19 June 2007
Prioritising Quality Education and Skills Development for a Better Life
Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Distinguished Guests
Colleagues, friends, comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
The Doors of Learning and Culture shall be opened!
The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands;
The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;
Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state education plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in education shall be abolished.
Speaker , the Freedom Charter, which is now more than 50 years old, continues to be our guiding document, looking at the masses of our people, coming from different classes, genders, ages, racial groups and different parts of the country, we can pride ourselves and say yes, as Gauteng Department of Education we are doing very well. A lot has been covered and there is no doubt we are getting there! As the Premier would always say, 'A better Gauteng is in the making!'
Speaker, imagine young and old, father and daughter, mother and son, poet and dancer, musician and sculptor, artists and writer, future practitioners of different professions, across race and class all being prepared for life under one roof, all bustling, mingling, learning, sharing and creating. Speaker, this is the business of the Gauteng Department of Education. A microcosm of community life connected by a common purpose, building a better life for all as the ruling party demands from all its public representatives for the people of South Africa and Gauteng Province.
I, Angelina Motshekga, the MEC for Education in this province, presents the 2007/08 Education Budget, driven by the vision articulated in the Freedom Charter. Knowing very well that my party, the African National Congress, is serious about making sure that there is a Better Life for All, and Comrade Speaker, without doubt of contradiction, we are fully convinced that education, yes education, is one of the key levers that our people, the poor in particular, have as a weapon at their disposal to fight poverty, joblessness, disease and economic exclusion.
The success of the Gauteng Global City Region, our Growth and Development Strategy, our Social Development Strategy, our Human Resources Development Strategy or be it ASGISA - JIPSA are all dependent on Education as they all stand to rise on the effectiveness of the education system and we in the Education Department are fully aware of this important task facing us. This is why, Speaker, every year we remain very appreciative to this government's commitment to education as is evidenced by annual increases in the education budget in the face of other equally pressing needs that the state has.
Education continues to be a key tool at our disposal to enable us to reshape and reconstitute the values, ideology and culture of our society in a manner that will continue to break down the colonial relations that still haunt South Africa's political, social and economic landscape. Whilst we are confident that we are making progress, there is no denying that the ghosts of our past are not yet completely behind us.
The Provincial strategic thrust "developing healthy, skilled and productive people" makes a clear and direct demand on education. The demand is that education must become relevant to the people of Gauteng so that they are not only literate and numerate but they are the best skilled people who are employable within the economy, who are productive within society; who are entrepreneurial, who are self-employable and who are committed to lifelong learning.
We have inherited some of the best schools from the old education system. Good infrastructure and fortunately left in the hands of very responsible, highly professional and capable principals and educators, true South African professionals who undoubtedly have embraced the new vision and mission of our country. These managers run these schools extremely efficient and with changing demographic patterns, easier mobility and efficient admission policies, children of different races benefit from these schools. Last year when the Minister of Education launched her club of 100 top schools in the country, using very high standards for qualifying, the majority of the schools to qualify came from Gauteng.
During one of the visits organised by Member Boers, we discovered that these schools out of their own initiatives were partnering with some of our poorly performing schools in disadvantaged communities, sharing with them resources,expertise and enabling their children opportunities to socialise. Unfortunately, these schools are beginning to be under pressure from more and more learners demanding spaces in these schools because of new developments and settlements in the inner cities.
On the other hand, Speaker, the terrible carcass of Apartheid education in predominantly Black areas continues to haunt us. June 16, 1976 and the rejection of Apartheid, were events in a huge educational problem plagued by inadequate access, poor performance and inadequate or no learning spaces to meet education demand of the time. A problem and a battle that had been ongoing even before the Apartheid regime, problems from missionary education with its colonial agenda to Apartheid education that was forthright, brutal and vicious. At least Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was forthright, when, in 1953, the Apartheid Government enacted The Bantu Education Act, which established a Black Education Department under the Department of Native Affairs, he said, "the role of this department was to compile a curriculum that suited the nature and requirements of the black people." He further stated: "Natives [blacks] must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans [whites] is not for them." Black people were not to receive an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society. Instead they are to receive education designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring jobs under whites.
Under Bantu Education there was a severe lack of facilities and the learner educator ratios increased from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Overcrowded classrooms were used on a rotation basis and platooning was rife. [ Mr. Quil, Manyofonyofo ruri]
There was also a lack of teachers, and many of those who did teach were under-qualified. In 1961, only 10 per cent of black teachers held a matriculation certificate.
Because of the government's homelands policy, no new high schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and 1971 - students were meant to move to their relevant homeland to attend schools in the newly built schools there. It was only after 1972 the government gave in to pressure from business to improve the Bantu Education system to meet business's need for a better trained black workforce. Forty new schools were built in Soweto. Between 1972 and 1976 the number of pupils at secondary schools increased from 12,656 to 34,656. One in five Soweto children was attending secondary school. Now in 976, the Department of Bantu Education announced that it was removing the Standard 6 year from primary schools. 257,505 qualified for Form 1, but there was space for only 38,000. Many of the students therefore remained at primary school and there was also huge chaos, even, at primary level.
In 1975 the South African government spent R644 a year on a white child's education but only R42 on a black child. Simply unthinkable. Coming from a political party whose ethos is on putting people first, informed by humanist values of respect for self, others, peace, environment and just generally all the people of its country. The Department of Education and Training (DET) issued its decree that Afrikaans was to become a language of instruction at school, it was into an already volatile situation. Students objected to being taught in the language of people they regarded as oppresors.. Many teachers themselves could not speak Afrikaans, but were now required to teach their subjects in it.
Speaker, this history is still here with us. Beginning of this year, I visited all my alma mater, where I did my Sub A, more than 40 years back, the school that the Apartheid government built for the African child, still looks the same, only the principal has an office, the infrastructure which was not designed to be permanent is definitely giving-in except our peoples' strong will to do the best they can against odds is keeping those schools running as best as possible. Hence, Speaker, under the able leadership of the Premier, with the 20 priority township programme, a conscious effort to address this legacy has started and with our turn around strategy will also be giving these areas special attention in areas of curricula, teacher and management support.
Speaker, I also want to put on record that today, in Gauteng, we have achieved a learner educator ratio of 36:1, in Gauteng there is hardly any person teaching that is unqualified. Today, we have over 1,8 million learners in schools boasting a gross enrolment ratio of over 100% in primary and secondary schooling and that today in Gauteng, we spend over R7000 per learner across ordinary schools.
A necessary and critical condition for advancing the objective of the social transformation agenda is building the capacity of the African people in particular, and blacks in general, to advance the emancipation of the working class. This capacity must be multi-faceted and must include the development of social consciousness, the intellectual capacity to apply and sharpen the theoretical underpinnings of the transformation, the skills necessary to mediate technology for economic growth and development.
As a result of the strategic location of the Education Department in economic growth and development in the Gauteng province and the realisation of the strategic goals of the province, we will respond to all these challenges through the way in which we fund the various education programmes.
The education system sits at a peculiar, and correctly so, position because it is affected by all the challenges that emanates from the communities it is servicing, societal problems immediately present themselves in the schooling system and we are called upon to respond.
Members, take the topical issue of learner pregnancy, in reality that is not an educational problem, it is a general societal problem, but we are called upon as education to respond to it without saying it is a health or social development problem. As we spend most of the time with these young people and we are rightfully called upon to respond. We will ensure that the education system is responsive to the needs of broader society.
Drug peddling in schools is instigated and controlled by drug lords, who are also members of the immediate community, and who consciously spills this trade into our schools. Is society allowing the turning its own children into drug moles, the same with youth criminality and violence in and around schools? All these challenges come from outside the school into the school and become a reality of school life, again Speaker, enjoying a special relationship with these flowers of our nation, as is evidenced by our programmes and budgets, we are saying, yes, the nation has made us their keepers, we will not fail the nation, we will always do what it takes to protect support and educate them on the values of peace and create safe environments for them in our schools.
It is important to say that as our attention is distracted to address the impact of these social ills in our schools, teaching and learning time gets affected negatively as we have to first deal with these social issues before effective learning can take place. We are saying this, well aware, that at the end we must respond to these challenges because our children cannot be thrown to the streets as a result of them being victims of these societal problems. The solution to these problems is multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted and that is why we are raising in this house so that while we are not abdication of responsibility to address these social problems, we want Members to be aware that the societal challenges impact on the schooling system badly and requires everyone to deal with it.
Always, when called upon, we shall never say we are not their keepers because as long as they are under our care we are their keepers and with the support from society we are sure that we will not fail.
In this regard, with also the great support we get from our advisory bodies such as your Letu's; Detu's and the GETC, which provide us with an invaluable resource, not only are we kept informed about the needs of our stakeholders but we benefit immensely from their input into education.
The province is responsible for pre-tertiary education and provides schooling to all learners from the compulsory schooling band both in ordinary and special schools including independent schooling and Grade R. In addition, it is also responsible for pre-tertiary technical and vocational education as part of further education including the establishment of learnership programmes, as well as formal ABET programmes to adults and youth that are geared to formal and technical and vocational education.
These programmes are geared to respond to the GPG strategies, such as the Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) and the Global City Region (GCR) Strategy, and are aimed at meeting these objectives and overcoming the socio-economic challenges in the province. A key lever identified across all these strategies is Human Resource Development and in particular providing a quality supply of skills for key economic and social sectors, promoting shared growth through building social capital and expanding the opportunities available to the poor, moving the economy up the productive value chain through expanding national and regional systems of innovation and leveraging human capital as a source of competitive advantage. The provincial HRD strategy responds to the challenges identified and thereby maximising Human Capital for Shared Growth.
Whilst Gauteng is classified as the fourth largest economy on the African Continent, the province still has a number of socio-economic challenges, especially relating to the imperative of shared growth. Human resource development has a central role to play in overcoming some of these challenges, and the education department in providing a quality pipeline of skills for key economic and social sectors.
The achievement of all these targets relies on collaboration efforts of the private sector, the government and its agencies, organised labour as well as the people of Gauteng themselves to play an active monitoring and oversight role of whether their democratically elected government is delivering on its promises, does it consult them when faced with challenges for reprioritization of programmes and approaches.
The eradication of poverty and unemployment is a spectre that no one can take a passing interest in, business and government, in particular have to collaborate in an attempt to improve the depth and range of skills programmes offered for the under employed and unemployed youth and adults.
In order to unlock barriers to skills development, we continue to accelerate improvements in the education foundation focussing on regulating and expanding ECD services through both public and private provisioning at both pre grade R and grade R levels.
On the other hand, we not only have to create a sizable pool of skilled workers, but also, ensure that learners who graduate from our institutions are employable, thus making a determined effort to improve the market value and relevance of the programmes offered by Further Education and Training colleges and Higher education Institutions. The active involvement of the private business sector is decisive in this regard, particularly in the face of the twin complementary initiatives of positioning Gauteng as a Global City Region and the Growth and Development Strategy. Again Speaker, it is important to note the wise council and the support we receive from another advisory body we have, the FET Advisory Council. Because of time Speaker I'm unable to share with the house the details of a very important international study they made but would wish the chair to invite us to share it with the Education Standing Committee. .
The bedrock of illiteracy will be broken through our effective ABET system which will be rolled out will focus on mass literacy supported by formal ABET programmes that are vocationally driven to support the thrust for increased employability of all Gauteng citizens..
Our system of basic education already offers, on average, much more than 12 years of general education coverage and the gross enrolment ratio is above 100% across all phases, both primary and secondary schools. Even amongst the most disadvantaged groups, average years spent in school is already more than 12 years. However, this does not translate into an average of 12 grades completed, because levels of learning attainment are low. This is reflective of problems of poor quality and low efficiency in the system. It also suggests that the social distribution of quality education is still unequal.
This trajectory, members, means the journey to the future is on in education in Gauteng as we need to break new grounds to make a meaningful difference to our people. Employing some of the key tools such as the National Qualifications Framework, Outcomes-Based Education and the skills development strategy, we will deliver a healthy and skilled people.
It is also important to note that we have successfully incorporated the institutions from North West and Mpumalanga Provinces and are providing those schools the full services offered to all Gauteng schools. We are also auditing the infrastructure in these schools and in line with our prioritisation process will incorporate those schools.
Over the last few years, we have made tremendous strides in realising the targets that we have set ourselves. The 2007/8 MTEF period sees the intensification of our efforts to fully realise the targets set out in our five year plan and those targets contained in the GDS and GCR. Positioning Gauteng at the cutting edge of Education Delivery is critical to ensuring that we have productive, skilled and healthy people who are needed for growing economies and stable community life and remains the core thrust of the work of the department.
The challenge posed by the Growth and Development Strategy of promoting a knowledge economy includes for us the management of knowledge to deliver better services but more importantly for us, the development of knowledge, skills and attitude to support a knowledge-based economy. "Knowledge workers" require new insights into the use of "knowledge" as a commodity that is often provided as a service, supported by the use of Information and Communication Technologies, and dependant on the development of partnerships.Education will therefore develop learners that are able to think about thinking; integrate formal and informal learning; are able to access, select and evaluate information and knowledge; learn effectively in a team; create, transpose and transfer knowledge; and solve ambiguous and unpredictable problems.This will ensure that Gauteng becomes even more globally competitive.
One of the most pressing challenges facing the Gauteng province is the existence of the vicious cycle of unacceptably high levels of poverty and unemployment in the context of a fiercely competitive international environment. We need to interrupt this cycle if we wish to extend the benefits of our democracy to the masses of our people. In an economy where only 20% of the workforce can be considered skilled workers, skills development programmes can play a crucial life-altering role.
Notwithstanding the challenges that have been confronted to date, essentially the 2007 academic year marks the turning point for vocational education and training in the form of the National Certificate (Vocational) for Levels 2 to 4. The new curriculum replaces the old outdated vocational education and training approach and the qualifications that were offered in FET colleges. The new approach speaks to and acknowledges the significance of integrating theory and practice. While colleges have the capacity to provide theoretical training, private sector collaboration will be required to ensure that learners are afforded the opportunity to acquire the requisite practical skills and that placement opportunities are created. Private sector input in curriculum development would also be critical to guarantee that learning remains relevant at all times to the needs of commerce and industry.
As Education is key to realising the strategic goals of the province and is responsive to the needs of the economy, in September 2006, we launched of the Gauteng HRD strategy that is designed to systematically counteract the education and training challenges that constrain the socio-economic development of the province.To ensure Education is responsive to the labour market, its programmes will have to be aligned to the growth and development strategy of the province, labour markets demands, the individual needs of our citizens and the education sector.
Youths and adults that are in-institutions, i.e. schools, FET Colleges and ABET Centres, and out-of-institutions and who have potential to succeed in prioritised career pathways would be supported in two ways, namely, Additional Learning and Teaching Support and Workplace exposure through mentorship, submersion, internships and learner ships. In addition, financial aid and support through partnerships with private sector and Skills Development Fund, including allocations from the relevant SETA's. To date, we have signed agreements with 19 SETA's focusing on sect oral involvement in curriculum delivery to ensure that FET college programmes deliver learners that can be easily integrated into the workplace because they have the requisite industry standard competence. Over 4000 learners are participating in 86 programmes with the SETA's focusing on skills programmes, learner ships and apprenticeships.
As a response to the National and Provincial short-medium term Skills Development Priorities, the GDE has established the Pipeline Talent Search and Development (PTSD) strategy. The PTSD strategy is designed to optimize impact on:
The programme is aimed at identifying and supporting some 30 000 talented learners from our schools in the province to procure critical competencies which are in short supply and eventually secure gainful employment. Initially, the programme will start off with a pilot in 2007 involving 1000 learners. Learners who meet certain criteria will be placed on a series of programmes which incorporate specialised tutorials, job-shadowing, monitoring and support as well as opportunities for further education and training.
This commitment of the Education Department will contribute to the halving unemployment and fighting poverty.
Key achievements
Some of our achievements in the last three years in education in this province include;
The gains made in the sphere of education and training must be leveraged to increase numbers in higher levels of learning, especially in fields aligned to the required skills sets of growing economic sectors. A significant amount of attention has been put into the development of the curriculum on life skills and gender issues, and on prioritizing maths, science and technology education.
Hopefully the above successes and other initiatives will result in a changed skill profile of our population. We would like to work with HEI's in Gauteng to bridge the gap between schooling and higher education. Skills development outcomes must be increasingly aligned to job opportunities forecasted from growing sectors.
The key challenges include;
Increasing access to and quality of Early Childhood Development
A Fast Track Initiative is planned to address a more holistic view of child development informed by links between health and nutrition, on the one hand and, education and care on the other by the ECD Institute.
In January 2008, the ECD Institute will be implementing a three tier model of operation comprising provincial, (regional/district/local) and ECD site level to manage the holistic programming of Early Childhood Development. The ECD Institute will provide strategic leadership whereas all operational activities will take place at local government/regional/district. The operating model will allow for staffing and resource allocation at provincial level to suit redress needs at local level. All this will be complemented by an Information Communication Technology based system to improve efficiency in communication internally and with outside stakeholders.
Increasing the quality of learning in all schools
In support of the Minister's Budget speech, the need to focus on quality education cannot be overemphasised..It is a known fact that results of a number of national and international studies to measure the quality of learning and the level of learner attainment. have shown that nationally we are performing poorly in comparison to other countries including neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Mauritius despite higher or similar expenditure in education.
Also following the Premier's directives to the department after his state of the Province address in February 2007, the department held a series of education summits across the province to focus the broader community on the quest for quality and the need for poorly performing schools to begin a change management process to realise an improved quality of learning across all grades. The summit acknowledged the gains that we have made and also confirmed the challenges facing the education in Gauteng.
An identification of some of the factors affecting performance included the non-utilisation of mother tongue language, class size, teacher competence, quality of learning and teaching support materials, and the quality of the learning infrastructure, monitoring and support of schools, parental involvement, discipline in schools, management and utilisation of learning resources, management of schools, teacher morale, dedication, motivation and commitments and general intrapersonal relationships in schools. Fundamental is also a simple problem of ensuring effective teaching and learning environment
To address the quality of learning, a number of thrusts have been identified and will be intensified over the next three years.
Firstly, we will implement a province-wide literacy and numeracy programme focusing on the improvement of basic writing, reading and arithmetic and focus support to schools found in impoverished communities. To achieve this objective we will continue with the wide scale implementation of the Accelerated Programme for Literacy, Language and Communication (APLLC) in partnership with our strategic partners, READ and JET. A pilot programme is continuing very well in the 24 identified schools, and the base line study to establish where learners are in reading levels is well underway. Full rollout to foundation phase schools particularly those in quintiles 1, 2 & 3 will commence in the next term
Secondly, we will address the quality of learning in all the other grades including in languages, maths, science, technology and the economic and management sciences. We have developed a multi-pronged strategy to turn around the quality of learning in all other grades and learning areas subjects. We will also focus on sports and the performing arts.
In 2007, the department will increase its efforts of ensuring a fair distribution of curriculum offerings by promoting learning areas that are aligned to the demands of the labour market. This will include the review of subject choices in schools in line with the proposed National Senior Certificate to be introduced in 2008, the recommendation of new subjects to schools and support learners' choice of subjects focusing on developing a talent pipeline to meet labour market demands. We will be undertaking a review of the quality improvement intervention programmes focusing on Grade 12 and to expand the programme to incorporate Grade 10 and Grade 11 learners at risk. This is with a view to increasing the increasing the performance learners in the FET phase of schools with hopefully leading to an increase in the number of learners leaving the schools with a school certificate that may be immediately employable or be able to move into further and higher education.
In respect of Languages, special attention will be on improving the teaching and learning of English First Additional Language where it is a Language of Learning and Teaching and not the Home Language of both learners and teachers in both primary and secondary sectors. Particular emphasis will be placed on the enhancing of language competencies of educators particularly in the language of teaching and learning. This will include the promotion of the use of home language in Foundation phase as it is the single largest contributor of poor learners' performance throughout the entire school sector. The department will also ensure intensive support and resourcing of schools and learners taking English as a second language. The English Second Language Strategy will ensure increased learner performance in the school leaving certificate.
The national maths, science and technology strategy, the Dinaledi programme, is being intensified and 31 additional schools have been included, this year, in the programme brining the total to 101 schools. We will ensure that ultimately all schools are fully resourced and have competent maths, and science teachers to effective participation and success of learners in maths, science and technology. With regards to the economic and management sciences particular focus will be placed on financial literacy and entrepreneurship. In this regard, we would like the acknowledge our private sector partners, namely, Piermont Global through the Thutuka Project lead by SAICA, TransUnion ICT, Johannesburg stock Exchange and standard Bank. We are also committed to complete SciBono Discovery Centre as the provincial flagship of the drive to improve maths, science and technology education in the province.
We will also place emphasis on the role of curriculum support staff in the province with view to strengthening the provincial capacity to support schools. The roles and responsibilities of support staff will be clarified and strengthened. The development programs for the curriculum support staff will be enhanced. Clearly defined processes will be established and developed to ensure the quality of support to educators and school management will be developed. The emphasis will be on school-based support particularly where poor performance is visible. The system that will be implemented will focus on developmental support. The emphasis will also be on ensuring increased accountability across all levels in the system. We have already begun reviewing the teacher development programme and are concluding the identification of the specific training needs for each subject across all schools.
We have completed the design of a programme for training of school management teams in curriculum management and managing strategies for learner's improvement. This programme includes strategies to establish organization ethos and culture in schools. This will be implemented over the next three years.
In so far as the Grade 11 Repeaters are concerned, the department together with stakeholders will ensure that no Grade 11 repeater is left behind. A clear strategy and management plan is being implemented to ensure that all Grade 11 successfully complete Grade11 and Grade 12 IRO of Report 550 or the NCS as decided by learners and parents.
Learners today need to first develop ICT literacy and therefore make use of digital assets to develop insights into a post-modern world-view where the simple access to information allows multiple perspectives to be easily investigated. The national curriculum statements for most subjects have a practical component related to computer and software competency, for example learners studying accounting should be able to implement their theory on an electronic accounting package as part of the subject requirement. This is supported by the e-Education White Paper. While our e-Learning strategy aims to provide learners with the skills in the use of ICT tools and digital resources, our strategy also aims to support the development of expertise in the use of digital tools that: map of the learning processes; provide searching and retrieval of information; support collaboration; allow information to be re-sampled, or reused, to create different views of information; and support collaborative problem-solving using sophisticated software and networks.
We, together with the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, will be intensifying and expanding in-school sport, arts and culture and promote greater competitive sport and arts activities over the 2007/08 MTEF period. We will be expanding our leadership programmes to cover more RCL members and to introduce school based programmes as part of the extra-curricular programmes
Focusing on Adult Education and Out-of-School Youth
Speaker, we are the first to admit that despite an increase of the number of learners enrolled in ABET centres to over 60 000, we are experiencing a number of challenges. The current ABET programme focuses on formal ABET programme for Levels 1 to 4 which is equivalent to Grade 9. The performance of adult learners at Level 4 exams have been poor, there is a high dropout rate of adult learners. Currently there is no basic literacy programme and due to national policy, failed matriculants are not allowed to repeat in schools and as a result we have found a growing number of repeating matriculants being accommodated in ABET centres.
To address these challenges, we have developed an implementation strategy to transform the ABET sector in the province to become more efficient and more effective.
Towards the latter half of 2007, we will introduce a province-wide literacy programme in line with the plan tabled by the National Department of Education. We will target the 8, 7% of illiterate youth and adults in the province to become literate and numerate at a day-to-day functionality level.
The main thrust for the next three years is to develop a seamless system between basic literacy and post-literacy education for Adults. This will involve re-landscaping the current ABET centre focusing on geographic access, local economic skills demand and to create a virtual 24-hour ABET programme to ensure both employed and un-employed adults can access continuing education programmes. This will is in line with ANC'S vision of a life long system of education.
We will also implement a revised curriculum framework for ABET focusing on technical and vocational skills in support of the skills demand from the economy and productive citizenship. There will be a national system of standards and certificates for adult basic education and adult education in general to enable individuals to participate in, and move between, the formal and non-formal education and training system."
The challenge of focusing on failed matriculants and out-of-school youth in ABET centres is currently being investigated. This support programme requires funding and is creating pressure in respect of shifting ABET funds to address failed matriculants. This is preventing us from expanding the ABET programme from existing budgets. We will therefore develop an intensive programme to address the needs of the failed matriculants and to explore funding sources for such a programme to eliminate the problem in a period of two to three years. Speaker there exist very successful Matric re-write programme such as the St. Anthony's Matric re-write programme in Reiger Park. I have instructed officials in my department to look at that model and see if we can expand it into other areas.
Making Further Education and Training Colleges responsive to the labour market demands
In the ongoing process of gearing our Further Education and Training colleges to support the economic thrust of the province, we will over the next three years focus on the curriculum offered at FET colleges in respect of high-level vocational skills that are required, especially in the areas that are critical for our province and country's economic development. In this recapitalization of the FET sector we will engage the private sector to come on board of this process, and also forge links with the local government authorities in our province. We are currently reviewing the curriculum offering in the colleges in line with the provincial HRD strategy and will ensure that the sector be comes responses to the economic and labour market demands.
In the context of the new FETC Act No: 16 of 2006 and its implications for building greater capacity for self-governance at Public FET Colleges, the Gauteng Department of Education is planning a structured approach to achieve institutional autonomy and excellence. This will include: the establishment of FET Colleges Councils as new employers and the transfer of staff from the department to public FET Colleges.
FET Colleges in the Province have earnestly begun to respond to the 2014 Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) by translating business and community initiatives into accredited, quality programmes that meet the needs of employers, individuals, communities and Higher Education institutions for further study. It should be recognized that these needs vary from one region of Gauteng to the other and that they will be subject to the effects of relentless environmental changes, such as technological advancements and competitiveness. This kind of environment requires capacity to respond swiftly. In consequence, it is crucial that colleges should be endowed with institutional authority to respond timorously and effectively.
Improving Governance and Management capacity
We will continue work to develop SGBs by increasing training and development opportunities to ensure greater involvement in promoting quality learning at schools. We also increase leadership training and development programmes for RCL to ensure greater involvement in SGBs i.r.o quality learning. We also support schools in increasing Parental involvement by getting schools to educate parents on the curriculum and its requirements. This will also lead to increased oversight of learning at home.
We will increase training and development programmes for SMT especially iro curriculum maintenance and educational leadership. We are also reviewing delegations to principals and procedures to be followed to address matters related to teacher discipline and productivity at school level to ensure timeous response to matters affecting quality in a school.
We are already automating the school environment. We will be rolling out SA-SAMS (a school administration package) to all schools that do not have one during 2007. Later in 2007 will be introducing a national Learner Tracking System to ensure that we can track the progress of learners nationally even if they relocate from another province. These applications will also provide curricular and learner assessment data more frequently so that we can detect high risk learning areas and high risk schools.
Roles and responsibilities of IDSOs and school improvement
Taking cognisance of the of the central role that IDSOs play in the process of transforming schools the Department will be focusing on building their competences through both internal training on the processes of school improvement and who school evaluation, and external training aimed at enabling them to acquire a full range of skills and knowledge to fulfil the tasks allocated to them. More specifically through the envisaged external training it is hoped that they will be able to:
A budget for the IDSO training and capacity building has been set aside to address this aspect. The external training that has been designed in conjunction with the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance and the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Administration. One hundred IDSOs will be enrolled on this two year certificate course.
Provide for teacher development and human resource management systems
The department will also intensify its programme to boost teacher morale and ensure that teaching becomes an enjoyable profession. The department has successfully completed the training of all educators to support the rollout of the Integrated Quality Management Systems which is an educator development and performance management system.The department will implement teacher development programme that will support the realisation of individual educator's growth needs as established in the baseline evaluations completed during 2006 and the evaluations in 2006.
The department will also undertake initiatives to promote increased enrolment in pre-service education programmes in line with the Department's teacher supply, utilisation and development projections. The department will also intensify it programme to enhance competence by ensuring that effective needs-driven accredited and non-accredited programmes are implemented to support the implementation of the Preset and Inset programmes to support the growth needs of teachers. It will also be increasing activities in the department's educator development centres and teachers' centres. Provide for teacher development and human resource management systems
We hope this will go a long way to address many concerns we have and also have been raised with us in terms of our teachers skills and teacher support programmes
Enabling environment that ensure a safe and conducive environment for teaching and learning
As indicated earlier Speaker, schools are a microcosm of our society. With the high levels of violence, alcohol and substance abuse, the consequences these depressing tendencies are also experienced by our schools. As you may recall Speaker, last year was quite difficult with a number of our young people dying in our schools, mainly as a result of violence by young men against other young men.
As if that was not enough, in most schools that I visited during the past year and months, most principals raised concerns with our young people, both boys and girls experimenting with liquor and drugs. Students themselves admitted this when I spoke to them. This raises a very disturbing phenomenon amongst our youth and as a nation we have to be very concerned. I was very happy when the President during his national address on the 16th of June also raised concerns about the problem of drinking and substance abuse amongst young people.
Speaker, the value of education lies in what remains in a person when all facts have been forgotten. What remains after we have forgotten that:
X2 + Y2 = R2;
Or that the formula for measuring force in science is F = Mass x acceleration
Or who the great Greek Gods like ZEUS, JUPITER are;
Or what ISIS and OSARIS are known for;
Or even more where who Princess Magogo is;
Or let alone who Manthathisis is;
Including what Nangqause's claim to fame is?
When all those learned facts are now forgotten, what has been internalised and is left, matters even most. Real Education is what remains after all the learning and teaching has stopped.
So speaker it is imperative that we look at the character development of our children. If our boys are to be real men, they have to be socialised appropriately that real men don't abuse women. When they become adults, they have to be adults who know that it is the responsibility of every self respecting adult to respect and look after the more vulnerable ones, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and not forgetting their duty to defend, protect at all times pay homage to their country this beautiful South Africa to which we all belong, young and old, rich and poor and from the different races in this country.
Speaker, the values contained both in our constitution and national anthem that member Bloom so correctly pointed out that need to be inculcated in our youth, are equally key as end products of our work and through our valued citizens programme will continue to educate our children on them. Member Mulder in the process of working together as a nation in healing the past and building a new South African nation wherein as we both agree cannot allow a situation that our children with Afrikaans heritage should grow up with a stigma of being descendents of oppressors.
Member Msane, noZwe lethu ba ke ba mise ngalokujiver nokucula. Abanye Bantu bayathuthuka bona baya jayiva uma beqeda badakwe noma bazithwale. Ayikho lento. I recently learnt that most young people have ambitions to form musical groups as their career plans. Lematlaila abatla bokamoso bantho eo basa e abelwang. So our social plan will only succeed as soon as parents and guardians take their responsibilities even more seriously. Abanye abazali baze bahlulwa nangabantwana abazihlalela bodwa. Speaker, parenting has become a mojor challenge in some of our communities.
To strength our gender education and training programme which also includes the empowerment of girl children and our educators, we are currently strengthening our gender unit. We have since placed it under a new directorate and have committed ourselves to enabling it influence our work in all the different areas. It is very important for us to use the different tools at our disposal to socialise our children differently so that they come out of the system with the correct gender consciousness.
We have developed a safety and security strategy for schools aimed at promoting an integrated approach to securing schools and making them safe environment that supports learning and teaching. It will be launched soon and implemented during 2007/08 financial year. The plan will also focus on Substance abuse. This programme will also be undertaken jointly with the Department of Community Safety.
We will also focus on dealing with discipline in schools and focus on the right to learn. We will become tough on teachers and learners who wilfully break the rule and affect the quality of teaching and learning. We will also put into place measures that will ensure that outsiders do not enter the schools and disrupt the teaching and learning programmes.
Through our HIV and AIDS programmes for learners and our gender-based programmes we will focus on the boy and girl learners, to promote better life skills in dealing with their sexual rights and the need to prevent boys and girls from becoming teenage parents. Our aim is to ensure that learners in schools in high risk areas understand the need to become responsible citizens and the need for them to realise their full potential rather then fall prey to behavioural patterns that will rob them of meaningful future.
Fortunately for the department Speaker we have been enjoying tremendous support from different members of the community on this. It is at this point that I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge two beautiful young men in particular who have just been outstanding and great in supporting the department in its work on social and cultural moulding of our people. Gayton Mackenzie the author of a very successful book called choice and voted best public speaker in 2006. At his cost and time has been taking time to join us in road shows in supporting our programmes on sexuality, anti crime and drug abuse and Ashton Willemse, a successful black rugby player for the national team. Speakers they have been great and will not be exaggerating when I say completely effective.
I want to also take this opportunity to thank MrsBrowdie, a retired medical specialist who has put a lot of energy into developing a programme that has been demonstrated to work on behavioural change in dealing with HIV and AIDS. It is a well researched piloted programme with effective learning aids such as monopoly games and she too, is undertook all of this work free and as her humble contribution in the fight against AIDS.
We need more hands on board, parents in particular. Member Nkomo is right about the important role that homes play in socialising our children but society in general should remember the common saying; it takes a village to bring up a child, so it takes every adult to bring up a child.
Improving Resourcing Levels in key quality levers
Underpinning all of this is the improvement of the resourcing levels of schools in the province.
The budget of the department is R14, 543 billion and has increased by over 18% over the 2006/7 budget. This increase also makes provision for the 247 institutions and over 4000 personnel as a result of the cross border municipalities.
Trends in Personnel
The department will spend R11, 006 billion on personnel in the 2007/08 financial year. This is an increase of 13, 5% over 2006/07. The additional funding is for policy adjustments for the recruitment and retention of educators and inflationary increases. The increased allocation is also to make provision for the incorporation of educators into the province from the North West and Mpumalanga due to the re-demarcation of provinces process. We are addressing the growing class sizes in schools and will effectively reduce the class sizes by employing an additional 3000 educators as of 2007. The learner educator ratio has reduced dramatically from over 38:1 to 36:1. We will also address the need for additional support personnel in schools.
Trends in Goods and Services and Transfers
The department will spend R1,609 billion on goods and services which is a 38% increase over the previous financial year and is as a result of increased allocation for schools due to no-fee school policy, additional funding for cross border schools and quality interventions in support of national priorities.
An amount of R1, 302 billion will be transferred to schools and third party agencies. The increase in transfers is mainly as a result increased subsidies to institutions due to the implementation of the no-fee school policy and the incorporation of schools from cross boundary municipalities.
We will spend R1, 612 billion on subsidies to schools. 2007 will also see the implementation of no-fee schools in National Quintile 1 and 2 schools. In consolidating and strengthening the public school education system so that all children in our province, especially the poor have access to quality education a total of 415 schools will be declared no-fee schools with 372 558 learners. This translates to 21, 9% of the projected learner population in public schools. We have also introduced new norms for exemptions from fees to alleviate the burden on the poor.
We will spend R791 million on quality interventions. Twelve new priority areas have been resourced this year.
Trends in CAPEX
In respect of CAPEX, we will spend R625 million. There is minimal decline as a result of the small decrease in the budget allocation for schools buildings. The decrease machinery and equipment is as a result of the movement of the Gauteng Online project to the GSSC. We will be taking delivery of 54 new schools in December 2007 for opening in 2008 and we will begin during the 2007/08 MTEF period planning a detailed recurrent maintenance plan for schools and also introduce a preventative maintenance plan for all schools. This will initially focus on the Twenty Priority Townships.
Programme Trends
The increase in Programme 1: Administration is 16% over the last financial year and is as a result of adjustments made for administrative services to support schools incorporated from the North West and Mpumalanga Provinces. In addition and in line with national priorities, there are increases in the EMIS allocation and for Systemic Evaluation. The workplace HIV/AIDS budget has also been incorporated into the appropriation budget for the first time.
The increase in Programme 2: Public Ordinary Schools is 19% over the last financial year and is mainly as a result of increased allocations for no-fee schools in the form of subsidies to schools, increased allocation for scholar transport, teacher development and quality enlistment programmes to improve the level of learner attainment.
The increase in Programme 3: Subsidies to Independent Schools is 22% over the last financial year and is for increased subsidies to independent school and is directly linked to increased expenditure in programme 2 as the policy is hard-normed. The importance of education for this country means that we have to enable different systems to work and succeed because all of them contribute towards this objective, investing in our young and thus investing into the future of South Africa. Hence Mr. Speaker I'm keen on the St. Anthony's model so that the private and the public sector can complement each other. The problems of young people who have not completed schooling or could not be admitted back into our schools need to be addressed as a matter of great importance.
The increase in Programme 4: Special Schools is 8% over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross border schools incorporated and to increased allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in special schools.
The increase in Programme 5: FET Colleges is 23% over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross border FET college campuses incorporated, increase recapitalisation grant and to increased allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in FET Colleges.
The increase in Programme 6: ABET is 19% over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross border ABET centre, increased investment in resources for ABET centres and increase allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in ABET Centres.
The increase in Programme 7: ECD is 93% over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross border ECD centres and Grade R and the expansion of the number of Grade R sites in the province.
The overall decline in Programme8: Auxiliary Services is as a result of the Gauteng Online Project being shifted to GSSC. A notable increase in the other sub-programme is to provide examination services to cross boundary schools.
Concluding remarks
Speaker yesterday we had a meeting with the minister of education Mrs Naledi Pandor to assess the impact of the ongoing strike on education and our plans for 2007. We all expressed our anxiety to see the ongoing negotiations yielding results and enabling schooling to normalise. We noted with regret the time lost and are already looking at corrective measures. Its important for both parents and chidren to note that our matriculants 116 days left to sit their final exams with others having 159 days left. We want to also urge our learners to put every thing aside to focus on their studies and do independent reading as much as possible.
It is clear from our plans that it is not going to be business as usual, thus we commit ourselves to break new grounds. In doing so, we will respond to the educational challenges facing poor communities energetically, to crush the shackles of poverty and unemployment as we move towards a quality public education.
I want to place on record my continued gratitude and appreciation for the sterling leadership provided by most of our principals and to ask them to effectively utilise the resources afforded by this budget to ensure effective education and quality learning.
I commit myself to continue to support teachers who have committed themselves to ensure quality learning in a safe and secure environment and to provide the care necessary for all developing children.
The role of the PS personnel in schools cannot be understated. They provide meaningful support to teachers and learners regarding both administrative matters and school facility maintenance. For this I am deeply grateful.
I want to thank members of all political parties for their support and to reiterate my commitment to resolve all the matters they refer to me, especially the ANC which has done a lot of work in support of grassroots communities.
To Mr Amon Msane and members of the standing committee, thanks again for the guidance and support at all times. Know that we always look forward to an opportunity to interact with your self. Thanks for your report on the budget and oversight and point by point we will act on your recommendations.
To our advisory committees, Gauteng Education and Training Council under the leadership of Johan Marnitz; the Further Education and Training Council under Professor John Makhene; the Maths and Science and Technology Council under Dudu Mkhize; the Examination Advisory Body under Professor Coert Loock; the District Education and Training Councils and the Local Education and Training Units, my most sincere appreciation for all your commitment, dedication and wise and able stewardship. You are real sons and daughters of this lovely and great country of ours, without asking for anything for yourself you give out so much of your time, skills and simply love and passion for your different areas of work. Thank you, we will continue to look forward to your ongoing guidance and support.
My sincere gratitude to the CEO, Mr Mallele Petje and all Managers and Staff, the staff in my office, all parents, SGBs, NGOs, Business and other stakeholders who continue to contribute without failure to our education system.