Thank you Master of Ceremonies

I wish to acknowledge the following people:
Ron Swartz, SG of the WCEDBrian Schreuder, DDG: Education Planning and Development of the WCED Ndo Miti and Sindi Shayi, both Chief Directors and all other officials of the WCED Sir Rupert Gull, Senior Representative from Barclays Western Cape Mr Frank Petersen, General Manager: Retail Bank, ABSA Western Cape Kobus van Wyk, Ingrid Graham and the rest of the Khanya Team Councillors and CommunityLeaders Principals and teachers of the schools present Parents and members of the SGBs Business leaders, distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen

I think you will agree with me that education is fundamental in the development of our country, our province and our communities. It is a fundamental weapon in the fight against poverty and for creating work.

The donation of the calculators and school bags by the employees of both Absa and Barlclays banks, is a significant signal of the commitment and patriotism of caring fellow South Africans.

Our country has been able to achieve a lot in the last ten years, thanks in no small measure to the gestures of many ordinary citizens and corporate and business leaders. But we also acknowledge that a lot more needs to be done. So, thank you to Absa and Barclays for taking the lead.

The vision of our provincial government is to build a Home for All. To arrive at this vision, we have adopted an economic development strategy - Ikapa Elihlumayo - to grow and share the Cape.

As one of the lead strategies, which underpin Ikapa Elihlumayo, we as education have been tasked with the Human Capital Development Strategy, with a focus on youth.

The other lead strategies are: the Micro Economic Development Strategy led by MEC Tasneem Essop; the Social Capital Development Strategy led by MEC Koleka Mqulwana; and the Infrastructural Development Strategy led by MEC Marius Fransman. The key values that underpin the vision and mission of our Human Capital Development Strategy are based fundamentally on our Constitution.

Our strategy seeks to increase participation and success rates of learners in the General Education and Training band; and FET in both schools and colleges; and increase the number of FET learners who qualify to enter higher education institutions, especially for learners from poor families.

But we face some serious challenges in our duty to grow and share the Cape. In fact, just last week we have been brutally reminded of some of the challenges we face in providing the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to build the Western Cape as a Home for All.

The levels of numeracy and literacy among our learners in all grades, and the performance of our schools in mathematics and science, are important indicators of our reversal of, and liberation from, the legacies of apartheid in education.

I have therefore made a decision, that, if nothing else during my term, turning the tide against the low levels of literacy and numeracy, is going to be one of my five key priorities. All issues in education are very important, but reading, writing and counting, in proper, safe facilities, are absolutely fundamental to quality education.

Numeracy and literacy are fundamental components of our curricula, as well as our Human Capital Development Strategy in the Western Cape. The curricula recognises that the development of high levels of language use and numeracy are key to all learning.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has an ongoing programme to address the low levels of numeracy and literacy. Results have shown that while there has been a slight improvement, they still fall far short of what is required.

Whilst on the one hand we are making progress to varying degrees, it is clear that we have to coordinate, monitor and evaluate more effectively to make a real difference. And therefor we have set up a high-level task team and introduced various strategies to improve performance in numeracy and literacy.

I believe that the key ingredients to making a decisive breakthrough in the levels of literacy and numeracy, are Early Childhood Development, mother-tongue based education, class sizes and competently, qualified and highly motivated teachers.

In terms of our Human Capital Development Strategy, we are working in a coordinated, integrated approach to expanding access to ECD by all pre-schoolers in the province, especially in our poorest communities, in conjunction with our colleagues and partners in health, social services, the provincial and local government and civil society.

Whilst we have universal enrolment of children aged 6 to 15, not all 5 year olds have access to Grade R. Our goal is to provide quality Grade R schooling for all 5-year-olds by 2010, and to make it compulsory from 2014.

Various studies have shown a direct link between language and performance, and professor Van der Berg's findings have also indicated to this. I therefor think that we must launch a massive advocacy campaign to make our parents aware of the need for their children to have a solid foundation in their mother-tongue.

Next year we are looking at allocating the equivalent of about 100 posts to employ teacher assistants, to assist Foundation Phase teachers in their efforts to improve numeracy and literacy results. Funding for the 100 posts could potentially provide resources for between 300 and 600 assistants.

And there is some debate about what the level of payments should be, and whether such assistants should be funded by the department directly, or via school governing bodies.

My view is that these assistants should be deployed to the poorest, overcrowded schools, especially on farm schools where there are multi-grade classrooms. We shall also be guided by the research results.

Besides addressing the poor literacy and numeracy levels, the other priorities for me include:

• School safety;
• Infrastructure provisioning;
• The implementation of the National Curriculum Statement in schools and FET Colleges; and
• The re-engineering and transformation of the Western Cape Education Department

President Thabo Mbeki has challenged us to grow the economy by six percent, to halve unemployment in the next decade and fight poverty. However a key barrier to growing the economy, is the lack of the necessary human resources and skills.

Some of the biggest areas of growth in the job market in the next few years, are going to be in the fields of engineering, science, information technology and accountancy. Therefor we need to produce more learners taking the subjects of maths, science and technology to move into these careers.

However, last year, in the whole of the country only five percent of almost 500,000 candidates passed maths on the higher grade. In the Western Cape alone, of the 4,268 Maths Higher Grade candidates, only 1,478 were black. Even worse, only 305 African learners passed Maths Higher Grade.

These figures, together with the low levels of literacy and numeracy, makes one begin to understand why Sasol this year had to import about two-thousand engineers. And economists estimate that our country will need at least 13,000 engineers a year, of which we currently produce just above 3,000. I am sure the captains of industry present here can confirm this.

Right now, say our economic experts, there is about half-a-million vacancies in the industries of communications and information technology, finance and accounting services, and other professional services. But it cannot be filled because we do not have enough students who study mathematics, science or accountancy, who opt for these career paths.

The International Soccer ruling body FIFA, has just inspected some of our stadiums, and the Premier has given the commitment that the Athlone stadium will be upgraded extensively, as well as other infrastructural programmes.

But the question is: do we have enough engineers and other skills to be able to cope with this? Even here in the Western Cape, in the Department of Transport and Public Works 74% of posts for engineers are vacant.

And therefor, unless we are able to improve the quality of our performance in mathematics, science and accountancy, or seek innovative ways of meeting these targets, our economy is not going to grow at the targeted rate of 6%, and we are going to have to rely on imported skills for a very long time.

The Western Cape Education Department has already put in place various initiatives designed to improve learner performance in these subjects across the board in the Western Cape. The strategy includes teacher training, materials development, diagnostic testing and special interventions.

One such special intervention programme is the Centre for Science and Technology (COSAT) in Khayelitsha, which shows that good teaching and motivated learners can succeed in the poorest of communities.

COSAT is one of only nine schools in the Western Cape in which all candidates studied maths for the Senior Certificate examinations in 2004. The number of candidates at COSAT has grown significantly, from 30 in 2003 to 53 in 2004. The school has achieved a 100% pass rate in the matric exams over the past three years.

All 53 candidates opted to write maths on the higher grade last year. Of these, 32 passed on the higher grade and 21 on the standard grade. Thirty-two candidates passed physical science on the higher grade and 12 on the standard grade.

These are outstanding results for any school. The challenge facing us will be to replicate these results across the province in the years to come. We have therefor taken a decision to increase the number of Dinaledi schools in the Western Cape from 10 currently to 50, and will announce details at a launch event later.

I am also happy to say that, unlike what was the case last year with the possible retrenchments of up to 2,000 teachers, we will no add 292 teaching posts, to meet new demands and to provide additional support to poorer schools.

Some of the creative ways in which we want to use the extra posts, include ensuring curriculum redress to support strategic programmes, for example by allocating 50 posts to our Dinaledi schools to improve Mathematics results.

In addition to the normal allocation, which a school qualifies for, 21 further posts will be allocated to other focus areas, to support subjects in Arts and Culture, Engineering, Agriculture and Business Management.

We are considering allocating 70 additional posts to our Education Management and Development Centres (EMDCs) in each district, to provide additional support to clusters of schools.

Educators holding these posts could include lead teachers for subjects such as Mathematics or Science, education project managers, itinerant isiXhosa teachers and experienced school managers who could provide support for principals.

Our Khanya Technology in Education project has also identified more than 100 schools where the department is using information and communication technology to support curriculum delivery in mathematics. Early studies have shown that this approach is contributing to improving results.

One example of a school benefitting from this intervention, is the Atlantis Secondary School. I am told that learners use the educational software package, Master Maths, for support in Mathematics. Already it has made a difference.

I am particularly pleased to hear that, although up until 2002 Mathematics Higher Grade (HG) was not considered a priority at Atlantis Secondary, more than twenty candidates are writing the final Grade Twelve Mathematics HG examination 2005. This is a phenomenal achievement in such a short period of time and can be attributed to the effective support of our Khanya team.

Khanya strives to improve learner performances in Mathematics and to enable more learners to enter for the study of Mathematics on the higher grade so that they qualify for admission to university study and fields from which they were previously excluded.

I want to challenge our Khanya Team and all the high schools in Atlantis to plough even more of their energy and resources into exploring the advantages they can derive from the programme, and to double the number of quality maths, science, and accountancy outputs in the next three to four years.

But while all of these interventions are important, there are no quick fixes. Our interventions have shown what can be done. Our challenge is to replicate the small pockets of successes across the province.

If we want to expand and sustain our economy, we need to produce even more learners passing maths, science and accountancy, and enrolling in the relevant courses.

The task of education provisioning and skills development require significant investment, both in terms of human and financial capital. The challenges of improving the performances of our schools and the implementation of the new curriculum, are huge and Government needs partners if it wants to succeed.

The donation of these calculators therefore will enhance the learning experience and the quality of education in the classroom, which is an integral part of the answer to the President's call for a six percent growth in the economy, to create more work and fight poverty.

Mobilising partnerships, friends and business acquaintances in fighting poverty and creating work, is a key component of our Human Capital Development Strategy, which is about social networks - communities taking responsibility for, and leadership in projects that are designed to improve the conditions of the collective in that community.

Socially responsible corporate citizens and the commitment of business can contribute enormously to sustainable social and economic development. The involvement of business in education, training and skills development creates opportunities for business to transfer skills and share ideas. These networks provide a platform for business and government to talk and strategise together.

So once again, thanks very much for your sustained involvement and commitment. I am told the schools will be the owners of the calculators, which means more learners will be able to use it. This is a valuable contribution to our overall efforts of building a learning home for all.

Thank you very much.

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