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18 February 2009

The Gauteng Department of Education welcomes the firm commitment to education as demonstrated by the Premier of Gauteng province, Mr Paul Mashatile during the State of the Province Address. The commitment reaffirms our desire to ensure that education remains the key pillar and priority in our desire to build a developmental state.

School nutrition programme

We are also proud that we are now ready to be the first province to expand the school nutrition programme to under-privileged learners at high school level. Since its launch by the then President Nelson Mandela, 15 years ago, the school nutrition programme was only provided to primary school learners. From 1 April 2009 the school nutrition programme will now be provided to all deserving learners at high school level starting mainly with our no fee schools within quintile one.

We are currently catering for a total of 525 803 needy learners in 1 250 schools across the province. This is 55 803 learners more than what was initially anticipated, due to more quintile three schools applying for the feeding programme.

We as Gauteng Department of Education as part of our five-year programme of action are in agreement with the priorities that the Premier identified.

Scholar transport

In terms of scholar transport, sporadic developments of informal settlements are placing the department under pressure financially.

Currently a total of 43 326 learners in 13 districts are on the provincial scholar transport programme.

Underperforming schools project

Out of 139 schools that underperformed in 2008 matric examination, we have identified 32 secondary schools that will undergo a focused evaluation. These schools were identified due to an urgent need for intervention. The main objectives of this focused evaluation are to:
* identify possible factors that have impacted on the poor performance of these schools
* to implement a strategy to improve the outcomes of these schools
* to monitor and evaluate progress of the strategy to ensure sustained learner achievement in the matric examination.

A task team has been appointed to make sure there is close and clear monitoring and evaluation of this intervention programme. We are also working with key stakeholders to implement this focused intervention project.

Early childhood development

The Early Childhood Development Institute (ECDI), which is aimed at co-ordinating interdepartmental and intersectoral ECD five service delivery for 0 to nine-year olds, was established. The department is responsible for the training of ECD practitioners and thus accredited further education and training (FET) colleges were awarded a tender to train a total of 1 200 pre-Grade R practitioners on National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level one and four.

The department is determined to universalise access to Grade R. To date, 1 732 Grade R sites have registered with the department and are catering for an estimated 45 955 learners.

Access to education

The department has ensured that the poorest learners in the province have access to free schooling by declaring all quintile one and two schools no- fee schools.

The schools are funded by the department at the maximum adequacy level per learner. In 2008, quintile three schools have been granted the option to opt for the no-fee school status. With the 462 quintile three schools opting to be declared no-fee schools, an additional 333 416 learners are accessing free education with effect from 2008.

In total the province is now subsidising a total of 41,91 percent (including quintile one and two schools) of its learner population with regard to receiving free education, well exceeding the 300 000 learner target.

Further education and training (FET)

Through a national conditional grant, nine FET colleges with 33 campuses are being recapitalised. In terms of the recapitalisation a total of 1 195 staff members (inclusive of educators and managers) were trained.

A total of 27 college sites were upgraded and refurbished; 173 classrooms, workshops, media centres, study centres and resources centres were upgraded; 26 classrooms, workshops, study centres and resource centres were bought or built; equipment for 32 campuses was procured; 12 vocational programmes were implemented, and 10 108 Level two and 2 287 level three learners were enrolled with the allocated funds.

The curriculum offerings in the FET colleges have been aligned to market demands and the implementation started in 2007. An intensive programme is being undertaken to improve the quality of learning in the FET colleges.

With regard to interns and learnerships, a draft intern and learnership framework has been formulated and is subject to internal consultation before finalisation

Matric rewrite

Learners who still need to complete their matric under the old syllabus (National Association for Tertiary Education for Deaf people (Nated) 550) still have chance to write until 2011. Exams will be conducted in May/June 2009.

Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET)

A review of the ABET sector has been completed and a new three-year plan has been adopted. The ABET strategy has been developed and aligned to the national strategy. An ABET directorate has been established to deliver basic literacy, formal ABET and vocational programmes to adults and out-of-school youth as from 2008.

In terms of the implementation of basic literacy programmes in ABET centres, operational plans are being developed to focus on the roll out of these programmes. In the interim, however, the national mass literacy programme is in place.

The department will introduce more vocationally-based programmes than before and ensure increased access to meaningful programmes by increasing programmes at FET colleges and existing ABET centres. The department will undertake a quality improvement programme to ensure reduced dropout rates, increased follow-through and improved performance at the ABET Level four examinations.

Reopening of schools

I am pleased to mention that our efforts to make sure that the first day is effective in terms of delivery of curriculum, has bore fruit to a greater extent. We experienced pressure points for admissions in Grades 1 and 8. However, we have managed to place all learners in our schools. Where we experienced overcrowding, we managed to provide 40 mobile classrooms. In addition, 31 new schools were ready by end of January 2009.

This year, our admissions advocacy campaign will kick start as early as April, to make sure that we reach as many parents and learners as possible, to alleviate late registration.

School Governing Body (SGB) elections

The fourth cycle of school governance started in 2006. We are about to get into the fifth cycle in 2009, scheduled to take place from 1 June to 30 June. This process involves approximately 28 000 participants who will be serving in these governance structures.

A provincial task team has been established and the Independent Electoral Commission will be playing a crucial role in this process.

Other developmental initiatives

The department, on behalf of the province, has established the Gauteng City Region Academy to coordinate and run skills development programmes to capacitate the provincial and local government administrations and ensure that there is adequate skills supply to support the provincial economy. A number of programmes are already being implemented.

The Ithutele Tiro Project is delivered mainly through Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)-accredited learnerships and internships organised by four implementing agencies. These are: (1) the Automotive Industrial Development Centre (AIDC), which focuses on automotive learnership and internship training; (2) Gauteng online, whose focus is on information and communication technology (ICT) skills, (3) the Gautrain Consortium, which organises training in building construction as well as in electrical and mechanical engineering, (4) the City of Johannesburg’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which facilitates training in call centres.

Methodologically, the training combines work experience and institutional-based learning. At the end of the training graduates will be placed in jobs for a minimum of six months. The intended beneficiaries of the project come from four sites, namely, the City of Johannesburg Metro, the Ekurhuleni Metro, the City of Tshwane Metro, and Emfuleni. To date a total of 1 652 learners are involved in the various programmes.

I thank you!

For more information contact:
Nanakgolo Leopeng
Cell: 083 450 2872

Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
18 February 2009
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gautengonline.gov.za)