BUDGET SPEECH BY DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOHAMED ENVER SURTY, National Assembly
18 June 2004
Minister of Education
Provincial MECs and HODs
Speaker
Director General
Deputy Directors General
Department of Education Officials and
Stakeholders in Education
Dumelang!
As we celebrate a decade of our freedom, we are reminded of the valiant struggle of our youth on 16 June 1976, a struggle to be free from the shackles of poverty and oppression - a struggle for the achievement of our freedom and democracy. As we continue with our democratic revolution for change we must assert the importance of grounding our education on the sound ability to read, write and count. We have to move away from repetitive regurgitation to imaginative innovation. To free and fulfil the potential of our learners, we must develop their cognitive psychosocial, spiritual, perceptive, emotional, physical and moral attributes. This calls for an inclusive approach to education and training. As we celebrate our decade of freedom, we must ensure that we align the ability of the learner with the needs of the nation and imbue the learner with the values of sharing and caring.
This visionary task is eloquently and aptly captured by Dr. Constance Moloi in an article entitled "Voices From An African School", where she states the following:
"Teachers need to think in new, synergistic ways. What we do in our classrooms has far-reaching implications for social welfare, the country's economy and the quality of life within and outside of school. We need to be prepared for the continuous stream of changes in education and elsewhere, new learning and teaching strategies and the changes that are happening all around our schools. Teachers must have a desire to want to perform with compassion for learners and passion for their work. Transformation is not something out there. In our case it was a change of the mindset that carved within a township an aesthetic space that became a symbol of beauty, pride and success defying the hostile environment. The lesson to learn from these experiences is: Be the change that you want to see in the world."
The Ministry of Education is deeply concerned about the state of service delivery in education, especially for the poor. We have pockets of excellence, in both rich and poor areas. We have more schools doing better, and less doing badly. Thanks to the efforts of some local district officials, dedicated principals, and committed teachers, we have schools that have risen above their circumstances, and excelled in all respects. Schools like Mthwalume and Buhlebethu High Schools in the remote hills of southern KwaZulu-Natal, where the children walk long distances at night, each with their candle, for extra classes. But we also have schools where the conditions just do not exist for a proper education, despite the best efforts of our teachers and pupils.
A recent review of school governance demonstrated conclusively the extent to which School Governing Bodies have become a part of South African life. However, it was also clear that many school governing bodies were not acting in support of the transformation agenda, and had in some instances delayed the racial integration of schools. We will therefore be taking an active interest in the legislative processes, and will review aspects of education legislation and regulation, which have the unintended consequences of impeding integration, representivity and equity.
We will also be giving much attention to a few provisions in the South African Schools Act and the Employment of Educator's Act. Some of the provisions have not had the desired effect, and in too many cases transformation has been hindered, rather than advanced, by the wonderfully democratic, but often misinterpreted, legal framework we have established for public schools. We have developed some high quality, self-managing institutions, in both rich and poor communities, but when children are excluded from these, we must ask questions.
We will also be looking forward to the Government Review of Schedule 4 and 5 functions. We do so because we are convinced that local government has a role, and should indeed play a greater role, in supporting education. This they could do by assisting with facilities like libraries, sports fields, and other assets that can be shared by a number of schools, and by the community.
The same principle must apply in regard to teachers. We do have a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. The shortage has been there since about 1960, and exists in almost every country in the world. As a Department, we have made a good start with the Dinaledi Project (Maths and Science and Information and Communication Technology [ICT] Strategy). Through this project, we have been able to address the professional development needs of our math and science educators, provide resources and establish support structures for the selected schools. We are currently exploring ways in which this strategy can be expanded to more schools, particularly in the rural areas of our country. The challenge for our Department will be on resourcing the targeted schools if this strategy is extended to more schools. Furthermore, we need to explore ways in which this strategy can become a pathway for learner's entry into higher education. Our Department will be working closely with the Department of Science and Technology on exploring some of the alternatives available for our math, science and technology learners. We will therefore be looking at the recruitment practices within our system, to ensure a more equitable distribution of the top school principals and teachers.
We intend to use these schools as valuable resources and building blocks for the development of vocational skills desperately sought in our economy, and, to enhance our limited resource in the field of research and development, which is critical in the dynamic of an invigorated global economy.
We have already agreed with teachers on a new career path, which will allow for this kind of position, where an Education Specialist can be posted at a school to service a range of different institutions. In addition, the matter of salary incentives to encourage teachers with scarce skills to work in hardship posts, in rural areas and in townships is under consideration. This will help to address the flight of children from township schools and rural areas, to schools in the suburbs, which have better qualified teachers and teaching facilities. We will ensure that even the poorest child receives his or her share of the best we can offer.
Adult Basic Education and Training has been identified in the Ten Year Review process as one of the weakest links of our efforts to enable our people to develop their potential to the fullest. The uptake of ABET programmes has been improving at a very slow pace, as has been retention rate. The next year will see an accelerated effort to an increase of 40 000 learners enrolled in ABET programmes. The Department of Education will also partner the Department of Labour in diversifying the curriculum in ABET to include learnerships and other career - specific programmes that will be relevant to the needs of ABET learners.
Equally important is for the system to strengthen its war against illiteracy. That war is a war that Government cannot win without the assistance of non-Government organisations, the private sector as well as communities themselves. We hope to mobilise our schools to teach their learners the importance of social responsibility by starting community projects to fight illiteracy within their communities.
All of these issues are part of the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, which is a key leverage towards the development of critical skills in the country that must be properly monitored.
What is on offer is a world-class curriculum, underpinned by the values derived from the Constitution. These values are captured in the Department of Education's document called the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy (DoE, 2001). The document addresses values such as human dignity (ubuntu), non-racialism, non-sexism, equity, respect, tolerance and reconciliation. These values permeate all learning areas. Our understanding through this approach is to contribute in addressing key human rights issues, entrenched in our constitution. It is however, disappointing to learn that some of the basic human rights for our learners continue to be violated in our schools. For example, we are aware that corporal punishment is still in use in some schools, when the policy is so clear that this is illegal. Our Constitution has entrenched the rights of human dignity, freedom from cruel and inhuman punishment and the right of children to be protected from maltreatment, abuse or degradation. We must dismiss as ludicrous and foolish the argument that corporal punishment is acceptable if it is reasonably exercised. Our children are vulnerable and need to be protected. We cannot under any circumstances allow violence against our children even in varying degrees.
We have spoken about the dignity of learners in relation to the execution of corporal punishment, similarly our communities must give expression to the right of dignity to our educators who are often criticised and reviled by communities without due regard to the impossible conditions under which they work. We have a responsibility of elevating and enhancing the status and dignity of our educators who are a critical resource in the development of our current and future generation of learners.
Linked to the manifesto and values, is nurturing a culture of sexual and social responsibility in dealing with HIV and AIDS. According to the manifesto every expression of passion is over-clouded in some way that in a grim irony, thrives, - depends on the alluring intimacy of sex. The challenge for our schools is to influence our children's' ideas about sex and relationships even before the onset of intimate encounters, they would play a unique role in changing the course of the epidemic. There are two primary ways in which the educational sector should engage with this challenge. Firstly, to use its position as the primary transmitter of knowledge, skills and values to the youth of our society - to raise HIV awareness, to disseminate information about HIV and its transmission, and to help change the attitudes of young people to inhibit the spread of the epidemic. This can be done within the curriculum, using public media, through extracurricular activity, and through the role modelling of teachers and other authorities. The second way is to ensure that students and teachers who have been affected by HIV are not discriminated against, and to ensure, too, that they are able to live productively for as long as possible.
Promoting awareness of HIV and AIDS draws on the constitutional values of responsibility, respect, and openness, but it also encourages the acquisition of these values, for it teaches young people about the respect and responsibility that must accompany sexual activity.
We all recognise that our new democracy has taken enormous strides in the past decade and we must sustain this by inculcating or nurturing a new patriotism amongst our learners who must fully embrace our non-racial, non-sexist democracy. Our President had the following to say about the new patriotism: "The new patriotism requires us to proceed from common positions about the nature of the problems our country faces. We must share a common recognition of the fact that all of us stand to gain from the transformation of SA into a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous country ... no people is predestined to succeed or to fail. No child is born hating. Our neighbours, whether black or white, are as human as we all are and as South African as we all are".
The former Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, to whom we are grateful for his enormous contribution to the democratisation of education, had the following to say, "If arrogance is the old patriotism, then pride is the new patriotism - and so out of pride, out of the new patriotism, stems the very opposite of chauvinism and xenophobia: out of the new patriotism stem the values of tolerance and acceptance, of equality and democracy, of dialogue and negotiation and conflict resolution that make us uniquely South African; uniquely South African in the uniquely global universe that is the 21st Century".
This patriotism must manifest itself in the activities of our national flag flying at every public school, the National Anthem, and not selected portions of it, being sung at all our schools and events with passion and enthusiasm, and a respect for, understanding of and pride in all our national symbols such as the Coat of Arms, which are aimed at uniting us in our diversity.
The Department of Education will take over the function of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) from the Department of Health this year. In the first instance the Department has managed a smooth transition to avoid an abrupt exclusion of learners who are already in the programme. The Department shall within the next few months ensure that all schools in the nodal areas identified by the President benefit from the nutrition programme and that the programme progressively extends to rural and township schools by not later than 2006. The Department will further ensure that the programme is aligned to the resource targeting principle of the Norms and Standards of the School Funding, which progressively allocates resources in favour of the poor. In essence, 60% of the poorest learners in Grades R to 7 will receive a nutritious meal during the school days. The programme is seen as part of the Governments integrated food security programme that promotes the establishment of food gardens in schools and communities as a sustainable means of ensuring the health of our people. The Department will partner other organisations in the establishment of food gardens in schools to enable our women and youth to develop opportunities as micro-entrepreneurs within the communities where the schools are located.
We would like to invite communities to make more use of our schools. Remember they are public schools, not state schools! Use them after hours, for social, cultural, religious or sporting activities. Make them the centre of your community - a place that children feel at home. School sport events, or music festivals, create a wonderful sense of community spirit, and help also to seal some of the gashes that remain in the fabric of our society. Curriculum 2005 points to the need to develop a holistic education for our children. School Sport is clearly a part of such a holistic curriculum - enhancing physical, psychological and emotional health and promoting co-operation, team spirit and sporting values.
The schools are the cradle of talent for national and international level sport. While the nation insists on representivity in sport (and correctly so), it will not happen until there is managed and constructive development at ground level in the schools. In order to enhance South Africa's performance at Olympic level and for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Department of Education together with the Department of Sports and Recreation will embark on programmes for development that will target learners and educators in schools.
Among the other areas on which we will focus as a Ministry are rural education dealing with vulnerable children in distress, drug abuse, learner and teacher safety and also the promotion and development of arts and culture in the curriculum.
You will no doubt appreciate how huge this task is, and we urge our parents, community based organisations, civil society and private entities to join hands with us in a social contract to transform our nation into a distinctive educated and enlightened nation. Our vision is a shared vision; our task must therefore be a shared task.