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13 June 2006

Honouring the youth of ’76 through quality public education

Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Premier,
Honourable members of the Executive Council,
Honourable members of the Provincial Legislature,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education and honourable members,
Members of our School Governing Bodies, parents, principals, educators and learners,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:

Madam Speaker,
Within three days all South Africans will once again pay tribute and commemorate the gallant heroes and heroines of the class of 1976. Therefore it is of great significance that today three days before the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of 16 June, we are afforded the opportunity to table our education budget vote for consideration by this august House.

It is both a humbling experience and at the same time a daunting task to be assigned the responsibility of being the champion of education transformation at such a historical epoch of the 30th anniversary of youth struggles for a better quality public education.

The budget we are tabling here today, seeks to address the aspirations as embodied by the 1976 class of revolutionaries who refused to succumb to inferior Bantu education, designed to perpetuate racial discrimination.

Madam Speaker,
The education priorities for the 2006/07 financial year as agreed upon by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), continue to put key emphasis on the following areas of importance:
* quality improvement and development strategy (QIDS-UP)
* recapitalisation of the further education and training (FET) sector
* mathematics, science and technology education provision through the Dinaledi focus schools
* promoting access to education for all with the introduction of no fee schools
* attending to the challenges of teacher development and education.

These are some of the priorities that we should continue to give detailed focus and attention in our quest to build a quality public education system, which addresses our social and economic challenges of the 21st century.

Our Department has in the main registered significant progress, despite challenges that still remain. One such challenge is to ensure that conditions of poverty never stand as a barrier to access a school and to receiving quality education. It is this resolve that has seen the vigorous pursuit of no fee schools this year.

Yet again ahead of national timelines we were able to identify 162 schools from a total of 228 schools in quintiles one and two, which represent the poorest of our schools. An initial amount of R37 million has been allocated and these schools should therefore not levy fees from their learners.

This represents a government initiative aimed at increasing opportunities of access to learning to the poorest of the poor by bringing much needed relief for many families. We are aware though of schools that continue to refuse parents their right to apply for exemption if they can genuinely not afford to pay.

Another caution we must register is to indicate that this policy must be so implemented and monitored that we do not allow these schools to become slum schools where the quality of teaching and learning becomes secondary. If we fail to prevent that the entire noble purpose of the no-fee school notion would have been lost!

Madam Speaker,
It is our endeavour to build a quality public education system in which all our people will have absolute confidence, faith and trust. Our quality improvement and development strategy (QIDS-UP) emphasises the critical challenge of appropriately resourcing our schools in order to provide seamless education to all our children.

It is within this context that over the next five years we plan to inject sufficient resources into our previously disadvantaged schools by building proper libraries, laboratories, adequate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure while focusing on school based educator development.

We must undertake this bold step primarily because we have realised that most of our under-performing schools lack the basic schooling infrastructure and that that high schools producing poor matric results are surrounded by poorly equipped and under-resourced primary schools.

Madam Speaker,
In giving effect to the honourable Premier’s instruction to decentralise the responsibility for repairs and renovations to schools, we will transfer R10, 574 million to 28 schools for this purpose. These funds will be ring-fenced within the school fund and its application will be subject to intense scrutiny and monitoring. Schools will be obliged to report on its expenditure in their audited annual financial statements. For straightforward and less complex projects, schools will draw persons directly from the community for employment. Our FET colleges will train these persons in various trades and entrepreneurial skills accompanied by an accredited certification. The intended result is to create a pool of skilled people who could go on to establish construction companies in future. For the more complex projects, schools will use approved procurement procedures to secure the services of a contractor who will be compelled to employ local labour. All of these projects must comply with the objectives of the Expanded Works Programme (EWP).

Linked to QIDS-UP is our programme on learner achievement (PLA). Honourable colleagues, we all agree that the best starting point for any sustainable development is the unlocking and development of the human potential. We have therefore begun to introduce what we refer to as our flagship programme namely the Program for Learner Achievement (PLA) as this is at the heart of the Department’s core business.

Simply put this programme aims at developing the entire schooling system in such a comprehensive fashion that we break the mindset that the grade 12, matric, exit point is the one and only benchmark of importance. The focus is now squarely on assuring that all learners from grades R to 12 achieve. The PLA departs from the assumption that all learners can learn and therefore all learners can achieve. The PLA will strive to ensure that achievement is by design and not by default.

We can report that in order to make the PLA work 14 strategies and 38 activities are already underway with district and school improvement plans already having been developed and for which R3, 170 million is available. These will be complemented by:

* significantly increasing school visits by circuit offices
* developing targets for school functionality and learner achievement
* and by implementing the computerised system for tracking learner achievement throughout the system.

We must significantly raise the standard of our services to schools and the rest of our clients/customers. To this effect and delivering on our promise made last year that tardy service delivery will disappear within 18 months, we are now ready to publish our service standards by the end of July 2006.

Over the years we have consistently declared in this House and as our first strategic objective that rural and farm schools are our top priority. We have recorded a variety of gains such as a high per capita spending by ranking all farm schools in quintile one, a favourable learner-educator ratio and an extensive learner transport network. All of these and other gains have, however, been uncoordinated and disparate, thereby minimising their impact on the development of farm and rural schools.

We are now concluding a comprehensive, integrated and multi-faceted rural schools strategy. The strategy recognises the agricultural sector as a key driver of economic growth and development as defined in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS). We must also ensure that our strategy is firmly infused into the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of all local government structures.

It is our intention to strengthen rural and farm schools so that more learners remain at these schools for as long as possible. This is our contribution to stem the tide of rural de-population. The Department will release this strategy within three months.

The strategy will be located within the PLA and therefore growth and development targets for learner achievement, educator development and school development will be made public. These targets and the concomitant interventions will be established within eight broad themes and at least 37 areas for development including:

* development guidelines to build capacity, organise and manage multi graded teaching
* cluster schools for development and support
* promote agricultural sciences
* improve infrastructure with a special focus on sanitation and water
* improve hostel and transport facilities.

The need for this strategy is brought into stark reality when one considers the large number of rural schools in the Kgalagadi District. This strategy will make our programme for learner achievement more relevant in this area and provide a roadmap for development.

Madam Speaker,
Quality education also requires that we make decisive interventions in the area of promoting language education. Our approach and intention is to create a citizenry capable of communicating in different languages. Multi-lingualism can be a catalyst in further entrenching our constitutional values of non-racialism, non-sexism, democracy and a prosperous society.

We are as a matter of urgency concluding our language in education strategy. This strategy recognises the fact that the necessary policy and legislative framework is in place to guide us. The Constitution, Language in Education Policy and National Curriculum Statements together provide a clear roadmap for our strategy. The increased use of mother tongue instruction in the foundation phase, creating opportunities for all official languages in the province to occupy equal status as fundamentals in grades 10 to 12 and the rapid expansion of all official languages in the province as learning areas in the GET and FET bands form the basis of our strategy. The ultimate objective of this strategy is to promote African and all indigenous languages.

We will embark on extensive consultation and advocacy of the strategy in the third quarter of the 2006 academic year before we start the implementation thereof in 2007. All the necessary resources will be harnessed to enable us to ensure that parents support the use of mother tongue instruction in the foundation phase. High schools will offer an African language in the FET band. African languages will also be integrated in to the curriculum and indigenous languages like the San and Nama languages will be further promoted.

It must be emphasised that the language in education strategy will pull together existing initiatives into a coherent and integrated programme. An example of a working initiative is the promotion of San and Nama languages already started by the Department five years ago. In this regard 10 schools in the Namaqua region are teaching Nama and !Xhun, while Khwedam is offered at !XhunKwesa Combined schools. A !Xhun dictionary also available.

The profound message we want to communicate is that if possible all our schools in 2007 should offer teaching of an African language.

Madam Speaker,
Social cohesion, promoting safety and fighting the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in our schools is part of our initiative in building quality education within our system.

Our curriculum seeks to nurture in our youth, values of social justice, caring and patriotic individuals who are not driven by motives of greed and selfishness.

It is therefore very encouraging to realise that already in our schools we have learners who care, who have a profound sense of patriotism as demonstrated by Lindiwe Khumalo of Paballelo High. She won R70, 000 and a computer in the national children’s rights competition and decided to donate the computer to Vredesvallei Primary (Riemvasmaak), a rural school which had no computer for administration thus demonstrating the spirit of Ubuntu.

Madam Speaker,
Government as a whole has developed comprehensive programmes for our schools to promote good behavioural values targeting our learners. These programmes range from health promotion in schools to drug awareness through the Ke Moja campaign and schools safety initiatives. Of notable excitement this year, is that through our partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture plans are underway towards ensuring that Wednesdays become sports days. This we are doing to promote physical activity for all learners in our schooling system. R1, 2 million is available for this mass participation initiative.

At a recent meeting of the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), extensive deliberation pertaining to the challenges regarding safety of our learners and educators took place. Amongst the issues raised was the safety of our learners during sporting and educational tours. Subsequently draft regulations have been released for public comment.

Furthermore, the Deputy Minister of Education is leading a task team which will be investigating other international best practices with regard to promoting safety in schools. This might include random searching for dangerous weapons and even drug testing.

We have also indicated that there is a need to consider appointing safety officers at some of our schools, erecting proper fences with single entrances having proper access control and building better working relationships with local police stations.

Madam Speaker,
We wish to assure our people that our schools are not war zones, neither a haven for gangsters or drug lords.

Promoting quality education also implies that we should deal with the challenges of teenage pregnancy in our schools. We wish to indicate that our message will continue to be one of abstinence and nothing else. We will not distribute condoms in schools. Children must abstain!

Madam Speaker,
Teenage pregnancy must be tackled head-on. As a nation we might need to consider strengthening our approach and mechanisms in dealing with this matter while most girl children are not willing to report some cases as they are often bribed with money, cell phones and other material benefits.

Teenage pregnancy undermines our government’s effort of affirming girl learners in our education system.

Accordingly our programme on life skills, HIV/AIDS will continue to be infused across al learning areas. We will also continue to spread our ABC awareness programme supported by a conditional grant of R2,457 million.

Maybe the poem “Loud Silence, Outspoken Silence” composed by Kitso Lorato Kitchin, a learner from Northern Cape High who is a finalist in the international poet of the year competition must inspire our girl learners to speak out against abuse and pregnancy. She will be presented with two awards in July this year in Las Vegas.

Madam Speaker,
The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative Strategy for South Africa (AsgiSA), emphasises the importance of developing requisite skills, capable of making meaningful contributions to the growth prospects of our country.

Critical to it is the development of maths, science and technology in our schools. Accordingly, the 14 Dinaledi schools will be receiving focused attention and support. From next year all the grade 10 learners in these schools will be compelled to take maths and science. Deviation will only be entertained in exceptional cases like Sutherland High School which is the only school in the area.

The maths, science and technology strategy and the Dinaledi schools in particular must ensure that our learners are ready to take up the wealth of opportunities to be generated by the astronomy projects being developed in our province. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) initiative together with the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) will place the Northern Cape at the cutting edge of astronomical sciences and make us a world-leader in this field.

Currently we are in the process of bidding for the SKA which is an investment of nine billion rand and construction of the Karoo Array Telescope in the Carnarvon area. The KAT will be equal to the largest radio telescope in operation in the southern hemisphere, namely the Parks Telescope in Australia.

Three hundred million rand has been secured for the technological aspects of the telescope but the provincial administration will be responsible for the infrastructural requirements which include the construction of roads, electrification, water connections etc. This in itself would secure employment opportunities for a vast amount of our people.

Madam Speaker, we also humbly request the support of the house with regard to ensuring a Radio Quiet Zone, in and around the core and surrounding sites of the telescope.

We have a budget of R2, 178 million to execute this crucial science and technology function.

We must also ensure that we will have the scientists, technicians and artisans ready to participate and lead the projects. The mystical knowledge of our universe must be discovered by learners from the Northern Cape.

Such a learner could very well be Henri Uys, who once again will be departing to Mexico as part of the South African delegation to partake in the international mathematics symposium or Nomathemba Mashope from Thabane High School who won a science competition sponsored by De Beers and Eskom and will represent our country in Spain, in July.

Furthermore, the CEM has agreed that each high school must have a mathematics teacher. This will ensure that the right of each child to be offered mathematics is guaranteed and accordingly, the choice will be that of the learners and parents not to take advantage of this opportunity.

I must also use this occasion to convey my disappointment at some educators and principals who discourage children from doing maths and science; to them I say it’s immoral and unethical.

Madam Speaker,
Honourable members, our legal mandate and our programme for learner achievement implore us as a Department of Education not only to provide schooling for all learners of compulsory school-going age but we are also committed to ensuring that each child’s chances of achieving is enhanced. This would be done by ensuring that learners have access to high quality education programmes in the years before they enter the formal schooling system. To this effect grade R and the integrated Early Childhood Development (ECD) strategy are key priority areas.

The ECD unit will spend R23,6 million to subsidise schools and community based sites, train educators and practitioners and supply Learning and Teaching Supporting Material (LTSM) to sites.

In addition to the above amount and in line with the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP), our ECD unit has developed an integrated ECD plan aimed at providing a basic package of care and education services to young children from birth to four years as outlined in the Northern Cape social sector plan. The programme is delivered in collaboration with the Department of Social Services and Population Development and the Department of Health and other sectors. An allocation of R1 859 000 is available to implement this integrated plan.

Honourable members, to further increase access to public education for persons previously denied this opportunity, Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) has been identified as another of the key areas in our efforts to enable our people to develop their potential to the fullest and address the imbalances of the past.

Twenty four million rand will amongst others, target 10 800 learners in ABET levels one to four, support 1 300 ABET matric learners and train an additional 80 learners in short skills courses.

Madam Speaker, the pursuit of quality education is evident in everything we do. Attaining quality through curriculum delivery is foremost in this quest. This is correctly so because curriculum delivery speaks directly to the cauldron of our business, the classroom where learners and teachers engage in a critical encounter to construct knowledge.

Madam Speaker, curriculum is our core business and as such it is this area where we must especially be measured in the extent to which we have honoured the class of ’76. We are firm in our belief that indeed we have!
 
Outcomes Based Education (OBE) remains the correct philosophical base that informs the methodologies of teaching and the nature of learning equal to the challenges of the 21st century and the demands of our democracy. The National Curriculum Statements give effect to OBE and enables us to develop skills in our learners that the class of ’76 would be proud of.

The National Curriculum Statement aims at developing the following specific skills in all learners which should adequately prepare them for the 21st century; problem solving; critical thinking; formulating questions; searching for relevant information; making informed judgements; inventing and creating; analysing and presenting data. Social skills which include leading discussions, persuasion, co-operation and teamwork and affective skills will also not be neglected.

In preparation for implementation of the National Curriculum Statements in grades eight, nine and 11 in 2007, all educators training will be completed by September 2006 and will be supported by a budget of R10,8 million. A further R37,5 million has been allocated for other curriculum activities. All preparatory work including the development of training materials and the training of trainers has already been concluded. We call on this House yet again to continue to support our effort at overhauling our old curriculum with a deserving replacement, which derives from our Constitution and our new democratic order.

Madam Speaker,
Central to the development of our schools as places where effective learning and teaching takes place is the need for us to strengthen the governance structures in our schools. It is therefore our humble appeal that all our parents should partake in the School Governing Bodies (SGB) elections currently taking place within our schools. These structures of governance not only enhance accountability and transparency but most importantly ensure that quality learning and teaching does occur.

Immediately after the elections the Department will be undertaking an extensive capacity-building programme. This is aimed at ensuring that our newly elected members understand their roles and functions very well and will minimise possible conflicts between SGBs and school management teams.

Madam Speaker,
Our programme for learner achievement re-affirms the realisation that our educators provide the golden thread for learner achievement. Their influence permeates throughout the learning and achievement process. As such, educator development stands alongside school development and learner development as one of the three pillars that upholds the PLA. By investing in teacher development we believe we are best able to bring tribute to that great educator guiding the class of ’76 Professor T Kambule.

Our teacher development programme in partnership with the government of the Netherlands, Absa and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is resulting in 671 educators being enrolled for various training programmes. These programmes target under qualified educators maths and science educators and they are offered by University of Western Cape (UWC), University of the North West, Free State University in partnership with National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE). An allocated budget of R2, 5 million supports this endeavour.

Madam Speaker,
We have realised that the emerging shortage of educators in scarce skills must be faced head-on. Starting in 2007 we will be providing full bursaries to 50 learners from our province to enrol for an education degree in scarce subjects like maths, science, English, Xhosa, Tswana and Afrikaans at various Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). After completion of their studies they will be expected to return to the province to be deployed where the need is greatest. R2,4 million will be spent on this programme in this year.

Madam Speaker,
This targeted recruitment programme seeks to nurture amongst the youth, passion and dedication to the teaching profession as embodied by Mr S Mckenzie from Roodepan Primary School, who obtained the second place in the Lifetime Achievement category during the 2005 National Teaching Awards.

Madam Speaker,
During the Presidential Imbizo on Saturday in Poffader again our ordinary people raised concerns that young people, post matric, have very little opportunities to further gain meaningful skills to actively participate in the economy. This again brought to us the stark reality that we need to move with the necessary urgency in finalising our provincial Human Resource Development (HRD) strategy.

This strategy will facilitate a coherent and integrated working arrangement for all human capital development programmes in government and other sectors.

At the very same imbizo, municipalities raised the challenge of their inability to recruit skilled personnel in the fields of finance and engineering. Our strategy should therefore provide solutions to the problems facing some of our rural municipalities.

The strategy will also seek better ways of implementing and managing our various learnership and internship programmes. It will reflect on the lessons learnt and the interventions that must be made.

The strategy will also devise creative ways of retaining our skilled and scarce personnel within the province without undermining our nationally set policies on employment and incentives for our public service employees.

In line with the execution of the Executive Council (ExCo) mandate, the Provincial Treasury allocated R1 122 000 towards the implementation of our HRD strategy. This will allow us to implement capacity-building programmes as identified by the provincial skills audit.

Madam Speaker, arguably the most significant development in the education sector in the past decade is the emergence of the Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges.

Our FET vocational curriculum has a crucial role to play in the alleviation of poverty and must therefore be appropriately aligned to the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS), Accelerated and Shared Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in order to improve our peoples’ skills levels and increase their opportunities of accessing sustainable jobs.

Thirteen new modern, high-level vocational programmes have been introduced as a new curriculum for FET colleges and are aimed at addressing the development and economic needs of the province. These programmes will be implemented at level two in 2007. The programmes include electrical infrastructure construction, civil engineering construction, engineering and related design, manufacturing and assembly.

Our FET colleges have also signed agreements with Sector Education and Training (SET) authorities to support learnership training programmes.

Our rural FET college will be boosted by our partnership with the Renova Mining Company in the Kgalagadi District. An immediate benefit of this project is the establishment of a skills training centre in Mothibistad. The rural FET college will be used as the main service provider at this centre.

The total budget allocation for the FET sector amounts to R28 million with an additional R10 million for the recapitalisation of the two FET colleges.

Madam Speaker
For the eighth consecutive year, the Northern Cape Education Department has distinguished itself with the highly professional manner in which the entire examination process was administered. We can all bear witness to the fact that the 2005 examinations have once again been incident free, ensuring that the integrity and quality of the examinations remains beyond reproach.

The fundamental objective is to ensure an equitable examination and assessment system that would allow all learners who possess the same degree of ability to receive the same result.

To this effect a total of R21 million has been allocated to examinations.

Madam Speaker
Today we present a total budget of R1 644 424 000 (R1,6 billion) to this august House for consideration, this budget together with the strategic plan we have tabled must be used as a tool to hold us accountable on the tasks assigned.

We are fully conscious of the enormity of the tasks and challenges ahead of us. We nonetheless remain resolved in confronting these enormous challenges with the necessary vigour and determination it requires.

I can certainly assure members of this House and the people of our province, that the education team of officials is a dedicated one with the clarity of understanding that we cannot rest on our laurels whilst many of our children are hungry, malnourished and their educational opportunities are limited.

Conclusion

A great deal of work lies ahead in terms of meeting the challenges confronting us and ensuring that quality public education benefits all our people.

We wish to call on members of this House and every member of the Department, our parents, teachers and learners and other partners in education to join hands in making sure that indeed we succeed in our efforts of creating a better life for all our people.

Our vision is a shared vision; our task must therefore be a shared task.

We wish to thank the honourable Premier, colleagues in ExCo, members of the education portfolio committee and members of the legislature for sharing our vision and our task. My sincere thanks must also be extended to the Head of the Department and his team for their continued commitment.

We take pleasure today, to table this budget, which will enable us to continue with good stories of our ordinary people working hard for fundamental change in our education system.

Ke a leboga! Dankie! Thank you!

Issued by:
Department of Education, Northern Cape Provincial Government
13 June 2006
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za/)