Speech by Naledi Pandor, MP, Minister of Education, introducing the debate on the education budget vote, National Council of Provinces, Cape Town

'Investing in our human resources for sustained growth and development'

Chairperson, we begin this debate at a worrying time. Millions of children have not been at school since Friday. It's not clear how long the labour dispute will continue, but I'm certain all members agree that we can't afford any loss of learning time. I remain hopeful that the impasse will end soon.

I'm also convinced that we must and we will improve the remuneration of teachers. We'll devise a scale of remuneration and performance assessment that both recognises the important role they play in society and provides irrefutable evidence that they are doing the job of educating the nation.

At our meeting of Council of Education Ministers yesterday we agreed on a draft framework for the creation of an occupation-specific category of remuneration for school principals and education managers.

I am pleased that this aspect of the occupation-specific salary structure for principals and managers in education is integrated in the proposed agreement on salaries and conditions of service that has been tabled by the Minister of Public Service and Administration.

Chairperson, the proposed dispensation moves remuneration in education in a new direction, a direction that will improve remuneration while also providing a basis for increased accountability.

In terms of figures it will translate into an additional 7,5% increase for principals from 1 July 2007. This is over and above whatever general adjustment is agreed upon in the current dispute.

The occupation-specific dispensation gives due and necessary recognition to professionals in the public service. Its intention is to reward. recognise and attract skills to the public sector.

The proposed agreement from the employer provides for implementation of a similar framework for teachers from 1 January 2008 and from the following year for office-based educators and specialists in education.

I intend to initiate discussions with teacher organisations and education leaders in order to determine a framework for increased support and regular review of professional practices.

I plan to continue working with teachers in an effort to secure the academic future of our children. The awful history of education denial and poor learning performance requires us, as South Africa's education leaders, to plan and imagine beyond the confines of the positions we occupy in government and society. I hope to encourage the development of a set of agreed approaches that will move beyond sectoral polemics to real change for learners and students.

A new approach will also demand a level of objective evaluation that has been missing in our public discourse. We will need to develop the courage to state the problems squarely and to be prepared to deal with underperformance from member, friend, or enemy.

This is going to be a tough challenge, but I think we must adopt the courageous stand of the Gauteng MEC when she indicated that poor competence will not enjoy protection.

We have a duty to ensure learning, to ensure the realisation of every child's potential, and also to provide professionals and other workers with the conditions of service that fully accredit the competence and ability we expect from educationists.

I believe our activities this year will lead us to the point where we will create a firm basis for the kinds of outcomes I have described.

Chairperson, while I'm concerned at the impasse in salary negotiations, I believe we can and will report real progress in education while also alerting the House to challenges that I believe must be given attention.

The most valuable contributions today will be provided by our provincial colleagues. They are at the coalface of action and delivery and directly respond to that which must be done. I thank to-day the MECs and HODs for their work (hard work I know). But I will also continue to point to our inadequacies, many of which I share, not to score points but to indicate that there are challenges that we must engage with if we are to make real the promise of a quality education for all our children.

Treasury reported a dramatic improvement in overall provincial spending last year; provinces spent 98,7% of their combined adjusted budgets.

However, there was both good and bad news for the education sector in this dramatic improvement in provincial spending.

On the one hand, the 1,3% of provincial under-spend amounted to R2,4 billion and was largely due to under-expenditure in seven provincial education departments (the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal are the exceptions).

On the other hand, Treasury also reported that there was a "notable improvement" in capital expenditure in the provinces. In fact, capital expenditure at R3,7 billion (96,5% of the capital budget) was R1 billion more than the R2,6 billion spent in 2005.

The increased capital expenditure is good news for education in itself, but it is also good news for another reason.

It is an indication that we are reaching that target of an 80:20 split in the budget, that is, 80% of the budget spent on personnel, and 20% spent on non-personnel items.

In the past, that split has been our target, but we have never been able to reach it. The consequence has been that personnel expenditure, which has always had first call on our resources, has usually crowded out the other two components of the provincial education budget - the capital costs for building and repairing schools and the goods and services budget for items like learner-support material.

With a growing consolidated education budget (R104,7 billion this year compared to R93,2 billion last year), with the targeted 80:20 split achieved, there is at last more money for school buildings and textbooks.

Let me say a few words about school infrastructure.

During the education budget vote last year I announced that I had initiated an update of the School Register of Needs.

As some of you will know that mammoth and comprehensive audit of schools has been completed and we have for the first time a complete inventory of infrastructure at every school.

The preliminary estimate is that the cost of making up the education infrastructure backlog is R40 billion and that this consists of a space backlog of R13,6 billion, a standards backlog of R19.8 billion, and a condition backlog of R2,5 billion. By space backlog I mean that there are an inadequate number of classrooms and learning spaces. By standards backlog I mean that facilities are available but are below standard. By condition backlog I mean that facilities are available but have deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.

The replacement value of all our schools is R119 billion.

Comparing the condition of schools today with the condition of schools measured in previous School Registers of Needs is fraught with difficulty. However, it would appear that we have made progress. In particular we have made substantial progress in regard to the provision of basic services to schools. The most notable improvement is in the provision of electricity, where 82% of schools (20 330) now have electricity (75% connected to grid electricity) compared to 55% in 2000 and 40% (11 174) in 1996.

We still have work to do on the costing of infrastructure improvement and the steps we plan to take in remedy. The full report will be released to interested parties in the near future.

We must give the appropriate weight to the huge under-investment in black education under apartheid when we talk about poor academic performance today.

The education budget is the largest allocation of resources made by national government. This year it comes to R104,7 billion, which is 5,53% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Last year, in 2006, it was R93,2 billion, which was 5,44% of GDP.

Honourable Members will recall that in 2006 we undertook to direct our efforts to improving learning outcomes in our schools. We planned to give specific attention to under-performing schools and to improve the matric performance of the class of 2006.

Members know that we did not meet our planned target, despite very positive improvements in several provinces.

We began this year taking much stronger action against the principals of under-performing schools. The difference that results from a competent and engaged principal is astounding. All provinces are paying attention to the need to provide training support and leadership development opportunities to school principals.

The interventions by education departments have been developmental rather than punitive, but we will not be afraid to act with vigour where punitive action becomes necessary. We are giving increased attention to a clear job specification for school leadership, one that makes it clear learning and academic progress are a core performance requirement for school principals.

The Advanced Certificate in Education in school leadership is being piloted this year. We regard this as a critical contribution to building a new pool of capable education leaders for our schools. We also plan to make better use of mentoring by linking new leaders to leaders in successful schools in order to build a system of school development that empowers through professional collaboration.

Another target in our improvement strategy is that of ensuring that teachers monitor learning achievement and skills acquisition from grade 1 to grade 12. Intensifying our efforts at grades 11 and 12 alone will not lead to success. Every school grade must aim to promote successful learning and teaching of key skills.

In addition to ensuring support to learners at all levels of the schooling system, we have strengthened our efforts at improving literacy and numeracy. We have provided reading books to over 10 000 schools as part of our strategy. School principals and teachers are being encouraged and supported in the teaching of reading and writing. Teaching aids for reading, assessment guides and other tools have been supplied to ensure that reading, writing and numeracy are key focus areas at all grades in the system.

We have made it clear that the national curriculum requires the teaching of reading, writing, and numeracy from the foundation phase.

Furthermore we have begun to prepare our schools for regular assessment of reading and writing. Assessment and monitoring of each learners progress and ability will become a normal part of our schooling system. It's too late to begin at grade 12.

Our departments will be training and supporting teachers in implementing our newly developed Early Grade Reading Assessment (which has been developed in six languages this year). Early Grade Reading Assessment will be piloted in 18 schools this year and then go to scale in schools in 2008.

The Council of Education Ministers has agreed that increased attention must be given to building school libraries and resourcing them to support our literacy strategy.

In 2008, we'll have the third systemic evaluation of literacy and numeracy at grade 3. We intend to work with our schools to ensure a better set of results than the outcomes of the 2001 and 2004 evaluations.

In 2006, we reported that we would expand our strategy for science, mathematics and technology. The Dinaledi Schools initiative continues to grow with active support from all provinces. We've grown from 102 schools in 2004 to 462 schools in 2007. With proper resourcing and support, these schools can achieve the objective of doubling our 2004 passes in science and mathematics by 2008.

Chairperson, we've not given up on our plan to ensure that at least by 2010 all high schools will offer science and mathematics taught by qualified competent teachers. We're also acting on our planned use of qualified unemployed teachers of these important subjects. We'll fill vacant posts and or relieve teachers who need retraining or professional development.

The new bursary programme for teacher trainees - Fundza Lushaka - is a welcome addition to our strategies; it has attracted over 3 000 future teachers of science, mathematics, technology and languages.

I believe that our teaching support and development programme, our new assessment tools, and the employment of new freshly qualified teachers provide the foundations for a better system of education.

This belief has led us to critically assess our literacy and adult basic education programmes. Following a comprehensive review by an inclusive ministerial committee, we have developed a refreshed literacy campaign and strategy. The plan will be implemented as a pilot in 2008.

We have also agreed that there should be a rethinking and reconceptualisation of Adult Education and Training in South Africa. The curriculum and approach we've used thus far has been closely aligned to formal schooling programmes. We plan to offer adults a curriculum that integrates, responds to, and reflects their interests, needs and life experiences.

More attention will also be given to vocational offerings, life skills programmes and possible links with industry and other employers. A green paper on the proposed policy will be published in 2008.

Chairperson, Honourable Members, our teachers and officials are grappling with complex and challenging tasks. Key among them has been introducing the new national curriculum into our schools. In 2005 we introduced the National Curriculum Statement in grade 10. In 2008 all learners will be studying the same national curriculum.

This is a historic achievement for democratic South Africa.

Many negative stories have been written about our curriculum change. They fail to acknowledge the work done by many provinces and districts and school leaders to train and support teachers. Workshops, electronic communication, the education portal, all have provided us with up-to-date information.

If these have not reached you, we have to ask why? Usually in professional bodies, the professionals are offered development opportunities, but it is their prerogative to take up the opportunities.

There have been failures and lapses in implementing the new curriculum. We need many more curriculum experts in the system, better resource support, improved materials development and improved planning of training programmes. The departmental curriculum teams have provided easier to use assessment tools, test exemplars and other support in an effort to ensure more effective curriculum practice.

Chairperson, we have gone further. A minimum curriculum package has been developed for high-school learners and greater support will be provided to grade 11 teachers this year. Grade 11 learners will write common exams this year as part of preparation for 2008. The provincial teams and the F branch must be congratulated for their efforts in this regard.

However, thousands of grade 11 learners on the old curriculum failed in 2006.

We anticipated these in our 2006 discussions, but we did not plan proactively and efficiently. We had agreed to plan, but reacted under pressure this year rather than on the basis of a fully resourced well-crafted plan.

Part of the difficulty relates to the inadequacies of our current institutional framework. We do not have a diversity of institutions that offer second-chance opportunities to young adults.

We also have not used the grade 9 exit opportunity in a system co-ordinated manner. We require better monitoring of learners, improved careers and training opportunity advice for learners, closer links between Further Education Training (FET) colleges and schools and the development of a summative evaluation certificate at the end of the general education phase.

We are planning better for the grade 12 learners who do not pass in 2007. Our plans will be conveyed to schools by the beginning of the fourth term. Of course, we encourage learners to work for success as that is the best outcome.

We continue with our efforts to develop focused schools and to introduce new subjects to schools that have been denied arts, music and theatre studies.

Chairperson, a curriculum is far more than subjects or learning fields. It is the building block for social cohesion and a new set of values and attitudes.

Our curriculum contents reflect these imperatives, but it is clear we are not yet teaching non-violence, conflict management and respect for all in our schools.

We'll work closely with teachers and learners to build safe and caring schools, to promote non-sexism, respect for diversity (including multi-lingualism) and the development of schools that promote and practice inclusion.

Chairperson, the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition has correctly identified the important contribution education can and must make to improving skills in South Africa. We have identified universities, universities of technology, and FET colleges as the key to our skills response.

Government has made the most significant investment ever in the college sector. The R1,8 billion recapitalisation investment has placed colleges at the centre of skills development. Over 25 000 students have registered in newly developed technical and service skills-related programmes. Firm partnerships with industry have supported the modernisation programmes and lecturers have been supported through training funding and well-resourced technical workshops.

We have gone beyond recapitalisation; R600 million has been provided for bursaries to college students and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been appointed to administer the funds.

At the university level, government has provided over R2 billion in new funds to support universities in improving infrastructure, in strengthening student support services, formulating academic development programmes and refurbishing residences, library facilities and information and communication technology resource centres.

The injection of these funds means that universities can begin to build a new cohort of scholars in South Africa. We also hope that the funding will assist in creating space for vice chancellors to lead a process of intellectual renewal in South Africa.

Beyond schools, skills development, knowledge production and innovation, there are many other matters we must attend to.

Honourable members, we have discussed non-educator support personnel for schools for several years. It is our intention that from next year all schools should have a minimum core of support personnel.

Furthermore, we are re-examining the policies of post allocation and devising a much more redress-oriented model of post provision.

We would like to appoint more teachers and thus smaller ratios to schools in challenged conditions. You cannot justifiably have the same teacher-learner ratio for schools that have millions to appoint Standards Generating Body (SBGs) posts and schools that have very little or nothing. Some of the inadequacies result from a shortage of classrooms or poor allocation of teaching time. We want to see full utilisation of all teachers and adequate teacher support for all schools.

We'll also act on our plan to create a new education evaluation and development unit to support our quality evaluation instruments.

I was pleased to declare policy on teacher development. However, we must not take five more years to develop programmes for teachers. We have allocated over R10 million to the planning process for the Teacher Development Framework and have assigned the South African Council for Educators to do the preparatory work with the support of a task team.

Chairperson, a great deal of careless debate on the future shape of provinces has occupied the pages of the print media recently.

The call for a closer examination and review of the financial and structural arrangements that exist in our concurrent constitutional design has been defined by some as a grasp for power. I dispute such a conclusion. It is necessary to review systems and the degree to which they reflect original and stated policy intentions. The fact that collaboration across spheres exists in the present form of comradely discussion does call for reflection. It calls for reflection, not for less power to provinces but potentially for the development of new forms of collaboration that may lead to improved delivery.

The matter of learning and teaching support material is a case in point. Millions are spent on learner-support material. In fact, last year provinces spent R7,9 billion of the R8,8 billion adjusted budget on goods and services (which is mostly spent on learner-support material). Yet many schoolchildren do not get textbooks. Would a joint collaboration across provinces give rise to more efficient and learner-oriented outcomes? We do not have answers as yet, but it is a matter that requires careful consideration.

A further issue for review is the role and status of school governing bodies (SGBs). There have been calls for improved support and development of SGBs. I support these calls.

However, I think we need a more reflective look at the potential for positive change that lies in school governing bodies.

How can we harness this latent energy? One of the possibilities is to create district-level school councils that have statutory responsibility for areas such as school refurbishment, academic review and assessment of resource provision. Developing such a layer of school governance support would mesh skills and abilities across schools and communities and create the basis for partnership and development beyond individual schools.

We have also been giving attention to the matter of rewards for positive performance. Some see the recognition of excellence as an elitist notion because they view schools in disadvantaged communities in deficit terms.

I am proposing that schools which are under-resourced, which perform well despite our lack of support to them, should be recognised and rewarded and not be doomed to long-term neglect and underdevelopment because we believe rewards are elitist.

Why is it elitist to build a laboratory for a village school that has had three or more years of outstanding performance in science?

Why would it be wrong, Chairperson, to reward such a school with such a resource? Why would it be elitist to reward teachers in such schools?

What is wrong in affirming excellence? Why should mediocrity be more deserving than outstanding performance?

Chairperson, our tasks are varied as I have indicated. We intend to approach each of them with care and attention.

We have begun to see exciting signs of extremely positive progress in all the provinces. MECs will address these in their contributions. I am proud to work with such a capable dedicated team.

I thank the Director-General and his team of Deputy Directors-General and officials, our Deputy Minister, all Cabinet colleagues who have supported education and all stakeholders who make a difference in education. To all these stakeholders I repeat my homily, we are not wrong in our belief that it is possible to make quality education for all a reality for all learners and teachers in South Africa. Focus, dedication, commitment and hard work will ensure that we make it happen.

Issued by: Department of Education
5 June 2007

Last Modified: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:50:00 SAST