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EDUCATION, ONCE A CAUSE OF OUR DESPAIR, IS NOW A REPOSITORY OF HOPE

I am sure we were all profoundly aware, as we listened to the President speak, that he was drawing us into a solemn and sustained connection between the first State of the Nation Address in a democratic South Africa, delivered by President Nelson Mandela in 1994, and this year's address on the State of the Nation, ten years later, by President Thabo Mbeki.

By linking our recent past and present in this way, the President provided a ceremonial occasion for us to renew our commitment to applying the "acid test" - that benchmark set by both President Mandela and President Mbeki - for judging our performance in government by our ability, in practice, to expand human fulfilment and extend human freedom for all our people.

Education, I think we would all agree, is one of our best hopes, and most practical means, for advancing the frontiers of human fulfilment and human freedom for a sustainable future in our country.

I do not want to dwell too long here on our accomplishments over the past ten years. The integration of the former racially- and ethnically-based education departments of the apartheid era into a single system, which serves all our people, was a necessary condition for turning education around. Since then, we have, among other things, introduced a new curriculum; provided greater access to education and training for young children, youth, and adults; redressed the racially-based funding formula of apartheid education; provided nutrition to poor primary school children; upgraded the qualifications of our teachers; transformed higher education; and placed greater emphasis on vocational education.

I was struck by the President's bold statement, which rings absolutely true, that after ten years in government we have the right policies firmly in place. On that firm foundation, we can devote the second decade of freedom to the ongoing implementation of those sound policies. In this regard, my department will consolidate the implementation of the new curricula for grade R to 9 and for grades 10 to 12; our religion and education policy; our e-education policy; our inclusive education policy; our Mathematics, Science and Technology Strategy; the transformation of Further Education and Training (FET) colleges; and the reconfiguration of higher education.

Here I would like to call attention to only a few of the many areas in which the Ministry of Education is working to meet the "acid test" and advance the government's vision for the nation.

First, my Ministry has committed itself to pro-poor policies and programmes to address the educational needs of the most deprived communities in our country. Chief among these is the Plan of Action to Improve Access to Quality Basic Education for All.

Through the Plan of Action, we have set an agenda of equalising education funding for the poor across different provinces, by targeting a basic minimum package of R450 per capita for poor students, to be phased in over a three-year period. The Plan of Action also proposes abolishing school fees in the poorest 40% of schools across the country. Certainly, recipients of social grants such as childcare orphans' grants will be exempt from the payment of school fees. In this regard, we have shifted a total of R1,25 billion from less poor (including historically advantaged) to more poor schools. The Norms and Standards for School Funding are also being revised.

We shall also be developing guidelines on school uniforms in order to ease the burden of enormous uniform costs. Contrary to some reports, this does not mean the abolition of school uniforms, but entails guidance on making school uniforms affordable to parents and guardians. We are also developing policy on student transport to ensure that schools are more accessible to poor children. The National School Nutrition Programme will ensure that the poorest 50% of learners receive a nutritious meal every school day.

The investment in infrastructure and capital assets in education has increased from R459 million to an estimated R3,5 billion in 2004/5. Between 2000 and 2003, the following actual and planned delivery of the following outputs has been achieved: 11 173 classrooms, 25 117 toilets, 554 water connections to schools. This is all in addition to the gains made between 1996 and 2000: 39 006 classrooms, 6 670 telecommunication links, 1 965 water connections, 3 717 electrical connections, and 36 160 toilets were delivered to schools between 1996 and 2000.

In his previous State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki called on us to eliminate the phenomenon of students learning under trees by the end of 2004. I am pleased to say that we have eliminated this situation in all formally registered schools. The challenge remains, however, for us to address the issue of unsuitable and unsafe learning conditions in the poorest of our schools.

The roll-out of classrooms, sanitation and water connections is being addressed, but planning in all of these areas, we must note, has become more complex and fluid by the migration of families and individuals within and between provinces. Nevertheless, we are making progress, sometimes we welcome private-sector involvement, in addressing backlogs in the provision of infrastructure so that the quality of education may be improved for all our learners but especially for the poorest learners in our system.

In creating a learning society, Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) is a priority. We have established 2 371 ABET centres, involving 210 569 adult learners in a variety of programmes in business management, agriculture, and applied technology. Together with a range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and statutory partners, the South African National Literacy Initiative (SANLI) has been able to advance literacy delivery. In this effort to expand literacy, we must particularly acknowledge the crucial roles played by volunteers, who are truly demonstrating the spirit of voluntarism that the government has called for and the Department of Education have sought to nurture. As a result of these combined efforts, from 2001 through 2003, departmental literacy projects have reached 1,674,711 learners.

As a recognition of our efforts in ABET, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has requested the South African Government to host International Adult Learning Week during September of this year. We will soon be meeting with all stakeholders in adult education, including religious communities, to plan for events that will celebrate but also reflect upon our work in this field.

Clearly, these are important interventions. Education holds the promise of providing the necessary skills and training that will enable all our people to achieve human fulfilment through freedom from poverty. Dealing boldly and vigorously with educational deprivation must be our first priority.

Education is crucial for merging our first and second economies and truly integrating our society. While ensuring equity and expanding access, we have enhanced the excellence of our world-class research and teaching capacity in higher education. The 1999 to 2004 era ends on a high note as the extremely complicated process of restructuring the higher education sector is well advanced. More than a matter of merely increasing efficiency, the restructuring process is enabling higher education to prepare students for the demands of a democratic society and a globalising world. Our National Student Financial Aid Scheme, which has grown significantly to just under R1 billion in 2003, is making progress in broadening access to higher education.

Second, we are committed to what the President identified as the ethics of public service. Among the many rallying cries that mobilise us to public-spirited action, we must not forget the motto of the Department of Education - Tirisano, Working Together. In Education, we regard the ethics of public service as central to our mission of providing quality teaching and learning. Being a teacher is the highest calling in the service of the public. That is why we are valuing and supporting our teachers, not only through award ceremonies, such as our annual Teachers Awards, but also through adequate training, remuneration, working conditions, and career development.

This year, my department will implement in earnest the integrated quality management system, including Whole School Evaluation, as agreed with all the three major teacher unions last year.

We are also instilling the discipline of public service. We cannot tolerate teachers who show up late, work little, and knock off early. And we cannot allow Rian Malan's nightmare - "Drunken Teachers!" - into the light of our public school day. Fortunately, I can report that the vast majority of our teachers demonstrate the dedication to public service - often above and beyond the call of duty - that the President urged upon us all.

We recognise that teachers are the key lever for improving the quality of teaching and learning. However, we must be aware of the global phenomenon of a decline in the number of young people who choose the teaching profession as a career. My department is developing ways to actively recruit young people into the profession, such as dedicating funds for teacher training through the National Financial Aid Scheme, while working to ensure that that teaching is both a fulfilling public service and a rewarding vocation.

Third, we are committed to advancing cooperative governance, "achieving seamless cooperation both within and among all spheres of government," in the interest of supporting education. Towards this end, we have over the last ten years built strong intergovernmental relations between the national and provincial departments of education though the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM). These forums have assisted greatly in ensuring cohesion between the two spheres of government, national and provincial.

The involvement of my department in the Social Cluster has also added to horizontal integration.

We have now embarked on including local government into the vertical co-operation already established through CEM and HEDCOM. In August last year, I met the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to explore ways of collaborating to ensure that municipal services are provided to our schools at affordable rates. I also invited SALGA to send a representative to CEM meetings.

A week and half ago, I met the Executive Committee of the City of Cape Town as a follow-up to my meeting with SALGA. I also intend holding meetings with the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Ethekwini metropolitan councils in order to facilitate working relationships between these councils and the relevant provincial departments of education.

Fourth, in keeping with the President's emphasis on moral regeneration, social cohesion, and national unity, we have transformed our formerly divided schools into places where teachers and students, parents and administrators, are making our national ideal - unity in diversity - into a living reality.

The Department of Education has been engaged in specific projects to advance social cohesion - the Values in Education initiative, the Religion and Education Policy, and the South African History Project, to name just three. The South African History Project, which is producing a wealth of new, exciting books and teaching materials this year, is what President Mbeki called a "legacy project," preserving the intangible legacy of our history, but it is also a crucial educational initiative in revitalising the study of history in our schools and in our larger society.

Social cohesion, as we understand the term, is not some airy idealism. Cohesion grows out of the real-life experience of living, working, and learning in a caring society. In our commitment to care, we are addressing the forces of poverty, margininalisation, and disease that place the cohesion of our society at risk.

With respect to HIV/AIDS, in 1999 we released our National Policy on HIV/AIDS for Learners and Educators in Public Schools, and for Students and Educators in Further Education and Training. Since then, we have delivered life skills programmes on HIV/AIDS and we have prepared resource materials, textbooks, and videos for classroom use. For the children's television series, Takalani Sesami, we introduced an HIV-positive muppet, to support the implementation of the new HIV/AIDS curriculum.

There are positive signs that these educational initiatives are yielding results. For example, a household survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in 2002 found that 85.9% of primary-school aged children had received information on HIV/AIDS from school. Educational campaigns have resulted in increases in abstinence and condom use among young people. We are committed to strengthening these educational efforts, both inside and outside the curriculum, to address HIV/AIDS.

In keeping with our dedication to social cohesion and national unity, the Department of Education has prepared a range of educational materials for celebrating our Ten Years of Freedom. Posters, calendars, and a Guide Book for Schools, which will be a wonderful resource with learning activities for exploring the meaning and significance of our historical journey to freedom. Along with the many special events that have been planned for our ten-year celebrations, these resources will be extremely valuable in helping our learners appreciate how we have established unity in diversity, not merely as a slogan to be recited, but as a living reality in our country.

Let me conclude by saying: We, the people of South Africa, are a young nation, only ten years old. We, the people of South Africa, are also a young nation because half of us are under the age of twenty-five. As government, entrusted by our people, we must keep the faith in our young nation.

The Department of Education is undertaking a massive campaign to address the problem of young people who seem unaccounted for because they are neither in educational institutions nor in employment. Working together, the Departments of Education and Labour are committed to finding these young people and including them as vital, productive members of an integrated society that is both a learning society and a working society. Our future depends upon giving our youth real grounds for hope.

With sound policies, firmly in place, we are confident that our Department of Education will continue to meet the "acid test" by delivering enriching, liberating, and empowering education for our young nation as we enter our second decade of freedom.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Education
10 February 2004