12 August 1999
BRIEFING BY MINISTER OF EDUCATION TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
Documents handed out:
Status report for the minister of education, June 1999.
Call
to Action. Statement by
Professor Kader Asmal, 27 July 1999.
SUMMARY
The minister outlined plans for the next year, as well as the
role of the committee in implementing these plans. He
acknowledged the crisis in the education system and announced the
three bills to be tabled: Higher Educational Amendment Bill;
National Student Financial Aid Scheme Bill; Educators Laws
Amendment Bill.
MINUTES
Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, commenced the
meeting by answering President Mbeki's question, posed to him at
the first cabinet meeting: "Is our education system on the
road to the 21st century?" In response, Professor
Asmal said that he has formulated an education plan to deal
squarely with South African realities and the global changes of
the 21st century. The minister acknowledged that large
parts of the educational system is in a crisis and seriously
dysfunctional. The minister attributed this crisis to massive
inequalities in access and facilities, failures in governance and
management in the provinces, as well as the serious state of the
morale of the teaching force.
Minister Asmal announced a national mobilisation for education and training, under the slogan "Tirisano" (working together). The details of the plan will be worked out over the coming months, in consultation with all concerned parties. The scope of this plan is vast, and the successful implementation requires the assistance, commitment and unity of citizens, as well as all state organs. He added that this is an ambitious strategy, and that he intends exercising his political authority to advance education.
The minister outlined 9 priorities with regard to this plan:
- To make provincial systems work by making co-operative government work.
- To combat illiteracy amongst adults and youths within 5 years.
- To make schools the centre of community life.
- To end conditions of physical degradation in South African schools.
- To develop the professional quality of the teaching forces.
- To ensure the success of active learning through outcome-based education.
- To create a vibrant further education and training system to equip youth and adults to meet the social and economic needs of the 21st century.
- To implement a rational, seamless higher education system that grasps the intellectual and professional challenges facing South Africans in the 21st century.
- To deal urgently with the HIV\ AIDS emergency, in and though the education and training system.
The minister invited MPs to raise specific issues and detailed matters with him, and made himself available for this in his office, every Thursday from 12am-1pm.
Questions asked by committee
members
Mr F Cassim (IFP) asked about the omission of information
technology.
Minister Asmal requested that members refer to his report, Call to Action, rather than his predecessor's Status Report, which he regards as history. He added that information technology should be embraced but the current situation does not allow for this. He asked how could information technology be implemented when 20% of schools do not have water facilities, 50% of schools do not have electricity and 60% of schools do not have telephone facilities.
An MP asked why there is discrimination between provinces with regard to scholarships.
Minister Asmal: There is no discrimination between provinces with regard to scholarships. He said that R1.76b was spent on scholarships, and that the government does not decide on the allocation thereof. The performance of the students that obtained matric exemptions determines the allocation.
A DP member asked whether there was a policy with regard to the access and mainstreaming of disabled students.
Minister Asmal: There is a draft policy which should be out on green paper in February 2000.
An MP asked what is being done with regard to farmers demolishing farm schools, when workers and farmers fight.
Minister Asmal: The state cannot take over the farm schools, nor close them down. This matter should be taken up with the farmers union.
Mr J Seremane (DP) commended the minister for his good intentions. He asked what is being done with regard to violence in schools and universities?
Minister Asmal: School is a microcosm of society, and reflects society outside. Therefore there should be a commitment towards zero tolerance to violence at universities and schools. The community should therefore give spirit and support to principals and chancellors. There should be an agreement on discipline measures used inside schools, as there are not enough resources to permanently station SAP in schools. The community should become active in driving out violence; they have my political and moral support.
The minister closed the briefing, and thanked the committee for attending.
Appendix 1
Call
to Action:
Mobilising Citizens to build a South African Education and
Training System for the 21st Century
INTRODUCTION
Today I am announcing the start of a national mobilisation for
education and training.
At the first Cabinet meeting of the new government, President
Thabo Mbeki posed the question: "Is our education system on
the road to the 21st century?"
The South African public has a vital interest in the answer.
Today, having consulted virtually the entire leadership corps of
the education and training system, I can give him and the nation
my reply.
EXPLORING THE TERRAIN
For the past five weeks, I have undertaken a wonderful mission of
discovery. I have read dozens of documents. My officials have
given me copious briefings. In a week of meetings unprecedented
in their intensity and frankness, I have met the leading
representatives of every significant national education
structure.
They spoke for statutory bodies in education and training,
commissions established by our constitution for the protection of
democracy, the representative associations of vice-chancellors
and principals at all levels, national governing body
associations, all national teachers' unions and staff
associations, national student bodies representing all levels,
leaders in adult education, early childhood development, and
education for special needs, organised labour and business.
We talked, we disputed, and we found common ground. Finally, to
cap this extraordinary listening campaign, I consulted yesterday
with my provincial colleagues in the Council of Education
Ministers.
I want to select three salient points from the hundreds of facts,
ideas and impressions that the listening campaign has evoked.
* We have strong, committed leadership for the 21st century
Firstly, the leadership of our education and training system in
the field embodies remarkable qualities of patriotism, talent,
experience, and commitment. The leaders I have met, and the
organisations and institutions they represent, have been making
heroic unsung contributions to the transformation of our
education and training system. I salute them. They are an
essential resource for the next phase of our education
revolution. What is more, they want to get on with it.
* We have excellent policies and laws for the 21st century
Secondly, I was told by everyone I met that we have created a set
of policies and laws in education and training that are at least
equal to the best in the world.
In 1994, as we turned our back for good on the divisive and cruel
legacy of apartheid, education was considered the most explosive
and contentious area of national life. I am proud that our young
democratic government, after inclusive and genuine consultation,
has built a national consensus around the main education policy
positions of the mass democratic movement, while simultaneously
re-organising the entire structure of education administration
and provision.
The important thing about building consensus for a policy or a
law is that people own it and want to make it work.
Implementation takes time, but I have seen convincing evidence
that it is happening in all parts of the system, for instance in
adult basic education and training, early childhood learning,
school curriculum, further education and training, higher
education planning, democratic governance, and quality
management.
There has been a revolutionary change in South African thinking
about education and training. The consensus we have achieved is
based squarely on our democratic Constitution, deals squarely
with South African realities, and aligns us to respond to the
global challenges of the new century.
* In crucial respects we are not ready for the 21st century
Thirdly, the national education leadership is unanimous that our
system of education and training has major weaknesses and carries
deadly baggage from our past. Large parts of our system are
seriously dysfunctional. It will not be an exaggeration to say
that there is a crisis at each level of the system.
I will select the worst and most troubling features of our
education and training system for special mention: the massive
inequalities in access and facilities, the serious state of
morale of the teaching force, failures in governance and
management, and the poor quality of learning in much of the
system.
WHERE WE ARE FAILING
* Rampant inequality
Firstly, there is rampant inequality of access to educational
opportunities of satisfactory standard. In particular, poor
people in all communities, of whom the overwhelming majority are
rural Africans, continue to attend decrepit schools, too often
without water or sanitation, electricity or telephone, library,
workshop or laboratory. Their teachers may never see their
supervisors from one year to the next. Their parents remain
illiterate, poor and powerless. They are unable to give practical
and intellectual support to the educational aspirations of their
children.
For such children of
democratic South Africa, the promises of the Bill of Rights
remain a distant dream. Without a solid foundation of learning,
their chances of educational and economic success in later years
are dim. So poverty reproduces itself.
* Low teacher morale
Secondly, I was told repeatedly that the morale of teachers in
all communities is low. This is more complex terrain, because the
causes and the incidence may be different in different
institutions.
It is obvious that many teachers have been demoralised by the
uncertainty and distress of rationalisation and redeployment.
Since 1995, protracted consultation, bargaining, legal and labour
action, and a lot of sensational rumour mongering have
accompanied this process. The cause of equitable and sustainable
provision of teachers is just and necessary, but the cost has
been high. Teachers have a reasonable expectation of stability
and job security, but that has been long in coming.
Another potent reason is the vulnerability of learners and
teachers in many schools, colleges and other educational
institutions to crimes of trespass, vandalism, carrying and using
weapons, drug-dealing, rape, sexual abuse and other forms of
physical assault or even murder. Whether committed inside or
outside the gates, such outrages create insecurity and fear, and
destroy the basis of a learning community.
Indiscipline on the part of principals, teachers and learners was
also cited repeatedly as a source of demoralisation among those
who want to work and succeed. I was particularly appalled by the
repeated observations that too many schools fail to start on time
and close early, that too many learners absent themselves at
will, that too many teachers believe that their obligations cease
at 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock on a school day.
Many educators at all levels may suffer a more subtle and
insidious form of demoralisation if they are not professionally
equipped or resourced to cope with the new demands that are being
made of them, whether arising from racial integration, or new
curricula and pedagogy.
* Failures of governance and management
The third disturbing feature to which my attention has been drawn
is the serious crisis of leadership, governance, management and
administration in many parts of the system. This has many facets.
The most serious, in terms of scale, is the incapacity of several
provincial departments of education to set the agenda for their
systems, perform their tasks in a business-like way, and give
adequate professional support to their institutions of learning.
Within institutions, from universities and technikons to small
rural schools, such failures have a drastic effect. They open
wide the gate to corruption, fraud and indiscipline. They sap the
morale of conscientious staff. In the end, they undermine good
teaching and learning, which depend on peace, order, stability
and professional challenge.
The situation is worsened if governing authorities are
ineffective, if they collude with management at the expense of
other parties, or if they allow themselves to be subverted by
factionalism. In such circumstances, they are unable to fulfil
their essential role of good governance and true stewardship of
the interests of the institutions they have been appointed to
serve. The consequences may be very costly, especially in higher
education institutions.
* Poor quality of learning
Given the conditions described above, it should not be surprising
that the leaders of education with whom I have consulted are
intensely concerned about the poor quality of learning in large
parts of our system.
The Senior Certificate examination at the end of Grade 12 is the
first external check on performance in our school system, and the
poor results, especially in six provinces, have shocked the
nation. By comparison with other middle-income countries, our
learners perform very badly in internationally standardised tests
of mathematics and science. School leavers become job-seekers or
enter higher education with serious gaps in fundamental
knowledge, reasoning skills, and methods of study.
Overwhelmingly, poor learning is associated with poverty, bad or
absent facilities, under-prepared teachers, lack of learning
resources, and a serious lack of purpose and discipline in many
schools, or what is called a culture of learning, teaching and
service.
The number of young people who study mathematics with any degree
of understanding and proficiency has declined when it should have
been increasingly rapidly. As a result, mathematical illiteracy
is rife in our society, and the pool of recruits for further and
higher education in the information and science-based professions
is shrinking, a fact that has grave implications for our national
future in the 21st century.
NO TIME TO LOSE
What do I conclude from this rough balance sheet of the assets
and liabilities of the education and training system? Despite our
success stories, we are failing, especially in those wide-flung
tracts of the system that serve poor urban and rural communities.
Our new systems of governance, administration and finance have
not yet succeeded in hauling these communities out of the
arbitrary and unequal education conditions imposed by generations
of apartheid and minority rule. In some respects and some areas,
the situation has deteriorated.
All modern nations with strong democratic traditions and
successful economies have invested heavily in the education and
training of their people, in order to ensure access by all
citizens to educational opportunity, and continuously raise the
level and quality of learning throughout their societies. Our
country has a long way to go, and no time to lose.
A NATIONAL MOBILISATION FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING
* Our mandate and duty
The Constitution places a compelling duty on the government to
respect, protect, promote and fulfil everyone's right to a basic
education, including adult basic education, and to take
reasonable measures to make further education progressively
available and accessible (section 29).
In June of this year, the people of this country gave the
national and provincial governments both a mandate and a
responsibility to accelerate the delivery of basic services that
will improve their quality of life. The public believes that we
have a crisis on our hands. Our people have rights to education
that the state is not upholding. They have put their confidence
in the democratic process, and returned their government with an
overwhelming mandate. After five years of democratic
reconstruction and development, the people are entitled to a
better education service and they must have it.
We will not fulfil our democratic responsibility, nor will our
nation be prepared for the demands of the 21st century, unless we
rapidly improve the access of all our people to sound basic
education and training in satisfactory facilities, and ensure a
fully functioning system of good quality at all levels, from
early childhood to university and beyond.
* President Mbeki's charge
The President expects that the essential functions of the
education system will be carried out efficiently and speedily. As
he remarked in his reply to the debate on his State of the Nation
address to Parliament, "Teachers must teach. Learners must
learn. Managers must manage." That is a fundamentally
reasonable expectation, on which all other education success will
depend. We will attend to it.
* Tirisano
I have concluded, after intensive consultation with
representatives of all the main actors in education and training,
and the MECs for Education, that the educational condition of the
majority of people in this country amounts to a national
emergency.
A national emergency requires an exceptional response from the
national and provincial governments.
I announce a national mobilisation for education and training,
under the slogan "Tirisano", working together.
President Mbeki announced the theme of the second democratic
government, "A nation at work for a better life for
all". That is what we must do in education, together.
The details will be worked out over the coming weeks and months,
in consultation with all concerned.
The scope is vast, and even an energetic government cannot
attempt everything at once. We will determine priorities, and
within those priorities we will set targets.
We will also work with other state departments on the integrated,
targeted projects for rural and urban regeneration that President
Mbeki called for in his speech, and that are now being planned.
What I am asking for at present is a commitment by citizens and
all organs of society to work together with the Ministry of
Education and the provincial education authorities to attack the
most urgent problems.
* National Education Parliament
Once a year, we will summon a National Education Parliament. This
will be a true deliberative body of all education stakeholders.
Its task will be to reflect on the state of education and
training, take stock of our collective progress in attacking the
priority areas of need, build solidarity among the main actors in
education delivery and the education departments, and point the
way forward.
NINE PRIORITIES
Priority 1: We must make our provincial systems work by making
co-operative government work
The overall responsibility for the effective management of the
education system rests with the Minister of Education, and I
intend to fulfil that responsibility. I will do so within the
letter and spirit of the Constitution, in particular the
provisions relating to co-operative government, the executive
authority of the Republic, and the executive authority of
provinces.
Under our present arrangements, all education below the higher
education level is managed by provincial governments, over which
the Minister of Education has only political but not executive
authority. I intend to exercise my political authority as
Minister of Education as vigorously as is necessary to promote
the advancement of the national education and training system.
The management of education systems is a highly complex function
of government, and provincial education departments vary
considerably in their ability to manage education efficiently.
The most serious problems of executive capacity are experienced
in the provinces that incorporated former homelands or
"independent states". The three largest provinces have
the gravest difficulties. They are also the poorest provinces,
with the largest backlogs of school buildings and services, and
poor communications infrastructure in rural areas.
National education legislation binds provincial governments under
certain conditions, and it is important, therefore, to ensure
that national Acts, regulations and policies do not impose
unreasonable burdens on provincial administrations.
Alternatively, provincial departments must be empowered, with the
assistance of the national department, to fulfil their statutory
responsibilities. National laws and other instruments will be
reviewed with this in mind.
There are acute problems with the allocation and management of
many provincial education budgets. The Minister of Education has
some leverage on these matters through the budget process under
the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, although this is largely
indirect. I intend to take responsibility, with the Minister of
Finance, for collaborative work on provincial education budgets,
together with provincial MECs, and MECs for Economic Affairs and
Finance.
It is vital to improve the ratio of non-personnel to personnel
funding. The good work being undertaken to cut waste and fraud
and improve efficiency in provincial systems has my emphatic
support. However, it is imperative that provincial governments
allocate sufficient funds for the essential personnel and
non-personnel needs of provincial education systems, and that
such allocations are not tampered with during the course of the
financial year.
The national Department of Education, using its ordinary budget,
dedicated state grants, and external support, assists its
provincial counterparts through direct administrative and
professional support. I will review what is currently happening
under the technical assistance programmes, in order to ensure
that they are well targeted and effective, and to explore whether
they could be expanded.
The Minister of Education has powers, under the National
Education Policy Act, 1996, to monitor the performance of
provincial education authorities in meeting their constitutional
obligations and in implementing national policy. The Minister
must report breaches to Parliament, as well as remedial action
that is jointly planned by the provincial and national education
departments. This formal power to monitor and report will be used
whenever appropriate, especially when there appears to have been
serious failure by provinces to meet their obligations.
However, I will employ a faster and less formal method of
monitoring and advice, by requiring all senior officials of the
Department of Education and my own advisers to spend a certain
amount of their time on visits to provincial education
departments and institutions. Such visits, on which each officer
concerned must report, will also serve as a means to cross-check
whether or not national law or policy needs to be reviewed or
changed.
In addition, I will report to the President every three months on
the progress in provincial education, according to a set of
indicators that will be discussed with the Council of Education
Ministers (CEM). Such reports will be sent to Premiers and the
press.
Priority 2: We must break the back of illiteracy among adults and
youths in five years
No adult South African citizen should be illiterate in the 21st
century, but millions will be unless we mobilise a social
movement to bring reading, writing and numeracy to those who do
not have it. At present, millions of South African adults and
young people cannot read or write in any language, and millions
more are functionally illiterate and innumerate, that is they
cannot put their reading and writing skills to any useful
purpose, and cannot manipulate numerical concepts.
In modern society illiteracy excludes people from avenues of
learning and communication, improved job skills and many normal
responsibilities of citizenship. It is an alienating and
disempowering thing, and increases dependence on others. For
these reasons, many adults who are illiterate and innumerate are
ashamed of their condition, and try to hide it.
Literacy is not an easy skill to retain. It can be lost or
rendered ineffective through disuse. Our new Adult Basic
Education and Training (ABET) Programme transcends literacy. It
targets learning outcomes that empower, rather than leading to a
dead end. Its learning programmes give qualifications that carry
credit in the National Qualifications Framework. This enables
adult learners to proceed with formal education, by self-study or
otherwise. The Multi-Year Implementation Plan for ABET will
enable close to a million new learners to achieve the equivalent
of Grade 9 by 2003, provided the funds can be found and ABET
practitioners trained.
We must support this programme as much as possible.
Unfortunately, budgetary pressure has resulted in several
provincial education departments cutting back or closing ABET
programmes when they should have been expanding. This trend ought
to be reversed, but it is improbable that the government will
find sufficient additional funds in the near future to eliminate
illiteracy through formal ABET programmes run by provincial
education departments.
Another strategy is needed.
Firstly, all employers, including employers in national,
provincial and local governments, must be encouraged to run or
support ABET programmes for their employees. Many do so already,
and some are leaders in ABET provision. But a major opportunity
opens up through the introduction of the skills levy, and the
establishment of Sector Education and Training Authorities under
the National Skills Authority. I will consult the Minister of
Labour with a view to ensuring that we target a massive increase
in ABET provision through this route. Illiterate citizens who are
not in employment would also have access to ABET programmes
through the National Skills Fund.
Secondly, we must stimulate the civic virtue of voluntary
service, in support of our illiterate compatriots. I extend an
open invitation to all religious, political, social, educational
and community formations to help us design a major programme of
voluntary service on behalf of literacy and numeracy, and make
facilities available to run it. Students, especially in secondary
schools, further education and training institutions and higher
education, will have a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate their
commitment to community service by becoming literacy
practitioners. My Ministry will be consulting on this matter with
the National Youth Commission.
Even voluntary service requires funds to meet overhead and other
costs. Given the scale of the need, such funds might be
considerable. Once the programme has been planned and costed, I
will appeal to national and international grant-making agencies
to assist. The National Development Agency should have a
strategic role in providing support to participating NGOs.
Priority 3: Schools must become centres of community life
The crisis in primary and secondary schools must be dealt with by
ensuring that schools become the centres of community life.
The school will truly become a centre of community and cultural
life if its facilities are being put to use for youth and adult
learning, community meetings, music and drama, sports and
recreation. An idle school is a vulnerable place, inviting
vandalism. A busy school is a place the community will protect,
because it is theirs. There is a role in a community school for
religious bodies, businesses, cultural groups, sports clubs and
civic associations, both to serve their own requirements and to
contribute to the school's learning programme both in and out of
school hours.
The school governing body, led by parents, exercises a trust on
behalf of the parents of the community, and functions as the
indispensable link between the school and the community. It must
not be forgotten that this is a new concept for most communities
in the country. We must therefore put great effort into ensuring
that governing bodies, especially in poor communities, are given
the support they need to become strong and viable. The Ministry
of Education has an interest in ensuring that all public school
governing bodies become members of governing body associations,
which can represent them in dealing with the education
authorities, and provide valuable technical support to their
members. We will assist bona fide established or new governing
body associations to access funds to support their organisational
costs and outreach work.
The school principal, who represents the provincial department of
education and is head of the school management team, has the
crucial role of professional and administrative leadership, and
is responsible for the standard of learning and teaching in the
school. The principal needs to forge a working partnership with
the governing body, so that they can jointly serve the vision and
mission of the school in the community. Both parties require
guidance in exercising their respective roles. It is therefore
important that the school leadership team, headed by the
principal, and the governing body in each public school, is given
the opportunity to create the sense of common purpose and mutual
support.
A functioning school is a true community in its own right, and an
indispensable centre for the wider community's social and
cultural needs and interests. But for this to happen, we need
peace and stability in schools and in the environment of schools.
Schools must therefore be rendered safe for learners, teachers,
staff and the public. There must be regulations to restrict
access only to those who have legitimate business in the school.
Schools need to forge links with police stations, and join
Community Policing Forums.
Public schools must be reclaimed from those who are violent in
word or deed. Only in conditions of peace can discipline
flourish. The law and order approach may bring about
pacification, but it will not bring peace. Peace must be
internally generated. In a society that is prone to violence, the
peaceful settlement of disputes must be taught, and acted out in
the society of the school. Values, morality and decency must be
reinstated as the bedrock of school life, and self-discipline as
the basis of disciplinary codes in the school. Corporal
punishment is contrary to the Constitution and the South African
Schools Act. In the past it has contributed to the culture of
violence in our society. Parents, teachers and learners need help
to understand why it has been prohibited, and to work out more
effective substitutes.
Discipline in a community school will require that teaching
starts on the first day of term. School must start on time and
end on time, from Monday to Friday every week of the school year.
It would be incompatible with the notion of
"community", as well as a denial of basic rights, if
public schools ignored their responsibility to children with
special needs, and their parents. Public schools should be, by
definition, inclusive, humane and tolerant communities. The
Ministry's long-awaited policy on education for learners with
special needs will shortly be ready for publication. Schools must
be assisted to create an enabling environment for parents whose
children have physical disabilities or other special needs, so
that early identification can result in appropriate advice and
placement. To the greatest extent compatible with the interests
of such children, the ordinary public school in the community
should welcome them and provide for them.
A mobilisation in support of the community school idea will give
a boost to the Culture of Learning, Teaching and Service (COLTS)
campaign, whole school development programmes, and a new
programme launched by President Mbeki to forge partnerships for
school improvement with poorly functioning but well-motivated
public schools.
Priority 4: We must end conditions of physical degradation in
South African schools
Although the government has contributed more than R1 billion to
the National School Building Programme, it may require twelve
times that amount to meet the backlogs identified in the School
Register of Needs. This is well beyond the reach of the normal
budgets of provincial education departments, which in recent
years have suffered sharp decreases in the funds allocated to
school building and services.
Nevertheless, millions of school children in democratic South
Africa are required by circumstances to exercise their
fundamental right to basic education in conditions of squalor and
degradation. Thousands of schools have poor physical fabric, and
many are dangerous and unfit for human habitation. Hundreds of
schools have no water on site, no sanitation whatsoever, or
rudimentary and insufficient toilets. Such conditions threaten
the health of learners and teachers alike, and radically restrict
the social and teaching activities of the school. It is
impossible to contemplate this with complacency. The situation
cries out for remedy.
I will use every opportunity to press the priority of public
spending on replacing dangerous and dilapidated schools, and
providing water and sanitation services where they do not exist.
It will be necessary to prioritise and target the areas and
schools where the need is greatest, working with the provincial
education departments. This could be a major project under the
new Integrated Rural Development Programme announced by President
Mbeki, working in partnership with other state departments,
provincial authorities, parastatals and NGOs. Bringing water and
sanitation in schools offers scope for a labour-intensive,
community-based project. My Department has begun the initial
planning work.
Priority 5: We must develop the professional quality of our
teaching force
All the evidence provided to me indicates that there is a real
malaise in the teaching corps of this country, notwithstanding
the high levels of professional service which teachers provide in
schools all over the land.
The provision of teachers in schools under apartheid resulted in
two serious social distortions. One was the extreme inequality in
learner-educator ratios that were sustained by unequal budget
allocations based on racial and ethnic discrimination. It is
bitterly unfortunate that teachers have borne the brunt of a
process of rationalisation that, for the first time, allocates
teachers equitably to schools according to curriculum needs.
However, there is every prospect of job security for all
qualified and registered teachers who are currently employed, and
a return to stable staffing in our schools.
The second serious distortion was the racially-defined
qualification structure, linked to racially-defined opportunities
for training, which ensured that African teachers, taken as a
whole, are less well qualified than other teachers. These less
qualified teachers also teach, predominantly, in schools with
poor facilities, inadequate learning resources, greater isolation
from urban centres, and infrequent or no professional support
services.
Professional development for teachers, combined with effective
professional support services, the efficient provision of
learning support materials, a mobilisation campaign to make the
school the centre of community life, and the progressive
elimination of inhuman physical conditions in schools, will make
a major impact on teachers' morale and the quality of the service
they render.
The Ministry of Education will give top priority to develop and
implement a long-range plan for teacher development, both
pre-service and in-service, in support of outcomes based
education and improved standards of teaching. President Mbeki put
this at the head of his list of government commitments in
education. Special attention will need to be given to the
compelling evidence that the country has a critical shortage of
mathematics, science and language teachers, and to the demands of
the new information and communication technologies.
In order to recognise outstanding teachers at all levels of the
system, I will establish a National Teacher Award scheme, after
consultation with the South African Council for Educators, the
national teacher unions, and the provincial education
departments.
I will also give priority to the preparation of a green paper on
professional standards in education, as part of the process of
enabling the South African Council for Educators to take its full
place as a statutory professional body with real influence on the
quality of service provision.
All these measures will help to realign the identity of the
teacher in South African society. The years of discrimination,
repression, struggle, and democratic transition have taken their
toll, on teachers in all communities. It is time to re-assert the
dignity of the teaching profession, because teachers at their
best are vital agents of change and growth in our schools and
communities.
Priority 6: We must ensure the success of active learning through
outcomes-based education
The government and the Minister of Education give complete
support to the new national curriculum framework based on the
concept of outcomes based education. Curriculum 2005 represents
our best hope of transforming the retrograde inheritance of
apartheid-era learning theories and obsolete teaching practices.
It is important to recognise what damage was done over the
decades by an approach to education that was essentially
authoritarian and allowed little or no room for the development
of critical capacity or the power of independent thought and
enquiry. Outcomes based education is an approach that embraces
the capacity of learners to think for themselves, to learn from
the environment, and to respond to wise guidance by teachers who
value creativity and self-motivated learning.
While giving unreserved support to the approach, the Ministry of
Education will resist over-zealous attempts from any quarter to
convert OBE into a new orthodoxy with scriptural authority. There
will be no mystification of an approach to learning and teaching
that is essentially liberatory and creative.
I have directed that the Department of Education undertake a
speedy review of the implementation of outcomes based education,
with a view to the phasing of the introduction of new grades.
I have also established as a target performance indicator that
all children will achieve competence in reading, writing and
numeracy skills by age 9, or the end of Grade 3. The Department
of Education will take advice on the appropriate formulation of
this standard and the manner of its implementation. It is
essential to put in place a strong scaffolding for the new
curriculum framework. The Department is working on appropriate
key tests of learning attainment at grades 6 and 9.
It is fully recognised that the success of the implementation of
the new approach is entirely dependent on the extent to which
teachers are properly prepared to facilitate it with
understanding, and the extent to which appropriate learning
support materials are in the schools.
It was unfortunate in the extreme that the inaugural year of
Curriculum 2005 (1998) coincided with the crisis in provincial
budget management, with the result that the preparation of most
provincial education departments was seriously compromised, or
even disrupted. In both 1998 and 1999, new materials in support
of the curriculum reached the schools late in the year, despite
President Mandela's directive.
The specification, ordering, delivery and retention of learning
support materials is a critical factor in the current crisis of
school education, for which urgent solutions will be found. A
business review of the entire process in all nine provinces is
nearing completion. I have directed that the results are made
known to both the Minister of Finance and myself, so that
effective follow-up can be considered with the least possible
delay. The target that all schools must receive their materials
before the first day of school is not negotiable. We will find
the way to ensure that provincial education departments are
empowered to make it happen.
It is important to ensure that the large sums that are needed for
learning support materials each year are wisely spent and
represent the kind of value for money that is appropriate to our
circumstances as a middle-income country with a majority of poor
citizens. I have therefore directed that a study be undertaken of
the costs of producing learning support materials, after
consultation with the publishers and suppliers.
The retention of books in schools is a vital ingredient in
keeping costs down and keeping learning up. All parents,
principals and governing bodies must be made aware of their
responsibilities to ensure that this aspect of discipline is
strongly enforced, with appropriate sanctions. I commend the
Congress of South African Students for launching Operation
Mazibuye, which aims to use advocacy and persuasion at school and
community level to achieve the same result, both for school books
and other school property that may have been removed from
schools. This campaign deserves total support.
Priority 7: We must create a vibrant further education and
training system to equip youth and adults to meet the social and
economic needs of the 21st century
Further education and training (FET), as the name implies, is the
post-compulsory sector that precedes higher education. It
includes education in senior secondary schools, technical
colleges, community colleges and youth colleges, and much
training at this level by employers within commerce and industry.
Private providers are highly active in this field, and will be
subject to regulation under the Further Education and Training
Act, 1998.
As a bridge between general education and higher education or
employment, this is a vital sector for young people and adults
whose formal education has been cut short. The policy has been
settled and the legislation is in place. We must now get on with
implementation, in close co-operation with the Department of
Labour and the South African Qualifications Authority, since the
establishment of the Sector Education and Training Authorities
opens up exciting opportunities for further education and
training institutions.
There is an urgent need to review all FET programmes in the light
of community social and economic needs in the 21st century.
Language programmes, mathematics and science, and information and
communication technologies are priority areas for review.
It is essential for the FET sector to be as accessible as
possible to adult learners who were unable to continue their
education because of poverty or lack of opportunity. The sector
must set itself the goal of becoming leading practitioners in the
assessment and recognition of prior learning, gained informally
or through experience, so that able and experienced adults may be
admitted to programmes from which they could benefit.
Work on the replacement of the Senior Certificate examination by
a Further Education and Training Certificate will be taken
forward with all necessary speed. In the mean time, it is
essential for fail-safe mechanisms to be put in place to
guarantee the security of the present Senior Certificate
examination process, and avoid the slightest possibility of
criminal manipulation of the marks by anyone. The South African
Certification Council (SAFCERT) has been directed to certify the
results independently before they are announced to the public by
provincial examination authorities. I will introduce amending
legislation in Parliament this year to clarify the
responsibilities of this important statutory body and ensure that
in future there is no uncertainty about its role.
Priority 8: We must implement a rational, seamless higher
education system that grasps the intellectual and professional
challenges facing South Africans in the 21st century
The country depends on the higher education system to meet its
high level human resource needs and to be the engine for the
creation of new knowledge and innovation, and critical discourse.
Given the magnitude of our other priorities, it is unlikely that
significant additional resources will be available for higher
education, which already receives 14 per cent of the education
budget, a proportion well in line with international spending in
this area.
It is important, however, that funding levels to the sector are
sustained, while institutions become more efficient and
accountable for the utilisation of their intellectual,
infrastructural and financial resources.
Like schools, our universities, technikons and colleges must
become vibrant centres of community and cultural life.
They must provide a safe and secure environment conducive to
promoting their mission of teaching and learning, scholarship and
research, and community service. Violence of any sort and
especially violence against women will not be tolerated.
University and technikon residences must be reclaimed as safe
learning and living spaces, particularly for women students.
I am very pleased to report that the student leadership in higher
education, across a wide political spectrum, have committed
themselves to peace and stability in the sector.
I expect higher education managers to run their institutions in a
responsible and inclusive manner, which means engaging in good
faith consultation with SRCs and staff associations. Provided
that they do so, I expect student and staff bodies to exhaust all
local remedies on their own campuses before contemplating an
appeal to the Minister.
Similarly, I will expect institutional councils to account for
their legal and fiduciary responsibilities. I take seriously the
responsibility to nominate certain members on each institutional
council. I will be reviewing the appointment and performance of
such Ministerial nominees, from whom I expect a report on their
contribution to good governance in these institutions.
The shape and size of the higher education system cannot be left
to chance if we are to realise the vision of a rational, seamless
higher education system, responsive to the needs of students of
all ages and the intellectual challenges of the 21st century.
The institutional landscape of higher education will be reviewed
as a matter of urgency in collaboration with the Council on
Higher Education. This landscape was largely dictated by the
geo-political imagination of apartheid planners. As our policy
documents make clear, it is vital that the mission and location
of higher education institutions be re-examined with reference to
both the strategic plan for the sector, and the educational needs
of local communities and the nation at large in the 21st century.
This complex and difficult exercise is likely to result in
mergers between some institutions, and decisions to change the
missions of others. It is well known that institutions find it
very difficult to come to such decisions on their own. Provided
the investigation has been thorough and consultation has been
undertaken fully and in good faith, I will not hesitate to take
the necessary action with all deliberate speed.
I am committed to the wise and full development of the public
higher education system. I will not be party to inadvertent
damage to this system, or to public interests, brought about by
an unduly generous interpretation of the regulations for the
registration of private higher education institutions. The
proliferation of such institutions, both local and
trans-national, has become part of the unfolding South African
higher education landscape, as it has in other countries. This
must now be brought under strict but considered regulation,
consistent with the Constitution. I will undertake an urgent
review of the criteria and procedures for registration in terms
of the Higher Education Act, 1997. I will also seek international
advice on the management of the private, corporate and
"borderless" higher education phenomenon, and its
relationship to strategic human resource development planning
Enrolments in public higher education institutions have declined
in the past few years. The reasons need to be better understood.
The long-term sustainability of individual institutions and the
system as a whole requires that growth be promoted in a planned
and responsible manner. As part of the ongoing planning process,
I will be asking all universities and technikons to inform me of
their intake targets for the year 2000 and the recruitment
strategies for attaining these targets. These must include a
commitment to the recruitment of mature age learners, and the
application of procedures for the recognition of prior learning.
While the student composition of higher education institutions
has changed significantly over the past few years to better
reflect the demographic realities of the broader society, the
same cannot be said for the composition of the academic staff in
higher education, which largely remains white and male. I will be
giving close attention to promoting greater staff equity in the
system through an investigation of staff conditions of employment
and related matters. Institutions must be challenged to set
targets to progressively achieve greater representation of women
and black academic staff, as part of their institutional plans.
The higher education system will also be called upon to play a
central role in the building of capacity for the education system
as a whole. In particular its resources must be mobilised to
support quality pre-service and in-service teacher education and
educational management capacity building. Our faculties and
schools of education have an exceptional opportunity to inform
educational policy and practice throughout the education system
through research, critical reflection and innovation.
I am committed to building a responsive higher education system
of high quality. We have much to do. I will ask universities,
technikons and colleges to provide me with evidence to show that
they are indeed on the road to the 21st century.
Priority 9: We must deal urgently and purposefully with the
HIV/AIDS emergency in and through the education and training
system
This is the priority that underlies all priorities, for unless we
succeed, we face a future full of suffering and loss, with untold
consequences for our communities and the education institutions
that serve them.
The Ministry of Education will work alongside the Ministry of
Health to ensure that the national education system plays its
part to stem the epidemic, and to ensure that the rights of all
persons infected with the HIV virus are fully protected.