Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor MP, at opening of the Thengwe Secondary School, Limpopo

Honourable Premier
MEC Motsoaledi
Members of the School Governing Board, staff, learners

Good morning. It is an honour and a privilege to address you today. The Department of Education recently published the final National Education Information Management System report (NEIMS). NEIMS is a project that has itemised the infrastructure of every one of our 28 742 schools.

The NEIMS report has detailed information, including digital photographs, about every school - the land and buildings, their condition, as well as teacher and pupil numbers. This information is also mapped using GIS systems, which provides an overview of the spatial location and distribution of our schools. NEIMS has also been able to chart the success of infrastructure provision over the past ten years or more. For example, it has revealed that:

* the number of overcrowded schools has fallen from 51% in 1999 to 24% in 2006,
* the number of schools with electricity has increased from 11 174 in 1996 to 20 713 in 2006,
* the number of schools without water has fallen from 8 823 in 1996 to 3 152 in 2006,
* the number of schools without on-site toilets has fallen from 3 265 in 1996 to 1 532 in 2006.

The report concludes that three in four schools are in a good or excellent condition. However 1 in 4 schools is infrastructurally inadequate and that means that over 7 000 schools are in a poor condition. And even in the 3 in 4 schools judged to be in good or excellent condition, there are facilities in need of maintenance and repair - schools do not have water, electricity, sanitation access to computers, libraries, or labs. NEIMS provides government, for the first time, with detailed information that allows us to quantify and pinpoint infrastructural backlogs, and to plan for their eradication.

The event we are here to celebrate confirms that education departments are serious about providing quality schools for our learners and educators. For 2005/06, provinces reported building 101 new schools and 5 222 new classrooms at existing schools. This progress was sustained during 2007 with 70 new schools built and 2 900 classrooms at existing school. As a result of school and class building in recent years, the number of overcrowded schools (school with more than 45 learners per classroom) has fallen strongly, from 51% in 1996, to 42% in 2000 to 24% in 2006. In his letter of invitation to me MEC Motsoaledi detailed the poor conditions in which he found this school in 2005 when he visited.

Today, we are pleased to celebrate the transformation of Thengwe Secondary School. Thengwe Secondary is a very special school, with consistently high levels of learner achievement, a level of achievement that has attracted both government attention and private resources. This performance has been achieved with limited resources: humble school buildings (and in recent years significant overcrowding) and modest spending on more advanced facilities and other inputs. The achievements are tributes to the management acumen of our school leaders, the resourcefulness of teachers and the dedication of learners. I want to say on behalf of government that we are proud of you. You are an example to all our school managers, teachers, and parents wherever they are.

I would like to congratulate the current principal Nemudzivhadi, who has led the school since 1986, for all his hard work. No school can flourish without support from community and parents. I want to thank all parents and community members who have supported the school. Thengwe Secondary School has received, over the years, substantial support from parastatals and businesses. This is reflected in partnerships with Schoolnet South Africa, MTN, Kumba and Eskom. These contributions underline not only the initiative and enterprise of school management but also the deep commitment of our businesses to education and the future of our country. But it is not only business that is investing in infrastructure. Government has been giving increasing attention to resourcing, infrastructure and facilities issues in education.

The budgets available for education infrastructure have increased significantly in recent years. Between 2002/03 and 2005/06, education spending on buildings and fixed structures increased from R1 billion to R2,5 billion. By 2008/09, spending on school buildings and fixed structures is expected to reach R4 billion a year. In Limpopo, spending on buildings and fixed structures increased from R162 million three years ago to a projected R367 million this year and a projected R576 million next year.

We are also building other initiatives such as an information and communication technology (ICT) strategy for education (aiming at connectivity for all learners and educators by 2013) and the Quality Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment Programme (QIDS-UP) that aims to ensure that a minimum level of facilities and resources are available at the poorest schools. These policy directions, funding shifts, and initiatives show that the completion of the new Thengwe Secondary School is not just a matter of chance or an isolated event.

It flows from explicit government policy and budget decisions aimed at providing our learners with books, teachers, and buildings that are of a good quality. While our recent assessment of all school buildings in the country shows that there is still a lot to do - and that the learners and teachers of Thengwe are today much better off than many in this and other parts of the country - we are making continued and purposeful progress to provide all learners with the basis for a quality school education.

In closing, I would again like to thank the staff at the school, to thank the learners, and all those driving improvement in school conditions - from your honourable Premier and the MEC of Education to provincial staff, physical planners, learners and district office staff. We are proud of you, you have set many other schools in this province an excellent example.

Issued by: Department of Education
28 September 2007