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9 June 2006

Dr Chabalala, President of SAPA
Honoured guests

The existence of a collective of principals that meets regularly to consider the progress of education and the role of education leaders is an important occurrence. Thank you for inviting me to this important conference.

All of us in education need to spend deliberate time reflecting on the state of education in South Africa. Not from the perspective of lamenting and complaining but with the intention to isolate key challenges and tasks. This of course should not be for the purpose of navel gazing rather you must engage for the purpose of formulating united strategic responses that can and must deliver quality in education.

Everyday we read reports about ourselves as a sector:

Just last week the CEO of a Sectoral Education and Training Authority (Seta) asserted that school leavers, university graduates and others from our schools lack basic skills and competencies. All of you must have read by now the two systemic evaluation reports that indicate that at grade three and six the majority of children in our country cannot read, write and count at the required age level.

I would like to refer to a number of comments that have been made by leading educationists about inadequate educational outcomes in South Africa. In 2005 Jonathan Jansen said “despite significant national investment in education and formal equalisation of education expenditure across provinces and population groups, educational outcomes are not only hugely unequal across schools, but also far below standard in comparison with other middle or even far lower income countries, as we see in the discussion of SACMEQII ”
(Ref: J. Jansen, Transformation Audit, IJR, 2005. P. 71)

In 2001 Dr Nick Taylor wrote “There is no question that the South African public school system is one of the most inefficient in the world, if not at the bottom of the pile. Despite high levels of spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), off a base that is significantly higher than that of the overwhelming majority of developing countries, learning outcomes are either worse than or comparable with those of the poorest nations.”
[Nick Taylor: “Outcomes, Effort and Values in Schooling”, Joint Education Trust, presentation to the conference: New Millennium Business School, Wits University 15 May 2001]

Finally in 2005 Dr Luis Crouch, respected educational economist wrote: “There is little doubt that the biggest two problems South Africa faces are the extreme inequality in actual learning achievement and the relatively low level in this achievement across all groups.”
[Luis Crouch: Disappearing schoolchildren or data misunderstandings. Drop-out phenomena in South Africa, December 2005.]

These matters must be put before yourselves quite frankly because the South African Principals Association (SAPA) is an important stakeholder in education. As a stakeholder it is absolutely vital that in your engagements you reflect in a serous and concentrated fashion on the key impediments and challenges that must be confronted if we are to build educational success in South Africa.

The theme of the conference is “Challenges facing the provision of quality education in South Africa, with special reference to Limpopo Province”.

In order to move from a perspective that recognises both our challenges as well as our victories I would like to add to my earlier reflections by reminding you of some of our achievements over the past 12 years of democracy.

Firstly, there has been a significant improvement in access to education for the children of our country. This is one of our major achievements. We have ensured that nearly every child attends school.

A further victory is the removal of mandatory fees for schools that have found it difficult to compel poor parents to pay school fees. For the first time this year we have abolished school fees in some schools and we have financially compensated these schools for their loss of this income.

We set a target of 20% of learners for 2006 and 40% for 2007. We have already exceeded our 2006 target; three million pupils at 9 215 primary and secondary schools are in newly declared no-fee schools this year. Gauteng was the only province not to declare no-fee schools this year. They will declare in 2007.

This means that already one out of every four learners is fee free.

Second, the organisation of governance in our schools has been democratised.

The power to govern schools lies primarily with parents themselves. Still principals are an important component of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) as they represent the school management team. The involvement of so many in the current SGB election is testimony to the success of the model of democratic governance of our schools.

We applaud the commitment of the more than 200 000 parents and others who are active in local school governing bodies the largest group of elected representatives in the country. The report of the Ministerial Review Committee on School Governance in 2003 found that parents and communities, of all races and language, play a crucial role in their school governing bodies, and have a good grasp of the legislative and educational environment in which schools operate.

Principals play an important role in ensuring that the SGB elections take place in their schools. We thank you for going beyond the call of duty in making sure that elections take place in your schools.

Third, there has been some improvement in student achievement at grade level school leaving examinations. Nevertheless I remind you of my earlier remarks about our poor learning outcomes.

The number of learners, particularly black learners, has continued to grow together with the number of learners acquiring a matric endorsement.

Limpopo’s percentage pass declined last year but the numbers passing matric increased.

However, 309 schools out of 1 405 returned pass rates of less than 50%. That means that there are 309 principals here who have worrying levels of underperformance in their schools.

If we accept the comments referred to above even through our successful schools we are producing successful matriculants whom cannot read, write and do basic mathematics computations. We have begun to carry out analyses of the possible reasons for these poor outcomes. Earlier anecdotal evidence suggests in many schools, both at primary and secondary levels, little attention is paid to writing of essays, writing of summaries, silent reading, comprehension and understanding the language of mathematics and science. These are areas of concern that could be remedied through the direct intervention of principals in guiding the learning process in schools. The question must be asked as to what role our principals play in ensuring quality learning outcomes and processes.

A startling phenomenon is a fact I have observed in the past two years. There are hundreds of school principals and teachers throughout the country who appear satisfied with mediocrity. These are those schools, and we all know them well, that consistently perform below par despite every effort by Government and by district officials. Given the massive investment that our country makes in education we have to ask the hard question. Can South Africa continue to afford failing schools, failing leadership, failing educators? If the answer is no what then does this important astute collective believe we should do? In a nutshell what I am asking you to consider in this meeting is how do we as a sector move education from mediocrity to excellence, the answer must lie, must come from this room.

As you know senior certificate results were published by district for the first time in 2005. This was done in order to develop a clearer perspective on the location of failing schools and districts. The results showed that we have 6 districts performing well above average, 60 that is average and 13 districts that are failing to make the grade.

With respect to Limpopo, parents and others now know that the province does not have vast differences in the quality of schools. The difference in performance between schools shows that schools are more equal here than they are in the rest of the country. However, Capricorn district is the best; and Bohlabela is the worst.

Our expectation is that as principals you are sharing expertise and devising strategies to ensure all the schools produce quality outcomes. The association should be a resource for principals who are seeking solutions.

Dr Motsoaledi always reminds us at Council of Education Ministers (CEM) that the best students in maths and science come from Limpopo! So, you already have an important strength. The recent promotion of a responsive language in education is sure to support higher levels of achievement. It will do so if executed honestly and in the interests of education. As we offer opportunity to our learners to benefit from mother tongue education and senior study of an indigenous language we must also not neglect the acquisition of proficiency and competence in English.

However, some challenges remain. The best educationists will remind us that academic matters are not the only means of providing a quality education. There are important non-academic matters that impact on learning and teaching. Non-racism and non-sexism are key principles and objectives that underpin the foundation of our society. To what degree do our schools promote non-racism all our schools? What is being done to actively teach males in our schools that girls and women are equal citizens and not toys for abuse or entertainment? What posts do female teachers occupy; do they serve as leaders in schools and do our schools have gender awareness programmes and codes of conduct that promote respect for all?

Furthermore, we have encouraged schools to become disability friendly. Are our schools geared to receiving and supporting persons with disability?

A third aspect relates to the physical abuse, alcohol and drug abuse that we find in some of our schools. What role is the school leadership playing in creating safe schools? Strategies need to involve learners in developing codes of conduct, in implementing the codes and in guiding positive conduct.

Beyond these issues that address our Constitutional principles, school leaders also have to respond to life-related issues such as HIV and AIDS education and promotion of healthy lifestyles. I hope that all principals and teachers read newspapers and education journals and am therefore informed on critical issues confronting South Africa, Africa and the world. That would allow your schools to have debating societies, development clubs and other activities that enhance lifestyle and intellect. It is true that history placed many of us in a disadvantaged context, but that history does not mean we should accept our condition as inherently self-evident and pre determined.

It is our belief in the department that principals should be strategic and intellectual leaders of their schools and the sector in general. They should ensure that schools have the capacity to teach the curriculum well. As strategic leaders they should also ensure the democratic functioning of schools through working in partnership with SGBs and other stakeholders.

One of the items for discussion at this conference is a code of conduct for learners. I hope the code will also address the problem of teenage pregnancy.

The law is clear that no learners should be expelled from school because of pregnancy. We should reflect on how we help learners to avoid pregnancy. How do we counsel and support children?

Principals and parents should support the development of school-based structures and preventive measures against teenage pregnancy within the learning area of life orientation.

In addition to supporting you in addressing all these challenges we have also planned major changes for the role of the principal. The Personnel Administrative Measures (PAM) defines the role of principals in relation to staff, school improvement and management in six areas of responsibility, the general administration and management of a school, the provision of professional leadership within a school, and so on.

However, these areas of responsibility need to be redefined, so that the role of the principal in management and governance is clear and not confused.

We have put in place a policy framework for training school principals.
The framework includes a national qualification that will become the entry-level qualification to the position of principal nationally. What we have introduced is a values-driven approach to school and education management that foregrounds issues of transformation while taking due cognisance of the administrative and technical skills needed to manage a school.

This qualification will ensure that the roles and values of this important office are clearly spelt out, as well as key performance measures against those roles.

We will work through the district office to provide support to principals to manage schools effectively.

Support and services at the district level are lacking and this is where support to all schools should be concentrated. It is increasingly clear that the education system can only function and assure sustained broad-based improvement in the quality of schooling if the district plays a key role.

The powers of the districts and their understanding of their role in the system and a measure of standardization across all districts have improved over the last three years.

However, this is only a start and a lot of capacity and confidence building is needed.

In concluding let me stress that we expect a commitment to excellence and high professional ethics from our principals.

We have no room for mediocrity or persistent absenteeism and alcoholism in our schools.

We have too many men at the top and not enough women. We require attention to the gender imbalance in the management of education.

At secondary school level the majority of principals are male; over 70% of our educators are female, yet they occupy less than 20% of senior management positions at school.

My department is developing protocols and regulations to ensure that recruitment procedures are aligned to support the goal of gender equity in recruitment for senior positions at school.

We are committed to delivering quality education to all our children. I hope you will enjoy, learn and make the best out of this conference.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education
9 June 2006