Date: 10/06/2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Padayachee: Mpumalanga Education Prov Budget Vote 2003/2004
POLICY AND BUDGET SPEECH BY MEC FOR EDUCATION, MR CNM PADAYACHEE, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, 10 June 2003
Honourable Speaker
Premier NJ Mahlangu
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Education Stakeholders
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND LEARNER EXCELLENCE
I am honoured to be accorded this opportunity to present my policy speech on the budget. This comes at a time when our focus is on creating and instilling a sense of school effectiveness and learner excellence in our education system. I understand that the responsibility and mandate bestowed on me requires men and women to work diligently and tirelessly under my guidance and leadership. It should be those who take into account that the vision and commitment to render quality education to our people remains uncompromised.
To ensure that this mandate is effectively carried out, strategies, goals, objectives, implementation and monitoring plans that are in place should be operational and functional at all levels of the school management system.
We dare not dwell in lamenting the past that has been riddled by racism, conflicts and imbalances on the allocation of resources within our schools, but most importantly we should take lessons from the past and build on that for the future.
I want to remind this house that the end product of the provisioning of education is to create an educated and economically empowered society. Developing a sense of ownership of our schools can lead to the realisation of this noble goal.
Honourable Speaker, I am aware that we are judged by the performance of our learners at Grade 12 level only, however, what is key to us is school effectiveness and learner excellence from Grade R to Grade 12.
The Assessment Committee I appointed in 2002 to investigate the causes of the poor results in 2001, made relevant recommendations with regards to discipline, attendance, shortage of learning material and the management of schools. The implementation of these recommendations and a number of other intervention programmes resulted in the improvement of the results from 46,88% in 2001 to 56% in 2002. We hope to continue doing better than this.
The role-played by the Hon Premier, N J Mahlangu and the Executive Council through their support visits to schools, officials, educators, parents and learners help to create and contribute to school effectiveness.
An intensive action plan has been developed for the Curriculum Implementers and Circuit Managers to ensure that the classroom work is up to date and schools are well managed, and special attention is given to under-performing schools.
With the aid of the Japan International Co-operation Agency JICA, the Department has managed to introduce the Mpumalanga Secondary School Science Initiative, in which a school based In Service Training (INSET) has been conducted for 280 secondary schools in the field of Mathematics and Science; and to strengthen these efforts, most of the Teachers' Centres were equipped with laboratory and media facilities at a cost of R1 million. For the country to be economically sound, Mathematics, Science, Commerce and Technology will continue to take a centre stage in our provisioning of education.
Honourable Speaker, the orientation of continued education and training, which is linked to the world of work, begins at the early stages of General Education and Training (GET) and is refined at the Further Education and Training (FET) band. Through career guidance, which is conducted at school level, learners have been exposed to various fields of study at the FET institutions. An intensive mobilisation and recruitment campaign of students to FET institutions has been conducted for the 2003 academic year.
Mr Speaker, our learners should further be exposed to the different careers available at an early stage of their schooling. Whilst career guidance is taught at school, they need to be exposed to the real job situation by visiting different industries/professions. I wish to appoint a team headed by Mr D B Mabandla to develop a plan that will see Grade 8 and 9 learners visit different industries/professions for at least 1 week in a year.
I am happy to announce that all the technical colleges within the Province have been merged into Ehlanzeni, Nkangala and Gert Sibande FET Institutions. Honourable Speaker, this year 2003 has been marked as the year of FET. I hope that the FET institutions will strive to create centres of workmanships that will produce technically skilled individuals, make effective contribution to the labour market and be in a position to create jobs for themselves.
There should be a close working relationship between business/industry and the FET Institutions and MRTT (Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust). Business, in fact, must begin immediately to input into the curricula of our institutions. In this way, shortages of certain skilled workers in some industries will become something of the past. For example, SAPPI South African Paper and Pulp Industry currently has students in training programmes at our Ehlanzeni Institutions. After completion of their studies SAPPI will employ them. Curricula at Technical Colleges, which are obsolete, must be dropped or scaled down immediately. I look forward to the day where most students in FET Institutions will have a job awaiting them. Mr Speaker, our 3 FET Institutions have only recently been established, CEOs appointed and therefore like any mergers, will face a number of challenges. One immediate challenge that comes to mind is the lack of financial resources which hinders students from easily accessing FET Institutions. Therefore, I have decided, in order to make education more accessible, to appoint a task team to investigate a student support system for FET in this Province. The task team will consist of the following members: Mr P S. Zwane, Mr J. Sibande, Mr R. Diphofa and a representative of the Provincial Student Formation. We have just concretised partnerships with the Technical Colleges in Mozambique and Germany that will further enhance the development of our FET institutions.
Honourable Speaker, the issue pertaining to bursaries, and capacity building programmes is key to employee development within the Department and in the context of our specific objectives for the betterment of our people's lives. I want to reiterate that the Skills Development Programme and the Provincial Growth Development Strategy should form the cornerstone of our programmes as a Province to create a literate and skilled workforce.
Honourable Speaker, the Department has expended R12, 96 million to provide skills to 3148 employees at accredited service providers such as Universities and Technikons in 2002/2003. The Department undertakes to spend R14 million towards skills development in 2003/2004. These workplace skills plans are designed and implemented in keeping with the National Human Resources Development Strategy. A post of the Skills Development Facilitator has been created to assist in the planning and implementation of Skills Development Act.
The Department has further enrolled 1047 under-qualified educators for the National Professional Diploma in Education NPDE through UNISA University of South Africa. 1803 General Assistants are already enrolled for pursuing their studies through the Skills Development Programme and Learnerships. The Department has set itself a target that all these employees should be at NQF (National Qualifications Framework) Level 1 by 2005.
Through conditional grants there has been training for School Management Teams, School Principals and Circuit Managers on effective management of schools. R500 000 was used for this purpose in 2002/2003; and the same amount has been set-aside for 2003/2004.
The Department has in 2002/2003 set aside R546 000 for 175 student teachers to be trained at Ndebele College of Education. 92 students were awarded full-time study bursaries at Universities, which amounted to R295 000, and another R251 000 was spent on bursaries for 83 part-time students including employees and educators in service.
Honourable Speaker, the country is faced with a high level of illiteracy which is estimated at between 7 and 12 million people in South Africa and that 65% of the economically active population is functionally illiterate. For South Africa to become an internationally competitive nation and to have a minimum of 5% economic growth for the next five years, it is estimated that six million people will have to undergo lower-level adult education programmes.
It is quite pleasing to note that the Department runs quite a number of literacy programmes. We do have other projects like National Ikhwelo Project focusing on ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, by empowering adults and youth with skills and for the purpose of creating jobs.
Honourable Speaker, with regard to the Higher Education Sector, the Province supports the initiative on the establishment of the National Institute on Higher Education (NIHE). Higher education courses like Bachelor of Arts, Masters Degree, have been introduced at the Ndebele College as a first step towards the implementation of NIHE. With the financial and technical assistance from the South African Finish Co-operation Program in the Education Sector SCOPE the Department has appointed Prof Magi; who was the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand to drive the process leading to the full establishment of the Institute for Higher Learning in the Province by 2004.
In 2002 I mentioned that R3, 7 million was budgeted for Early Childhood Development (ECD). Today I am proud to indicate that R31, 6 million has been budgeted for ECD. This represents an increase of R27, 9 million. To make sure that the program is expanded; a total of 715 sites shall be catered for during 2003/2004 financial years on top of 250 sites provided for in 2002/2003. Children will come to Grade 1 more prepared and this will reduce the repetition rate throughout the whole schooling system.
The inclusive education pilot program is going on well in the pilot schools. It is pleasing to note that all pilot schools have been provided with computers and to date 280 classroom based educators and 55 Curriculum Implementers and Circuit Managers have been trained.
Through the assistance of the South African Teacher Development Project (CSATDP), a Canadian sponsored project, 80 schools in the Gert Sibande Region are being targeted for the implementation of the Outcome Based Education OBE and inclusive education at foundation phase.
The Japanese Overseas Corporation (JOCV) has deployed volunteers in various fields like in Mathematics, Science, English, Community Development and OBE respectively.
Other local organisations that are contributing in this field are the Read Project, Quality Learning Project, Open Learning System and the Johannesburg College of Education through Kwena Basin Project.
The Department has signed an agreement with Microsoft. The Microsoft Project is enhancing and adding to the computers already purchased for the schools. Microsoft on ICT (Information and Communications Technology) is also training mentor educators. Our commitment to supply all schools with at least one computer is still on track and we have set aside a sum of R13, 7 million to purchase 774 computers for the needy schools. In the last financial year, we purchased 500 computers for the schools.
The ten teachers centres have also been supplied with computers to service the schools around them. The SCOPE Project has spent R1 million for 15 sites on A-Plus, N-Plus, Web Page design, Project Management and Pedagogical training. The project also spent R1, 5 million on both soft- and hardware for computers. This will go a long way in ensuring that our learners become computer literate.
Our HIV/AIDS programme is up and running. Over the past year, the education response to HIV and AIDS has gained momentum. Education has assumed its role at the heart of the national response to HIV and AIDS. The recently released Nelson Mandela/HSRC study on HIV and AIDS, reports that 84% of those aged 12-24, learnt about HIV and AIDS from schools. This is evidence that our efforts are bearing fruit, we have reason to be optimistic. R8, 5 million has been set aside for our HIV/AIDS program this year. This will enable us to fight this scourge causing misery among our people. Various components like ABET, ELSEN, GET are involved with the training and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.
In the past financial year the Department has appointed a Director for Quality Assurance that deals with amongst others the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) and Systematic Evaluation. The unit will be responsible for the evaluation of how our system functions at various levels and come up with specific recommendations of what needs to happen about the particular institutions. This is also another endeavour to improve the quality of education that we provide at schools.
Through conditional grants on Financial Management and Quality Enhancement, we are building capacity for Financial Management and Administration at all levels, especially at school level. This will also ascertain that funds transferred to the schools are used in terms of the Public Finance Management Act PFMA and Treasury Regulations.
Honourable Speaker, let me take this opportunity to announce that all the public ordinary schools in the Province have been granted certain Section 21 functions. An amount of R45 million will be transferred to all ordinary public schools' bank accounts according to the poverty ranking Index.
This will be used mainly for payment of services, accounts, telephones and other consumable materials ensuring timeous delivery of services at school level. This status is being granted in accordance with the norms and standards of funding of public schools as stipulated in Section 35 of SASA (South African Schools Act) No 84 of 1996.
Honourable Speaker, 2003 is the year of elections for new School Governing Bodies (SGBs) in all public ordinary schools in the Province and Nationally. A word of gratitude is conveyed to those who have participated as School Governing Body Members whose term of office lapsed in May 2003. A word of thanks is also made to every citizen of the country and of Mpumalanga Province in particular who supported, participated and made the elections of the new SGBs a success.
These elections are of significance as they precede the country's provincial and national elections for 2004, and I hope they serve as a dress rehearsal for this process. I urge all communities to continue embracing schools as their own centres of learning and to continue rendering their unselfish and voluntary services in the spirit of Letsema.
The SGBs in all schools should now reflect the learner population of the schools. After the elections of the all the SGBs by the end of June 2003 the Directorate of Human Resource Development will begin to develop a plan which will ensure that SGBs in the same Municipality within the next 4 years, come together and form clusters. The purpose of this will be to enhance co-ordination, planning and sharing of resources and experiences and working together.
Some newly elected SGBs must begin to tackle the problem of the staff not reflecting the demographics of our Country, Province and Communities. They must begin to implement the staff equity plan of the Province. The HOD has been instructed to appoint persons in line with this plan. All schools will once more receive copies of such a plan.
The youth leadership programme also proved to be essential in ensuring effective participation of school youth in matters that underpin current debates on diversity. The Youth Summit, which was attended by 400 delegates from within the Province, reinforced the vision of the Department on learner-centred quality education through the involvement of all stakeholders.
Honourable Speaker, as the Honourable Premier has mentioned in his Provincial Address on 21 February 2003, the Department has managed to exceed its own target in the school's infrastructure development, by building 428 classrooms, 28 special rooms, 29 administration blocks and 280 toilets and 15 schools were renovated from the equitable share to the tune of R61 million.
Furthermore, 36 schools were fenced, an additional 362 toilets were built, 82 schools renovated and 14 water connections were made from the conditional grant to the tune of R47, 5 million. Lastly an additional 51 schools were renovated from the flood damage funds to the tune of R15 million.
Through the Thuba Makote project, a National Department of Education job creation, poverty alleviation and economic empowerment project R3, 9 million was spent at Jacob Mdluli Secondary School at Makoko in the Mbombela Municipality to provide 6 classrooms, a community hall, a library, an IT Centre, 3 vendor stores and a strong room for agricultural tools, using mainly local women labour. I wish to thank all private companies that have also helped to build classrooms and schools in our Province.
In this financial year, we have planned a total of 685 classrooms, 16 special rooms, 49 administration blocks and 982 toilets from our equitable share.
From the conditional grant amounting to R71 million, a further 88 schools will be renovated, 638 toilets built, 57 schools shall be fenced, 83 schools shall get electrical connections and 96 schools will be supplied with water.
A further 47 schools will be renovated at a cost of R8 million provided for the flood damaged funds.
From the Japanese Government donor funding, we are building an additional 232 classrooms, 20 administration blocks, 4 special rooms and 248 toilets.
The Department has set aside an amount of R11, 02 million within the infrastructure development allocation to Youth Contractors. This is a Youth Empowerment initiative, which is not a once off. The Department will strive to have such Job Creation initiatives also in the coming year. MRTT will be requested to build capacity and assist these emerging contractors in providing quality workmanship.
In total, Mr Speaker, the Department will build 917 classrooms this year. In fact we have doubled the number of classrooms, toilets, administration blocks, etc that are being built this year. The building of these structures has already commenced.
The delivery of LSM before the end of each school year has enhanced our school effectiveness programme. Last year 2002/3 we spent R212 million on LSM. This year it has increased to R241 million. Two weeks ago on Friday 30 May 2003, Mr Speaker, I visited the LSM warehouses to verify a report from my HOD that LSM for the beginning of the 2004 school year has already been ordered, received from publishers and being distributed to schools. Indeed, this was the case. Schools in the KwaMhlanga, Moretele and Witbank areas have already received their stationery for next year. My heartfelt congratulations go to my officials for this achievement.
OBE requires innovativeness on the development of LSM. Teachers are encouraged to begin developing their own LSM. Initiatives like that of the Sowetan, Star and other newspapers could help in teaching in the classroom. In Mpumalanga that initiative of Mpumalanga News, SAPPI and our selves will go a long way in supplementing our learner support material.
Also worth mentioning is that our expenditure per learner on LSM has increased drastically over the past 3 years from spending R54 per learner in 2000 to R235 in 2002 and R267 this year. This represents an increase of more than 393% over three years and the highest spent on a learner in the Country. Over the past 3 years we have spent over 1/2 billion rands on LSM. Realising that the retrieval systems of textbooks at some schools are not 100%, the MDE has acquired the services of a provider to develop a retrieval system for all our schools to the amount of R1, 9 million.
Honourable Speaker, this house should also note that R8 million would be used for renting 222 schools in 2003/2004 on private property as compared to 105 schools in 2002/2003. While I am on this item, it is worthy to note that my Department has instituted a study on the clustering of farm schools in an effort to do away with the so-called one-teacher schools. This will help in bringing better quality education for the learners and reducing the number of farm schools (schools on private property).
All schools in Mpumalanga have been provisioned with a starter pack of library books plus a mobile steel box library for storing and displaying the books. We are now busy with supplementary supplies and focusing on reference books. Two hundred primary and two hundred secondary schools have recently received reference library books.
All secondary schools have been provisioned with video programmes in English, Maths, Physical Science and Accounting.
Delegated powers have been devolved to all managers at various levels and even the principals of schools have been retrained on these delegations.
Through the Public Service Chamber Bargaining Council Resolution 7 and 8 of 2002, the Department has already filled 65 public service posts and 43 for office-based educators. The Department also contributed in the Provincial restructuring process by placing 226 supernumeracy employees in vacant posts at schools.
During this financial year, the Department has also set aside R6, 82 million for the appointment of administration clerks in the previously disadvantaged schools.
Honourable Speaker, we are also thrilled to announce that various management posts like those of principals, deputy principals and Heads of Departments have been filled. Furthermore, we have employed 1000 professionally qualified temporary educators as of 1 April 2003 on a permanent basis.
Honourable Speaker, the Department's goal is to ensure that efficient, effective and responsive personnel is in place and is compliant with the Batho Pele principles that agitate for a customer-orientated public service.
I am confident that by addressing the shortage of human resources within all the levels of the Department, the strategic and service delivery plans will be implemented to the letter and bring about better and quality education in our Department.
Honourable Speaker, the introduction of the C2005 in 1998 heralded a new epoch in our education system and gave birth to the outcomes-based education (OBE). The approach encourages the building of knowledge, skills and values that are fundamental to the vision of a prosperous truly united, democratic and global competitive country with creative and critical citizens leading productive, self-fulfilled lives in a country free of violence, discrimination and prejudices.
Since its introduction, OBE was met with challenges and resistance from various education stakeholders and as a result the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal called for a review of the design, methodology, structure and implementation of C2005.
Subsequent to this intervention by the Minister the Review Committee on C2005 recommended that the principles of outcomes-based education be retained and that principles of social justice, human rights, a healthy environment and inclusivity be strengthened.
The introduction of the revised Curriculum 2005 in Grades 1 - 3 (foundation phase) will begin next year and in Grade 10 in 2006. At present teachers guides are being distributed to all schools by the National Department.
According to the Departmental programme, the GET cards will be released as results for Grade 9 learners by November 2003 in all schools in the Province. By 2004 the Department will be in a position to issue GET certificates.
Mr Speaker, until recently my Department only dealt with school sports from a Curriculum Development (human movement) perspective, however, we will now create the necessary section/unit that will look at school sports policy. In the 80's none racial sport organisations spoke of "no normal sport in an abnormal society". Today we cannot speak of abnormal school sports in a normal society where the status quo, which existed before 1994, continues to exist, where schools compete with each other according to colour. What is encouraging though, is that all schools are affiliated to one sports controlling body in Mpumalanga i.e. MUSSA (Mpumalanga United School Sports Association). I will meet MUSSA soon to discuss this issue and other related matters. Further, Mr Speaker, Sports Development must start at school level. Almost a decade has past since a number of sports federations have produced sports development plans. However, these developments are not seen in a vigorous manner in our schools except for a few sporadic programmes.
Honourable Speaker, education, without any doubt and ambiguity is a gem of the nation, it needs care, to be handled like the Fauna and Flora that blossoms on the Mpumalanga mountains, it needs to be nurtured, bear lifelong results life long learning, develop the mindset of our nation; and contribute towards a united, non-sexist, non-racial, democratic country.
One of the greatest leaders of our soil, the late President Samora Machel of Mozambique in 1971, had this to say about the mistakes of mankind:
"What we learn we do and when we do, we see what is wrong. So we learn also from our mistakes and achievements. The mistakes show where there are shortcomings in our knowledge, weak points that have to be eliminated. This means that it is in the process that we correct our mistakes."
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, let me take this opportunity to thank the men and women, who so vigorously and diligently do their work to instil a sense of school effectiveness and learner excellence in our education system. They are the more than 31000 educators, circuit managers, clerks, regional and head office officials, SGBs, NGOs, senior managers in the Department, my HOD - Dr Mashinini, Unions, Business, other stakeholders and my support staff. A special thanks to the Premier and Members of the Executive Council for their support and putting education first. My thanks must also go to the Members of this House who out of their own conviction help raise funds/donations to assist our schools with the purchase/provision of the necessary equipment/facilities like computers, laboratory equipment, etc. Lastly let met thank the Members of the Portfolio Committee for their support and oversight.
Thank you
Issued by Mpumalanga Provincial Government
10 June 2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Padayachee: Mpumalanga Education Prov Budget Vote 2003/2004
POLICY AND BUDGET SPEECH BY MEC FOR EDUCATION, MR CNM PADAYACHEE, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, 10 June 2003
Honourable Speaker
Premier NJ Mahlangu
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Education Stakeholders
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND LEARNER EXCELLENCE
I am honoured to be accorded this opportunity to present my policy speech on the budget. This comes at a time when our focus is on creating and instilling a sense of school effectiveness and learner excellence in our education system. I understand that the responsibility and mandate bestowed on me requires men and women to work diligently and tirelessly under my guidance and leadership. It should be those who take into account that the vision and commitment to render quality education to our people remains uncompromised.
To ensure that this mandate is effectively carried out, strategies, goals, objectives, implementation and monitoring plans that are in place should be operational and functional at all levels of the school management system.
We dare not dwell in lamenting the past that has been riddled by racism, conflicts and imbalances on the allocation of resources within our schools, but most importantly we should take lessons from the past and build on that for the future.
I want to remind this house that the end product of the provisioning of education is to create an educated and economically empowered society. Developing a sense of ownership of our schools can lead to the realisation of this noble goal.
Honourable Speaker, I am aware that we are judged by the performance of our learners at Grade 12 level only, however, what is key to us is school effectiveness and learner excellence from Grade R to Grade 12.
The Assessment Committee I appointed in 2002 to investigate the causes of the poor results in 2001, made relevant recommendations with regards to discipline, attendance, shortage of learning material and the management of schools. The implementation of these recommendations and a number of other intervention programmes resulted in the improvement of the results from 46,88% in 2001 to 56% in 2002. We hope to continue doing better than this.
The role-played by the Hon Premier, N J Mahlangu and the Executive Council through their support visits to schools, officials, educators, parents and learners help to create and contribute to school effectiveness.
An intensive action plan has been developed for the Curriculum Implementers and Circuit Managers to ensure that the classroom work is up to date and schools are well managed, and special attention is given to under-performing schools.
With the aid of the Japan International Co-operation Agency JICA, the Department has managed to introduce the Mpumalanga Secondary School Science Initiative, in which a school based In Service Training (INSET) has been conducted for 280 secondary schools in the field of Mathematics and Science; and to strengthen these efforts, most of the Teachers' Centres were equipped with laboratory and media facilities at a cost of R1 million. For the country to be economically sound, Mathematics, Science, Commerce and Technology will continue to take a centre stage in our provisioning of education.
Honourable Speaker, the orientation of continued education and training, which is linked to the world of work, begins at the early stages of General Education and Training (GET) and is refined at the Further Education and Training (FET) band. Through career guidance, which is conducted at school level, learners have been exposed to various fields of study at the FET institutions. An intensive mobilisation and recruitment campaign of students to FET institutions has been conducted for the 2003 academic year.
Mr Speaker, our learners should further be exposed to the different careers available at an early stage of their schooling. Whilst career guidance is taught at school, they need to be exposed to the real job situation by visiting different industries/professions. I wish to appoint a team headed by Mr D B Mabandla to develop a plan that will see Grade 8 and 9 learners visit different industries/professions for at least 1 week in a year.
I am happy to announce that all the technical colleges within the Province have been merged into Ehlanzeni, Nkangala and Gert Sibande FET Institutions. Honourable Speaker, this year 2003 has been marked as the year of FET. I hope that the FET institutions will strive to create centres of workmanships that will produce technically skilled individuals, make effective contribution to the labour market and be in a position to create jobs for themselves.
There should be a close working relationship between business/industry and the FET Institutions and MRTT (Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust). Business, in fact, must begin immediately to input into the curricula of our institutions. In this way, shortages of certain skilled workers in some industries will become something of the past. For example, SAPPI South African Paper and Pulp Industry currently has students in training programmes at our Ehlanzeni Institutions. After completion of their studies SAPPI will employ them. Curricula at Technical Colleges, which are obsolete, must be dropped or scaled down immediately. I look forward to the day where most students in FET Institutions will have a job awaiting them. Mr Speaker, our 3 FET Institutions have only recently been established, CEOs appointed and therefore like any mergers, will face a number of challenges. One immediate challenge that comes to mind is the lack of financial resources which hinders students from easily accessing FET Institutions. Therefore, I have decided, in order to make education more accessible, to appoint a task team to investigate a student support system for FET in this Province. The task team will consist of the following members: Mr P S. Zwane, Mr J. Sibande, Mr R. Diphofa and a representative of the Provincial Student Formation. We have just concretised partnerships with the Technical Colleges in Mozambique and Germany that will further enhance the development of our FET institutions.
Honourable Speaker, the issue pertaining to bursaries, and capacity building programmes is key to employee development within the Department and in the context of our specific objectives for the betterment of our people's lives. I want to reiterate that the Skills Development Programme and the Provincial Growth Development Strategy should form the cornerstone of our programmes as a Province to create a literate and skilled workforce.
Honourable Speaker, the Department has expended R12, 96 million to provide skills to 3148 employees at accredited service providers such as Universities and Technikons in 2002/2003. The Department undertakes to spend R14 million towards skills development in 2003/2004. These workplace skills plans are designed and implemented in keeping with the National Human Resources Development Strategy. A post of the Skills Development Facilitator has been created to assist in the planning and implementation of Skills Development Act.
The Department has further enrolled 1047 under-qualified educators for the National Professional Diploma in Education NPDE through UNISA University of South Africa. 1803 General Assistants are already enrolled for pursuing their studies through the Skills Development Programme and Learnerships. The Department has set itself a target that all these employees should be at NQF (National Qualifications Framework) Level 1 by 2005.
Through conditional grants there has been training for School Management Teams, School Principals and Circuit Managers on effective management of schools. R500 000 was used for this purpose in 2002/2003; and the same amount has been set-aside for 2003/2004.
The Department has in 2002/2003 set aside R546 000 for 175 student teachers to be trained at Ndebele College of Education. 92 students were awarded full-time study bursaries at Universities, which amounted to R295 000, and another R251 000 was spent on bursaries for 83 part-time students including employees and educators in service.
Honourable Speaker, the country is faced with a high level of illiteracy which is estimated at between 7 and 12 million people in South Africa and that 65% of the economically active population is functionally illiterate. For South Africa to become an internationally competitive nation and to have a minimum of 5% economic growth for the next five years, it is estimated that six million people will have to undergo lower-level adult education programmes.
It is quite pleasing to note that the Department runs quite a number of literacy programmes. We do have other projects like National Ikhwelo Project focusing on ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, by empowering adults and youth with skills and for the purpose of creating jobs.
Honourable Speaker, with regard to the Higher Education Sector, the Province supports the initiative on the establishment of the National Institute on Higher Education (NIHE). Higher education courses like Bachelor of Arts, Masters Degree, have been introduced at the Ndebele College as a first step towards the implementation of NIHE. With the financial and technical assistance from the South African Finish Co-operation Program in the Education Sector SCOPE the Department has appointed Prof Magi; who was the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand to drive the process leading to the full establishment of the Institute for Higher Learning in the Province by 2004.
In 2002 I mentioned that R3, 7 million was budgeted for Early Childhood Development (ECD). Today I am proud to indicate that R31, 6 million has been budgeted for ECD. This represents an increase of R27, 9 million. To make sure that the program is expanded; a total of 715 sites shall be catered for during 2003/2004 financial years on top of 250 sites provided for in 2002/2003. Children will come to Grade 1 more prepared and this will reduce the repetition rate throughout the whole schooling system.
The inclusive education pilot program is going on well in the pilot schools. It is pleasing to note that all pilot schools have been provided with computers and to date 280 classroom based educators and 55 Curriculum Implementers and Circuit Managers have been trained.
Through the assistance of the South African Teacher Development Project (CSATDP), a Canadian sponsored project, 80 schools in the Gert Sibande Region are being targeted for the implementation of the Outcome Based Education OBE and inclusive education at foundation phase.
The Japanese Overseas Corporation (JOCV) has deployed volunteers in various fields like in Mathematics, Science, English, Community Development and OBE respectively.
Other local organisations that are contributing in this field are the Read Project, Quality Learning Project, Open Learning System and the Johannesburg College of Education through Kwena Basin Project.
The Department has signed an agreement with Microsoft. The Microsoft Project is enhancing and adding to the computers already purchased for the schools. Microsoft on ICT (Information and Communications Technology) is also training mentor educators. Our commitment to supply all schools with at least one computer is still on track and we have set aside a sum of R13, 7 million to purchase 774 computers for the needy schools. In the last financial year, we purchased 500 computers for the schools.
The ten teachers centres have also been supplied with computers to service the schools around them. The SCOPE Project has spent R1 million for 15 sites on A-Plus, N-Plus, Web Page design, Project Management and Pedagogical training. The project also spent R1, 5 million on both soft- and hardware for computers. This will go a long way in ensuring that our learners become computer literate.
Our HIV/AIDS programme is up and running. Over the past year, the education response to HIV and AIDS has gained momentum. Education has assumed its role at the heart of the national response to HIV and AIDS. The recently released Nelson Mandela/HSRC study on HIV and AIDS, reports that 84% of those aged 12-24, learnt about HIV and AIDS from schools. This is evidence that our efforts are bearing fruit, we have reason to be optimistic. R8, 5 million has been set aside for our HIV/AIDS program this year. This will enable us to fight this scourge causing misery among our people. Various components like ABET, ELSEN, GET are involved with the training and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.
In the past financial year the Department has appointed a Director for Quality Assurance that deals with amongst others the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) and Systematic Evaluation. The unit will be responsible for the evaluation of how our system functions at various levels and come up with specific recommendations of what needs to happen about the particular institutions. This is also another endeavour to improve the quality of education that we provide at schools.
Through conditional grants on Financial Management and Quality Enhancement, we are building capacity for Financial Management and Administration at all levels, especially at school level. This will also ascertain that funds transferred to the schools are used in terms of the Public Finance Management Act PFMA and Treasury Regulations.
Honourable Speaker, let me take this opportunity to announce that all the public ordinary schools in the Province have been granted certain Section 21 functions. An amount of R45 million will be transferred to all ordinary public schools' bank accounts according to the poverty ranking Index.
This will be used mainly for payment of services, accounts, telephones and other consumable materials ensuring timeous delivery of services at school level. This status is being granted in accordance with the norms and standards of funding of public schools as stipulated in Section 35 of SASA (South African Schools Act) No 84 of 1996.
Honourable Speaker, 2003 is the year of elections for new School Governing Bodies (SGBs) in all public ordinary schools in the Province and Nationally. A word of gratitude is conveyed to those who have participated as School Governing Body Members whose term of office lapsed in May 2003. A word of thanks is also made to every citizen of the country and of Mpumalanga Province in particular who supported, participated and made the elections of the new SGBs a success.
These elections are of significance as they precede the country's provincial and national elections for 2004, and I hope they serve as a dress rehearsal for this process. I urge all communities to continue embracing schools as their own centres of learning and to continue rendering their unselfish and voluntary services in the spirit of Letsema.
The SGBs in all schools should now reflect the learner population of the schools. After the elections of the all the SGBs by the end of June 2003 the Directorate of Human Resource Development will begin to develop a plan which will ensure that SGBs in the same Municipality within the next 4 years, come together and form clusters. The purpose of this will be to enhance co-ordination, planning and sharing of resources and experiences and working together.
Some newly elected SGBs must begin to tackle the problem of the staff not reflecting the demographics of our Country, Province and Communities. They must begin to implement the staff equity plan of the Province. The HOD has been instructed to appoint persons in line with this plan. All schools will once more receive copies of such a plan.
The youth leadership programme also proved to be essential in ensuring effective participation of school youth in matters that underpin current debates on diversity. The Youth Summit, which was attended by 400 delegates from within the Province, reinforced the vision of the Department on learner-centred quality education through the involvement of all stakeholders.
Honourable Speaker, as the Honourable Premier has mentioned in his Provincial Address on 21 February 2003, the Department has managed to exceed its own target in the school's infrastructure development, by building 428 classrooms, 28 special rooms, 29 administration blocks and 280 toilets and 15 schools were renovated from the equitable share to the tune of R61 million.
Furthermore, 36 schools were fenced, an additional 362 toilets were built, 82 schools renovated and 14 water connections were made from the conditional grant to the tune of R47, 5 million. Lastly an additional 51 schools were renovated from the flood damage funds to the tune of R15 million.
Through the Thuba Makote project, a National Department of Education job creation, poverty alleviation and economic empowerment project R3, 9 million was spent at Jacob Mdluli Secondary School at Makoko in the Mbombela Municipality to provide 6 classrooms, a community hall, a library, an IT Centre, 3 vendor stores and a strong room for agricultural tools, using mainly local women labour. I wish to thank all private companies that have also helped to build classrooms and schools in our Province.
In this financial year, we have planned a total of 685 classrooms, 16 special rooms, 49 administration blocks and 982 toilets from our equitable share.
From the conditional grant amounting to R71 million, a further 88 schools will be renovated, 638 toilets built, 57 schools shall be fenced, 83 schools shall get electrical connections and 96 schools will be supplied with water.
A further 47 schools will be renovated at a cost of R8 million provided for the flood damaged funds.
From the Japanese Government donor funding, we are building an additional 232 classrooms, 20 administration blocks, 4 special rooms and 248 toilets.
The Department has set aside an amount of R11, 02 million within the infrastructure development allocation to Youth Contractors. This is a Youth Empowerment initiative, which is not a once off. The Department will strive to have such Job Creation initiatives also in the coming year. MRTT will be requested to build capacity and assist these emerging contractors in providing quality workmanship.
In total, Mr Speaker, the Department will build 917 classrooms this year. In fact we have doubled the number of classrooms, toilets, administration blocks, etc that are being built this year. The building of these structures has already commenced.
The delivery of LSM before the end of each school year has enhanced our school effectiveness programme. Last year 2002/3 we spent R212 million on LSM. This year it has increased to R241 million. Two weeks ago on Friday 30 May 2003, Mr Speaker, I visited the LSM warehouses to verify a report from my HOD that LSM for the beginning of the 2004 school year has already been ordered, received from publishers and being distributed to schools. Indeed, this was the case. Schools in the KwaMhlanga, Moretele and Witbank areas have already received their stationery for next year. My heartfelt congratulations go to my officials for this achievement.
OBE requires innovativeness on the development of LSM. Teachers are encouraged to begin developing their own LSM. Initiatives like that of the Sowetan, Star and other newspapers could help in teaching in the classroom. In Mpumalanga that initiative of Mpumalanga News, SAPPI and our selves will go a long way in supplementing our learner support material.
Also worth mentioning is that our expenditure per learner on LSM has increased drastically over the past 3 years from spending R54 per learner in 2000 to R235 in 2002 and R267 this year. This represents an increase of more than 393% over three years and the highest spent on a learner in the Country. Over the past 3 years we have spent over 1/2 billion rands on LSM. Realising that the retrieval systems of textbooks at some schools are not 100%, the MDE has acquired the services of a provider to develop a retrieval system for all our schools to the amount of R1, 9 million.
Honourable Speaker, this house should also note that R8 million would be used for renting 222 schools in 2003/2004 on private property as compared to 105 schools in 2002/2003. While I am on this item, it is worthy to note that my Department has instituted a study on the clustering of farm schools in an effort to do away with the so-called one-teacher schools. This will help in bringing better quality education for the learners and reducing the number of farm schools (schools on private property).
All schools in Mpumalanga have been provisioned with a starter pack of library books plus a mobile steel box library for storing and displaying the books. We are now busy with supplementary supplies and focusing on reference books. Two hundred primary and two hundred secondary schools have recently received reference library books.
All secondary schools have been provisioned with video programmes in English, Maths, Physical Science and Accounting.
Delegated powers have been devolved to all managers at various levels and even the principals of schools have been retrained on these delegations.
Through the Public Service Chamber Bargaining Council Resolution 7 and 8 of 2002, the Department has already filled 65 public service posts and 43 for office-based educators. The Department also contributed in the Provincial restructuring process by placing 226 supernumeracy employees in vacant posts at schools.
During this financial year, the Department has also set aside R6, 82 million for the appointment of administration clerks in the previously disadvantaged schools.
Honourable Speaker, we are also thrilled to announce that various management posts like those of principals, deputy principals and Heads of Departments have been filled. Furthermore, we have employed 1000 professionally qualified temporary educators as of 1 April 2003 on a permanent basis.
Honourable Speaker, the Department's goal is to ensure that efficient, effective and responsive personnel is in place and is compliant with the Batho Pele principles that agitate for a customer-orientated public service.
I am confident that by addressing the shortage of human resources within all the levels of the Department, the strategic and service delivery plans will be implemented to the letter and bring about better and quality education in our Department.
Honourable Speaker, the introduction of the C2005 in 1998 heralded a new epoch in our education system and gave birth to the outcomes-based education (OBE). The approach encourages the building of knowledge, skills and values that are fundamental to the vision of a prosperous truly united, democratic and global competitive country with creative and critical citizens leading productive, self-fulfilled lives in a country free of violence, discrimination and prejudices.
Since its introduction, OBE was met with challenges and resistance from various education stakeholders and as a result the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal called for a review of the design, methodology, structure and implementation of C2005.
Subsequent to this intervention by the Minister the Review Committee on C2005 recommended that the principles of outcomes-based education be retained and that principles of social justice, human rights, a healthy environment and inclusivity be strengthened.
The introduction of the revised Curriculum 2005 in Grades 1 - 3 (foundation phase) will begin next year and in Grade 10 in 2006. At present teachers guides are being distributed to all schools by the National Department.
According to the Departmental programme, the GET cards will be released as results for Grade 9 learners by November 2003 in all schools in the Province. By 2004 the Department will be in a position to issue GET certificates.
Mr Speaker, until recently my Department only dealt with school sports from a Curriculum Development (human movement) perspective, however, we will now create the necessary section/unit that will look at school sports policy. In the 80's none racial sport organisations spoke of "no normal sport in an abnormal society". Today we cannot speak of abnormal school sports in a normal society where the status quo, which existed before 1994, continues to exist, where schools compete with each other according to colour. What is encouraging though, is that all schools are affiliated to one sports controlling body in Mpumalanga i.e. MUSSA (Mpumalanga United School Sports Association). I will meet MUSSA soon to discuss this issue and other related matters. Further, Mr Speaker, Sports Development must start at school level. Almost a decade has past since a number of sports federations have produced sports development plans. However, these developments are not seen in a vigorous manner in our schools except for a few sporadic programmes.
Honourable Speaker, education, without any doubt and ambiguity is a gem of the nation, it needs care, to be handled like the Fauna and Flora that blossoms on the Mpumalanga mountains, it needs to be nurtured, bear lifelong results life long learning, develop the mindset of our nation; and contribute towards a united, non-sexist, non-racial, democratic country.
One of the greatest leaders of our soil, the late President Samora Machel of Mozambique in 1971, had this to say about the mistakes of mankind:
"What we learn we do and when we do, we see what is wrong. So we learn also from our mistakes and achievements. The mistakes show where there are shortcomings in our knowledge, weak points that have to be eliminated. This means that it is in the process that we correct our mistakes."
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, let me take this opportunity to thank the men and women, who so vigorously and diligently do their work to instil a sense of school effectiveness and learner excellence in our education system. They are the more than 31000 educators, circuit managers, clerks, regional and head office officials, SGBs, NGOs, senior managers in the Department, my HOD - Dr Mashinini, Unions, Business, other stakeholders and my support staff. A special thanks to the Premier and Members of the Executive Council for their support and putting education first. My thanks must also go to the Members of this House who out of their own conviction help raise funds/donations to assist our schools with the purchase/provision of the necessary equipment/facilities like computers, laboratory equipment, etc. Lastly let met thank the Members of the Portfolio Committee for their support and oversight.
Thank you
Issued by Mpumalanga Provincial Government
10 June 2003
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