Date: 18/06/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Education Dept Budget Vote 2004/2005
SPEECH BY NALEDI PANDOR, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, INTRODUCING THE DEBATE ON THE EDUCATION BUDGET, VOTE 15, National Assembly, 18 June 2004
Madam Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the National Assembly
Pupils from Table View High and Inkwenkwezi High School
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to begin this tenth-year budget speech by acknowledging the tremendous contribution made to education transformation by my predecessors, Professors Bengu and Asmal. They gave life to the early process of change and have left us, the next generation, with the important opportunity and task of converting policy and vision into practical education reality.
Allow me also to dedicate this, my first budget speech, to my grandfather Professor ZK Matthews, the first African in South Africa to obtain a BA degree from a South African institution, my grandmother, Frieda Matthews, the first African woman to obtain a JC pass in South Africa, my father Joe Matthews and my late mother, Fikile Matthews. I must also mention my other Gran, Pauline Phillips, stand in mother for my children while I pursued a professional career and education politics.
I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to our President for giving me the honour of serving my country in the role of minister.
I have been inundated with good wishes and support from many quarters since my appointment. Included in the postbag have been wise words of policy advice and warnings of dire consequences if I pursue certain policy paths. To all who have written and called I say thanks.
The advice I have received - no more education policies and pay attention to the quality of education - are best captured in Professor Jansen's "open letter", published in City Press, 25 April 2004, a copy of which one of his strong supporters sent to me. I hope to make it a habit to listen to our people and our stakeholders; but I am fully aware that in the final analysis I must take a decision and it will not always be liked by everyone. The test for me will be my ability to clearly set out cogent logic related to the educational wisdom of the decisions I take.
Before proceeding to the substance of my budget speech, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a strong and direct appeal to the people of South Africa. I say to you all:
Let us share a passion for quality education for all
Bohle re tshwanetse ho fumana thuto enang le boleng
Rothe ro fanela u vhana mukovhe kha pfunzo ya khwine
Masabelane ngothando oluvuthayo lwemfundo ephucukileyo kwilizwe lonke
In the past few weeks, people have sought to extract wild and great promises from me. I have stressed that my focus will be on stability and consolidation linked very directly to our existing positive policies and to any necessary adjustments that strengthen the framework of education, so that it provides the opportunities for transformation and development set out in various acts and policy instruments. Any enhancement of policy will be accompanied by a careful assessment of implications for implementation and an avoidance of creating more structures for employment that serve no role in achieving our education objectives.
The enterprise we oversee is education. It is life changing if handled properly and destructive if abused by careless experimentation. In an attempt to support ongoing progress the department will focus on several priority areas that we regard as imperative for ongoing advancement in education.
Priority one: improving access and results through quality of service and opportunity
The schooling sector at the general and further education levels is the foundation for learning and skills development. All of us must have been disturbed at the foundation skills test results publicised by the Western Cape Education Department recently. I have not been informed of the content and form of the testing, but I believe all of us should worry if children have not acquired foundation skills after five years of learning. To blame this outcome on curriculum design is diversionary.
Any teacher worth his or her salt should be able to teach children reading and writing after so many years in school. The reasons may lie partially in resources, but it is clear that policy makers and managers of education bear a great responsibility as well. It should not take provincial departments five years to discover that a foundation is not being laid. We need to intervene much earlier and to ensure adequate development opportunities for teachers, so that they have the requisite teaching skills.
We will have to ensure that we conduct regular, supportive reviews that identify gaps in our system. We will also accelerate implementation of the Grade R provision in schools. In addition, departments must ensure that learning support materials are available to schools and that teachers are informed that foundation skills are a necessary requirement for learning at higher levels of schooling.
Education organisations have expressed serious concerns about the impact and implementation of the new curriculum framework. Some of the concerns indicate a resistance to new and accountable approaches to teaching and content. Nevertheless, there appear to be some genuine concerns. It is my intention to spend time with teachers in order to develop a full understanding of educational concerns. Following our initial meetings with stakeholder organisations, we have agreed with our senior officials that we should look at improved training, clear sets of guidelines for assessment and unambiguous communication about the vital importance of ensuring pupils are able to read and write at primary school level.
The budget for further education and training has been increased by R40 million to support the material rewriting and implementation of the further education and training curriculum (Grades 10-12). In order to ensure smooth implementation, the Department will monitor training of teachers and district managers and provide opportunities for practical review and discussion of progress. The Department is keen to ensure that we succeed in making the curriculum work for education.
Ensuring quality in outcomes also means we should intensify our efforts at providing access to early childhood development. The need begins long before Grade R. Provinces have to provide for this aspect in their budgets. It is also an area where we could generate new community partnerships. The process of training and registering providers must continue and we ask Parliament to monitor implementation in this regard.
Quality learning conditions imply the skills acquisition referred to above as well as the quality imperatives President Mbeki outlined in the state of the nation address. We are doing all in our power to meet the commitment made by the President to eliminate mud wall schools and other unsafe school buildings in the course of this financial year. We have put in a substantial bid to Treasury for additional funds over the next three years to eradicate the inherited infrastructure backlogs in education.
At the Council of Education Ministers meeting, held on the 7 and 8 June, we agreed that we would give priority to providing decent schooling facilities for the pupils of our country. All our provincial colleagues agreed to scrutinise already tight budgets to ensure that no child learns under trees by March 31 2005. We will liase with the Public Works Department to co-operate in delivering on this promise. We believe it is absolutely necessary to respond practically to this call by our President.
The Department's role is to assist provinces in the planning and budgeting for infrastructure, as well as to provide technical expertise in the design and construction of schools. A wealth of experience has been gained from building the highly innovative Thuba Makothe schools (2 per province - see the exhibit outside), and this will be shared with provinces.
The Department will also be strengthening its monitoring role to ensure that the targets we collectively set are attained. We must, however, appreciate that it takes more than a year to build a school from planning to final delivery. Therefore, we want to ensure that work has begun on the new buildings during the course of this year.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we are strengthening our efforts toward teacher training and development. We intend finalising a national framework on teacher education by the end of 2004. This framework will provide us with a clear platform for engaging teaching development institutions. We plan to work with colleges and universities in order to develop a common vision of the kind of teacher development programme necessary for the implementation of the revised national curriculum statement. It will also clarify the role of provincial and district officials in the professional development and support of teachers.
Initiatives aimed at attracting more entrants to the profession will be intensified, and support mechanisms for these initiatives will be formulated. We need teachers in several critical areas - maths, science, English, and technical and creative disciplines. We will develop reasonable incentives so that teaching becomes a profession of choice. As part of our on-going efforts, our national student financial aid scheme provides R60 million for teacher training in this financial year.
We will also be looking very closely at the teaching of indigenous languages in our schools. One of the intentions of our language policy is to encourage the use of home languages as media of instruction in the first three years of schooling. This intention is based on the well-established fact that home language, if correctly used, can be a powerful vehicle for developing foundational concepts for future learning. We have to balance the educational imperatives of using indigenous languages as media of instruction in the foundation phase and the political and economic imperatives of developing competence in English. Our approach in this regard is to strengthen the teaching of English as a second language in all levels of schooling. The aim of this approach is to enable pupils to use English as a language of teaching and learning beyond the first three years of schooling.
Priority two: equipping pupils and students with the appropriate skills
We will consolidate the efforts made thus far in improving the teaching of mathematics, science and technology in our schools. Not only shall we continue supporting the 102 Mathematics and Science focus schools, we will also provide the resources necessary for the proper teaching and learning of these subjects in many more schools, at both primary and secondary levels.
Our interventions in mathematics, science and technology education should gradually improve the performance of poor and marginalised pupils in general, and girls in particular. We must ensure that more girls gain access to careers in the sciences, in technology and in engineering. We can only achieve this goal if we provide all pupils with a solid foundation in these critical disciplines at school level. It is important to stress that this focus will not be at the cost of the arts and humanities, because they are important to the full development of all pupils.
Honourable members, I would like to recognise Professor George Ellis, a South African scientist of note. We congratulate him on winning the Templeton Prize, the world's largest annual monetary prize given to an individual. We deeply appreciate the contribution he has made to promote maths and science education.
Priority three: supporting sectors that are critical to our skills development
The Department of Education's focus on pupils in education institutions and the Department of Labour's primary focus on skills development for the employed have jointly contributed to the marginalisation of unemployed young people. We have begun to address this problem through our human resource development strategy. It began to pull the interventions of our two departments together. We are committed to a coordinated campaign to improve the opportunities of the youth who are out of school and unemployed without the opportunities to learn.
This issue is pressing. It remains at the top of the agenda of human resource development over the next decade. Clearly, this demands the proper resourcing of schools, but it also demands an attack upon the legacy of thwarted potential that can only properly be met by further education.
Madam Deputy Speaker, our efforts have moved us closer to the vision of creating a vibrant, responsive and flexible further education and training college sector. There has been a steady increase in the number of students at the 50 new colleges and new programmes are slowly emerging. The college themselves are under new management and governing structures. An incentive scheme in the form of ministerial awards has been introduced to drive the sector towards its objectives.
The colleges have submitted their strategic plans. We have asked provinces to provide funding to these colleges in a manner that allows them to prepare for the implementation of their skills development programmes. We will be approaching national treasury to seek funding for this sector, particularly for the recapitalisation of institutions. We also intend to continue our discussion with the Ministry of Labour on our agreed perspective that SETAs and our colleges can and should work more closely together. We plan to formulate a legislative framework that will clear up ambiguities identified in the national qualification framework review report and lay the basis for a more effective further education and training programme and for coherent quality assurance in education. Any ambiguities in our interpretation of further education and training schools and further education and training colleges must also be resolved so that each set of institutions has a clearly defined role and place in our system.
The regulation of the private providers of further education and training has remained a major concern. Over the next few months we will finalise the preparations for the registration of private providers. The contribution of the South African Qualifications Authority and Umalusi will be critical in these efforts.
Priority four: improved funding for education
Achieving our objectives requires the injection of adequate funding to the education sector. Over the past few years there has been a gradual erosion of the education budget as a percentage of total government expenditure and as a percentage of GDP. This erosion of spending on education is also evident at provincial level where education budgets have not matched the nationally agreed imperatives.
Investment in further education is one of the most cost-effective ways of overcoming the cumulative effects of our legacy of racial indifference to learning for black people. It is the best way to remedy past neglect. There has to be a redistribution of resources in favour of further education if learning is really to be the engine of economic and social growth. This will involve taking some tough decisions affecting the funding for full-time higher education. We have to move towards equity of funding for those whom further education provides a last chance but first choice to learn. We are committed to investing in education and further education has to move up the agenda in making a claim on those funds.
Provinces need to improve their funding of education. Where there is under-spending of funds, Parliament and the Council of Education Ministers will conduct reviews. It is unacceptable for provinces to fail to spend their full allocation of funds for education.
Priority five: supporting and enhancing higher education
The higher education transformation and merger process stands as one of our central priorities. On 1 January 2004 four mergers took place-giving rise to the following new institutions - the University of KwaZulu-Natal, North West University, Tshwane University of Technology and UNISA. We will continue monitoring and supporting them in the merger process. Three merged institutions have submitted their operating plans and we are currently studying these for implementation purposes.
Recently the representatives of leaders in higher education made a submission to the portfolio committee of education in parliament. The bulk of the submission concerned the subsidy formula. This was a disappointing submission, as it failed to give us any sense of a sector poised and ready to make a fundamental contribution to our development priorities. We will study the remarks concerning the formula and respond. However, it is important to remind colleagues that our challenges demand much more from the higher education sector. We will continue to play our part by intensifying our efforts at securing improved funding and by stimulating a movement toward critical strategic priorities.
In terms of the new funding formula for higher education, funds have been earmarked for academic development initiatives designed to improve the success rates of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the current financial year R 85 million has been allocated for this purpose. The higher education community has particularly welcomed this allocation.
One of the areas in which we hope we will hear from the higher education sector is in the worrying decline in the emergence of young and aspiring academics. Higher education institutions should advise us on strategies to be pursued in identifying and retaining young scholars. We have stimulated the process of addressing structural inefficiencies and systemic limitations. The sector must now articulate its perspective on enhanced knowledge production, innovation and responsiveness.
The decline of historically black institutions is a worrying feature of our higher education landscape. Several have made important strides particularly the University of the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare. The majority, however, tend to show a worrying inability to rise above petty problems and a tragic failure to respond adequately to strategic priorities. We cannot allow them to decline into further obscurity. We will redouble our efforts at supporting those that demonstrate readiness to make a real effort at change. I firmly believe if we fail to build areas of excellence in previously marginalised institutions we will have failed to address the historic opportunities freedom has handed to us. Let me stress however that our support will not be charity; it will be rigorous, strategic, and demanding.
The availability of student financial aid continues to be a matter of concern. In 1994 government invested R10, 3 million in student financial aid through the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, the forerunner to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. And this year, 2004, just under R 1 billion has been invested in the national aid scheme. This amount includes an allocation from Treasury as well as money from repaid student loans. It is a phenomenal increase, and a strong commitment. So far the scheme has awarded R4 billion in loans to 360,000 students.
Even so, the scheme appears unable to accommodate the growing numbers of students from poor communities. The Department is particularly concerned to improve the scheme as a mechanism for addressing access and equity. This is important as the scheme has a critical role to play as part of the government's broader strategy to alleviate poverty.
Last year the scheme received an added boost when the Department of Labour contributed an additional R100 million to the scheme through the National Skills Fund. We are currently in negotiations for a similar sum for this year. Similar contributions by other government department would assist in maximising the impact of public funds that are invested in the scheme. Currently, the myriad parallel programmes funding students in higher education institution are not coordinated. Such uncoordinated approaches in public resource allocation could lead to duplication and a complete disjuncture between government priorities in human resource development and resource allocation. The step taken by the Department of Labour in pulling together available resources provides a good example of collaboration that government departments should be encouraged to emulate.
We are in the process of finalising an internal review of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. The findings of the review will be available later this year. While we are confident that the review of the scheme will provide the basis for improving its efficiency and effectiveness, we are under no illusion that it can fully address the magnitude of the challenge we face in this critical area. Lasting solutions are required that do not plunge higher education institutions into periodic crises. Such solutions will only be found if there is a commitment on the part of all key stakeholders, especially university managements, student leadership and the private sector to work in partnership with the government.
In the coming year, we will initiate discussions with leadership in the private sector in relation to their investment in student funding. We will also engage with vice-chancellors on the vexing issue of tuition fee increases, and how these can be managed in ways that do not put higher education out of the reach of the majority of people in this country. While the Department remains committed to ensuring adequate levels of funding for higher education, it is necessary to guard against rapid enrolment growth without matching additional resources.
Priority six: education for all
Madam Deputy Speaker, one of the major challenges we face is making progress with adult literacy and adult education. In absolute terms, the number of adults with no education at all has decreased from 4.2 million in 1996 (Census 1996 data) to 1.8 million in 2001 (Labour Force Survey data), which is an indication that there has been tremendous progress with adult literacy programmes. The establishment of the National South African Literacy Initiative (SANLI) has encouraged a mobilisation of a number of agencies and volunteers to work with government in the fight against illiteracy.
However, it must be noted that progress in creating a better life for all uneducated adults is slow. There are still a too many adults who have only primary school education. This creates a participation barrier in social and economic development as well as in the democratic process of governance in this country. In addition, programmes offered in literacy classes do not adequately address the needs of adult learners, to whom the most important reason for enrolling is to earn an income.
Adult literacy is therefore one area that needs further action over the next five years and the possibility of using further education and training colleges for a massive roll-out of adult education and training programmes is being explored.
Priority seven: partnerships in government and beyond
The Department takes very seriously the President's injunction to expand the reach of adult basic education and training and to align it with the training objectives of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). We will be liasing with colleagues in Public Works. Moreover, we cannot work in isolation from other social players in the field of adult education. We will work closely and in partnership with various community and non-governmental organisations. We will also look at ways of making it easy for community-based and non-governmental organisations to operate in this area. We will strengthen our collaboration with other government departments and the sector education and training authorities to consolidate government intervention in adult education and training.
Our infrastructure plans, especially the provision of clean water and sanitation, require close co-operation with Water Affairs. We have concluded the development of materials for the environmental education learning area and we trust that the Ministry of Environmental Affairs will assist us in implementing the programme and a range of other initiatives.
Outside government we intend to pursue partnerships that will support our education and development objectives. The private sector has funded a range of education initiatives. I hope to continue and strengthen these links. Our role in African partnerships will also be pursued. Higher education is an important area of co-operation and we may proceed to create new initiatives at the school and college levels.
Priority eight: making the system work
Madam Deputy Speaker, our last priority requires that we address the thorny issue of school fees. Financial exclusion of poor pupils is one of the biggest challenges we face in the Department. Existing legislation protects poor pupils from exclusion by allowing for school fee exemption, by allocating a seven-times higher per capita to the poorest pupils than the least poor, and by ensuring that teaching resources are distributed equitably among schools.
However, the recently published report on the costs of education suggests that hidden costs of textbooks, school lunches and school uniforms are still presenting a relatively "expensive" education for the poor. The Department is committed to abolishing school fees for the poorest of our society. We are aware that this is a growing demand from a number of unions and other civil society organisations and Honourable Members were recently made aware of these demands at the public hearing the portfolio committee on education held into the budget vote.
Provinces are currently looking closely at their budgets and priorities in order to determine who could be exempted from fees. Where pupils are exempted from fees, the schools will be guaranteed a basic minimum funding package that will be sufficient to secure a quality education without the need to collect fees. We should never expect parents or care-givers to use social grants to pay for a basic education.
We are very conscious of the danger of creating a two-tier schools system - one fee paying and the other not. We will avoid this by ensuring that schools that do not charge fees are enabled in other ways to become centres of educational quality.
If we are to succeed in making the system work we will have to strengthen our ability to monitor, evaluate and report. Our quality improvement and support branch is going to be vital in assisting review. We are also looking forward to the positive benefits that will come from whole school evaluation. We agreed at the last meeting of the Council of Education Ministers that monitoring should be strengthened so that we are constantly alert to progress on our targets.
Our focus must be on successful implementation. Girls and boys should feel that their potential is realised in our schools and universities. Sadly, our system continues to be characterised by gender inequality. Too few girls succeed in non-traditional disciplines and the reports of sexual abuse and physical violence directed at girls and women teachers are features of our schools that need urgent action on our part. Female leadership in education is also sorely lacking and must be addressed.
In conclusion, I have outlined the priorities that will form the basis of our work in this financial year. I believe Parliament has an important role to play in monitoring the quality of education. I hope to develop the practice of requesting committees to investigate education matters from time to time in order to strengthen the link between policy and implementation.
I would like to thank the Portfolio Committee for Education, provincial MECs for education, and teachers for their hard work in ensuring that South Africa becomes a learning nation. Without all your efforts there would be no meaningful educational transformation in this country.
I would like to record my gratitude and appreciation to Deputy Minister Surty, my colleague now and in the past, and to the Director-General, Mr Thami Mseleku, and all his staff who have worked so imaginatively in managing the work of the Ministry and Department of Education.
I would, finally, like to thank the various people who assisted with today's budget vote events.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
18 June 2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Education Dept Budget Vote 2004/2005
SPEECH BY NALEDI PANDOR, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, INTRODUCING THE DEBATE ON THE EDUCATION BUDGET, VOTE 15, National Assembly, 18 June 2004
Madam Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the National Assembly
Pupils from Table View High and Inkwenkwezi High School
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to begin this tenth-year budget speech by acknowledging the tremendous contribution made to education transformation by my predecessors, Professors Bengu and Asmal. They gave life to the early process of change and have left us, the next generation, with the important opportunity and task of converting policy and vision into practical education reality.
Allow me also to dedicate this, my first budget speech, to my grandfather Professor ZK Matthews, the first African in South Africa to obtain a BA degree from a South African institution, my grandmother, Frieda Matthews, the first African woman to obtain a JC pass in South Africa, my father Joe Matthews and my late mother, Fikile Matthews. I must also mention my other Gran, Pauline Phillips, stand in mother for my children while I pursued a professional career and education politics.
I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to our President for giving me the honour of serving my country in the role of minister.
I have been inundated with good wishes and support from many quarters since my appointment. Included in the postbag have been wise words of policy advice and warnings of dire consequences if I pursue certain policy paths. To all who have written and called I say thanks.
The advice I have received - no more education policies and pay attention to the quality of education - are best captured in Professor Jansen's "open letter", published in City Press, 25 April 2004, a copy of which one of his strong supporters sent to me. I hope to make it a habit to listen to our people and our stakeholders; but I am fully aware that in the final analysis I must take a decision and it will not always be liked by everyone. The test for me will be my ability to clearly set out cogent logic related to the educational wisdom of the decisions I take.
Before proceeding to the substance of my budget speech, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a strong and direct appeal to the people of South Africa. I say to you all:
Let us share a passion for quality education for all
Bohle re tshwanetse ho fumana thuto enang le boleng
Rothe ro fanela u vhana mukovhe kha pfunzo ya khwine
Masabelane ngothando oluvuthayo lwemfundo ephucukileyo kwilizwe lonke
In the past few weeks, people have sought to extract wild and great promises from me. I have stressed that my focus will be on stability and consolidation linked very directly to our existing positive policies and to any necessary adjustments that strengthen the framework of education, so that it provides the opportunities for transformation and development set out in various acts and policy instruments. Any enhancement of policy will be accompanied by a careful assessment of implications for implementation and an avoidance of creating more structures for employment that serve no role in achieving our education objectives.
The enterprise we oversee is education. It is life changing if handled properly and destructive if abused by careless experimentation. In an attempt to support ongoing progress the department will focus on several priority areas that we regard as imperative for ongoing advancement in education.
Priority one: improving access and results through quality of service and opportunity
The schooling sector at the general and further education levels is the foundation for learning and skills development. All of us must have been disturbed at the foundation skills test results publicised by the Western Cape Education Department recently. I have not been informed of the content and form of the testing, but I believe all of us should worry if children have not acquired foundation skills after five years of learning. To blame this outcome on curriculum design is diversionary.
Any teacher worth his or her salt should be able to teach children reading and writing after so many years in school. The reasons may lie partially in resources, but it is clear that policy makers and managers of education bear a great responsibility as well. It should not take provincial departments five years to discover that a foundation is not being laid. We need to intervene much earlier and to ensure adequate development opportunities for teachers, so that they have the requisite teaching skills.
We will have to ensure that we conduct regular, supportive reviews that identify gaps in our system. We will also accelerate implementation of the Grade R provision in schools. In addition, departments must ensure that learning support materials are available to schools and that teachers are informed that foundation skills are a necessary requirement for learning at higher levels of schooling.
Education organisations have expressed serious concerns about the impact and implementation of the new curriculum framework. Some of the concerns indicate a resistance to new and accountable approaches to teaching and content. Nevertheless, there appear to be some genuine concerns. It is my intention to spend time with teachers in order to develop a full understanding of educational concerns. Following our initial meetings with stakeholder organisations, we have agreed with our senior officials that we should look at improved training, clear sets of guidelines for assessment and unambiguous communication about the vital importance of ensuring pupils are able to read and write at primary school level.
The budget for further education and training has been increased by R40 million to support the material rewriting and implementation of the further education and training curriculum (Grades 10-12). In order to ensure smooth implementation, the Department will monitor training of teachers and district managers and provide opportunities for practical review and discussion of progress. The Department is keen to ensure that we succeed in making the curriculum work for education.
Ensuring quality in outcomes also means we should intensify our efforts at providing access to early childhood development. The need begins long before Grade R. Provinces have to provide for this aspect in their budgets. It is also an area where we could generate new community partnerships. The process of training and registering providers must continue and we ask Parliament to monitor implementation in this regard.
Quality learning conditions imply the skills acquisition referred to above as well as the quality imperatives President Mbeki outlined in the state of the nation address. We are doing all in our power to meet the commitment made by the President to eliminate mud wall schools and other unsafe school buildings in the course of this financial year. We have put in a substantial bid to Treasury for additional funds over the next three years to eradicate the inherited infrastructure backlogs in education.
At the Council of Education Ministers meeting, held on the 7 and 8 June, we agreed that we would give priority to providing decent schooling facilities for the pupils of our country. All our provincial colleagues agreed to scrutinise already tight budgets to ensure that no child learns under trees by March 31 2005. We will liase with the Public Works Department to co-operate in delivering on this promise. We believe it is absolutely necessary to respond practically to this call by our President.
The Department's role is to assist provinces in the planning and budgeting for infrastructure, as well as to provide technical expertise in the design and construction of schools. A wealth of experience has been gained from building the highly innovative Thuba Makothe schools (2 per province - see the exhibit outside), and this will be shared with provinces.
The Department will also be strengthening its monitoring role to ensure that the targets we collectively set are attained. We must, however, appreciate that it takes more than a year to build a school from planning to final delivery. Therefore, we want to ensure that work has begun on the new buildings during the course of this year.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we are strengthening our efforts toward teacher training and development. We intend finalising a national framework on teacher education by the end of 2004. This framework will provide us with a clear platform for engaging teaching development institutions. We plan to work with colleges and universities in order to develop a common vision of the kind of teacher development programme necessary for the implementation of the revised national curriculum statement. It will also clarify the role of provincial and district officials in the professional development and support of teachers.
Initiatives aimed at attracting more entrants to the profession will be intensified, and support mechanisms for these initiatives will be formulated. We need teachers in several critical areas - maths, science, English, and technical and creative disciplines. We will develop reasonable incentives so that teaching becomes a profession of choice. As part of our on-going efforts, our national student financial aid scheme provides R60 million for teacher training in this financial year.
We will also be looking very closely at the teaching of indigenous languages in our schools. One of the intentions of our language policy is to encourage the use of home languages as media of instruction in the first three years of schooling. This intention is based on the well-established fact that home language, if correctly used, can be a powerful vehicle for developing foundational concepts for future learning. We have to balance the educational imperatives of using indigenous languages as media of instruction in the foundation phase and the political and economic imperatives of developing competence in English. Our approach in this regard is to strengthen the teaching of English as a second language in all levels of schooling. The aim of this approach is to enable pupils to use English as a language of teaching and learning beyond the first three years of schooling.
Priority two: equipping pupils and students with the appropriate skills
We will consolidate the efforts made thus far in improving the teaching of mathematics, science and technology in our schools. Not only shall we continue supporting the 102 Mathematics and Science focus schools, we will also provide the resources necessary for the proper teaching and learning of these subjects in many more schools, at both primary and secondary levels.
Our interventions in mathematics, science and technology education should gradually improve the performance of poor and marginalised pupils in general, and girls in particular. We must ensure that more girls gain access to careers in the sciences, in technology and in engineering. We can only achieve this goal if we provide all pupils with a solid foundation in these critical disciplines at school level. It is important to stress that this focus will not be at the cost of the arts and humanities, because they are important to the full development of all pupils.
Honourable members, I would like to recognise Professor George Ellis, a South African scientist of note. We congratulate him on winning the Templeton Prize, the world's largest annual monetary prize given to an individual. We deeply appreciate the contribution he has made to promote maths and science education.
Priority three: supporting sectors that are critical to our skills development
The Department of Education's focus on pupils in education institutions and the Department of Labour's primary focus on skills development for the employed have jointly contributed to the marginalisation of unemployed young people. We have begun to address this problem through our human resource development strategy. It began to pull the interventions of our two departments together. We are committed to a coordinated campaign to improve the opportunities of the youth who are out of school and unemployed without the opportunities to learn.
This issue is pressing. It remains at the top of the agenda of human resource development over the next decade. Clearly, this demands the proper resourcing of schools, but it also demands an attack upon the legacy of thwarted potential that can only properly be met by further education.
Madam Deputy Speaker, our efforts have moved us closer to the vision of creating a vibrant, responsive and flexible further education and training college sector. There has been a steady increase in the number of students at the 50 new colleges and new programmes are slowly emerging. The college themselves are under new management and governing structures. An incentive scheme in the form of ministerial awards has been introduced to drive the sector towards its objectives.
The colleges have submitted their strategic plans. We have asked provinces to provide funding to these colleges in a manner that allows them to prepare for the implementation of their skills development programmes. We will be approaching national treasury to seek funding for this sector, particularly for the recapitalisation of institutions. We also intend to continue our discussion with the Ministry of Labour on our agreed perspective that SETAs and our colleges can and should work more closely together. We plan to formulate a legislative framework that will clear up ambiguities identified in the national qualification framework review report and lay the basis for a more effective further education and training programme and for coherent quality assurance in education. Any ambiguities in our interpretation of further education and training schools and further education and training colleges must also be resolved so that each set of institutions has a clearly defined role and place in our system.
The regulation of the private providers of further education and training has remained a major concern. Over the next few months we will finalise the preparations for the registration of private providers. The contribution of the South African Qualifications Authority and Umalusi will be critical in these efforts.
Priority four: improved funding for education
Achieving our objectives requires the injection of adequate funding to the education sector. Over the past few years there has been a gradual erosion of the education budget as a percentage of total government expenditure and as a percentage of GDP. This erosion of spending on education is also evident at provincial level where education budgets have not matched the nationally agreed imperatives.
Investment in further education is one of the most cost-effective ways of overcoming the cumulative effects of our legacy of racial indifference to learning for black people. It is the best way to remedy past neglect. There has to be a redistribution of resources in favour of further education if learning is really to be the engine of economic and social growth. This will involve taking some tough decisions affecting the funding for full-time higher education. We have to move towards equity of funding for those whom further education provides a last chance but first choice to learn. We are committed to investing in education and further education has to move up the agenda in making a claim on those funds.
Provinces need to improve their funding of education. Where there is under-spending of funds, Parliament and the Council of Education Ministers will conduct reviews. It is unacceptable for provinces to fail to spend their full allocation of funds for education.
Priority five: supporting and enhancing higher education
The higher education transformation and merger process stands as one of our central priorities. On 1 January 2004 four mergers took place-giving rise to the following new institutions - the University of KwaZulu-Natal, North West University, Tshwane University of Technology and UNISA. We will continue monitoring and supporting them in the merger process. Three merged institutions have submitted their operating plans and we are currently studying these for implementation purposes.
Recently the representatives of leaders in higher education made a submission to the portfolio committee of education in parliament. The bulk of the submission concerned the subsidy formula. This was a disappointing submission, as it failed to give us any sense of a sector poised and ready to make a fundamental contribution to our development priorities. We will study the remarks concerning the formula and respond. However, it is important to remind colleagues that our challenges demand much more from the higher education sector. We will continue to play our part by intensifying our efforts at securing improved funding and by stimulating a movement toward critical strategic priorities.
In terms of the new funding formula for higher education, funds have been earmarked for academic development initiatives designed to improve the success rates of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the current financial year R 85 million has been allocated for this purpose. The higher education community has particularly welcomed this allocation.
One of the areas in which we hope we will hear from the higher education sector is in the worrying decline in the emergence of young and aspiring academics. Higher education institutions should advise us on strategies to be pursued in identifying and retaining young scholars. We have stimulated the process of addressing structural inefficiencies and systemic limitations. The sector must now articulate its perspective on enhanced knowledge production, innovation and responsiveness.
The decline of historically black institutions is a worrying feature of our higher education landscape. Several have made important strides particularly the University of the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare. The majority, however, tend to show a worrying inability to rise above petty problems and a tragic failure to respond adequately to strategic priorities. We cannot allow them to decline into further obscurity. We will redouble our efforts at supporting those that demonstrate readiness to make a real effort at change. I firmly believe if we fail to build areas of excellence in previously marginalised institutions we will have failed to address the historic opportunities freedom has handed to us. Let me stress however that our support will not be charity; it will be rigorous, strategic, and demanding.
The availability of student financial aid continues to be a matter of concern. In 1994 government invested R10, 3 million in student financial aid through the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, the forerunner to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. And this year, 2004, just under R 1 billion has been invested in the national aid scheme. This amount includes an allocation from Treasury as well as money from repaid student loans. It is a phenomenal increase, and a strong commitment. So far the scheme has awarded R4 billion in loans to 360,000 students.
Even so, the scheme appears unable to accommodate the growing numbers of students from poor communities. The Department is particularly concerned to improve the scheme as a mechanism for addressing access and equity. This is important as the scheme has a critical role to play as part of the government's broader strategy to alleviate poverty.
Last year the scheme received an added boost when the Department of Labour contributed an additional R100 million to the scheme through the National Skills Fund. We are currently in negotiations for a similar sum for this year. Similar contributions by other government department would assist in maximising the impact of public funds that are invested in the scheme. Currently, the myriad parallel programmes funding students in higher education institution are not coordinated. Such uncoordinated approaches in public resource allocation could lead to duplication and a complete disjuncture between government priorities in human resource development and resource allocation. The step taken by the Department of Labour in pulling together available resources provides a good example of collaboration that government departments should be encouraged to emulate.
We are in the process of finalising an internal review of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. The findings of the review will be available later this year. While we are confident that the review of the scheme will provide the basis for improving its efficiency and effectiveness, we are under no illusion that it can fully address the magnitude of the challenge we face in this critical area. Lasting solutions are required that do not plunge higher education institutions into periodic crises. Such solutions will only be found if there is a commitment on the part of all key stakeholders, especially university managements, student leadership and the private sector to work in partnership with the government.
In the coming year, we will initiate discussions with leadership in the private sector in relation to their investment in student funding. We will also engage with vice-chancellors on the vexing issue of tuition fee increases, and how these can be managed in ways that do not put higher education out of the reach of the majority of people in this country. While the Department remains committed to ensuring adequate levels of funding for higher education, it is necessary to guard against rapid enrolment growth without matching additional resources.
Priority six: education for all
Madam Deputy Speaker, one of the major challenges we face is making progress with adult literacy and adult education. In absolute terms, the number of adults with no education at all has decreased from 4.2 million in 1996 (Census 1996 data) to 1.8 million in 2001 (Labour Force Survey data), which is an indication that there has been tremendous progress with adult literacy programmes. The establishment of the National South African Literacy Initiative (SANLI) has encouraged a mobilisation of a number of agencies and volunteers to work with government in the fight against illiteracy.
However, it must be noted that progress in creating a better life for all uneducated adults is slow. There are still a too many adults who have only primary school education. This creates a participation barrier in social and economic development as well as in the democratic process of governance in this country. In addition, programmes offered in literacy classes do not adequately address the needs of adult learners, to whom the most important reason for enrolling is to earn an income.
Adult literacy is therefore one area that needs further action over the next five years and the possibility of using further education and training colleges for a massive roll-out of adult education and training programmes is being explored.
Priority seven: partnerships in government and beyond
The Department takes very seriously the President's injunction to expand the reach of adult basic education and training and to align it with the training objectives of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). We will be liasing with colleagues in Public Works. Moreover, we cannot work in isolation from other social players in the field of adult education. We will work closely and in partnership with various community and non-governmental organisations. We will also look at ways of making it easy for community-based and non-governmental organisations to operate in this area. We will strengthen our collaboration with other government departments and the sector education and training authorities to consolidate government intervention in adult education and training.
Our infrastructure plans, especially the provision of clean water and sanitation, require close co-operation with Water Affairs. We have concluded the development of materials for the environmental education learning area and we trust that the Ministry of Environmental Affairs will assist us in implementing the programme and a range of other initiatives.
Outside government we intend to pursue partnerships that will support our education and development objectives. The private sector has funded a range of education initiatives. I hope to continue and strengthen these links. Our role in African partnerships will also be pursued. Higher education is an important area of co-operation and we may proceed to create new initiatives at the school and college levels.
Priority eight: making the system work
Madam Deputy Speaker, our last priority requires that we address the thorny issue of school fees. Financial exclusion of poor pupils is one of the biggest challenges we face in the Department. Existing legislation protects poor pupils from exclusion by allowing for school fee exemption, by allocating a seven-times higher per capita to the poorest pupils than the least poor, and by ensuring that teaching resources are distributed equitably among schools.
However, the recently published report on the costs of education suggests that hidden costs of textbooks, school lunches and school uniforms are still presenting a relatively "expensive" education for the poor. The Department is committed to abolishing school fees for the poorest of our society. We are aware that this is a growing demand from a number of unions and other civil society organisations and Honourable Members were recently made aware of these demands at the public hearing the portfolio committee on education held into the budget vote.
Provinces are currently looking closely at their budgets and priorities in order to determine who could be exempted from fees. Where pupils are exempted from fees, the schools will be guaranteed a basic minimum funding package that will be sufficient to secure a quality education without the need to collect fees. We should never expect parents or care-givers to use social grants to pay for a basic education.
We are very conscious of the danger of creating a two-tier schools system - one fee paying and the other not. We will avoid this by ensuring that schools that do not charge fees are enabled in other ways to become centres of educational quality.
If we are to succeed in making the system work we will have to strengthen our ability to monitor, evaluate and report. Our quality improvement and support branch is going to be vital in assisting review. We are also looking forward to the positive benefits that will come from whole school evaluation. We agreed at the last meeting of the Council of Education Ministers that monitoring should be strengthened so that we are constantly alert to progress on our targets.
Our focus must be on successful implementation. Girls and boys should feel that their potential is realised in our schools and universities. Sadly, our system continues to be characterised by gender inequality. Too few girls succeed in non-traditional disciplines and the reports of sexual abuse and physical violence directed at girls and women teachers are features of our schools that need urgent action on our part. Female leadership in education is also sorely lacking and must be addressed.
In conclusion, I have outlined the priorities that will form the basis of our work in this financial year. I believe Parliament has an important role to play in monitoring the quality of education. I hope to develop the practice of requesting committees to investigate education matters from time to time in order to strengthen the link between policy and implementation.
I would like to thank the Portfolio Committee for Education, provincial MECs for education, and teachers for their hard work in ensuring that South Africa becomes a learning nation. Without all your efforts there would be no meaningful educational transformation in this country.
I would like to record my gratitude and appreciation to Deputy Minister Surty, my colleague now and in the past, and to the Director-General, Mr Thami Mseleku, and all his staff who have worked so imaginatively in managing the work of the Ministry and Department of Education.
I would, finally, like to thank the various people who assisted with today's budget vote events.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
18 June 2004
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