meeting held at the Burgers Park Hotel in Pretoria
3 April 2007
At its second meeting of 2007, the Council of Education Ministers yesterday
approved the release of the draft Education Laws Amendment Bill for public
comment. The Bill makes provision for national standards for school
infrastructure and equipment, clarifies the roles and responsibilities of a
school principal and provides a statutory basis for random searches and drug
testing of learners.
The council also discussed the concerns regarding educators who serve as
time local government councillors simultaneously. From reports provided by
MECs, it is evident that school teaching and local government positions are
incompatible and those educators would need to make a choice between these two.
Where teachers have tried to occupy both positions, attention to school
activities has invariably suffered. It was, therefore, agreed that a process of
consultation would be pursued to determine the best solution to this
matter.
The council engaged with the details of a national school building
programme. There is a desire to ensure greater community involvement in school
building especially in the face of limited capacity in education departments as
well as in the construction industry, in regard to building schools. Council
agreed that increased effort should be given to designing and building schools
for the future and endorsed a process of international research supported by
the World Bank, learning from the many successful examples of community led
school building programmes.
On the implementation of the new curriculum, council approved a national
catalogue for grade 12 textbooks has been finalised and distributed to
provinces. With the ever increasing volume of information being made available
in digital format on topics related directly to the planning and delivery of
the curriculum in the classroom, it was agreed that subject advisors require
information and communication technology (ICT) skills to support teachers. The
Department of Education plans to address the area of ICT skills development for
subject advisors via a three phase plan to be implemented during 2007/08.
Finally, the council received a report on learner transport designed to
assist provincial education departments. The study captured the status of
existing learner transport schemes, together with information regarding
international best practice. The "Report on the Status of Learner Transport
Schemes" provides a wealth of information on how transport promotes or hinders
access to education and it will be released to the public in the near future.
Tentative guidelines contained in the report were endorsed and future plans
will be closely aligned with the Shova Kalula (pedal easy) project of the
Department of Transport. This project entails the provision of a million
bicycles to school children by 2015 and the construction of dedicated cycle
paths to ensure their safety.
For further details contact
Lunga Ngqengelele
Ministerial Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 312 5538
Cell: 082 566 0446
E-mail: ngqengelele.l@doe.gov.za
Issued by: Ministry of Education
3 April 2007
