Policy and Budget Speech 2005/06
Presented to the Provincial Legislature by MEC for
Education, Siphosezwe Masango
12 April 2005
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier, TSP Makwetla
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Esteemed Leaders of Political Parties
The Revered Traditional Leadership present here
Heads of Departments
The Associations of Parents present here
Organized Labour, Youth and Learner formations
Strategic partners in the Business Community and the entire
civil society
Distinguished Guests in your different capacities
Compatriots and Cadres of our glorious Movement
Building a Single National Quality Public Education
System that Truly Belongs to All.
Before I present our Policy and Budget Speech, let me
acknowledge the presence of two learners who have done us
very proud as the people of Mpumalanga Province.
Samukelisiwe Dlamini, a Grade 12 learner from Valencia
Combined School for winning the 2004 SADC Secondary School
Essay competition. For this achievement, Samukelisiwe had an
opportunity of travelling to Mauritius to receive her prize
during the official opening of the SADC Summit which was
held in August, 2004.
The other learner is Badelisile Lukhele, a learner from
Sitintile High School for having been selected to represent
South Africa in a UN-sponsored debate which took place in
the United States of America in March, 2005.
Sithi kuwe Samukelisiwe no Badelisile ningamaqhawekazi
wethu, siyaziqhenya ngani. I beseech you to give them a
round of applause.
Madame Speaker, the late President of the African
National Congress, O.R. Tambo, a gallant son of the African
Continent, in his opening address to the historic Harare
Conference, a conference devoted to the plight of children,
said: “We meet here today because we recognize that our
lives have meaning only to the extent they are used to
create social conditions which will make the lives of the
children better, happy, full and meaningful.”
Madame Speaker, this wisdom of experience could not have
been interpreted otherwise, but only to mean that children
are moulded by what society offers them and they plough back
into society what society has given to them.
Quite clearly, this is an understanding that the historic
People’s Congress had in 1955. It was this very Congress
which adopted the Freedom Charter, the people’s document
which represented the sum total of our aspirations in all
facets of our lives by declaring then “Freedom in our
lifetime”.
Surely, the Freedom Charter became a mirror image of a
future South Africa that would be established after
assumption of power, by those who were inspired by it.
Fifty years ago, the Freedom Charter asserted, that “the
doors of learning and culture shall be opened” and this
vision has not changed; it is now entrenched in the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
The Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the
Republic, instructs us that “Everyone has the right to a
basic education; including adult basic education and to
further education, which the state, through reasonable
measures, must make progressively available and accessible.”
And indeed, the First Decade of our Freedom and Democracy
saw this statement of objectives being set into motion. The
doors of learning and culture began to open to all the
citizens of this country, and we are still on course to
Building a Single National Quality Public Education System
That Truly Belongs To All.
Madame Speaker,
Our people have witnessed great progress in the provision of
access to quality education for all. Last year, in my
submission to this House, I saluted the groundwork laid in
the First Decade of Freedom by my predecessors who
practically dismantled 19 separate, racial and ethnic
education departments operating in the so-called independent
states (the TBVC states), Bantustans and the abominable
tri-cameral system to create a new single national education
and training system that truly belongs to all.
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This is a significant contribution gravitating towards a
total transformation of our education system.
Sikhulumi Sendlu, lesihloniphekile, kulilungelo leftu
kutsi sigiye, sishaye ingadla, sihalalisele luhlelo
lwemfundvo loluletfwe nguhulumende wentsandvo yelinyenti,
luhlelo lwemfundvo lolungahlukanisi ngebuhlanga noma
ngebulili. Sitsi halala ngahulumende wentsandvo yelinyenti
halala !
The President of the Republic of South Africa, in his
State of the Nation Address, 2005, acknowledges that much
ground has been covered in education since 1994 when he
said: “We are also confident, given the evidence of progress
thus far, that various interventions in the area of
education and training, including …… provision of additional
support to schools in poor areas, will provide positive
results, as planned.”
Surely we need to answer the President’s observations
with a renewed commitment and a heightened level of service
delivery.
Now is the time, to rise to the occasion with the full
realization that our heritage of unity and collectiveness,
true to the tradition of the African people, has altered the
course of history and proved to the world that we are a
winning nation that will not succumb to the legacy of an
evil, colonial and apartheid past.
With your permission, Madame Speaker, I now beg leave to
exchange an opinion and outline a roadmap on how our
Department seeks to consolidate, defend and advance the
gains accrued over the past 10 years.
Mma, uSomlomo, ngibawa bonyana isitjhaba singivumele
ngazise umbiko wokwabiwa kwemmali zomNyango wezeFundo
zanonyaka, 2005/06.
Imali eyabelwe umNyango wezeFundo umnyaka lo ka 2005/06
iyi 5,737 bhiliyoni yama Randi. Lokhu kutjho bonyana ingezwe
ngamaphesenti ayi 9,2% nayimedaniswa nomnyaka wemmali
odlulileko ka 2004/05.
For this increase of 9.2% when compared to last year, I
must, amongst others, thank the MEC for Finance, Madam
Mmathulare Coleman, for her sharp and insightful
understanding of the competing priorities facing government.
Thank you, Madam.
I now invite the House to consider favourably the
Department of Education’s Budget Vote breakdown per
programme. The proposed allocations are, to a large extent,
biased towards the priorities as set out by the following:
- The State of the Nation and the State of the
Province Addresses.
- The Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.
- The recommendations from the three Regional
Education Izindaba, which we convened in 2004, and were
later consolidated and ratified at the Provincial
Education Indaba. So, clearly, the people’s voice is
quite audible in this budget submission and,
- Finally, the latest developments in terms of new
education policy imperatives, such as the
recapitalisation of the FET sector and the Integrated
Quality Management System, to mention but a few.
These priorities should and must enhance the environment
conducive to building a quality public education system that
truly belongs to all.
Adminisration
Recognizing that efficient and effective public
administration is not only the face of government but also
an important vehicle to execute our mandate, we have planned
through programme one for 2005/06 to allocate 481.6 million
rand.
This will enable us to provide a responsive and vibrant
overall management of the education system in the province.
High on the agenda will be the development of service
standards, which are long overdue. These standards, in line
with Batho Pele principles, must contribute towards the
realization of a citizen-centred public service and people
centred society.
We will also ensure the 100% implementation of the
Performance Management Development System and the Integrated
Quality Management System as an important step to
institutionalize the envisaged service standards.
This allocation should further ensure that Regional and
Circuit Offices do have the basic labour-saving device
package that is compliant to the latest information
technology, including connectivity to e-mail and government
intranet by the end of this financial year.
In the current financial year, we will also have to
finalize the re-alignment of our organizational structure,
in view of the fact that the current structure is no longer
able to provide an adequate vehicle for the delivery of the
Department’s strategic and statutory obligations. This
re-engineering will include improved systems and work
processes.
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We have to ensure that our Department has the pulse and the
helicopter view of the strategic dynamics prevailing, by
introducing an Outreach Unit, that will continuously scan
the environment within and around the school community.
This detachment, already known as Ayihlome Ifunde, will
create sustainability in the line function, assist in
transforming dysfunctional education institutions, and
promote participation of parents and other stakeholders in
the Provincial Schooling System.
Public Ordinary Schools
I hope by now, Honourable Members will be aware that the
National Government is currently reviewing the funding model
to ensure that schools serving the poor are adequately
provided with basic educational resource packages, including
analyzing factors leading to the growing cost of education.
We hope the review will be concluded during the 2005/06
financial year.
We have in the First Decade of the democratic government
ensured that no child is denied access to education on the
basis of parental inability to pay school fees. This is
signified by the per capita expenditure, which has increased
by R 3 700 per learner, as compared to 1994.
This also explains why 85% of the Budget Vote will go
directly to schools for personnel and non-personnel
expenditure. This translates, in Rands and cents, to 4.886
billion rand.
The thrust of this allocation is to provide public
ordinary education from Grade 1 to Grade 12 in accordance
with the Constitution and the South African Schools Act, to
remunerate 26 562 educators and 5 407 public service staff
members.
Non-personnel expenditure will cover infrastructure
development, scholar transport, learner and teacher support
material, furniture, bridging the literature and digital
divide, school nutrition programme and transfer payments for
the day to day running of schools.
All this is primarily aimed at building a quality public
education system that truly belongs to all.
Madame Speaker, I wish to further highlight the following
areas:
Human Resources Management
The Mpumalanga Department of Education has consistently,
within the framework of the budget, strived to eradicate,
over the last ten years, the backlog in the provisioning of
posts to schools as a result of inequitable funding.
We have also strived towards achieving the equitable
re-distribution of human resources by systematically
transferring excess support staff from advantaged schools to
disadvantaged schools in consultation with the Mpumalanga
Education Labour Relations Council.
Up to 31 March 2004, a total of 1 456 post level one
educators appointed on temporary contract, were appointed
permanently in terms of the Provincial ELRC Resolution 1 of
2001 and 2002 respectively.
Infrastructure Development
The President of the Republic has, in two consecutive
years in his State of the Nation Addresses, called upon all
of us to ensure that as we enter the Second Decade of the
People’s State, no learner must still be under a tree and/or
conditions unfit for human habitation.
In 2005/06 we will be finalizing the process of updating
the School Register of Needs, linked to the Geographic
Information System. However, there is still a need for
water, sanitation and ablution facilities in some schools.
Recognizing that such poor physical fabric threatens the
health of learners and educators alike, our resolve is to
increase our offensive against these unacceptable
conditions.
Therefore, Madame Speaker, within the margin of the
2005/06 Budget Vote, we plan to provide 626 classrooms, 31
special rooms, 44 administration blocks, 1 839 toilets, 87
schools with fences, 121 schools with clean water, 77
schools with electricity and renovate 1853 classrooms.
We have also planned to upgrade 38 schools with rails and
ramps in addition to the fact that all new schools must now
have these provisions as part of promoting accessibility of
education facilities to differently-abled learners.
Madame Speaker, we estimate an infrastructure backlog of
3.3 Billion Rand. If school construction needs were the only
challenge, we would have opted to wipe out all these
appalling conditions in one financial year.
However, as a nation, we are also mindful of the fact
that we are fighting a social deficit accumulated over many
years of colonial and apartheid misrule, and as part of
ensuring that we are progressively bridging the physical
infrastructure divide between the haves and have nots, the
advantaged and the disadvantaged, we have planned to
allocate R246.8 million for capital works.
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I need to indicate that over the past ten years, the
unpredictable migration patterns resulting in urban sprawl
and the growth in informal settlements have a net effect of
under-utilisation of existing infrastructure in certain
areas. This results in classroom overcrowding in some areas
and the under-utilisation of resources in other areas, such
as farming communities.
There are two practical options at this stage. Firstly,
the use of movable classrooms and secondly, the continued
provision of scholar transport for learners who have to walk
5km or more to the nearest school.
Scholar Transport
In this financial year, we will be transporting, more or
less, 33 187 learners on 507 routes. For this service we
have planned to allocate R72.96 million. We will continue to
provide scholar transport until an appropriate model and
formula for provisioning of school construction needs in our
rural settlements, in particular farming communities, is
arrived at.
Where feasible, we will continue to merge small schools
within reasonable proximity in order to consolidate teaching
in proper and adequately resourced learning centres; that
is, we will be phasing out one-teacher schools and
multi-grade teaching, which have proved to be compromising
teaching and learning.
Madame Speaker, our sustained efforts to build a quality
public education system that truly belongs to all, should
not and cannot be divorced from challenges of
under-development, unemployment and the resultant poverty,
which have proved to be major barriers in creating an
effective schooling environment.
National School Nutrition Programme
Believing that children’s rights must be protected by
both the state machinery and a caring society, Government
has, within the First Decade of Freedom, initiated a social
security net in schools, for children whose effective
learning has been grossly inhibited by the pains of hunger.
To defend and advance this noble social plan, we shall
allocate 70.235 Million Rand which will provide food for 492
687 primary school learners for 156 school days.
We need to improve efforts to provide every poor learner
in our public schools with a complete solid nutritional meal
every school day. However, lack of coverage of the secondary
school learners is still a problem.
In the next three months, we will be finalizing the
appointment of 20 monitors based in the Regional Offices to
monitor both the quality and quantity of food given to
learners.
As part of the inter-governmental synergy, I will ensure
that our Department initiates structured working relations
with the Department of Agriculture and Land Administration
to promote food gardens in schools.
The Department of Education, as part of government, is
equally convinced that aggressively fighting against
under-development and poverty will neutralize the impact of
the HIV and AIDS pandemic that is ravaging all sectors of
our economy.
HIV and AIDS
The social disintegration and breakdown of families,
exacerbated by HIV and AIDS, is leading to larger numbers of
children being orphaned or in distress. The survey conducted
by the Department of Social Services in conjunction with the
Department of Education, identified a total of 23 442
orphans in 47.33% of the schools that participated in the
survey.
Programmes to combat the spread of the HIV and AIDS
pandemic include advocacy through the mass media, schools
and community organizations.
As a department, we have ensured that through the
Conditional Grant Programme 10.317 Million Rand is set aside
to develop and implement Life Skills and HIV and AIDS
programmes. Learners must be assisted to make wise choices
throughout their lives.
2 000 Educators will be capacitated on care and support
programmes for orphans and vulnerable children. Focus will
also be placed on procurement of first aid kits for schools
as an adherence to policy on universal precautionary
measures to make our schools places of safety. However, we
all know that the promotion of a healthy life style is at
the centre- stage of our endeavours.
Learner and Teacher Support Material
Honourable Speaker, one of the critical areas in the
provisioning of education is that of non-personnel
re-current funding, something that is felt in a very
immediate way, such as the Learner and Teacher Support
Material (textbooks and stationery).
These allocations represent inputs that, at the margin,
can have a considerable impact on learning. In view of the
fact that effective learning in the classroom hinges around
this input, amongst others, an amount of 381.068 Million
Rand is being allocated for the purchase of Learner and
Teacher Support Material for close to 920 000 learners from
Grade R to 12.
In addition to this amount, 81.817 Million Rand is being
allocated as transfer payments to schools as per their
quintile poverty ranking to cover other operational costs.
It should be noted that National Norms and Standards for
School Funding, tackles issues of re-dress and equity
head-on and give provinces the necessary guidance to
distribute their scarce resources in the most equitable,
affirmative and effective way.
However, while greater levels of funding are now
available, there is a need to significantly enhance the
capacity for service delivery across all levels in the
Department.
Central to our turnaround strategy, will be our Human
Resources Development Strategy.
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Human Resources Development
In line with the Provincial Economic Growth and
Development Strategy , the Department of Education is
committed to accelerateHuman Resource Development programmes
aimed at building capacity in the key areas of service
delivery affecting the social transformation agenda. This
includes strengthening and expanding Learnership Programmes.
The Mpumalanga Department of Education has budgeted 1% of
its entire employees total salary bill towards Skills
Development as stipulated by the Skills Development Levies
Act.
The total budget for Human Resource Development stands at
24 Million Rand. The implementation of Learnerships has just
been vigorously started by the intake of 758 learners in our
department. The targeted learnerships are commensurate with
the economic growth of the province, which include, inter
alia, farm management, wood technology, human resources
management, project management, and national professional
development for the unqualified and under-qualified
educators, including Adult Basic Education (ABET) educators.
The fruits of the Department’s concerted efforts and
advocacy campaigns are manifested in the increased
participation of educators and schools in the National
Teaching Awards and the Premier’s Service Excellence Awards.
Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET)
The Department of Education will always ensure that the
doors of learning are increasingly opened to all, including
learners in the Adult Basic Education and Training Sector –
in our ongoing battle to break the back of illiteracy.
The then President of the ANC, O.R. Tambo, addressing the
Congress of the MPLA, in Luanda, December 1977 said:
“We ….. visualize a South Africa in which it will be a
duty of the people’s state to ensure that the doors of
learning and culture are open to the working people.”
In the light of this visionary guidance, I call upon
labour to encourage workers to take part in ABET programmes;
business to provide facilities and funding at the workplace
for ABET, and community structures to support and mobilize
people through literacy campaigns.
As the Department of Education, we have planned to
support Adult Learners to form co-operatives in Agriculture
and Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises.
We are allocating 73.9 Million Rand, which translates
into a 44% increase relative to the last financial year.
This budget will also enable qualifying ABET educators in
our public Adult Learning Centres to earn a monthly salary
determined on a pro rata basis, for the first time. This
positive step will assist in professionalizing and
stabilizing the ABET sector.
Early Childhood Development
Currently, Madam Speaker, 800 Grade R sites are
registered and operational. A further 120 sites will be
registered in this financial year.
The integrated plan between the Department of Education
and the Department of Health and Social Services will be
unveiled later in the year. This plan will focus on children
from 0 to 4 years.
An amount of 57,79 Million Rand has been allocated to
provide Early Childhood Development in accordance with White
Paper 5 for public schools, independent schools and for the
pre-grade R in community centres.
The challenge we are faced with is the poor governance of
ECD Centres, unqualified Grade R educators driving the
programme, and the lack of awareness among parents about the
importance of ECD in the overall development of a child.
Curriculum Development and Implementation
Madame Speaker, curriculum transformation is the soul of
the new education system and the heartbeat of our Human
Development Strategy.
The apartheid curriculum that forced us to regurgitate
the doctrines of Bantu Education and fundamental pedagogics,
that relegated the learner to an empty vessel into which
knowledge had to be poured, is now liquidated.
That race-based system has been expunged and replaced by
the Outcomes-Based Education System embracing the principles
of social justice, human rights and inclusivity.
Honourable Speaker, and Members, would be aware that the
revision of Curriculum 2005 has resulted in what is called
the Revised National Curriculum Statement, which represents
the most liberating element of our education system.
This will, indeed, enable all our children, regardless of
their background, to fully realize their potential.
The fundamental question, Madame Speaker, should always
be how the Department of Education is performing with regard
to its core business, namely, the development and
implementation of the curriculum through teaching and
learning. This House must get an answer and the nation must
be answered too.
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Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, barring the 2004 Grade
12 Examination debacle, last year’s Grade 12 pass rate
improved by 3.8% and Mpumalanga was the most improved
province in the country.
This improvement excludes the 14 schools which were
investigated by Umalusi (the Quality Assuror of Grade 12
examinations)
However, I wish to remind the house that on the 29th June
2004 when I introduced my budget debate, I cautioned against
the narrow euphoria and educationally skewed concern about
Grade 12 results only. No matter what the merits are, the
concerns and shock, if there has to be any shock, must show
interest in all grades.
The continuous assessment criteria seek to measure the
learning outcomes at each grade in our schooling system. And
these preceding grades should provide us with early warning
signs, so that our intervention programmes and spending
patterns may, to a larger extent, be informed by what is
happening before Grades 9 and 12 as two major exit points of
our schooling system.
The Department does not intend to come to this House,
year in and year out, to request budget approval for the
whole schooling system yet account on outputs of only one
grade. This cannot be right.
Madame Speaker, may I have the honour to present to this
House, the summarized version of the provincial academic
performance on Grades 3, 6 and 9; the exit points for
Foundation, Intermediate and Senior Phases respectively.
Summary of Internal Examination Results – 2004
- Grade 3: The exit point for the Foundation Phase 76
828 Learners in Grade 3 were assessed, and of these, 69
166 progressed or were found to be competent. This
translates to a 90% aggregate pass for Grade 3’s in the
Province.
- Grade 6: The exit point for the Intermediate Phase
68 482 Learners were assessed, and out of those
assessed, 59 577 progressed to the next grade, giving
you an 86,9% aggregate pass rate.
- Grade 9: The exit point for the Senior Phase and
also the exit point for the compulsory education and
training band.
61 387 Grade 9 Learners sat for examinations and only 50
127 learners managed to progress to the next grade. This
represents an aggregate success rate of 81,6%.
Although the target is to obtain 100% pass rate in all
grades, we have however, noted that learners in the General
Education and Training (GET) band are still fairing far
better than learners in Grades 10 and 11 in the Further
Education and Training (FET) band as they obtained an
aggregate pass rates of 58.4% and 56.4%, respectively.
These results show us a pyramid shape as you progress
from the foundation phase to secondary level. Madame
Speaker, this is the picture of outputs borne out of the
inputs this House approved in 2004.
Clearly, this shows that the weak link is in our systemic
equation and I have directed that, within the next three
months, a three-year turn around strategy be developed with
great emphasis on Grades 10 and 11.
Madame Speaker, I may have to highlight some intervention
programmes, especially those with financial implications.
Winter schools for both educators and learners have
proposed budgets of 2.5 Million Rand and 2.3 Million Rand
respectively.
From the Conditional Grant, 500 Thousand Rand will be
used to manage the writing of common papers for both the
half-yearly and preparatory examinations for Grade 12
learners.
To ensure that the quality and standard of teaching and
learning is uplifted to the required level, we have
appointed cluster leaders in all learning areas for 2005. An
amount of 5 Million Rand has been set aside to achieve this
endeavour.
Successive colonial regimes from the Dutch, the British,
the Batavian and apartheid policies deliberately distorted
our history and other heroic achievements of the African
people.
Now is the time, to provide to our schools and our
libraries history books written by ourselves, about
ourselves, for ourselves. A history that will define exactly
who we are.
In this financial year, we have planned to allocate 25
Million Rand, that is R3 million more as compared to the
past financial year, to bridge the literature divide and
ensure that our school libraries expose learners, not just
to the culture of reading, but also to the progressive
material that will tell the story to this generation and
generations to come on how we, as a country and the
continent, have contributed to the evolution of knowledge,
humanity and human society.
Given these limited resources, we further need to
mobilize and invite business and other stakeholders to rally
behind this cause and assist in our sustained efforts to
build a quality public education system that truly belongs
to all.
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Public-Private Partnership
Madame Speaker, the compelling need to continuously act
as a cohesive force was eloquently expressed by the
Honourable Premier of this Province, TSP Makwetla, in his
State of the Province address when he said:
“Parents, business, Makgosi/Amakhosi, church leaders and
communities are called upon to join hands and make the
education enterprise everybody’s business”. This clarion
call by the Premier is bearing fruit.
Over and above the other partnership initiatives, we have
also joined hands with the business community through the
Mpumalanga Education Development Trust, in improving the
quality of education and training in the province by
focusing on infrastructure and Human Resources Development.
The business patrons involved are, among others, ABSA,
Standard Bank, Sasol, BHP Billiton, Eskom, Samancor
Foundation, Transnet, Anglo Platinum, Mondi and Zenex.
We also have Multichoice providing training through
satellite link and Intranet in Outcomes-Based Education (OBE)
implementation.
The National Minister of Education, Cde Naledi Pandor,
has made a call; a call I fully support, that educators and
parents should encourage learners to take Mathematics and
Physical Science at Higher Grade. This is an important entry
point to critical fields in the National and Global
Economies.
We hereby enjoin the Honourable Members, parents and all
persons of influence to demystify Mathematics and Science,
because our country and the world need more
technologically-schooled citizens.
Old Mutual, Protec and Denel are currently assisting with
Mathematics and Physical Science programmes for learners. We
thank these companies for their worthy investment.
Let me further mention some international partnerships we
have with countries outside our borders, such as Japan,
Canada, USA, Germany and within our African continent.
Currently, we are engaging these partners to extend their
valued support to FET colleges.
FET Colleges
Our economy requires more technicians in the fields of
Information and Computer Technology, Agricultural Product
Technology, Environmental Engineering, Project Management,
Hospitality and Energy.
Whilst we encourage our learners with reasonable
potential to go through universities, we must guard against
generating knowledge carriers whose labour market potential
is zero.
I needed to paint this picture because I want to emphasis
the role of FET colleges in our economy.
FET college programmes must then be aligned to national
strategies on Human Resource Development, Skills
Development, Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.
Furthermore, we will embark on a vigorous drive to
establish relationships between FET colleges, business
industries and other critical sectors of our provincial
economy.
To this end, we have planned to allocate R114.247 million
to this endeavour.
Another exciting development is that the Nkangala FET
College is now ISO (International Standards Organization)
accredited, which puts it among the first, if not the first,
in the whole of South Africa to attain such accreditation.
This is an international accreditation recognized worldwide
for production excellence. Our Province must take pride in
this achievement !
Parallel to FET colleges, we have the Mpumalanga Regional
Training Trust as a public entity attached to the Department
of Education, to deliver on technical, entrepreneurial,
management and leadership skills training and placement of
trainees into employment.
An amount of R 21 million has been set aside for this.
Our endeavour to open the doors of learning and culture
to all extends to the following categories of schools:
Public Special Schools
An amount of 77.368 Million Rand is to be allocated to
provide compulsory public education in accordance with the
South African Schools Act, White Paper 6 on Inclusive
Education and the Child Justice Bill.
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Independent Schools
10.063 million Rand is to be allocated to support
registered independent schools catering for communities as a
complement to public schooling and to ensure that agreed
quality standards are maintained.
Madame Speaker, the cornerstone of every government
institution is good governance.
Promotion of Good School Governance
In the past decade we successfully reviewed the
operations of school governance. Apartheid governance and
funding of public schools, based on illegitimate power
relations, has been shredded and replaced by statutory,
democratically elected governing bodies with parents playing
the leading role with elected Representative Council of
Learners being mandatory. We are indeed marching on the road
towards self-managing schools.
The norms and standards for school funding, provided by
the National Education Policy Act 27 of 1996, becomes a
bedrock for us to realize this vision.
As Honourable Members would be aware, all our schools
have been declared and gazetted as Section 21 schools. This
then places, on us an enormous responsibility in terms of
continuous capacity building required. We have allocated R 1
million for this purpose.
Madame Speaker, whilst we celebrate notable gains
registered over the past ten years, there are still enormous
practical challenges as we usher in the second decade of our
democracy and freedom.
Synopsis of Challenges
The fact that only 84.3% of the school-going age learner
population between the age of 6 and 18 years attended school
in 2004 is a worrying factor, and begs me to ask where the
other 15.7% is.
I reiterate that no learner must be denied access to
education on the basis of the parents inability to pay
school fees, and if the reasons have anything to do with
parental negligence, we may have to start exploring an
enforcement of a provision of the South African Schools Act,
in collaboration with the MEC for Safety and Security, and
bring to book parents who deny their children a
Constitutional Right to education.
Sithi kini Bazali bonke abantwana abanikezwe ilungelo
labo lokufunda !
Batswadi ba rena bana kamoka abaye sikolong, ke tukelo ya
bona !
Secondly, we are aware that there are still some school
SGB’s who are all out to abuse the provisions of our
statutes to devolve power to the people, by using language
and other fly by night technical reasons to exclude other
learners. This must stop !
Madame Speaker, I have been entrusted with the
responsibility of ensuring the maximum utilization of the
state resources to build quality public education that truly
belongs to all.
To this end, I will be convening shortly a special
meeting, with schools identified to be lacking the courage
to support government in its transformation of the education
system.
Of further concern, is the high repetition rate,
especially in the FET band, leading to unmanageable
classrooms. Presently, there is no consistent policy
implementation across provinces in this regard.
The national trend, however, is that at the very least,
every learner must be given a second chance. I am raising
these specific challenges because the number of learners is
the principal cost-driver in education.
Madame Speaker, let us always remind ourselves that “a
country that does not care for it’s youth does not deserve
it’s future”.
Ayihlome Ifunde !
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