of the Province Address
21 February 2007
Greetings to you all! May I sincerely thank you for coming here this
morning.
We fully endorse and welcome the concern raised by the Premier of Gauteng,
Mbhazima Shilowa that even though our education system continues to make
meaningful strides, there is an urgent need to halt the poor state of affairs
in some of our schools.
We cannot indeed postpone the education of an African child. As the Premier
stated, it is the African child that continues to learn under unacceptable
conditions; it is also the African child that continues to make the high number
of those learners that underperforms. If this trend is not halted, it will be
extremely difficult for this government to reach its desired goals of halving
poverty and unemployment by 2014.
Fortunately at the beginning of this year I visited almost all the
underperforming schools and I fully agree with the Premier that you cannot
allow learners, especially matriculants who are on the doorstep of a better
life, to fail and be sentenced to poverty and underdevelopment.
We have already received all the turnaround strategies of all the schools
that continue to perform unsatisfactorily. Our team of analysts are going
through the reports with an intention of strengthening some aspects of these
turnaround strategies. We are convinced that by the time we attend the
Premier's Convened Education Summit at the end of March, we will be ready with
programmes for stemming to halt the decline of the education of the African
child.
Human Resource Planning and Development Agency
The vision for the Gauteng Human Resources Development (HRD) Strategy is
"developing employable, entrepreneurial and smart people". The vision is based
on the HRD imperatives of contributing towards a knowledge intensive and "smart
province," while simultaneously supporting the drive to eradicate poverty and
unemployment.
The HRD Strategy has as its mission "to facilitate the development and
integration of HRD initiatives within Gauteng in order to address key
provincial socio-economic imperatives in line with national policy
frameworks."
Through the "Ithutele Tiro" project, the Human Resource Planning and
Development Agency has acquired funding for the training of young people over
the next 3 years in the following skills area:
* Tunnelling/ Construction
* Construction - TBM
* Construction - Artisans
* Qualified Electrical and Mechanical Artisans
* Business Process Outsourcing
* Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The Agency would be responsible for Project Managing, and monitoring and
evaluating the project during this period of time to contribute towards the
reduction of poverty and unemployment in the province.
No fee schools
As part of our fight against poverty, 371 059 learners and families from 421
schools will not be required to pay school fees. These schools will receive
more funding from the government to ensure that learners from poor backgrounds
get the necessary support for their education.
Gauteng learner population
Last year our public school learner population was 1 607 575, this year this
figure has increased to 1 643 537, with learners in independent schools
decreasing from 162 353 last year to 154 678 this year.
The influx of people into the cities has resulted in an increase in learner
numbers particularly in Tshwane, the southern suburbs of Johannesburg and
Ekurhuleni. Plans have been made to provide relief to extremely overcrowded
schools through the provision of mobile classrooms during the first term and 54
new schools to be completed in 2007.
The completion of eleven schools for use at the start of this academic year
has brought some relief for children in Cosmo City, Kaalfontein, Duduza,
Etwatwa, Windmill Park, Greenfields, Phomolong, Lotus Gardens and
Rethabiseng.
To ensure improved planning, this year's registration will move from
September to July. We call upon parents to support us in this regard.
With the completion of the cross border process we are now ready to welcome
21 schools from Mpumalanga and 214 schools from North West while we will hand
over 28 to North West schools from 1 April 2007.
Appointment of permanent and temporary educators
The additional number of 3 634 educator posts were allocated for the 2007
academic year, this is 8,91% more than 2006. Adult Basic Education and Training
(ABET) centres will get 44 additional educators, which represents a 29,33%
growth in this system. The Exceptional Learners with Special Educational Needs
(ELSEN) staff will be increased with another 231 posts.
Temporary educators that are in the posts that have not yet been filled with
permanent educators will remain at the schools until such time that the new
posts are filled by permanent appointments.
School violence
Last year, some of our schools had problems in dealing with school violence
and learners in possession of drugs and other substances. We have since
strengthened our school safety unit and we are now ready to roll out national
regulations which will strengthen our schools hand in this regard.
We will roll out an awareness campaign early next month that involves
various role models and motivational speakers as part of our fight against
school violence.
Our Early Childhood Development (ECD), ABET and Further Education and
Training (FET) programmes are enjoying our attention. ECD we will be increasing
our Grade R classes to ensure greater access in poor communities. With ABET we
are now managing the ABET centres to address the needs of learners with special
education needs, e.g. literacy, skills and matric.
We are successfully implementing the FET recapitalisation plan which focuses
on both curriculum modernisation and upgrading of physical infrastructure; this
is being done to increase access to technical and vocational education within
the FET band.
Scholar transport
We are doing everything in our power to manage this programme. The number of
learners on the scholar transport stands at 44 000, an increase from 38 000. We
have strengthened both our management and administration of the programme.
Conclusion
We remain convinced that 2007 will continue to be a better academic year for
the Gauteng Department of Education.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
21 February 2007
