As in a dream
I came to a farm school
Waiting in vain
For wisdom
My heart bled.

In a dusty classroom
They gathered
Praying for wisdom
To swell their shrunken heads,
To raise them above the dust
Of country seclusion,
Its snares and futility.

And then Mahola ends:

Chairperson, I have chosen this picture to highlight that we always need to remember that we are debating the plight of real people, in real situations, like the farm school children described in this poem. We must never forget that our duty is to reflect from time to time on the impact we are making to change the lives of the children who learn in less than ideal conditions.

Today I want to refer to what we have done as the government to better the lives of these children through education. Let me hasten to say, Chairperson, that we may still take time before we reach all of them, but I am sure that we have in the last seven years brought hope to millions, hope that things will get better for them too. The hopelessness, with which the poem I have read ends, is changing to a hopefulness that maybe, not just one, but all of them will make it.

Children are beginning to see their schools as places where they will find "wisdom to raise them above the dust of country seclusion, its snares and futility". They have begun to have confidence in public education as something that plays a redemptive role in their lives, and as a vehicle that really does assist them realise their dreams, and "frees the potential" not just of some people who happen to have a white skin and who live largely in urban areas, but of all people, regardless of where they come from, and no matter how badly stacked the odds are against them when they first enter their school gates.

That hope comes in the first instance from the assurances provided in our Constitution, which guarantees the right to dignity and the guarantee of a right to basic education for everybody, which began to bring hope that these children and their parents may finally end their wait for wisdom, and their thirst for education may be finally quenched.

To enable us to translate these Constitutional guarantees into reality, the government had to spend the first five years mainly focusing on creating frameworks for transformation. One of the major challenges in this regard was the creation of a single national Department of education, from 19 racially divided education departments. Over the past seven years, we have developed mechanisms for the national department to work together with the nine provincial departments to deliver education in the country.

All of you in this House know that the national Ministry is largely responsible for the creation of norms and standards, and for monitoring the implementation of those norms, as well as for higher education. The provinces are responsible for implementation of national policy, to fix the budgets and to allocate them to different programmes, and for those elements of provincial policy which do not relate to matters that need to be regulated nationally.

One of the first challenges we had to deal with through co-operative governance was the question of how we would reduce, and eventually eliminate, the inequalities of the past. In 1994, the pre-democratic government was spending five times as much per white learner as opposed to, for example, a black learner in the Transkei. The new provinces created in 1994 inherited these inequalities, and this resulted in the Western Cape budget being almost three times higher to that of the Eastern Cape. We have been able to make significant strides in redressing these inequalities: since 1994, the differential between provinces has been reduced by more than 50%.

Chairperson, our Constitution requires that we provide certain minimum standards in the field of education. This does not mean that we should simply strive to provide only those minimum standards, we should not be complacent and lapse into mediocrity, but rather we should be striving to provide the best possible service we can, given resource and financial constraints that may apply.

Bearing in mind our Constitutional obligations we must remain aware of the remit for the provision of education within our areas of jurisdiction, this requires not that we investigate the origin of every student but rather that we go out of our way to provide for every student that comes to our educational institutions with the desire to learn without fear of rejection and discrimination. This is a country where migration is no longer constrained by racial or provincial and municipal boundaries and we must therefore avoid falling into the pitfalls of a new form of influx control whether deliberate or by sleight of hand. There is a right to basic education and this must be provided as a matter of course.

Given that there is still the significant variation on spending on education between provinces, and notwithstanding that, this variation has been reduced, we cannot enter into a inter-provincial discussion about which students come from which provinces - it would be a cynical exercise. The question of the funds that provinces make available for education is something different and should not impact either consciously or otherwise on the admission of students into our schools and other places of learning.

We have been successful in bringing the number of learners per educator down to an average of 34 nationally. Our rationalisation process has been extremely successful too: over 30 000 teachers have been moved to new posts, in schools where they are most needed, without a single forced retrenchment.

The School Funding Norms and Standards policy which took effect in 1999 mandates a "poverty-targeted" approach to budgeting for non-personnel expenditure by the Provinces. This means that the poorest schools get, on average, seven times more funding than the richest ones. Incidentally this was not something invented by the DA in the Western Cape as Tony Leon recently would have had his Paris audience believe but rather the implementation of national government policy.

But there is still a long way to go in achieving equity in our schooling system. The national department is examining closely what the next steps should be in our journey towards the attainment of this goal. But the greatest challenge we face is that of ensuring that provinces take even further steps to achieve intra-provincial equity. Provinces have to take visible steps to redress the imbalances of the past within themselves, so that the children of the farm school, we are talking about, can see their environment changing from being a snare into one which brings the fruits of freedom right at their own door.

Many a times I hear people lapsing into the old apartheid syndrome of blaming the victim for the failures of the system. This I hear especially when schools that have very poor infrastructure give us reason to celebrate as they out-perform even those with the best facilities. Many of us then begin to argue that if such schools can do it, then others too in the same situation must do it. We must not forget that the schools that do so are really giving us a bonus by going the extra mile.

We must recognise that problems in our schooling system do not only exist in township and rural areas because there are schools in urban areas - I have visited some of them - which remain all white, authoritarian and embrace values that are at odds with those of a democratic South Africa. Seven years after freedom, we cannot tolerate this in schools which enjoy extraordinary public provision whilst less than 2 kilometres away there are children learning in crowded township schools. Provinces over the next year are enjoined to bring about greater integration in these schools. This also means enforcing our language in education policy to assist with that integration and looking to the composition of the teaching body.

Chairperson it is important that we align provincial and national policies, for if we do not, how else is co-operative governance to work? I believe that through the Council of Education Ministers we have made significant progress in ensuring that this alignment happens but too often I get the feeling that in some structures it is done begrudgingly or as an afterthought. This we must correct. It is only through dynamic interaction between national policy and provincial implementation that we will succeed in providing an education system in South Africa that is free of bias and of which we all can be proud, and I refer not to those 30% or so of schools which function very well but to all of our schools.

One of the greatest challenges facing us in education is the provision of infrastructure. In 1996, the Department of Education undertook the first ever school infrastructure survey. I will shortly release the results of the School Register of Needs 2000 Survey, which affords us the important opportunity to assess progress in the period from 1996 to 2000 which states that:

• There has been a decline in the average number of students to a classroom from 43 to 35;
• The percentage of students without access to proper toilet facilities declined dramatically, from 55% in 1996 to 16% in 2000, which translates into a decline from 6.6 million students to 1.9 million students;
• Schools without telephones have decreased from 59% to 34%;
• The percentage of schools without access to running water declined from 40% to 34%;
• Access to electricity has improved from 40% to 53% of all schools, with the Eastern Cape showing a very useful increase of 25 %; and
• The number of schools with computers has increased from 2,241 to 6,481. In Gauteng, only 16% of schools are now without computers.

But the backlog is still huge and the differentiation between rich and poor schools within the public system still unacceptable. Of major assistance in this regard will be the R 1,5 billion in additional funds that education is to receive under the MTEF, as a conditional grant for physical infrastructure. Certain journalists would do well to take note of these developments. But at the same time, I should echo a word of caution - we cannot allow funds to go unspent at the end of a financial year - nor should we spend willy-nilly to simply expend the funds; where we have insufficient capacity, we must ensure that we create the necessary resources to support our system.

I should also add that three years ago we spent approximately R 200 million on Learner Support Material whilst this year for the first time we will be spending approximately R 1 billion, due in large part to having put in place the improved processes which also ensured that, in the main, the delivery of materials occurred on time.

I want to raise two matters related to infrastructure:

• Firstly, I want to correct the impression given in the media as a result of the unfortunate recent release of the Auditor-General's report on the state of infrastructure in the provinces. The report of the AG covers the period 1997/1998 financial yearhis was very close to our 1996 schools register of needs. The 2000 results of our survey indicate that the pathologies referred to in the AG's report are being addressed; something which the vagaries of the reporting system used by the Auditor-General is unable to take account of. Unquestionably, the situation does require some urgent action in many cases, especially where the structures are mud structures, and have been found not to be suitable for education. But we need to be careful about talk of benchmarking because we have no template, no basis for comparison, for our situation. No where else in the world has a nation been faced with the enormous challenges we have had to deal with in transforming our education system - the truth is there is no template, ours will be the first of its kind.
• Secondly, I believe this house has a responsibility to assist me in ensuring that provinces prioritise infrastructure in their budgets including ensuring that such funds are 'ring-fenced' and used efficiently. I know there is a tendency for some membeof parliament only to be interested in getting the schools in their constituencies attended to, sometimes even at the expense of the priority lists in the provinces. However, I think we have a larger responsibility of ensuring that we systematically eliminate infrastructure backlogs in our system.

At our initiative we held a joint meeting with our counterparts in Public Works where important decisions were taken to ensure that provincial MECs are empowered to determine priorities about the spending of infrastructure funds in provinces, including the balance between new construction and refurbishment requirements.

We have often spoken about alignment within the provinces to ensure that we provide the best possible service through our network of districts. We need particularly to examine how best we can relate to other structures of government especially local government and to consider whether there should be any re-alignment to local government boundaries in the case of district and regional offices to ensure greater efficiency and coordination of services.

At the same time, I should add, I am concerned about the general state of the administration of education in many provinces. I know this because I receive numerous complaints that should have been speedily handled within provinces, about the standard of service, the lack of responsiveness and frustrations with unnecessary bureaucratic obstructions. We owe more than this to public of South Africa. Worse still there is appears to be insufficient will to deal with problems of sexual abuse, initiation ceremonies, the continued use of corporal punishment and other forms of violence at schools. I hope that the efforts in the provinces will be re-doubled to deal with these scourges.

I am aware that the pace of signing agreements with farmers about the operation of farm schools has been very slow overall. But this is an important exercise given that farm schools are a peculiarly South African creation, part of the Verwoerdian system of cheap labour. I urge the provincial departments to speed up this process.

Chairperson, another area that I believe will assist the children of the farm school we are talking about today to give them hope that their dreams will be realised is the area of Early Childhood Development. The provision of grade R therefore is not only a completion of the government's policy commitment of ten years free and compulsory education, but it is also a means of extending quality and success to those that have been marginalised for decades.

Yesterday I launched our ECD white paper, which was approved by Cabinet at the end of April. Through our comprehensive early childhood development programme outlined in this paper, we will bring into the public education system, on a compulsory basis, over the next seven years, beginning with the poorest of the poor, an additional one million five-year old learners, thus freeing many mothers from child care to the economy, reducing the gap between those who can afford to pay for early childhood development and those who cannot and reducing poverty. The consequence of this development is that downstream all five-year old and six-year old learners will receive a high quality poverty targeted subsidised Reception Year and Grade 1 schooling.

Chairperson, perhaps the most high profile and far-reaching of our programmes in ensuring that we bring quality education to all has been The Review and Streamlining of Curriculum 2005. There is presently a team of working groups finalising National Curriculum Statements for the eight new learning areas for the General Education and Training Band - which is Grade R to Grade 9. These statements will be completed by July, for field-testing in 2002, refining in 2003 and implementation in 2004. We are going to be frank and systematic with this exercise.

I am most encouraged by the work and the ideas that have come out of the curriculum review process. There will be clear and easily comprehensible guidelines for teachers on learning outcomes, content and assessment. There will be more learning time for literacy and numeracy training.

Chairperson, I am referring to these two areas, ECD and Curriculum 2005, one after the other because they represent the most important instruments to ensure the redistribution of quality learning in the system. Curriculum 2005, if successfully implemented represents the most liberating element of our education system, which indeed will enable all children, regardless of their background, to realise their potential fully. I urge the members of this house who come from the provinces, to make sure that these programmes reach the poorest areas, and are successfully implemented in every part of the country.

The budget we are debating today comprises of a large amount in transfer payments to Universities and Technikons. It is therefore important for me to address this sector in order to show that the investment we are making there is yielding some results. Let me therefore turn briefly to higher education. We are investing over R 7 billion in higher education in this financial year. This is a very substantial amount. Our expectations of higher education are equally substantial.

Our implementation agenda is set out in the watershed National Plan for Higher Education, which I presented to the National Assembly last month. It will enable the higher education system to contribute to the building of a learning society that draws on people of all ages and all lifestyles and gives them the opportunity to advance and develop themselves, both intellectually and materially.

Cabinet has recently adopted a Human Resource Development Strategy for the country which I commend to this House. There are considerable expectations that the public higher education system will make a major contribution to the delivery of highly skilled and socially committed professionals and intellectuals.

You will be glad to know that implementation of the Plan is well on track including the establishment of National Institutes of Higher Education in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape which are exciting developments that will help to shape the future provision of quality higher education in our country. Both these developments take place with the enthusiastic support of the MECs for the two provinces affected.

Honourable delegates, on Thursday and Friday this House and the other House will be holding discussions on the subject: International Children's Day, which will be celebrated world-wide on Friday 1 June. We cannot and should never subject children to any discrimination based on their social class, and even their social origin. This is more important in a country which is still largely characterised by vast inequalities.

Our policies are all based on the assumption that children need to be protected at all cost, and should never be "punished" because of perceived or real "sins of their fathers and mothers". We have also a responsibility to protect our children against the kind of violence.

But we do not just have to end by protecting children against abuse. We must also promote in them a spirit of South Africanism, a sense of a national identity and an understanding that they live in a democratic society, and they should value and protect the dignity of others. And therefore, our schools must not just protect children against racism, but must actively promote non-racialism and tolerance as values.

In conclusion, perhaps we can take a good lesson from the voice of a child, in a poem entitled Dear Teacher. I end by giving you that voice to speak to all of us:

What more could the children of the Farm School ask for from all of us.

I would like to thank the Chairperson and the members of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation, Delegates to this House and the Provinces for the support I have received over the last year and I look forward to our continued co-operation in the next year.

Siyabonga!

Contact: Molatoane Likhethe at 082573 0397