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Date : 14/11/2005
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Commonwealth Council for Education Ministers Mid-term Review Meeting


Speech by Minister of Education, N Pandor, at the 15th Commonwealth Council for Education Ministers (CCEM) Mid-term Review Meeting for the Africa Region, Cyprus, Malta, and the United Kingdom, in Freetown, Sierra Leone


WORKING WITH NGOS TO ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

It is an honour to address distinguished ministers and officials.

The subject of this session is very important because non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and organs of civil society have made significant contributions to change processes and progressive development in many developing countries.

In South Africa, under apartheid, NGOs and civil society organisations formed the advance guard in the fight against racial oppression and denial of opportunities.

Churches, NGOs, unions and civics took up the issues of the people oppressed under apartheid; it was these structures that empowered the people; and it was these structures that provided development support to the people. They were the incubators of democratic practice and culture in South Africa. Street-block-area committees, literacy organisations, bursary organisations, the UDF - all of these played a role in ending apartheid. The churches and other religious bodies played a central role as well. They showed people that they could take control of their own affairs and be a force to be reckoned with.

NGOs and education Churches, NGOs, unions and civic mass-based organisations have played a vital role in promoting education opportunity and quality education. Many innovations that led to student success for the oppressed majority tended to be NGO-led initiatives. Democracy has opened up new avenues and activities for civil society. Many are now able to partner the democratic government. Others have had difficulties in taking on a post-democracy agenda and have failed to change their anti-establishment role.

A new model of civil society-state interaction has emerged since 1994. First, NGOs continue to act as monitors of the public good and safeguard the interests of the disadvantaged sections of society. The performance of this social-watch role requires both transparency and accountability on the part of NGOs. They also draw attention to areas that government may be neglecting.

Second, NGOs assist in expanding access to social and economic services, and to education, to create jobs and eradicate poverty among the poorest of the poor.

Civil society and state now collaborate on joint projects. NGOs have been contracted by the state to assist in policy development, implementation and the delivery of services and education. NGOs are adapting to the new environment by stressing businesslike methods, and are contributing in various educational and training spheres, often as sub-contractors to government. Sometimes these contributions are in important areas that government cannot tackle alone or that government does not have the expertise to tackle.

An example is the challenging area of adult basic education and training (ABET).

Old and new NGOs have adapted to the new environment to become highly professional organisations, producing literacy materials and running courses for industry and for traditional community-based programmes.

The following illustrate how civil society and state now collaborate on joint projects and partnerships. In 1992 the Joint Education Trust (JET) was a private sector initiative (a consortium of 20 leading companies) with a commitment of R500 million over five years. It supported more than 400 NGOs involved in early childhood development, youth development, adult education and training, and teacher development. In 2000 it began a new life with a commitment of R650 million from local and offshore donors.

It has provided key policy support to government. JET managed a project called Imbewu. The project was funded by the British Department for International Development (DfID) for an amount of R85 million. The project provided support to four levels of the Eastern Cape Department of Education - provincial, district, school and classroom - working directly with 523 primary schools in 22 districts.

A prominent component of the project was an external evaluation conducted at the baseline, mid-term and final stages.

Another example of a civil society and state partnership is the Business Trust. It was set up in 1999, supported by 145 companies and funded to the tune of R1 billion (voluntary basis of 0,15 of market capitalisation). It was a five-year initiative with a focus on human capacity development, job creation through tourism and crime reduction. When its mandate ended, it entered into a second cycle with the objective of combining business and government resources in areas of common interest, particularly around enterprises, the unemployed and communities in need of rehabilitation.

The Business Trust focused on reading at the primary school level, enhancing quality at the secondary school level, and improving the effectiveness at the further education level. The Trust education projects have taken the business contribution from sporadic, pilot projects on the periphery of the system to large-scale programmes integral to the process of system development. The primary school reading programme takes the business contribution to a new scale working with education departments in nine provinces and benefiting a million pupils (we have around 12 million pupils in schools, a million in each grade). The secondary school programme has developed a set of system-wide interventions at district, school and class-room level. And the further education programme focusing on technical colleges is directed at the reconstruction of an entire education sub-system.

So the contribution of NGOs to education is welcome and focused.

Universal primary education The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

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