can gain entrance to university, moving from 172 000 in 2013 to 250 000 in 2019."
I am happy to report that the number of schools built since the inception of ASIDI today stands at 75. Because ASIDI is more than just brick and mortar but a programme to change fundamentally the learning landscape of poor communities, ASIDI has to date also provided access to water to 224 schools, decent sanitation to 266 schools and electricity to 265 schools. ASIDI provides state-of-art-art facilities. In fact we no longer just build schools; we create learning spaces of excellence. We restore dignity of rural and poor communities. We are creating chances for rural and poor children to have decent structures and quality education so that they too can reap the rewards of a better life for all that often people talk about.
Therefore, opening classroom doors to all children, especially girls, helps to break the inter-generational chains of poverty.
More specifically:
Education empowers women and girls: The economic and personal empowerment that education provides allows women and girls to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. The United Nations Population Fund says that the benefits of education for girls include a reduction in poverty and an improvement of the health of women and their children, as well as the potential to reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS (UNFPA, 2010).
According to the Bread for the World Hunger Report (Bread for the World, 2005), expanding education for girls is also one of the most powerful ways of fighting hunger. The report concludes that gains made in women’s education made the most significant difference in reducing malnutrition, even out-performing a simple increase in the availability of food.
Education contributes to improving child survival and maternal health: Research undertaken by the World Bank (2004) indicates that a child born to an educated mother is more than twice more likely to survive to the age of five than a child born to an uneducated mother. Educated mothers are also 50% more likely than mothers with no schooling to immunise their children against diseases (World Bank, 2004).
Education contributes to the fight against HIV and AIDS: A report by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE, 2004) asserts that educated people are healthier people. HIV and AIDS infection rates are halved among young people who finish primary school. Thus, if every child received a complete primary school education, at least seven million new cases of HIV could be prevented during the course of a decade.
Education helps to fight poverty and spur economic growth: Education is a prerequisite for tackling poverty and promoting short and long-term economic growth. No country has achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40% of adults being able to read and write (GCE, 2010). At an individual level, a person’s earnings increase with each additional year of schooling they receive.
This is especially true for additional years of higher education. Thus, people who are educated are able to earn more money and support their families, which helps economies to grow faster and poverty rates to decline.
Education provides a foundation for building peace: Education is an essential building block in the development of an inclusive and peaceful democratic society. According to a report by Save the Children (2009), every year of schooling decreases a male’s chance of engaging in violent conflict by 20%.
Most importantly, we want to demonstrate that the legacy of apartheid can no longer continue to be an albatross around the necks of the poor. Our mandate as the ANC led government is to once and for all implement the rallying call of the Freedom Charter which proclaimed boldly that: “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Opened to all.” Some people may argue that we have had twenty years to do what we are doing today. The reality is that 20 years in a life of an individual is a long time but in a life of a nation is a very short time. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, only one generation has been produced by our new education system introduced in 1996. The year 2014 marks a turning point as we finally implement CAPS throughout our schooling system.
Government investment in education
In this school, our government invested R45 million to build it. What an investment ladies and gentlemen! You may have heard the Minister talk about Norms and Standards. We invested this amount of money because we want you to understand that this is the norm and standard that befits you as citizens of South Africa. The very least we can do is invest in education and the very least that you can do is cherish the opportunities that are now open before you and that you make education your best friend. Drugs and gang membership may be trendy and fashionable. In truth they are a short cut to a very miserable life. Your path to success lies in education.
As we speak, Benny McCarthy who worked hard to stay off the streets and became a soccer star has not stopped working with the end of his playing days. Instead, the young man promptly took up coaching lessons so that he can one day coach and manage a team. So you see, children, learning does not stop and it offers you a more long lasting benefits than anything else you can think of.
The ASIDI programme continues to grow in strength from an original position of a shaky start. Lessons learned from the initial roll out have been applied in the current phase. Where contractors were given numerous schools to manage, this has now been changed to mitigate the risk of poor performance. Of course you will always have that contractor who does not seize the opportunity given to his company and makes a hash of things but those are issues that we are managing all the time.
To date, the Department of Basic Education has already handed 49 over to local communities in various provinces. Remember, learning does not stop at all during the construction period and, of course, after a school is completed but part of the healing after apartheid includes marking these milestones with celebrations and that is why, every single week since July 2013, we have been doing that in the Eastern Cape. After a short break, we are here in the Western Cape to celebrate with you. This is what freedom should mean for all ordinary South Africans.
In conclusion, I must reiterate especially to the press and adults here, that our programme goes beyond brick and mortar. The building of these schools and provision of services is as much about breaking up with the past as it is about healing the wounds of apartheid education. As I said earlier, ultimately this is about the restoration of dignity for our people and laying the ground for a better future so that our children can enjoy and benefit from the fruits of a living in a democratic society.
