Date: 28/05/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Parliamentary Media Briefing, May 2004
PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING, BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, Good Hope Chambers, Cape Town, 28 May 2004
The President underlined the importance of "opening the doors of learning and culture" to our people in his state of the nation speech on the 21 May 2004. The education sector has been acting on this mandate for some time. With respect to the specific targets outlined by the president, we intend to implement in the following ways, while strengthening and consolidating areas in which we have already made considerable progress.
1. "We will work to ensure adequate funding of the technical colleges and proper alignment of the courses they offer with the requirements of the economy."
The mandate of the technical colleges, or further education and training colleges, as they are now called, is to provide intermediate skills for young people and adults so as to enable them to participate actively in the economy. Recent statistics indicate that up to 60% of the unemployed are youth between the ages of 19 and 35. The majority of youths in this category are unemployed, which means that if they do not receive training to skill them for the challenges of the globalising economy they will remain trapped in the second economy.
Colleges therefore need to be funded and developed in a manner that will allow them to provide both skills upgrade programmes as well as leading edge programmes that answer to the challenge of supplying the critical scarce skills needs of South Africa. We have an excellent framework for action in the Further Education and Training Act and it is now time to put these frameworks to action. Several clusters of colleges have provided their institutional plans; the ministry and the department must ensure implementation. Our responses will address the education and training needs of both the employed and the unemployed.
We believe that much success can be achieved through partnerships with the business community, which has already invested heavily in restructuring existing colleges. We are currently in discussion with the business community, through the Business Trust, to decide on the next phase of our partnership. We will also encourage colleges themselves to identify local businesses that could become partners. Ongoing discussions between ourselves and the Ministry of Labour will also result in positive benefits for our HRD programmes.
2. "We will consolidate the merger process of institutions of higher learning ensuring that they do, in reality, become single institutions with a unified institutional culture"
The Department of Education has an obligation to play an effective role in supporting the ongoing merger process. Much of the emphasis thus far, has been on issues of governance, management and institutional planning. We need to intensify our work to ensure that the transformative aspirations of the mergers are realised. We will strengthen our monitoring and evaluation processes and determine strategies for improved support.
The merging of institutions has laid the framework for the development of more inclusive institutional cultures. However, a lot more needs to be done. This will require an unwavering commitment on the part of the new institutional management and governing structures to ensure that the challenges we face in the development of a new integrated culture of shared values and loyalties, attitudes and conditions of work are addressed. It will also require the Department to identify initiatives that will support institutions in this regard.
The Department will also be monitoring and tracking the transformation of institutional cultures in all higher education institutions including the ones unaffected by mergers. In this regard, it should be noted that this process has already begun. In 2003 we required from those institutions, which are not directly affected by mergers or where restructuring is limited to the incorporation of satellite campuses, the submission of three-year rolling plans for the period 2004-2006 clearly outlining the strategies they have put in place to develop more inclusive institutional cultures.
The stated objectives and targets in relation to this priority will form the basis of future allocation of subsidies to institutions.
3. "By the end of this financial year we shall ensure that there is no learner and student learning under a tree, mud-school or any dangerous conditions that expose learners and teachers to the elements."
In 2003 there were 494 cases of schools without any classrooms, which is defined as a school under trees. By this year, the number has decreased to 152, of which 144 are in Limpopo Province.
Although this is a declining phenomenon, it is important to note that rural to urban migration patterns put the education system under pressure.
For example, a sudden influx of people occurs in an area, and a demand for a school for their children is created. This has required the use of innovative responses such as mobile classrooms, which are extensively used in some urban provinces.
The Department is now broadening the scope of the programme by also targeting those schools that have unacceptable facilities. Our records (based on data provided by provinces) show that there are 1,781 schools in such conditions (KZN has not provide the necessary information). This equates to some 12,123 classrooms that are required to accommodate the 400,000 pupils at these schools.
Against this need, current budgets and plans only provide for 95 new schools to be built this financial year. To eradicate the problem would cost in excess of R50 billion, and we have to accept a systematic and planned rollout of the programme over at least the three years of the current MTEF cycle.
4. "By the end of the current financial year we expect all schools to have access to clean water and sanitation"
Clean water and sanitation will be attended to as a matter of urgency and will feature prominently in the plans we will develop in partnership with the provinces. I am told that R200 million is required to eliminate the problems of sanitation in schools altogether. I am also told that we are awaiting a response from one of the major donors in this regard. I will also be approaching my colleague the Minister of Water Affairs to see what we can do together. An inter-departmental task team between Education and Water Affairs is already working on the matter.
5. "The Department of Education will expand the reach of the Adult Basic Education and Training programme, ABET, aligning it with the training objectives of the EPWP."
The Department will increase the number of learners enrolled in current ABET programmes by 29,000 in the current financial year. This we will do in partnership with various community and non-governmental organisations working in the field of ABET. We are very pleased with the progress adults are making in obtaining ABET level 4, with 26,067 students writing last year.
The Minister of Labour and I are meeting to discuss co-operation in integrating education and training. The provision of adult basic education and training is one of the areas for such cooperation. We will require our departments to provide us with a full audit of government funded adult education provision, including the current level of investment in this sector within a month, so that we can decide whether current investment is optimal or needs redirection.
Also, in line with the President's injunction, we will urgently and continuously assess the basic learning needs of adults and youths participating in the Expanded Public Works Programme. This will allow us to integrate education and training into the productive activities of the EPWP, thus ensuring the development of much needed skills for use beyond the life of the EPWP.
6. "We will continue to implement other social security initiatives such as the school nutrition programme and the provision of free basic services"
The Department will ensure that the National Schools Nutrition programme reaches 5 million learners in approximately 15,000 schools in rural and farm communities, as well as in informal settlements.
We will continue to work with these communities to ensure the establishment of sustainable food security initiatives to strengthen our efforts towards the creation of increased job opportunities and a culture of self-reliance.
In conclusion
On Monday, 7 June 2004 I will be meeting all nine provincial Members of the Executive responsible for education, where I anticipate that all provincial MECs will indicate their urgent plan to tackle the challenges that we are facing in the medium-term. This may require a re-prioritisation of budgets (not just capital works budgets), and the provinces will have to indicate how they will meet the commitment of government within a reasonable period.
Beyond these areas and programmes, the important imperatives of ensuring quality in education provision and outcomes will continue to be worked on, and issues relevant to learner and student financial needs will also be attended to.
Enquiries: Molatwane Likhethe
Cell: 082 573 0397
Issued by: Ministry of Education
28 May 2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Parliamentary Media Briefing, May 2004
PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING, BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, Good Hope Chambers, Cape Town, 28 May 2004
The President underlined the importance of "opening the doors of learning and culture" to our people in his state of the nation speech on the 21 May 2004. The education sector has been acting on this mandate for some time. With respect to the specific targets outlined by the president, we intend to implement in the following ways, while strengthening and consolidating areas in which we have already made considerable progress.
1. "We will work to ensure adequate funding of the technical colleges and proper alignment of the courses they offer with the requirements of the economy."
The mandate of the technical colleges, or further education and training colleges, as they are now called, is to provide intermediate skills for young people and adults so as to enable them to participate actively in the economy. Recent statistics indicate that up to 60% of the unemployed are youth between the ages of 19 and 35. The majority of youths in this category are unemployed, which means that if they do not receive training to skill them for the challenges of the globalising economy they will remain trapped in the second economy.
Colleges therefore need to be funded and developed in a manner that will allow them to provide both skills upgrade programmes as well as leading edge programmes that answer to the challenge of supplying the critical scarce skills needs of South Africa. We have an excellent framework for action in the Further Education and Training Act and it is now time to put these frameworks to action. Several clusters of colleges have provided their institutional plans; the ministry and the department must ensure implementation. Our responses will address the education and training needs of both the employed and the unemployed.
We believe that much success can be achieved through partnerships with the business community, which has already invested heavily in restructuring existing colleges. We are currently in discussion with the business community, through the Business Trust, to decide on the next phase of our partnership. We will also encourage colleges themselves to identify local businesses that could become partners. Ongoing discussions between ourselves and the Ministry of Labour will also result in positive benefits for our HRD programmes.
2. "We will consolidate the merger process of institutions of higher learning ensuring that they do, in reality, become single institutions with a unified institutional culture"
The Department of Education has an obligation to play an effective role in supporting the ongoing merger process. Much of the emphasis thus far, has been on issues of governance, management and institutional planning. We need to intensify our work to ensure that the transformative aspirations of the mergers are realised. We will strengthen our monitoring and evaluation processes and determine strategies for improved support.
The merging of institutions has laid the framework for the development of more inclusive institutional cultures. However, a lot more needs to be done. This will require an unwavering commitment on the part of the new institutional management and governing structures to ensure that the challenges we face in the development of a new integrated culture of shared values and loyalties, attitudes and conditions of work are addressed. It will also require the Department to identify initiatives that will support institutions in this regard.
The Department will also be monitoring and tracking the transformation of institutional cultures in all higher education institutions including the ones unaffected by mergers. In this regard, it should be noted that this process has already begun. In 2003 we required from those institutions, which are not directly affected by mergers or where restructuring is limited to the incorporation of satellite campuses, the submission of three-year rolling plans for the period 2004-2006 clearly outlining the strategies they have put in place to develop more inclusive institutional cultures.
The stated objectives and targets in relation to this priority will form the basis of future allocation of subsidies to institutions.
3. "By the end of this financial year we shall ensure that there is no learner and student learning under a tree, mud-school or any dangerous conditions that expose learners and teachers to the elements."
In 2003 there were 494 cases of schools without any classrooms, which is defined as a school under trees. By this year, the number has decreased to 152, of which 144 are in Limpopo Province.
Although this is a declining phenomenon, it is important to note that rural to urban migration patterns put the education system under pressure.
For example, a sudden influx of people occurs in an area, and a demand for a school for their children is created. This has required the use of innovative responses such as mobile classrooms, which are extensively used in some urban provinces.
The Department is now broadening the scope of the programme by also targeting those schools that have unacceptable facilities. Our records (based on data provided by provinces) show that there are 1,781 schools in such conditions (KZN has not provide the necessary information). This equates to some 12,123 classrooms that are required to accommodate the 400,000 pupils at these schools.
Against this need, current budgets and plans only provide for 95 new schools to be built this financial year. To eradicate the problem would cost in excess of R50 billion, and we have to accept a systematic and planned rollout of the programme over at least the three years of the current MTEF cycle.
4. "By the end of the current financial year we expect all schools to have access to clean water and sanitation"
Clean water and sanitation will be attended to as a matter of urgency and will feature prominently in the plans we will develop in partnership with the provinces. I am told that R200 million is required to eliminate the problems of sanitation in schools altogether. I am also told that we are awaiting a response from one of the major donors in this regard. I will also be approaching my colleague the Minister of Water Affairs to see what we can do together. An inter-departmental task team between Education and Water Affairs is already working on the matter.
5. "The Department of Education will expand the reach of the Adult Basic Education and Training programme, ABET, aligning it with the training objectives of the EPWP."
The Department will increase the number of learners enrolled in current ABET programmes by 29,000 in the current financial year. This we will do in partnership with various community and non-governmental organisations working in the field of ABET. We are very pleased with the progress adults are making in obtaining ABET level 4, with 26,067 students writing last year.
The Minister of Labour and I are meeting to discuss co-operation in integrating education and training. The provision of adult basic education and training is one of the areas for such cooperation. We will require our departments to provide us with a full audit of government funded adult education provision, including the current level of investment in this sector within a month, so that we can decide whether current investment is optimal or needs redirection.
Also, in line with the President's injunction, we will urgently and continuously assess the basic learning needs of adults and youths participating in the Expanded Public Works Programme. This will allow us to integrate education and training into the productive activities of the EPWP, thus ensuring the development of much needed skills for use beyond the life of the EPWP.
6. "We will continue to implement other social security initiatives such as the school nutrition programme and the provision of free basic services"
The Department will ensure that the National Schools Nutrition programme reaches 5 million learners in approximately 15,000 schools in rural and farm communities, as well as in informal settlements.
We will continue to work with these communities to ensure the establishment of sustainable food security initiatives to strengthen our efforts towards the creation of increased job opportunities and a culture of self-reliance.
In conclusion
On Monday, 7 June 2004 I will be meeting all nine provincial Members of the Executive responsible for education, where I anticipate that all provincial MECs will indicate their urgent plan to tackle the challenges that we are facing in the medium-term. This may require a re-prioritisation of budgets (not just capital works budgets), and the provinces will have to indicate how they will meet the commitment of government within a reasonable period.
Beyond these areas and programmes, the important imperatives of ensuring quality in education provision and outcomes will continue to be worked on, and issues relevant to learner and student financial needs will also be attended to.
Enquiries: Molatwane Likhethe
Cell: 082 573 0397
Issued by: Ministry of Education
28 May 2004
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