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Madam Chairperson

I am pleased to be with my colleagues from the provinces with whom I have a good working relationship, in so doing accomplishing the imperative and benefits of cooperative governance. Present today are some MECs and special provincial delegates who are here not in their party political capacities but with a mandate representing their provinces so I hope that we can have a sincere debate without the silly party politics that so often prevails in the National Assembly.

I do not intend to duplicate my speech to the National Assembly, instead I would like to focus on issues that relate to education in the provinces including some of the measures that will improve the quality of the education provided and allow for greater efficiencies in the system.

Too often we do not pay enough attention to the progress we have made in building our democracy and the institutions that will sustain it in the years ahead. This is no different in education where we have made significant strides in the last 9 years, not just in the quality and quantity of education but also in respect of access to education and, particularly, targeting the poor and previously disadvantaged groups in our country.

So, for instance, net enrolment in primary education in South Africa is now higher than 95%. This is a high figure compared even to many developed countries. And, since 1999, there has been an average annual increase in pass rate (those who passed expressed as a proportion of those who wrote) of 6 percentage points in other words from a pass rate of 48.8% in 1999 to 68.9% in 2002.

The total provincial education expenditure increase between 2002/03 and 2003/04 in constant rand terms is truly substantial, a real increase of R2.4 billion in 2003 Rands - it is R5.5bn in nominal Rands - reinforcing an upward trend in expenditure on education. During the current MTEF period expenditure is expected to grow by 2.7% per annum in real terms. During the current financial year we expect to spend R58.9 billion on provincial education. Expenditure per learner in the schooling system has increased from R3 234 in 1999/00 to R3 995 in 2001/02 and is estimated to increase to R4 437 in 2002/3, although individual provinces' budgets are under pressure due to personnel spending and considerable infrastructure needs, which I will address shortly.

Pro-poor funding policies from national to provincial and within the education system through the funding norms, are working and showing results. The challenge is to make output and learner achievement also more equitably distributed in the system and in society.

A major part of our focus has been the introduction of the revised National Curriculum Statements for which preparations are well under way for their introduction in the Foundation Phase, Grades R to 3, next year. This curriculum revision had two goals. One was to vastly simplify the curriculum outcomes statements, so that all teachers can understand and use them properly. These have been published in all eleven official languages, as well as Braille, to ensure there are no misunderstandings, and we have provided assessment standards for each outcome, to show teachers what should be expected at each Grade level. (I am pleased to report that there are now very explicit statements about being able to read and write!) In addition, we have provided each teacher with a Guide, which gives a huge amount of advice on turning outcome statements into learning programmes, which are suitable for their pupils.

The other purpose of the curriculum revisions was to insert a much stronger emphasis on human rights, on inclusivity, and on the celebration of our diversity. In future, children will learn much more about our wonderful country; not just its physical geography, but its history and its soul as well. They must know how it has come about, the battles that have been fought around ownership, and the values which we now share, along with this land, as inscribed in our Constitution.

We have delivered boxed copies of the Curriculum Statements to every school, and additional copies are currently being sent to every Foundation Phase teacher. I would like members of this Council to do a service to their constituencies by checking that these documents are indeed getting to the schools, and to the teachers, and are not stored in the principal's office. If there are any difficulties, if schools seem not to have received them, I invite you to please contact my office directly, so that the matter can be investigated. We cannot afford to have any schools without the right documents.

To prepare our Foundation Phase teachers for next year, we have appointed a core team of twenty people - academics, NGOs and Departmental officials - who are currently providing training to our curriculum officials. These are Provincial and District based subject advisory staff, who must lead the implementation process in their areas. Similar training will be given to school principals, who will also be expected to provide instructional leadership to teachers in their schools. In each instance, the Teacher Guide will form the basis of the training, so that the message is consistent throughout the country.

In respect of early childhood development we started a process two years ago to roll out the implementation of Grade R, the school reception year. I am pleased to report that we are on schedule with this process and to date more than 200 000 children are enrolled in Grade R at schools and community facilities around the country. This should increase by 10% to 20% each year over the next 6 or 7 years and by 2010 we expect that the full complement of approximately 1 million Grade R pupils will be catered for.

I am pleased to report that at present thousands of Grade R kits are being distributed around the country and the training and upgrading of 4500 practitioners in all provinces is about to commence.

Madam Chairperson, one of the most significant investigations carried out by the Department of Education to date, has been the Review of the Financing, Resourcing and Costs of Education in Public Schools study which is currently being considered by the Cabinet and which was enthusiastically received by a joint Cabinet Committee this morning. The report identified, firstly, key ways in which we could enhance the system more or less within current budgets and, secondly, where budgetary shifts are vital for improving the situation in our public schools.

The most important and crucial interventions arising from the Review is the implementation of a national poverty-targeting framework. Currently non-personnel recurrent allocations are distributed according to provincial poverty targeting lists, the consequence of which is that the poorest 20% of learners in a particular province may not be at the same level of poverty as the poorest 20% of learners in another province. In the new national targeting framework each province will be allocated funds according to their share of poor learners nationally. Provincial education departments would then develop a provincial resource-targeting list by ranking schools according to the poverty of the communities around the school. Provinces would then allocate a "normed" per learner amount for non-personnel recurrent school expenditure according to the national poverty groupings.

In addition, Madam Chairperson, during 2003 a system of post provisioning to schools was introduced that takes into account the relative level of poverty of a school. This was aimed at ensuring that learners who come from a particularly poor background have the benefit of smaller classes. Poverty is regarded as a barrier to learning and the provision of smaller classes to these learners is aimed at compensating for this barrier. The post provisioning policy makes provision for the top-slicing by a department of a maximum of 5% of its total pool of posts and to allocated these top-sliced posts to schools in accordance with their relative levels of poverty. For 2003 the various provincial departments have effected top-slices of between 2% and 5% resulting in a total shift of approximately 3000 posts to poor schools.

We have also paid attention to the improvement of school infrastructure with Government's commitment to extensive increases in education capital budgets. The provincial education capital budget which was R2.01 billion in the 2003/03 financial year; has increased to R2.5 billion in 2003/04 and is estimated to increase to R3.02 billion in 2004/05.

Emphasis on classroom and infrastructure provision has reduced classroom backlogs to such an extent that the problem of educators without classrooms has been considerably reduced. I am pleased to announce that 3750 classrooms were built by Provincial Departments of Education during 2002/03 in an attempt to eliminate situations where students were learning under trees, in the open air, in over-crowded classrooms and in unacceptable structures.

An estimated total of 12 828 classrooms will be built during the period 2002/03 to 2004/05. At the end of the current MTEF period the classroom backlog is estimated to drop to 30465 from a recorded shortage of 65380 in 1996.

Nationally, 1034 schools were electrified during the current financial year by October 2002. The allocation of R59 million to Eskom in 2002/03 for the Schools and Clinics Electrification Programme have been increased to R101 million next year to further accelerate the electrification of schools and clinics.

Other infrastructure items such as water, toilets and sanitation, textbooks and telecommunications and IT infrastructure have been expanded to ensure that learners, nine years after the democratic transition in our country have access to more services at school than ever before.

Madam Chairperson, children cannot learn on an empty stomach. As you may be aware the Primary Schools Nutrition Programme is an important element of the strategy to combat poverty, will be transferred from the Department of Health to the Department of Education during 2004. Preparations for this transfer began in 2002, and we are confident that Government will be in a position to move closer to its target of providing nutritious lunches to all poor learners on every school day of the year. During 2004, we intend to realise our target of providing a nutritious meal to 20% of learners on a pro-poor basis on every school day.

We soon will set up a mechanism whereby schools will be able to apply for funding to provide lunches for learners in schools not fully covered in the programme. In this case, eligibility for poverty-based welfare grants will be used as a criterion for eligibility for a publicly funded lunch.

Let me turn now to Further Education and Training. In the latter part of last year, I declared 2003 the Year of Further Education and Training and therefore I will deal with this element of our mandate in somewhat more detail. This was aimed at enhancing the profile of the FET band in general, and the FET college sector in particular.

In October last year, I released the draft National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (Schools) for public comments. Public comments were incorporated into the draft National Curriculum Statement.

On 14 February 2003, I announced that the new National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 would be implemented in grade 10 in 2006. I indicated then, and I should like to repeat in this Council that the new curriculum can only be implemented if there is adequate preparation of teachers and learning and teaching support materials, including quality textbooks.

Provincial departments of education have a crucial role to play in the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement. While the national Department of Education will give guidance in terms of how best we can prepare for implementation, the primary role of preparing for and implementing the curriculum rests with the provinces.

Forgive me if I concentrate on an area that has long required our attention and which is vital for the development of our human resource capacity. On 15 May 2003, I launched the 50 new public Further Education and Training colleges. I said at the launch that the FET colleges have been the Cinderella of our education and training system. This situation obviously cannot continue if we are to develop the colleges into modern institutions which meet the demands of a post-Apartheid society in the twenty-first century.

The setting up of management structures is proceeding in all 50 colleges. College principals have been appointed in all colleges in six provinces and will shortly be completed in the other three provinces. The appointment of 157 college senior managers is proceeding as planned.

In the last quarter of this year colleges will be busy with the completion of the restructuring process with the development of new organograms. Staff will be absorbed into the new college structures, based on Resolution 7 of 2002 of the Public Service Bargaining Council.

The Department of Education, through our private sector partners, is currently running a series of training programmes directed at the colleges in each province. These are aimed at establishing the basic capacity to handle change management, curriculum development, strategic planning and quality assurance.

My Department is currently working on determining the resource requirements for the FET college sector. We have engaged provinces in discussions on a possible adjustment of per capita allocations, on a new funding formula, and on the initial sense of rehabilitation and merger costs. We intend to have a consolidated set of financial statements for each FET college. This will facilitate an effective handover of accountability and responsibility to the new principals as required by Public Financial Management Act.

Currently, the FET college sector is allocated 2% in provincial education budgets. I have set a target to double this figure over 5 years. We have also targeted efficiency gains of 5% year on year, as well as an annual 5% increase in student enrolments.

The FET college sector has to expand its learning programmes and qualifications. Such an expansion will largely come from demand-led courses. Currently we have 208 SETA-related courses in 29 of our colleges, with over 2000 learners enrolled in them.

We have begun with the implementation of a strategy to phase out the old college curricula. A new qualifications policy framework will establish college clusters across the various organising fields of the National Qualifications Framework. It will also put into a place a mechanism for the new colleges to begin developing and delivering responsive and relevant vocational qualifications and programs.

Institutional programme niches have been identified and linked to the MTSF through the current strategic planning processes. These programme niches will be funded through innovation and centres of excellence funding planned as part of the new funding approach. This will be piloted during the coming year and phased in during the 2005/6 budget year. Provinces should play an important role in identifying further innovative niche programmes that would address the social and economic needs of specific regions in the provinces.

Alongside the developments I mentioned above, the phasing in of a new FET Management Information System (FETMIS) is underway. To assist colleges which do not have the minimum Information Technology base to supply the system with data, a R50 000 grant from the CCF is available to establish such a base.

While we have made progress in developing our new public FET colleges, there are still urgent priorities awaiting our attention in the current and the next budget year. These include the development of policy and the implementation thereof in the areas of student support services (including student financial aid); internal quality assurance systems; the staffing of provincial directorates for FET colleges; the staffing of the colleges; and public-private partnerships. I expect the provinces to expedite these issues with all the vigour and energy they deserve.

Madam Chairperson, now to some topical issues. I have been surprised by the reaction from some quarters to our draft Religion in Education policy, partly because so much public comment has been based on misinformation and hearsay and partly because there are clearly people who still do not recognise the enormous diversity of our country.

I met with the National Religious Leaders Forum last week to discuss the draft policy. We had a very congenial and open exchange of views in which there was a general meeting of minds in respect of the various issues.

It was agreed that there could be further discussions about Religion Education currently being implemented at schools around improving and enhancing the curriculum aspects of the topic.

The religious community themselves indicated that they were encouraged by a greater sense of openness and transparency and their increased involvement in the consultation process.

In respect of another issue: there has been some comment in the press about the draft amendment to the South African Schools Act regarding additional remuneration paid by School Governing Bodies to teachers employers in terms of the Employment of Educators Act. Regrettably the outcry from certain quarters failed to realise that this was not something new. Already teachers are regulated in terms of the earning of additional remuneration and all the amendment is trying to achieve is to align the two Acts to place as much responsibility on the School Governing Bodies as on the teachers.

We are currently looking at the various submissions we have received and next week I will be putting a proposal to the Council of Education Ministers based on the representations we have received. My primary concern is to have a system in place that functions effectively, efficiently and fairly.

There was a suggestion in the press that I would "back off" the legislation, somehow change my mind, or reverse my decision. This is really a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't scenario. The whole idea of broad consultation with the public and relevant role players - something I have employed extensively during my term of office - is to seek ideas about how our various proposals can be improved and implemented. Yet, if we don't take into account the submissions we receive we are accused of being headstrong and if we do take the views into consideration we are regarded as backing down. The truth be told? I do not worry about either of these allegations, so long as we get it right in the final analysis.

Madam Chairperson, notwithstanding the need for some changes to legislation, our country has a system of school governance that is the envy of many countries. Our School Governing Bodies allow for greater participation in the life of our schools by all sectors of school communities. The South African Schools Act and its regulations empower the SGB to make decisions with respect to matters such as school fees, school development plans, school policy, language policy, educator appointments and the custodianship of school monies.

Recently, I appointed a team of independent persons to review our school governance system. The review was inspired by concerns that some of our SGBs are operating outside the spirit, and possibly the letter, of our Constitution by denying many students access to schooling, often by using language as a barrier. Others are not managing their financial affairs in accordance with regulations.

In reviewing our School Governing Bodies, we need think laterally, and also learn from best practice in other countries. We need to consider, for example, the advisability of circuit-wide SGBs. We might even want to consider the formal involvement of local government in our school governance.

At another level of management, my Ministry has prioritised the establishment and the development of education districts. Districts have a crucial role to play in the delivery of educational services. Because they are close to schools and FET colleges, they are best placed to monitor and support what happens in the schools and colleges.

I am sad to report that the state of many of our district offices across all provinces is less satisfactory. The staff complement of many of our district offices is not yet fully established. In many instances, district officials are ineffective, and seem to be poorly prepared for the task they have been given to perform. In my recent visits to different provinces, I have been to schools where teachers informed me that they had not seen a district official for up to a year and a half. Some district officials I interacted with did not know what was going on in schools located in their own districts.

The limitations found in district offices represent a serious problem which provinces have to deal with in a swift and effective way. First, the restructuring of districts has to be completed in order to bring some stability to districts. Second, programmes to train district officials have to be developed and implemented. Third, provinces have to set and implement clear performance targets for district officials in order to enhance accountability.

Madam Chairperson, I have noted with concern the recent media reports on what is seen as declining safety and security in our schools. Several instances of intimidation, harassment, stabbing, and shooting have been reported.

While we have to view this in a very serious light, we should not allow ourselves to be moved to a state of panic by some of these reports. Eighteen months ago, I gazetted regulations that sought to make schools drug-free and free of dangerous objects. The regulations provide for various measures that should be adopted to meet this objective. In dealing with the issue of safety and security in schools, we should not be overzealous and adopt measures that will turn our schools into prison-like fortresses.

I call upon provinces to work together with local communities and community policing forums to address the issue of school safety. Communities should support schools in their efforts to realise the goal of a drug- and dangerous object-free learning environment.

Another area requiring our attention is HIV/AIDS. Over the past year, the education response to HIV and AIDS has gained momentum. Education has assumed its role at the heart of the national response to HIV and AIDS.

We have continued to develop age-appropriate curricula to equip our children with skills that would enable them to prevent HIV, and live in a world with HIV and AIDS. This is evidenced among others, by the sterling work we have done through the children's TV series Takalani Sesame, as well as the through the Higher Education against HIV and AIDS programme that we have launched over the past year. We have equally, continued to develop and support our teachers to be able to deliver sexuality and HIV/AIDS education in an age-appropriate manner to all our learners. The recently released Nelson Mandela/HSRC study on HIV and AIDS, reports that 84% of those aged 12-24, learnt about HIV and AIDS from schools. This is evidence that our efforts are bearing fruit, we have a reason to be optimistic.

Overall, Madam Chairperson, we must continue to promote and celebrate excellence in all our schools whether they are in the townships, rural areas, the inner city or leafy suburbs. And, with our newly implemented Whole School Evaluation and Development Appraisals systems, we will get a good sense of where the quality really is and where there is need for improvement.

In closing let me say that I am pleased to report that, with few exceptions, there is excellent and, for the most part, voluntary compliance with the principles of cooperative governance and in this respect I would particularly like to thank my provincial colleagues and their departments for the hard work that they are putting in to providing a quality education system for all South Africans.

Through our combined efforts we are making a positive difference in the lives of South Africans both in terms of providing the skills needed for the development of our country but also in fighting the scourges of poverty and despair.

I thank you

Issued by Ministry of Education

4 June 2003