Welcome members of the media present this morning.
First and foremost I wish to express my appreciation to Deputy Judge President Justice AN Jappie for presiding over the swearing in of the new MEC for Education Hon. Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni, MPL.
I have no doubt that with her determination and qualification we will continue to see improvement in the quality of education and improvement in matriculation pass rates. I wish to reflect briefly on the profile of our new MEC. She Matriculated at Mbusi High School.
Between 1989 and 1999 she served as a teacher and holds a Secondary Teacher’s Diploma. In 1997 she was appointed as the Chairperson of the Lower South Coast Region of the ANC Women’s League. As from 1999 served as a Member of KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.
Appointed as a Whip of ANC Chairperson of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus. At the forefront of establishment of the office in the Status of Women situated in the Premier’s Office. In 2004 she served as a Chairperson of Committees KZN Legislature. Appointed as MEC for Health on the 4th November 2004.
In 2008, served as a PEC member for the SACP. Also a PEC member of the KwaZulu-Natal Women’s League. Elected and currently serving as the Provincial Treasurer of the ANC. Serves as a PWC member of ANC and in 2009 she was appointed as a Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.
She has travelled all over the world and countries visited includes:
- Germany
- Geneva
- Brazil
- America
- Japan
- Cuba
- Swaziland
- Malaysia
Members of the media, I wish to express my appreciation to you for your patience. I know that you have been waiting for this announcement ever since I made an undertaking during my acceptance speech as the premier that the MEC for Education will be appointed within a week, last Thursday to be specific.
I wish to draw your attention to the fact that since we started this term of office, the provision of quality education has always been on top of the agenda. It is the matter which has been dominating the agenda of cabinet and the provincial legislature.
We made an undertaking that members of society would be mobilised to ensure that the future of our children is secured. We called upon community leaders, religious leaders, traditional leaders, school governing bodies, parents, learners, teachers and leaders of organised labour to work together to promote the culture of learning and teaching.
Importantly we also emphasise that communities need to understand that schools belong to them more than they do to government. It is therefore up to communities to protect the resources that we, as government, pour into schools. The safety and security of teachers, schoolchildren, and property are also the responsibility of communities.
Students spend a bigger part of their days with teachers but without the parents doing their part, teachers cannot succeed in turning the students into valuable soldiers in this Great War to turn ours into the greatest country in the world. Parents must inculcate in their children a culture of discipline, including respect for teachers and other children, time-management and so on.
The relationship between unions and government is not an easy one. However, it is a relationship that cannot be allowed to flounder. It must be nurtured through constant dialogue, with all eyes fixated on the development of our country. Together we dare not fail our children. We must work together to ensure that this country has a bright future.
Since we started this term of office, there has been improvement in matric pass rates. I take my hat off to thousands of learners who did well despite numerous challenges that we are all aware of. Our education system is a work in progress that requires all of us to put our shoulders to wheel, which is already happening.
KwaZulu-Natal has achieved good percentages because of cooperation among various stakeholders. This is despite the fact that KZN is the province with the highest number of learners who enrolled for the matric examination.
Grade 12 results in 2008 were 57.8% and the class of 2012 achieved 73.1%, a magnificent quantum of 15.3% improvement. We commend the Class of 2012, the educators and parents. From 2009 to date we have increased the number of learners passing Mathematics and Science from 24 284 to 30 408 and 23 516 to 26 783 respectively. We need to do more work in this area.
We note performance in the Annual National Assessments for Grades 3 and 6 Mathematics and Languages. Hard work will be needed to attain quality education.
In order to improve early childhood development, primary and secondary education, we are reviewing and resourcing teacher education and capacity building programmes. Through our mathematics and science teacher development project, funds were allocated for establishing the KZN Teacher Development Institute. Slowly the results are showing.
We now have 17 521 learners benefiting from our learner transport programme, up from 1898 in 2009.The number of no-fee schools has been increased from 1 879 in 2009 to 2 796 to date, which constitutes 82.47% of our schools (being non-fee paying) in the province and these schools account for 71.4% of our learners.
The Department of Education has embarked on an ambitious construction programme to improve the learner/teacher ratio, an issue I raised last year as of one our greatest concerns. As the provincial government, we are convinced that the improvement that has been seen in the last few years will be even greater as a result of programmes such as this one.
Government will continue to facilitate teacher development and support, in order to improve the standard and quality of the learning experience.
I thank you!
