Date: 24 June 2008
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: SA: Angie Motshekga: Budget Vote Speech

A Quality Thrust for sustained learner attainment

Madam Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Invited guests from the education community, including the representatives from Teacher Unions and Governing Body Associations
Comrades and Friends

Introduction

May I say, first of all, what a pleasure it is to be here today and to be able to congratulate all those involved with education for everything that we have achieved thus far, and to be here with people from all the different parts of the world of education: from learners, to educators, to principals, to parents - everybody interested in the future of education.

And so I believe that it is nowhere more appropriate for me to talk about what this government is trying to do, and will try to do in future, to unlock the potential of every child and young person and help every young person in this country to make the most of their talents for the future.

As I have said in my first budget vote speech as the MEC for Education, education is my passion. South Africa is full of talented people. I believe each young person has talent and potential, each has some gift to develop, each something to give to the good of the community. And the South Africa I want to strive for is a South Africa with no barrier on ambition, no ceiling on hope, no limit to where your potential will take you, how far you can rise, a South Africa where the talents of each of us can contribute to the well-being and prosperity of all.

And this idea of excellence in education is not just a noble ideal, respecting the search for knowledge, the pursuit of wisdom and the fulfilment of human potential, it is also, I think, as everybody knows, an economic imperative too.

In the past those countries who had the raw materials, the coal or the oil or the basic commodities, or the infrastructure, the ports and the communications, were the ones that had probably the most competitive advantage. Today what matters is who has the skills, the ideas, the insights, and the creativity. And the countries that I believe will succeed in the future are those that will do more than just unlock some of the talents of some of their young people, the countries that will succeed will be those that strive to unlock all the talents of all of their people.

Now in the last 14 years we have moved from an education system which was below average and segregated in its performance to above average and integrated, but we now have to do much more than that. Our ambition must be nothing less than to be world class in education and to move to the top of the global education league. And it is time to say not just that we will aim high but that we can no longer tolerate failure, that it will no longer be acceptable for any child to fall behind, no longer acceptable for any school to fail its pupils, no longer acceptable for young people to drop out of education without good qualifications without us acting.

Size and shape of the pre-tertiary education sector in Gauteng

We currently have a total of 2 452 public and independent ordinary schools, 114 special education schools, nine further education and training (FET) colleges, 76 adult basic education and training (ABET) centres and 960 public and community based Grade R sites in the province.

We service a total of 1 894 027 learners, of which 1 716 196 are in public ordinary schools, 177 831 are in independent schools, 35 879 learners are in special schools, 45 601 learners are in further education and training colleges, 71 131 learners attend adult basic education and training centres and 54 979 learners are in grade R.

There are currently 51 307 educators in the province, with 2 861 rendering services at special schools, 3 229 at the technical Further education and training colleges, and 2 676 at adult basic education centres.

Achievements

I would like to reflect on the gains we have made since 2004. We set five major targets for education, namely:
* increasing access to early childhood development,
* increasing the quality of learning in all schools,
* increasing the access to and quality of relevant adult basic education and training including functional literacy, and
* increasing the relevance and quality of learning in FET colleges, and
* ensuring alignment to the provincial human resource (HR) strategy and local economic development plans.

We made a clear undertaking that we will effectively realise the targets of universal access to early childhood development services and access to grade R.

I am pleased to announce that we have made significant progress in realising an integrated childhood development programme. We have put into place a pro-poor package targeting children and youth at risk and have introduced the Bana Pele programme towards which education provides access to free schooling for over 890 000 learners and support learners who are prevented from access to schools where fees are a barrier to access. In addition, we are bussing over 40 000 learners to schools in areas where there is no or insufficient learning spaces. In primary schools we are providing a basic nutritional meal for all learners in schools that are in quintiles one to three.

We have also established an Early Childhood Development (ECD) Institute, soon to be launched, within the Education Department, to ensure that a co-ordinated strategy is delivered for pre-grade R ECD. The institute will support the Gauteng Provincial Government to regularise the provision of ECD across the province and local governments.

The education department has already reached over 45 000 children through our grade R programme in over 1 200 public and community-based sites.

I think you would agree that over four years, we have made a significant leap in the provision of early childhood development.

The second target we set was to improve the quality of public schooling. As I have already reported earlier, we had put into place pro-poor measures to deal with public schooling. In this regard, I need to report that we have increased the expenditure in respect of all other educational inputs to improve the resourcing base in support of teaching and learning. Over the last four years, we have effectively increased the number of teachers employed and reduced the learner-educator ratio. While we have made a dent in lowering the classroom ratio, we will continue to work in reducing the learner-classroom ratio. Through subsidies we have increased investment directly to schools to well over one billion rand a year. We have spent over one billion rand over the last four years on additional learner-teacher support materials in support of the National Curriculum Statements. We have also spent a lot of money in expanding access to schools. During the last four years we have delivered over 30 schools, 20 in the last financial years alone.

While we have seen increases in learner performance over the last few years, the quality of learning has remained the single largest challenge facing a post-apartheid South Africa. We have made strides to improve the quality of learning through provincial and national intervention strategies. Last year we have successfully launched a provincial foundation phase literacy improvement strategy together with READ and the Joint Education Trust. In addition, we are supporting the foundation phase through the nationally driven QIDS_UP programme. We have begun a process of testing grade four and grade seven learners across the province to determine the level of achievement of grade three and grade six outcomes respectively. In total over 300 000 learners have been tested. We are also participating in an international benchmarking exercise through School International Assessment Test. The objective of these tests is to benchmark the learner performance of Gauteng learners with their international grade equivalents. Over 50 000 learners in grade three to grade eleven have participated in this longitudinal project since 2006 and will end in 2008. This kind of testing will allow us to understand the quality of learning in all schools and through all grades to enhance learning improvement targeting in all schools.

In support of the FET band we have put into place a number of programmes to improve the quality of learning and learner performance. Provincially we have been driving an English second language programme to improve learner performance at grade twelve. Poor performance in English second language has been a major factor in the poor performance of learners from schools in township areas. Over the last four years, we have been increasing the access to maths, science and technology in the FET band. We have made tremendous gains in improving performance in the quality of passes in maths and science in the senior certificate examinations. In support of the provincial programme, is the National Dinaledi schools project. We also want to thank the Thuthuka Project in support of our quality improvement programmes in secondary schools especially in the economic and management sciences. We have also spent over R72 million over the last four years on supplementary programmes in support of learners in grade twelve through the Secondary School Intervention Programme (SSIP) interventions.

Over a thousand talented children from disadvantaged schools in Gauteng have been given an opportunity of a lifetime for job training through the Ikusasa Lami Rural School Initiative.

This programme is in support of the skills talent pipeline identified in the provincial Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy.

Over the last four years, we have spent over R600 million in support of the recapitalisation of FET colleges. We are in the last year of the conditional grant and we are succeeding in aligning FET curriculum programmes in support of the provincial and national skills development thrust. We have increased access to technical and vocational programmes in FET colleges. We have increased enrolments in FET colleges to over 46 369 learners over the last four years. We have successfully transformed the governance of the colleges and have brought it into line with the new FET Act. We have successfully transferred the employees of colleges to the colleges in line with the FET act. In terms of the act the colleges will be employers. Currently, the department provides an agency service to manage the condition of service of all college employees. We have also introduced targeted programme-based funding mechanisms. We have increased the resourcing to colleges for subsidies by over 100 percent over the last four years.

In dealing with the basic education and training of adults, we have over the last four years, introduced a number of strategies to improve the targeting and quality of learning. We have already completed the review of status and conditions of employment of ABET educators. We are now employing practitioners on part employment basis instead of the claims-based approach. We have increased our efforts of ensuring that all youth completing the Report 550 curriculum at ABET centres do complete by 2011.

Finally, we committed to ensure that we build partnerships with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the private sector and government to improve the supply of skills both in support of improving the capacity of the state and ensuring that we can match supply and demand in the labour market in Gauteng. In this regard we have successfully formulated a HRD strategy for the province that we are successfully implementing. We have signed an agreement with HEIs and other private currently providers to support the strategy. We have launched an HRD agency for Gauteng and have introduced the Ithutele Tiro project with over R99 million worth of funding from the Department of Labour. In addition, we are gearing the skills development pipeline project through the Education Department with a view to matching private sector involvement in supporting talented learners in the FET Band in schools and colleges. With the introduction of the global city region (GCR) strategy, the Gauteng HRD Agency, the Gauteng Management Development Programme, Mathew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance and Learning and Development Unit of the GSSC will be merged into the newly launched GCR Academy in support of the GCR and the GHRD strategies.

One of the key levers of delivery will be partnerships with business. The president has initiated an IT skills development initiative with leading companies. Gauteng has become one of the first beneficiaries of this initiative. In a co-funded projected between the Gauteng Provincial Government and private sector partners, we have put together a programme to help address the needs of the current school computer laboratory requirements as well as that of the educator. The programme focuses on developing grade 12 learners and those who have completed some form of computer related study which maybe incomplete through a series of certification courses. The programme was designed with a basic foundation followed by some elective courses. The programme is also enhanced with an internationally benchmarked Business Professional Certification to prepare learners for the world of work.

A number of key challenges remain at a macro level. To start of with, we need to ask what exactly it is we are trying to achieve? In many ways, the answer is quite simple: we wish to establish an education system to which all our people have equitable access, and where the quality of education is such that it will enable our learners to participate as whole citizens in the socio-economic and political processes of our society. In other words, an education system that will produce our country's required human capital needs.

There is little disagreement about what we need to introduce into our school education system if we are to achieve the goals outlined above. The first is that we need good, well functioning schools. The second is that we need a corps of excellent, well-paid and motivated teachers. Thirdly, we need a well-integrated curriculum and administrative support system that will provide leadership and guidance, as well as to exact the necessary accountability from all our active human resources. While there are many other interventions that we could introduce, these are perhaps the most critical.

We tend to see the school system as a homogenous whole, with the result that our interventions resemble a shotgun approach - some of the pellets are bound to hit the target. If our school system can be distinguished into three distinct parts (foundation, intermediate and senior), then it is imperative that our priorities should address the deficiencies in the system in the same way, the aim being to impact on the system in a logical and cumulative way. Not only will this introduce focus into our modus operandi, but, more importantly, it allows for natural points of egress at which we can stop to measure the impact of the interventions before continuing into the next phase of the system.

Linked to this, is the second big mistake we make in our eagerness to drive the quality agenda. This relates to the temptation of demanding a continuous stream of inputs (funds) to address our concerns. In this regard, it is argued that public policy cannot affect learner achievement and other outcomes directly, but only indirectly through the amount of resources provided. However, such resources must be adequate to enable schools to achieve the objectives and targets set. People go on to claim that if equity of outcomes is to be realised, the issues of productivity, effectiveness and internal efficiency must also be satisfied or that policies that simply provide more resources within the current incentive structure of schools within most countries are unlikely to produce substantial systematic gains in learner outcomes.

Given the current demand by teacher unions for the reduction in class sizes, one could argue that while we could agree with the essence of the demand in principle, such an initiative cannot and should not proceed until we have ensured that the current teacher corps is fully capable of managing their curriculum and classroom management responsibilities and that they are fully accountable for it.

Finally, but not least, we need to take a look at schools, and to challenge some of the assertions by many teachers and other interest groups that our schools and learners can only perform well if and when they are adequately resourced. Similarly, the argument is advanced that equity of outcomes is only possible with equity of resource inputs. Once again, there is no disagreement with the basic principle of this argument - except that it is unqualified. Rather, the view needs to be advanced that adequate resources are a necessary, but not determinant, condition for excellence in school education.

In this regard, it is argued that a 'good' school is no longer defined as a school with excellent levels of school resources, such as a large number of teachers who are well qualified and fairly well paid, small classes, extensive facilities in good condition, pedagogical materials of all sorts, well-equipped libraries, access to new information technologies and the internet, and sports facilities. Rather, a 'good' school is identified by its outputs and not its inputs.

This is largely true, as we have many examples of excellence in learner achievement in the matric examinations from some of our poorest schools. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the majority of schools in our disadvantaged communities are severely under-resourced in terms of facilities, equipment, learning materials, finances, human resources and capacity, and management and governance. This is also the greatest source of inequality between the disadvantaged and historically white schools, commonly referred to as ex- model Cs. This implies, therefore, that we need to continue to address the inadequacy of inputs at our disadvantaged schools, while driving the quality agenda in a more coherent and strategic fashion.

The critical question, however, is how do we manage this process in a way that balances the cumulative provision of these resource inputs with effective process management and excellence in outcomes. We therefore come full circle to the concerns and criticisms raised in the beginning of this Budget Speech: how do we ensure that our defined priorities are implemented coherently within our strategic framework for quality education, that we achieve the right outputs, and that we regularly measure its impact on the system?

What is to be done?

We need to rationalise the number of existing priorities into a coherent and integrated logical framework, and they should be implemented in strategic, discrete parts of the school system.

Our disadvantaged schools suffer from major historical backlogs, and it is imperative that we continue to provide the necessary funding over the next few decades, to reduce those backlogs. In this regard, we need to continue to address the issues of infrastructure, human resources, equipment and material inadequacy. On a physical level, the schools of the disadvantaged must look presentable so that it may influence the learning and teaching atmosphere there. We may be tempted to argue that excellence in learner achievement is not necessarily linked to the physical school surroundings, but the fact of the matter is that it has a deep psychological impact on learners whose home circumstances may already be dismal. Given that we do not have the necessary bulk funds to address this situation in the short term, we need to find where the most strategic entry point is, and at the same time, ensure that this intervention is part of a package of interventions that are to be directed at the most vulnerable, potentially most profitable, and therefore the most strategic, points of entry.

See the system as discrete parts, each with its own challenges and solutions, that should be approached individually for a defined timeframe; or simultaneously, but with different interventions. Let us also accept that some parts of the system will have to be left as is until its time comes for improvement (with this goes the need for hard trade-offs - accepting that parts of the system will not improve, temporarily, at least).

Start in the foundation phase, and more specifically, with the expansion of grade R. By this is meant accepting that grade R should be an integral part of the formal, primary school system, on the same premises, and under the same management. This implies that the intervention would include the following: building at least two classrooms per primary school, with its attendant playgrounds (and perhaps fenced off from the rest of the school), the provision of the required equipment and materials, dedicated grade R curriculum, and starting off with a combination of fully-qualified grade R teachers and ECD practitioners (who are to be upgraded over a period of about three years). This would imply that, as a department, while we are responsible for the realisation of the Provincial Childhood Development Strategy, we are not solely responsible for the "broad" ECD services, education will focus on grade R while social development, health and local government will focus on the pre-grade R services. The logic of this approach lies in the extent to which we should be able to inculcate basic readiness for school, a head-start in literacy and numeracy, and socially-integrated children through the application of our values in education programmes. Children would proceed logically into the care of the foundation phase teachers and their teaching assistants where their literacy and numeracy skills will be consolidated.

This entire foundation phase will also benefit from simultaneous interventions like teacher development (upgrading of qualifications, content knowledge, teacher incentives), focused support and guidance from district officials, school management and governance initiatives, general infrastructure improvements, increased support staff, etc. Obviously, a whole primary school will benefit from the latter two (infrastructure and support staff), but the programmatic interventions should be limited to the foundation phase, for a period of at least four years - but progressively through the different grades; i.e. one year per grade. It is intended that a culture of sustainability will have been built up during this time, making it possible to withdraw a large percentage of the allocated funds and human resource support. At the end of this period, we move onto the next phase (intermediate).

Monitoring and evaluation must feature strongly throughout the life of the intervention, i.e. while there should be consistent, small-scale annual evaluations a major evaluation of the intervention in the entire phase should be conducted at the end of the defined period.

It should be possible to move progressively through the system until all grades have been dealt with, but political logic dictates that our communities will not tolerate this. Therefore, we should consider tackling the FET sector simultaneously with the grade R intervention. However, in the case of FET, starting in grade eight, there should be a focus on the literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge of our learners and teachers, as probably the most critical intervention. Given that we should have a minimum five-year timeframe here, we may choose to start with the poorest schools first (for such interventions as infrastructure improvement, e.g.), or with categories of learning areas (for teacher development), etc. for each year of the timeframe.

Increasing the quality of learning in all schools - A Quality Thrust

Over the last few years a number of national and international studies have been undertaken to measure the quality of learning and the level of learner attainment. The results have shown that nationally we are performing poorly in comparison to other countries, including neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Mauritius, despite higher or similar expenditure in education.

An identification of some of the factors affecting performance included the non-utilisation of mother tongue language, class size, teacher competence, quality of learning and teaching support materials, and the quality of the learning infrastructure.

To address the quality of learning a number of thrusts have been identified and will be intensified over the next three years.

Firstly, we need to improve resourcing levels as a key quality lever. This does not imply additional funding but making better choices on the quality of educational inputs into the systems. A key consideration to improve learning in poor communities is to urgently address the growing class sizes in schools. Class sizes in most schools have exceeded the policy norms set nationally. This is a result of increased growth of the last five years due to migration. While the annual increase in schools has averaged two percent over the past four years, the budget of the department has not been increased to support the growth.

Secondly, we need to get schools to work. Despite increased resourcing levels and investments in Standards Generating Body (SGB) and School Management Team (SMT) development activities, we have failed to get the schools in poor communities to work effectively. In this regard we would have to focus on reinforcing School Governing Bodies (SGBs), Representative Councils of Learners (RCLs) and School Management Teams (SMTs). A key focus should be on leadership skills and capacity building programmes that develop the key stakeholders from a perspective of managing learning through the effective governance and management of a school.

In getting schools to work, we need to recognise that the district is a key structure in the education delivery system and that there was a need to ensure that the services from districts are effective and directed. We need to define and transform districts as levers of sustainable educational change. This would include the delegations of districts being clearly spelt out, with a clear performance management system and the role of Institutional Development and Support Officials (ISDOs) and curriculum personnel clarified.

Key to the work of the districts is to intervene in poorly performing schools. Poorly performing schools are not achieving the expected levels of performance despite the increased levels of resources and access to intervention programmes. Clear district interventions are required to address systemic problems affecting school problems and deal with school specific barriers to quality performance.

Thirdly, we need to get learning right. This will involve two key strategies.

The first strategy is to implement a province-wide literacy and numeracy programme focusing on the improvement of basic writing, reading and arithmetic. This will include the promotion of the use of the mother-tongue as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) as it is the single largest contributor of poor learner performance throughout the entire school sector. We will also focus on the quality and competence of teachers in the foundation phase and review all textbooks and learning support materials utilised in the foundation phase. We would also like to consider the reduction of class sizes in the foundation phase to ensure increased teacher-learner contact time. Individual attention to learners in this phase is also critical. This, however, would require additional funding for personnel in the next MTEF.

The second strategy will be to address the quality of learning in all the other grades including in languages, maths, science, technology and the economic and management sciences. We have developed a multi-pronged strategy to turn around the quality of learning by focusing on assessment, curriculum support to teachers and curriculum policy compliance.

We will be undertaking a review of the quality improvement intervention programmes focusing on grade 12 and to expand the programme to incorporate grade ten and grade eleven learners at risk. This is with a view to improve the performance of learners in the FET phase of schools with a view to increasing the number of learners who are leaving the schools with a school certificate to be immediately employable or to be able to move into further and higher education.

We will also identify factors at district level that are influencing support programmes to schools and learners. We will review the available resources at districts, the factors inhibiting effective access to schools for onsite support, the skills and competencies of curriculum facilitators and the co-ordination and support from school support personnel.

Fourthly, we have already begun reviewing the teacher development programme and are concluding the identification of the specific training needs for each subject across all schools. This will focus on pre-service training and initial teacher recruitment, in-service training and ongoing professional development of teachers. Key to all of these activities is the reinforcing of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) as the basis of teacher development.

Many school improvement projects focus on more or less the same areas; many attempt to cover a wide range of areas and shy away from making focused interventions. The approach and content choices in this case were informed by principles identified as pertinent to the process of school transformation. Supported by research, six principles have been adopted to serve as the parameters for the design of the interventions.
* Provision of clearly defined operational frameworks in all the areas of intervention
* Improvement of accountability by setting up monitoring practices
* School support
* Teacher re-skilling in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy
* Community involvement
* Resourcing

Each of the principles that I have just mentioned feeds into the core principle of school support to guide the programme of interventions towards the overall objective of improving schooling.

In order to achieve our first goal of improving resourcing levels as a key quality lever, we commit ourselves to ensure that there is adequate infrastructure to meet the demand for learning spaces. We will complete over 24 schools planned for the 2009 academic year and we will ensure optimal utilisation of schools opened in 2008. We will also undertake an exercise of getting the mapping of learner demand to available space right. We will ensure that the current stock of classrooms benefit from the 20 priority townships in respect of refurbishment and ensure alignment with the Department of Housing, the Department of Transport, Roads and Works and the Department of Water Affairs in respect of water and sanitation being delivered to schools where there is a problem with the access to bulk services.

During 2008/09, we will, jointly with the Provincial Treasury, finalise an alternate financing strategy for new school infrastructure and complete a pre-feasibility proposal on a public private partnerships (PPP) to provide new school infrastructure. In doing so, we will also formulate and cost a short-medium-long-term sustainable strategy and plan including the provision of specialist learning facilitates. We will also ensure that all existing specialist facilities are optimally utilised and that schools are incentivised to develop and maintain these specialist areas using the curriculum and minor repairs budgets. We will also work with the Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC) to focus on getting Gauteng-Online (GoL) to be optimally utilised and integrated into the curriculum.

In respect of the provision of educators, we will ensure the optimal utilisation of teachers as per the approved establishment and ensure that there are no vacancies at school level. We have already introduced an additional circular for the filling of new vacancies but will intensify the improvements in the filling of vacancies and recruitment of teachers. During 2008/09, we will undertake a review of the appropriateness of the deployment of educators in respect of expertise, specialisation, qualifications and experience.

In respect of the provision of Learner-Teacher Support Materials (LTSM), we will continue to strive to realise the reduction of the textbook to priority subject or learning areas and grades to learner ratio to at least 1:1:1. We have over the last four years improved on the delivery of LTSM and we have ensured and will continue to ensure the timeous delivery of appropriate materials. During 2008/09 we will also undertake a review of the current stock of materials used in schools to determine the impact of materials on learning and inform the choices we make in the implementation of the QIDS-UP programme to improve the learning infrastructure.

With the increasing cost of transport, we will ensure that the Scholar Transport System is maintained to ensure access to learning for learners in rural and informal settlements. We will work to improve the targeting in collaborating with the Department of Transport, Roads and Works. We will also work with the Department of Community Safety to ensure that safety standards are complied with and that all routes are functional so that no learner arrives at school late.

In resourcing the learning, we continue to welcome the conditional grant for school nutrition. During 2008/09, we will review the two models of delivery prevalent in Gauteng, including the one inherited from North West as a result of the cross boundary changes, and the menus to ensure that we will be able to increase the quality and nutritional value of the meal provided. We will also expand the programme by improving targeting across Quintiles one to three.

Finally, in resourcing our schools we will focus on school safety. We are currently undertaking an audit and review of the state of school safety and security policy and measures and will ensure that security is extended to cover the whole school in high risk areas. We will also ensure that functional school safety committees are in place in all schools. They will also be required to formulate, adopt and implement a school safety and security policy. In this regard, we are engaged in a partnership with the Centre for Peace and Justice and the Department of Community Safety to ensure that the Hlayiseka Project is successfully rolled-out. The project aims to empower schools to undertake an audit and review of school security needs and to formulate appropriate response mechanisms as provided for by law.

To realise our second goal of getting school to work, we will focus on the strengthening of the governance and management of public schools. We have over the last few years reviewed the landscape of schooling in the province especially in respect of accessing curriculum offerings that are scarce. We have formulated a plan for the reorganisation of schools, will complete consultation on the reorganisation of schools proposal and will then begin to implement the new landscape during 2008/09. We will also intensify the training and provision of ongoing support to School Governing Bodies and ensure that we plan for the successful election of governing bodies in 2009. We will also ensure that we revise and further develop programmes relating to leadership for the Representative Councils of Learners and School Management Teams in Schools.

The key focus of the 2008 academic year is to intensify the focus on underperforming schools. We are completing a review of achievements to date in respect of school improvement and development strategies undertaken in the province and we will develop a clear intervention strategy that is district driven and develop an accountability framework for district performance in respect of underperforming schools. We will also develop a uniform reporting framework for schools and ensure monthly reporting of progress as provided for in the Education Laws Amendment Act promulgated last year. We have reviewed the role of school support personnel and have formulated a clear job description and performance targets for Institutional Development and support officers. We will also do the same for curriculum support personnel in districts.

To ensure that no matric learner is left behind we will intensify the support and resourcing of schools where learners take English as a second language and we will ensure that the quality improvement intervention programmes focusing on grade ten to twelve learners at risk will be delivered during the school vacation.

To realise the third goal of getting learning right we will implement two key strategies.

The first is the implementation of the province-wide literacy and numeracy programme focusing on writing, reading and arithmetic. In this regard we will also focus on the promotion of mother tongue instruction. We will expand and ensure an effective delivery of the APPLC project together with our partners, Read and JET. We will also extend the footprint of the department's numeracy challenge and provide increased support to learners by setting school level targets for reading and numeracy. The national department has recently approved an evaluation report by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on pilot literacy projects and although Gauteng was not part of the project, we will be using the recommendations to strengthen our strategies for learner and teacher support and development in this regard. We will also ensure an improvement in performance in and selection of Dinaledi schools. We will also ensure the intensification and expanding of in-school sport, arts and culture.

The second is to ensure access to an appropriate distribution of the GCR-balanced curriculum. We have reviewed the spatial distribution of subject or learning area distribution and we will consolidate the talent development programmes by increasing the number of partnerships in support of centres or academies of excellence. We will intensify our focus on maths, science and technology with a focus on the c-aggregate strategy and to ensure that subject combinations of all learners in grades ten to twelve are checked for certification requirements so as to ensure that more learners can proceed to higher education. We are also reviewing the benchmarking of the c-aggregate strategy to raise the bar of performance in the light of increased inputs and the demands for greater accountability of performance from schools. We will also undertake, during 2008/09, a review of national certificate (Vocational) targets and to ensure that they are monitored in all FET colleges.

To realise our fourth goal, we have already begun reviewing the teacher development programme. It begins with the understanding that from the moment our children step into a classroom, the single most important factor in determining their achievement is not the colour of their skin or where they come from. It's not who their parents are or how much money they have. The most important factor is who their teacher is. It's the person who stays past the last bell and spends her or his own money on books and supplies. It's the men and women who go beyond the call of duty because they believe that's what makes the extra difference. And it does.

And if we know how much teaching matters, then it's time we treat teaching like the profession it is. We don't want to just talk about how great teachers are but we want to also reward them for their greatness. That starts with recruiting a new generation of teachers and principals to replace the generation that's retiring and those who are leaving. Right here in Gauteng, more than 1 000 teachers won't be returning to the schools where they taught last year due retirement. That's why I am reviewing the role of provincial pre-service bursary programme to recruit top talent into the profession and begin by placing these new teachers in overcrowded districts and struggling rural towns, or with hard-to-staff subjects like maths and science in schools all across the province. And I will make this pledge to all those matriculants who sign up: If you commit your life to teaching, Gauteng will commit to paying for your teacher education and training. To prepare our teachers, I will create more space in schools for Internship Programmes to train high quality teachers every year. We know these programmes work, and they especially help attract talented individuals who decide to become teachers midway through their careers. Currently, we are undertaking a programme of providing professional qualifications for unemployed graduates in the fields where there is a dire shortage of teachers and expertise.

To support our teachers, we will establish a mentoring programme that pair experienced, successful teachers with new recruits. This is one of the most effective ways to retain teachers. I want appeal to all retired teachers to volunteer to work in schools and to support new teachers in becoming great teachers and professionals for the benefit of greater society. We'll also make sure that teachers work in conditions which help them and our children succeed. And when our teachers do succeed in making a real difference in our children's lives, I believe it's time we reward them for it. We have just completed tough negotiations on rewarding teacher performance and I am pleased that the Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) for teachers has been implemented with teacher performance being rewarded. Internationally, what rewards and incentives have already proven is that it's possible to find new ways to increase teachers' pay that are developed with teachers and not imposed on them.

In support of the Occupational Specific Dispensation, we will review and intensify the in-service training model and together with higher education institutions formulate a full-time university-based teacher upgrading programme with a focus on maths and science teachers. We will promote the idea that teachers and subject facilitators are tested and developed. We will ensure that teachers offering prescribed computer-related training (NCS requirements) is targeted in all schools and that the implementation of performance management and development is prioritised. We also undertake to measure the progress made, report on monitoring the implementation of the teacher development programme, and the impact on learner performance. Finally we will ensure the re-skilling of excess educators and will continue to skill unemployed graduates and teachers out-of-field in support of a clear model for matching supply and demand teacher skills and speciality in Gauteng.

I have not forgotten ABET and have deliberately kept it for last. There are just fewer than eight percent of people in Gauteng who have no schooling and surely many more of the population who are functionally illiterate. We are addressing the challenge of illiteracy within this sector by initiating programmes that will target all stakeholders in the ABET sector. Last year I reported that we have formulated an ABET Plan that will focus on basic literacy and also focus on building the skills of our young people through the promotion of learnerships focusing on the out of school youth and the unemployed. We currently have over 70 000 learners in ABET centres across the province. During 2008/09, we will ensure that the location of full-time ABET centres is identified and established for operation in the 2009 academic year. These will be centres that operate on a virtual 24-hour basis supporting adults to gain the basic skills of reading and writing and to make them employable. They will work together with FET colleges to ensure that work-based literacy programmes are provided to improve the employability of our citizens even for the lowest paying jobs with the least requirements. We will also support the national basic literacy programme, Kha Ri Kude, announced by the president and national minister of education which will be driven and delivered from a national level in all languages across all provinces.

Improving resourcing levels in key quality levers through the 2008/09 MTEF

Underpinning all of this is the improvement of the resourcing levels of schools in the province. The budget of the department is R16,629 billion and has increased by over 12 percent from the 2007/08 budget. This increase also makes provision for the 247 institutions and over 4 000 personnel as a result of the cross-border municipalities.

Trends in personnel

The department will spend R12,315 billion on personnel in the 2008/09 financial year. This is an increase of 11 percent from 2007/08. The additional funding is for policy adjustments for the recruitment and retention of educators and inflationary increases. The increased allocation is also to make provision for the incorporation of educators into the province from the North West and Mpumalanga due to the process of the re-demarcation of provinces. We are addressing the growing class sizes in schools and will effectively reduce the class sizes by employing an additional 3 000 educators as of 2009. The learner educator ratio has reduced dramatically from over 38:1 to 36:1. We will also address the need for additional support personnel in schools.

Trends in goods and services and transfers

The department will spend R1,896 billion on goods and services which is a 15 percent increase over the previous financial year and is as a result of increased allocation for schools due to the no-fee school policy, additional funding for cross-border schools and quality interventions in support of national priorities.

An amount of R1,781 billion will be transferred to schools and third party agencies. The increase in transfers is mainly as a result of increased subsidies to institutions due to the implementation of the no-fee school policy and the incorporation of schools from cross-boundary municipalities.

We will spend R2,101 billion on subsidies to schools. The year 2008 will also see the implementation of no-fee schools in National Quintile one and two schools. In consolidating and strengthening the public school education system so that all children in our province, especially the poor, have access to quality education a total of 415 schools will be declared no-fee schools with 372 558 learners. This translates to 21,9 percent of the projected learner population in public schools. We have also introduced new norms for exemptions from fees to alleviate the burden on the poor.

We will spend R1,036 billion on quality interventions. Twelve new priority areas have been resourced this year.

Trends in CAPEX

In respect of capital expenditure (CAPEX), we will spend R707,045 million. There is minimal decline as a result of the small decrease in the budget allocation for school buildings. The decrease in the budget for machinery and equipment is as a result of the movement of the Gauteng-Online project to the GSSC. We will be taking delivery of 24 new schools in December 2008 for opening in 2008 and we will begin during the 2008/09 MTEF period planning a detailed recurrent maintenance plan for schools and also introduce a preventative maintenance plan for all schools. This will initially focus on the Twenty Priority Townships.

Special infrastructural improvement projects

As we conclude our term and as part of ensuring that we conclude our outstanding curriculum priorities, we hereby announce a special infrastructural improvement programme in support of our five year priorities. We will ensure that urgent and humanitarian repairs to the supply of water and sanitation are addressed. We will also begin emergency repairs in schools where there is a threat of structures collapsing or hampering the delivery of learning and teaching. Explicitly, we will undertake the refurbishment of at least 150 school laboratories, that is 10 per district. We will also undertake refurbishment projects to facelift schools such as Sekano Ntoane and Morris Isaacson secondary schools which are of great historical value to South Africa. In support of our childhood development strategy, we will enhance the infrastructure of 150 grade R sites. This will include the provision of jungle gyms and specialised and customised education toys and learning support materials.

Programme trends

The increase in Programme 1: Administration is 14 percent over the last financial year and is as a result of adjustments made for administrative services to support schools incorporated from the North West and Mpumalanga Provinces. In addition, and in line with national priorities, there are increases in the Education Management Information System (EMIS) allocation and for Systemic Evaluation. The workplace HIV/AIDS budget has also been incorporated into the appropriation budget for the first time.

The increase in Programme 2: Public ordinary schools is 12 percent over the last financial year and is mainly as a result of increased allocations for no-fee schools in the form of subsidies to schools, increased allocation for scholar transport, teacher development and quality upliftment programmes to improve the level of learner attainment.

The increase in Programme 3: Subsidies to independent schools is 16 percent over the last financial year and is for increased subsidies to independent schools and is directly linked to increased expenditure in Programme 2 as the policy is hard-normed.

The increase in Programme 4: Special schools is 14 percent over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross-border schools incorporated and to increased allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in special schools.

The increase in Programme 5: FET colleges is 13 percent over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross-border FET college campuses incorporated, increased recapitalisation grant and to increased allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in FET colleges.

The increase in Programme 6: ABET is 12 percent over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross-border ABET centres, increased investment in resources for ABET centres and increased allocation to support curriculum and policy interventions in ABET Centres.

The increase in Programme 7: ECD is 29 percent over the last financial year and is to make provision for subsidies for cross-border ECD centres and grade R and the expansion of the number of grade R sites in the province.

The overall decline in Programme 8: Auxiliary services is as a result of the Gauteng-Online project being shifted to GSSC. A notable increase in the other sub-programmes is to provide examination services to cross-boundary schools.

Concluding remarks

It is clear from our plans that it is not going to be business as usual, thus we commit ourselves to break new grounds. In doing so, we will respond to the educational challenges facing poor communities energetically, to crush the shackles of poverty and unemployment as we move towards a quality public education.

I want to place on record my continued gratitude and appreciation for the sterling leadership provided by most of our principals and to ask them to effectively utilise the resources afforded by this budget to ensure effective education and quality learning.

I commit myself to continue to support teachers who have committed themselves to ensure quality learning in a safe and secure environment and to provide the care necessary for all developing children.

The role of the public service personnel in schools cannot be understated. They provide meaningful support to teachers and learners regarding both administrative matters and school facility maintenance. For this I am deeply grateful.

I want to thank members of all political parties for their support and to reiterate my commitment to resolve all the matters they refer to me, especially the ANC which has done a lot of work in support of grassroots communities. I want to especially thank the chairperson and members of the education committee for their continued support and guidance they have provided over the last few years.

I want to thank the statutory bodies, namely, Gauteng Education and Training Council for their continued support and advice they have provided me over the last year; Examinations and Assessment Board for meeting the challenges of improving the quality of assessment; the District Education and Training Councils and the Local Education and Training Units for their continued support at the grassroots level; and the Further Education and Training and Maths, Science and Technology Boards for their sterling work.

The Head of department, Mr Mallele Petje, deserves a special mention by name for sterling and consistent leadership. Since this is a budget speech, I will be failing in my duty if I do not recognise the incredible achievement by the department on ensuring an unqualified annual financial statements and report since 2001 to date. I am hoping such a feat will persist not only during my political term of office in the department but in the years ahead. My sincere gratitude to you and all managers and staff, the staff in my office, all parents, SGBs, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private sector partners and other stakeholders who continue to contribute without failure to the stability of our education system.

Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
24 June 2008