Date: 25/02/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Mangena: Conference on District Development Support Programme
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, AT THE DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMME CONFERENCE, Holiday Inn, Johannesburg International Airport, 25 February 2003
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of our thoughts on the matter of district development.
However it may be defined, the concept of a district represents a structural expression of a community - a geographical shape to an identity. In our rural areas, as well as the more established urban areas, districts exist, although they may not always be called that. They are spaces with defined boundaries, which form through associations that are often based on socio-cultural or personal identities within communities. Some districts are big; others are small and tight-knit, like District 6.
I believe that it is also essential to build the idea of 'an organic district' into our attempts of fitting an education community into a bureaucratic system. It is also important that we must not conceive district development as though we are establishing a new organisational paradigm. There has never been lack of structure in the terrain - societies have long been organised, without the help from the education department. It might even be argued that while the apartheid state was doing its utmost to destroy Black education communities, the organisation of schools by those same communities was at its strongest!
Every community has many people with ideas and abilities that can add value to the education of the children in their own district. The Constitution also compels us to draw on all these talents in order to build a better world. The question is, "How do we turn a district that is just an organic collection of people and places into a district where systems and processes of governance are in place to ensure effective education delivery? We hope this Conference will provide some answers to this question.
The importance of the responses to this question lies in the key role played by district level structures in the delivery of services. Districts are at the interface between the people and the government - be it in education, in health and welfare, economy, justice or any other sphere of government. For example, the importance of local government has long been acknowledged because of its positioning even though it is true that many local governments have yet to reach their full capacity.
The importance of this level of government will most strongly be highlighted as from April next year when education assumes responsibility for the National School Nutrition programme. We are very keen to redesign the project so that local communities and schools are at the centre of the process. It is a painful irony that at this stage many of the more successful school feeding initiatives are operating outside the national programme - a result of community care and the hard work of mothers and grannies, many of whom make use of the vegetables from their gardens to feed the children. We must promote school and community gardens, and next month a delegation from the UN Food and Agriculture organisation will be visiting us to see how best we can do so. They have gathered a wealth of experience from many developing countries and we hope to benefit much from this mission.
You will all appreciate the need to build the capacity of local structures such as districts and SGBs in ensuring the success of the school feeding programme. Over R800 million a year is allocated to this programme, and we must be sure that our structures are able to make effective use of the resources, which will be given to them for this purpose. We cannot afford to allow under-spending, misuse of funds or corruption to remain unchecked. Properly managed, this programme can play a pivotal role in the strategy to alleviate poverty. The unique aspect of the programme is that it has an immediate impact in alleviating hunger among the weak and vulnerable. But because of the undisputed educational gains of learning with a full stomach, the gains can also be projected well into the future. This project combines the metaphoric benefits of giving people the fish while they are being taught about fishing for themselves.
For effective district level governance, it is imperative for officials at this level to know every inch of the terrain; to know every role player and what each is doing in that district. Too often when we visit schools with problems we discover that the district was not aware of such problems and worse still that officials had never even visited some of the schools until the Ministry does. Situations where school-going age children are not attending school but no one knows or does anything about it cannot be tolerated any longer. We cannot expect orphans to be aware of their rights and responsibilities. We are obliged to take the responsibility and to lead the social development of our people. That is what governments are there for. We must not sit in our offices waiting to be summoned to attend to a problem. Let us go out there to identify problems and work with those who are affected to find solutions. We must adopt the active governance model and abandon passive administration.
We do know that there are severe resource and capacity constraints in providing this kind of service. Some district offices have no phones, no cars, and no budgets. Our planning processes must ensure that this situation is corrected. In many cases district functions are squeezed between the requirements of their head offices and labour agreements about teachers in classrooms. It is imperative that sufficient personnel from the available pool are available to ensure that districts are properly staffed. Nobody will benefit from weak district structures.
We are working towards establishing norms that will help define the roles and responsibilities of a district office. We must ask ourselves what services a district should provide, what personnel and other resources it needs to have to be able do so. Districts are the one level of the system that is not defined by the law. National and provincial government are defined in the Constitution and schools have their own Act. But we have never been clear about the intermediate levels. As a result, different interpretations have emerged. We have also seen an ongoing process of restructuring among regions and districts without a firm sense of the differences between these. We believe that provinces must have benefited from the process of trying out various solutions. By now we should be finished with most of the experimentation and starting to stabilise around particular structural approaches. Perhaps a law to chart a definite path that districts must follow may assist in this regard.
In understanding a district, we must acknowledge that the term has two possible meanings. One is the district office - a place where district officials are located and from where they serve the schools. Another is a wider conceptualisation, the one that this conference has to grapple with. That is, the district as a collective within a defined area serving the schools, teachers, pupils, parents and the district office. In this sense the district office may be at the centre but it only serves as a base around which the community functions. It is only a part of the district and not the district itself. Those who see the district office as an end in itself have actually lost this meaning of an education district.
This conference on District Development Support Programme clearly focuses on the nature and purpose of an education district. The objective of the DDSP is to improve the quality of teaching, management and governance using the district office as a catalyst. The goal does not stop at the door of the district office. The real purpose of the intervention is to impact positively on learner achievements. The targets are specific and a set of indicators has been determined to measure this impact.
That is why the DDSP encompasses a range of activities such as the training of teachers, school managers, officials and school governors. The repairing of schools in Limpopo Province and supply of furniture and resources after the disastrous floods of 2001 and the provision of science kits to schools to enhance teaching and learning in this learning area are all part of the DDSP. These diverse activities are all focused on a single goal of improving the chances of success of the children in the areas where this project is being run.
We would like to express our appreciation to all involved in the project. In particular USAID, which has supported the programme with more than R70 million. And thank you also for agreeing to a "no-cost" extension of the project until the end of this year. We understand that after this period we may well submit a further proposal.
To the implementing agency, Research Triangle Institute, and Richard Cartier, our sincere appreciation for your efforts, which have gone well beyond the minimum requirements of your contract. The supportive and transparent way in which you have worked has created some very close relationships and networks, which will be sustained long after the project is completed.
Thanks are also due to the main sub-contractors, the CEPD, JET and Khulisa Management Services, which have ensured delivery against the targets. Also to the numerous grantees, which have taken delivery down to its lowest level by becoming parts of the districts in which they are working rather than outsiders that would only pop in for a few days in order to give instructions. We know that at the end of your tenures Districts are certainly going to miss your presence.
And let us also save a word of appreciation to our departmental officials, who have given their time and energy to draw maximum benefit from this opportunity. We know that no one likes working while someone else looking over his or her shoulder. But you have responded very positively by engaging in constructive debates about what is needed, and how it can be achieved. A big thank you for your positive attitude.
The task of this conference is to provide some recommendations on the way forward. While you enjoy some of the credit for the work done, we must be reminded that the task is not yet done. We have worked intensively with a small sample of districts that have been willing partners. The best practices we have learnt from you must find application in the wider terrain. It is clear that without the support and resources of the project little could have been achieved. But we must also try to find creative ways of dealing with those districts that for some time to come would still remain under-resourced for the tasks they should perform.
While we aim for the ideal, we should keep our feet firmly on the ground and continuously explore ways of doing what is possible. You have been in the field and you know the prevailing circumstances. Now is your turn to advise us on what works best in such circumstances. I look forward to your report.
In conclusion, let me wish all of you well in these important deliberations that are intended to assist in helping us put in place yet another paving stone on the long and bumpy road to educational transformation.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Education
25 February 2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Mangena: Conference on District Development Support Programme
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, AT THE DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMME CONFERENCE, Holiday Inn, Johannesburg International Airport, 25 February 2003
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of our thoughts on the matter of district development.
However it may be defined, the concept of a district represents a structural expression of a community - a geographical shape to an identity. In our rural areas, as well as the more established urban areas, districts exist, although they may not always be called that. They are spaces with defined boundaries, which form through associations that are often based on socio-cultural or personal identities within communities. Some districts are big; others are small and tight-knit, like District 6.
I believe that it is also essential to build the idea of 'an organic district' into our attempts of fitting an education community into a bureaucratic system. It is also important that we must not conceive district development as though we are establishing a new organisational paradigm. There has never been lack of structure in the terrain - societies have long been organised, without the help from the education department. It might even be argued that while the apartheid state was doing its utmost to destroy Black education communities, the organisation of schools by those same communities was at its strongest!
Every community has many people with ideas and abilities that can add value to the education of the children in their own district. The Constitution also compels us to draw on all these talents in order to build a better world. The question is, "How do we turn a district that is just an organic collection of people and places into a district where systems and processes of governance are in place to ensure effective education delivery? We hope this Conference will provide some answers to this question.
The importance of the responses to this question lies in the key role played by district level structures in the delivery of services. Districts are at the interface between the people and the government - be it in education, in health and welfare, economy, justice or any other sphere of government. For example, the importance of local government has long been acknowledged because of its positioning even though it is true that many local governments have yet to reach their full capacity.
The importance of this level of government will most strongly be highlighted as from April next year when education assumes responsibility for the National School Nutrition programme. We are very keen to redesign the project so that local communities and schools are at the centre of the process. It is a painful irony that at this stage many of the more successful school feeding initiatives are operating outside the national programme - a result of community care and the hard work of mothers and grannies, many of whom make use of the vegetables from their gardens to feed the children. We must promote school and community gardens, and next month a delegation from the UN Food and Agriculture organisation will be visiting us to see how best we can do so. They have gathered a wealth of experience from many developing countries and we hope to benefit much from this mission.
You will all appreciate the need to build the capacity of local structures such as districts and SGBs in ensuring the success of the school feeding programme. Over R800 million a year is allocated to this programme, and we must be sure that our structures are able to make effective use of the resources, which will be given to them for this purpose. We cannot afford to allow under-spending, misuse of funds or corruption to remain unchecked. Properly managed, this programme can play a pivotal role in the strategy to alleviate poverty. The unique aspect of the programme is that it has an immediate impact in alleviating hunger among the weak and vulnerable. But because of the undisputed educational gains of learning with a full stomach, the gains can also be projected well into the future. This project combines the metaphoric benefits of giving people the fish while they are being taught about fishing for themselves.
For effective district level governance, it is imperative for officials at this level to know every inch of the terrain; to know every role player and what each is doing in that district. Too often when we visit schools with problems we discover that the district was not aware of such problems and worse still that officials had never even visited some of the schools until the Ministry does. Situations where school-going age children are not attending school but no one knows or does anything about it cannot be tolerated any longer. We cannot expect orphans to be aware of their rights and responsibilities. We are obliged to take the responsibility and to lead the social development of our people. That is what governments are there for. We must not sit in our offices waiting to be summoned to attend to a problem. Let us go out there to identify problems and work with those who are affected to find solutions. We must adopt the active governance model and abandon passive administration.
We do know that there are severe resource and capacity constraints in providing this kind of service. Some district offices have no phones, no cars, and no budgets. Our planning processes must ensure that this situation is corrected. In many cases district functions are squeezed between the requirements of their head offices and labour agreements about teachers in classrooms. It is imperative that sufficient personnel from the available pool are available to ensure that districts are properly staffed. Nobody will benefit from weak district structures.
We are working towards establishing norms that will help define the roles and responsibilities of a district office. We must ask ourselves what services a district should provide, what personnel and other resources it needs to have to be able do so. Districts are the one level of the system that is not defined by the law. National and provincial government are defined in the Constitution and schools have their own Act. But we have never been clear about the intermediate levels. As a result, different interpretations have emerged. We have also seen an ongoing process of restructuring among regions and districts without a firm sense of the differences between these. We believe that provinces must have benefited from the process of trying out various solutions. By now we should be finished with most of the experimentation and starting to stabilise around particular structural approaches. Perhaps a law to chart a definite path that districts must follow may assist in this regard.
In understanding a district, we must acknowledge that the term has two possible meanings. One is the district office - a place where district officials are located and from where they serve the schools. Another is a wider conceptualisation, the one that this conference has to grapple with. That is, the district as a collective within a defined area serving the schools, teachers, pupils, parents and the district office. In this sense the district office may be at the centre but it only serves as a base around which the community functions. It is only a part of the district and not the district itself. Those who see the district office as an end in itself have actually lost this meaning of an education district.
This conference on District Development Support Programme clearly focuses on the nature and purpose of an education district. The objective of the DDSP is to improve the quality of teaching, management and governance using the district office as a catalyst. The goal does not stop at the door of the district office. The real purpose of the intervention is to impact positively on learner achievements. The targets are specific and a set of indicators has been determined to measure this impact.
That is why the DDSP encompasses a range of activities such as the training of teachers, school managers, officials and school governors. The repairing of schools in Limpopo Province and supply of furniture and resources after the disastrous floods of 2001 and the provision of science kits to schools to enhance teaching and learning in this learning area are all part of the DDSP. These diverse activities are all focused on a single goal of improving the chances of success of the children in the areas where this project is being run.
We would like to express our appreciation to all involved in the project. In particular USAID, which has supported the programme with more than R70 million. And thank you also for agreeing to a "no-cost" extension of the project until the end of this year. We understand that after this period we may well submit a further proposal.
To the implementing agency, Research Triangle Institute, and Richard Cartier, our sincere appreciation for your efforts, which have gone well beyond the minimum requirements of your contract. The supportive and transparent way in which you have worked has created some very close relationships and networks, which will be sustained long after the project is completed.
Thanks are also due to the main sub-contractors, the CEPD, JET and Khulisa Management Services, which have ensured delivery against the targets. Also to the numerous grantees, which have taken delivery down to its lowest level by becoming parts of the districts in which they are working rather than outsiders that would only pop in for a few days in order to give instructions. We know that at the end of your tenures Districts are certainly going to miss your presence.
And let us also save a word of appreciation to our departmental officials, who have given their time and energy to draw maximum benefit from this opportunity. We know that no one likes working while someone else looking over his or her shoulder. But you have responded very positively by engaging in constructive debates about what is needed, and how it can be achieved. A big thank you for your positive attitude.
The task of this conference is to provide some recommendations on the way forward. While you enjoy some of the credit for the work done, we must be reminded that the task is not yet done. We have worked intensively with a small sample of districts that have been willing partners. The best practices we have learnt from you must find application in the wider terrain. It is clear that without the support and resources of the project little could have been achieved. But we must also try to find creative ways of dealing with those districts that for some time to come would still remain under-resourced for the tasks they should perform.
While we aim for the ideal, we should keep our feet firmly on the ground and continuously explore ways of doing what is possible. You have been in the field and you know the prevailing circumstances. Now is your turn to advise us on what works best in such circumstances. I look forward to your report.
In conclusion, let me wish all of you well in these important deliberations that are intended to assist in helping us put in place yet another paving stone on the long and bumpy road to educational transformation.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Education
25 February 2003
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
