Members of the Church Council
Members of the Congregation
Brothers and Sisters
Guests and Visitors
Thank you very much for this invitation, and thank you very much for all the prayers. I am humbled by your gesture.
Former President Nelson Mandela once said: "It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another".
And therefor Ladies and Gentlemen, giving each and every child - especially from our previously disadvantaged communities - an equal chance in life to rise above his or her circumstance is what drives me most, in terms of my vision for education in this province.
When I came into office in May last year, I found a situation where, for instance, some of our children still have to get up in the early morning hours to take a bus, and drive past an existing school in the town to an adjacent town of some 10 kilometres or further away. When one asks "why?", the answer was "that school is full". And yet the school to which the learners are being transport, is doubly overcrowded.
I found a situation where there are two schools in a town, one historically white with empty classrooms, low learner numbers and lots of resources. The other school in the historically disadvantaged community is normally overcrowded and have very few resources, with parents battling to keep up with the payment of school fees because of poverty levels.
When one asks "why not amalgamate?", the standard answer is: "it will lead to the lowering of standards, safety concerns and overcrowding...".
I found a situation where some schools have more than 12ha of land, a fully-fledged sportsfield, school hall, fully equipped science laboratory, television, technological and digital equipment; and computer lab with internet access.
On the other hand, when I came into office, twelve schools in the rural areas did not even have electricity or proper sanitation facilities! Let alone any of the other facilities...
I am also very irritated and frustrated with some of the practices of some of our schools. For example, to mention just a few.
A primary school in Rondebosch last year had two grade 1 learners punished with detention for some hours, ostensibly because they drew pornographic pictures.
Some of our schools request our learners to write an aptitude test as part of their admissions policy. In some cases, they require non-refundable admin fees, they won't accept a learner unless the parent pays a deposit, and various other admission requirements and fee policies.
Teachers from a primary school in the Kraaifontein area had a learner driven with a police van, locked him in a cell for some hours, just because he did not do his homework. And as the Provincial Minister I am now being sued by the parents.
Many of our schools are withholding school reports of learners because of the inability of parents to settle the outstanding school fees, which is illegal.
When I came into office, I found a situation where some schools have up to 60 and even 80 learners in a classroom, and some have numbers as low as 25.
Guests, friends and members of the congregation, these are just some examples I am citing, to illustrate to you the state in which I found our education system. And therefor the challenges for this year and my entire term in office, are enormous.
The most serious challenge that confronted me last year, was the possible retrenchment of up to 2,000 teachers. I must confess, Reverend, normally I am somebody who deal with challenges confidently and to the best of my abilities, but that was a period during which I was a bit depressed.
Needless to say, this has seriously threatened the stability of education and the teaching profession in the Western Cape. I therefor want to thank the Premier Ebrahim Rasool, my colleague MEC Lynne Brown and my Minister, Naledi Pandor, for the additional funding, which not only helped save 1,800 teaching posts, but also employ an additional 365 teachers.
The Premier has put the vision for this Western Cape Government as a Home for All. To realize this vision, we have adopted an economic development strategy, which we refer to as Ikapa Elihlumayo - to grow and share the Cape.
When this government was sworn in, the Premier has launched a 100 days delivery campaign. As education we had to complete the building of and move learners of the Usasazo High School in Maitland to Khayelitsha.
I am happy to say that we delivered on this, which means hundreds of pupils do not have to get up early every morning and come home late at night. This also means we are saving R3 million per year in bus transport.
Secondly, we had to make sure that 50% of twelve schools still without electricity, must have been electrified. We have exceeded this target, and again, there is now not a single school without electricity.
Similarly, the Premier has now instructed us to deliver before the end of April, the following:
- Start-up kits for 30 Grade R sites in poor areas
- 80 bursaries for Maths and Science teachers
- Sod turning for 7 new schools
- 320 high schools to have computer labs
So, ladies and gentlemen, you can see we are starting to feel the heat. The President and the Premier are driving us to work day and night.
In addition to the Premier's April targets, this year some of the most daunting challenges for us will include the following:
- Finalise the Provincial Human Resource Development Strategy with a focus on youth, to meet the demands of the new economy.
- Thoroughly prepare the department and our learners and parents for the implementation of Further Education and Training, which is the new curriculum to be implemented from next year, designed to give our children practical skills to assist them in acquiring jobs relevant to the economy.
- Finalise our policy of when is a school full. At the moment we have a guideline of 35 - 38. If we want to create a climate for the provisioning of quality education, we need to bring down the numbers of overcrowded classrooms, and make optimal use of available space.
- Ensure that the building programme to deliver 27 new schools by March next year, is on track and on target.
- Completion of our land audit of under and unutilised education property for possible alienation to generate additional funds to build extra schools we need, faster.
- By the end of this year all our historically disadvantaged high schools should be equipped with sattelite dish, TV and VCR, which will give them access to various learning programmes.
- Transformation of the civil service, especially with regards to employment equity and representivity
- Challenging the unconstitutional and illegal practices of some of our schools, including the use of ever increasing school fees, which makes education almost inaccessible for most of our learners.
- With regards to our programme of building human capital, we want every school to have a dynamic Representative Council of Learners (RCL) and School Governing Body (SGB), and that these are organised at a provincial level to become a partner with the WCED in the provisioning of education.
- I also want to form an Association of Retired and ex-Teachers, to utilize their skills to further improve the quality of our education.
Wednesday, 19 January, saw the opening of schools for the year 2005, and I am happy that in most of our schools learning and teaching started on time.
Our early registration campaign and open day last year, in which parents were encouraged to apply early and check whether their child has been accepted, assisted a great deal in the largely smooth opening of schools.
However, there are too many parents who are still registering their children on day one. Also, I was very disappointed with the fact that some of our bus contractors left hundreds of learners, especially on the rural areas, stranded.
It is sad that, ten years into our new democracy, we are still faced with resistance against transformation from some communities. In Montague, finally all the learners of the town - African, White and Coloured - now for the first time are going to the local former model-C school, which is the only high school in the town. Most of them have been bused to an adjacent town, whilst there was space in this school. They mounted a legal challenge, but gave way eventually.
You may also know from news reports that the primary schools Mikro in Kuilsriver, and Kronendal in Hout Bay, also intend mounting legal challenges against the department. In the case of Mikro, we have instructed it to accept an english class, because of the demands of the local community. We are going to court on Tuesday.
In the case of Hout Bay, we experience accommodation problems. Two other schools in the area have assisted government with the accommodation of extra learners. But Kronendal is not prepared to, even as an interim measure for this year as we are trying to speed up the building of a high school for that area.
The issue of learner accommodation is a problem not only experienced by us, but by also by provinces like Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. We have experienced a growth of 832,000 learners in 1995, to 912,000 in 2004, which is about 80,000 learners. Just last year alone, our system has recorded an increase of 24,000 learners.
There is a perception that this is due to people coming from the Eastern Cape only, which is not true. The people coming here are from all over the country and even abroad. Also those coming from the rural areas, as well as the many children who grow up who stay in Cape Town.
At the moment about half of the roughly 80,000 learners who enter the education system, drop out just before they reach grades 10, 11 or 12. One of the ways in which we want to improve on this, is to provide our learners renewed opportunities with FET, so that they also have the option of completing their 12 years of schooling at an FET college.
But parents have the biggest contribution to make, by encouraging our children to go to school, by being positive role models, and not take them out of school to go and work at an early age.
We must also encourage our children to take subjects such as mathematics, science and accounting on the higher grade. Our country has a shortage of professionals in these career fields, which need these subjects as a prerequisite.
If they study further, these subjects will ensure that they get good jobs, which will lead to them leading secure lives.
As parents, I also urge you to become involved in the life of the school, by paying your school fees if you can, take part in fundraising activities, attending meetings and raise your views.
These are but some of the enormous challenges for us in education. And for Government to effectively address these challenges, we are going to seek partnerships with labour, business, local government, NGO's and social partners like the church.
Our schools and education system cannot operate in a vacuum and require wider, sustained support, including spiritual and moral guidance.
We must build on the successes of last year and work hard to ensure quality education in each and every one of our 1,471 schools. In this way we will create a learning home for all our children.
Thank you
For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi: 082 550 3938, or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.
Gert Witbooi
Media Secretary
Office of the MEC for Education
Western Cape
Tel: 021 467 2523
Fax: 021 425 5689
Visit our website: http://wced.wcape.gov.za
INtshona Koloni - iKhaya loMntu wonke
Die Wes-Kaap - 'n Tuiste vir Almal
