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Madam Speaker

As usual, the Education Vote debate has been full of fireworks, and like at a fireworks display, we have been treated to an absorbing combination of heat and light - and quite a bit of noise.

Thanks to the Deputy Minister (Father Mkhatshwa), the Chair of the Portfolio Committee (Dr Nzimande) and Honourable Members of all parties who gave such careful thought to their contributions today.

Thanks especially to all speakers, especially but not only ANC Members, who gave strong support to the education policies of this Government, and our unceasing efforts to deal with the immense problems of transforming the system.

Education is of fundamental importance to all of us. As I often say, it touches every family in the country. Moreover, because of the democratisation of the education system under this Government, every parent of a child attending a public school is an enfranchised citizen of the Republic of Education, with voting rights on how schools should be governed. So the area of direct responsibility for education has massively broadened.

Dr Nzimande correctly said that when it suits them, the NP and DP are more centralist than the ANC. Again, when it suits them, they are the arch-federalists and defenders of provincial rights. In fact they are sheer opportunists. And this was demonstrated again today.

The NP's Mr Lee, for instance, worked himself into a froth over the alleged state of affairs in education, quoting liberally from the popular press for his examples. But he has very little interest in facts. He claimed that my Department was subject to a forensic audit. This is sheer fantasy and totally false. My Ministry takes its financial responsibility with deadly seriousness, as the Auditor-General's report has recognised.

I reject with contempt the allegations by NP and DP speakers that my Ministry does not take its responsibilities to provincial education seriously. My Ministry has an overall mandate to ensure that all education in this country is properly run, in order to ensure that Constitutional rights and duties are being upheld. I gave clear evidence in my opening speech that we take this responsibility very seriously indeed.

But no amount of righteous indignation on the part of Mr van Schalkwyk or Mr Ellis will change the fact that Vote 12 does not include the votes of provincial education departments. I exercise my responsibilities according to the Constitution and the law, not according to the cynical opportunism of the NP and the DP.

Some of our opponents give the impression that putting right an education system of this complexity, which embodies such staggering inequality, and has a history of such stinking injustice, is no different than taking a stroll in the park, or playing a round of golf. That is because they are so cocooned in the privileges that apartheid created that they deny the need for transformation, and they are the first to squeal when transformation hurts.

Mr van Schalkwyk made some astonishing claims on behalf of the National Party. He claimed to be interested in where ANC Cabinet Ministers send their children to school and asked me to tell him. Is he serious, Madam Speaker? I do not keep such a register and have no intention of doing so. This is a free country. Those who are parents are entitled to exercise their parental choice as they see fit.

Mr van Schalkwyk claimed that the ANC is planning to "abolish subsidies" to senior secondary schools and convert senior secondary schools into private schools. This is nonsense. His claim is intended to cause confusion and panic. It is untrue. As a leader of a party, he should read before he speaks. I refer him to our Green Paper on Further Education and Training, where we propose our way forward for transforming this sector. It does not include abolishing subsidies.

For successful implementation, Curriculum 2005 requires competent teachers. Its methodology relies on independent research and project work allowing for larger classes. Its emphasis is not on rote-based learning, but dynamic, active learners. It also relies on team-based teaching, thus allowing larger class groups with a multi-disciplinary approach to learning. With the Education Policy Reserve funds, we will, starting this year, commit millions of rands to teacher professional development.

Some speakers spoke about student debt. Much of this is historic, built up at a time when there was no National Student Financial Aid Scheme. We will not tolerate a worsening of the debt situation. We are addressing this by progressively increasing the allocation to the NSFAS, and by supporting institutions to arrive at appropriate agreements with their students on the payment of fees and fee debt. This Government is determined to ensure that academically deserving but poor students continue to be assisted to access higher education.

The claim that my Ministry opposes mother tongue learning and teaching in school education is a blatant lie. The exact opposite is the case. Through public consultation, my Ministry determined policy that entrenches mother-tongue instruction. Moreover, our policy supports additive multi-lingualism, which is internationally accepted as the best method for acquiring a second and third language.

As for our language policy in higher education, in a previous debate I informed this House that the Council on Higher Education, once established, will have the task of advising me on language policy in Higher Education. Currently, however, the councils of higher education institutions continue to determine their own language policies. In effect, a number of institutions have on their own initiative shifted from being only Afrikaans speaking to both English and Afrikaans speaking. A number of leading Afrikaans-speaking academics have congratulated me on the handling of the language issue in higher education by my Ministry, and I thank them for it.

The blatant lie that examinations are in chaos cannot be left unchallenged. While 1996 was characterised by many difficulties, those which are normally associated with birth-pains of a new strategy, namely province-based Senior Certificate examinations. 1997 saw a dramatic improvement. Examinations were successfully run in all nine provinces as a result of the active role taken by the Department of Education and the provincial departments.

Mr van Schalkwyk is fond of challenges. I have previously challenged him to show us one teacher, just one, who has been retrenched by this government. And so far he has failed.

Today he has changed his tune from "retrenchment" to "teachers who have lost their jobs". Anyone can play with figures, and I will not follow his example. But it is an uncomfortable fact for Mr van Schalkwyk that in 1994 there were about 360 000 educators in this country and this year the figure is around 443 000.

This is, in fact, a problem which provinces are trying to manage, as I stated at some length in my opening remarks. Recruitment of educators must be controlled, and properly planned according to budget. As I have said before, we are working with the provinces to get control of their personnel budgets so that they can spend enough money on essential non-salary services.

Madam Speaker, in concluding the debate, may I again thank all who have tried to shed light on the serious matter of educational transformation. We, who have the responsibility have always welcomed honest advice, as even Mr Ellis will acknowledge. What we cannot abide, is the sort of mis-information and mischief-making which has characterised too much of the NP and DP attack on my Ministry today. Mr van Schalkwyk advertised in the papers for members of his party to tune in to the Parliamentary broadcast because he was going to star. It is a shame they were disappointed.

The true star of education is the committed educator in all the ranks of the education services of this country. I began my speech this afternoon with a sincere tribute to them. I end it by affirming that this Government will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that the real challenges we all face in transforming the system are overcome. And overcome them we will.

I thank you.

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