Mr David Ginsberg Chairperson of the South African Bursars of Independence Schools Association (SABISA) and other representatives
Leading Members of the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and the Institute of Administrative Management (IAM) from the United Kingdom
Also the Sponsors Standard Bank, Royal Sechaba & Alexander Forbes
Officials from WCED
Distinguished guests from SA and abroad, ladies and gentlemen
I want to talk to you about partnerships, the present and the concept of hope today. Partnerships, the present, hope. Not in any particular order. But three concepts I would like to be imprinted in your thoughts and dreams.
Earlier this year, in my meeting with the South African Independent Schools Association, we discussed a number of issues, including how our government in the province and the Independent Schools Association could work together.
Amongst others, we identified support for the International Convention of School Principals as well as sharing experiences when it comes to fundraising, financial management and accountability of our public, independent and private schools.
I am pleased to say that due to support from Minister Pandor, over 400 SA public school principals participated actively in the very successful convention in Cape Town in July. Fourty of these principals were from our province.
Now today, due to the efforts of SABISA, and David Ginsberg in particular, we meet with bursars and governing body representatives from public and independent schools. This is most pleasing.
I am convinced that the relationship we are busy building with the independent school movement will grow stronger by the day, ultimately leading to greater equity, redress and access to quality education for all our learners in the province.
The issues to be addressed today are of critical importance to education. Our Constitution guarantees access to ten years of compulsory education.
Our government is charged to progressively realise the right to free basic education. Minister Pandor, writing in the journal "New Agenda", explains the historic decision which was taken to provide for school fees within public schools.
We are now eleven years into democracy in South African, and it was fifty years ago in Kliptown, where South Africans gathered and adopted the Freedom Charter which proclaims "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white!"
The Charter also proclaims: "The doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all!" I believe that great progress has been made to ensure access to education since 1994. We have almost universal enrolment at grade 1 and the foundation phase. This has been within a fee-paying environment.
However, there have also been unintended consequences of this policy. Even the SA Schools Act is very clear that parents who cannot afford to pay the school fees set by the governing body after a duly constituted meeting of parents, may apply for full or partial exemption. However we find that many parents are not aware of this right.
The result is that certain parents do not apply, often not being informed by the school principal or administration, and then are pursued by debt collectors on instructions by the school governing body.
I have found that parents in some former model C schools, genuinely cannot afford the fees set at the parents meeting and complaining that they are not fully informed about these meetings. They say that information concerning the budget is not made available.
We confronted certain principals at the end of the year when we received a flood of complaints that report cards were being withheld from learners as their parents had not paid up in full. Both the last mentioned practices are illegal.
I do know that many schools rely on school fees to supplement the norms and standards allocation transferred to public schools and that many independent schools supplement the subsidy they receive from the WCED, to employ additional teachers and provide better infrastructure.
In 2005 our government will take the first steps to provide free education. A certain number of schools that fall within the poorest of five quintiles will be given the option of become "no-fee" schools. I fa school accepts this offer, the learners at that school will no longer pay fees.
Although the school will still be entitled to ask for donations, it will, having accepted the offer to be exempted from charging fees, no longer be permitted to charge fees. The finer mechanics will be discussed at the September meeting of the Council of Education Ministers.
I support this move and believe that the per capita norms and standards allocation that these fee-exempt schools will receive will be another step towards equity. Yes, there will be some unintended consequences such as the pull towards such schools and away from those in the vicinity that are not exempted.
I believe that the debate about allocations following the learners as opposed to the current method of determining levels of poverty and a school, needs to be deepened as resolution on this matter could possibly assist access to all schools.
But never in our lifetime will schools cease to generate additional income. This is because the human spirit desires better, wants more and remains hopeful that today is better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today.
Hope, in the sense used by Vaclav Havel, continues to abound our province and within education. It is not blind faith. Rather hope is based on an assessment of our current conditions and an understanding that through our actions and deeds, we are able to influence the present and the future. This is what we are doing here today.
I would like to see us not only imparting knowledge, values and attitudes but also reflecting on how we generalise the competencies of our school bursars and school governing bodies. Do we need an association of these very important practitioners?
Do we need to formalise our partnerships with the WCED and the private sector to ensure ongoing support for our schools? How do we build lasting relationships with our partners on the continent and throughout the world? I urge you to consider these questions.
In the last eleven years, our country has achieved a lot, and one of the reasons for this was because of the outstanding contributions of the many captains of industry and our business community.
I think of our beloved former President Nelson Mandela, who, even after retirement, has been cross-crossing the country into the remotest of rural areas with business leaders.
He would then ask the business leaders for money for a school or a clinic for a particular community - and of course no one said NO to him. So, thanks to our business people, we have been able to achieve many a great deal in regard to our national objectives.
One of the key programmes identified as part of our Reconstruction and Development Programme in 1994, was the development of our human resources, which included the transformation of our education system.
Unlike before 1994 when we had various education departments, we now have one single department, with a uniformed curriculum and examination standards. There has been a shift away from apartheid allocation of resources, to a more equitable and just regime.
Learner enrolment numbers across all grades have increased, there are now slightly more girls enrolled than boys. Learner-to-class ratio's are down; and literacy rates have increased. And whilst there has been an increase in the matriculation pass rate, there has been a decline in the absolute numbers.
There have been slight increases in the number of people completing grade 12 and in completing tertiary education, suggesting that the skills profile of the country is improving.
It is clear however that we are not producing sufficient learners for higher education and also not providing the knowledge and skills in sufficient numbers required by our economy.
In the last ten years the Western Cape economy has grown and consistently outperformed the national economy. But unemployment keeps rising. A disproportionate 46% in the age group 16 - 25 years are unemployed. That means that, right now, nearly half of our recent graduates are sitting at home.
At the same time our provincial population is growing, and we are experiencing “in-migration” - an estimated 48,000 per annum, or 1% per annum, typically under 36 years of age.
South Africa currently has a projected growth rate of 4% in 2005, compared to around 2% and 3% in the preceding years. But the lack of skills in our country poses a serious threat to our ability to sustain the expected economic development boom in the run-up to 2010.
In his State of Nation Address earlier, President Thabo Mbeki called on us to raise the skills levels of our people. Accordingly, the government has approved a new National Skills Development Strategy for the next five years at the cost of R21,9 billion.
This includes improved co-operation between the SETA's on one hand, and our Further Education and Training Colleges and the institutions of higher education on the other.
The transformation of our education system includes addressing such issues as access, equity and redress; and improving the skills profile of our country to secure the long-term sustainability of our democracy and economy.
Our Constitution, the White Paper 4 on Education and Training, the SA Schools Act, the FET Act and the Skills Development Act compel us to seek innovative ways of ensuring that all citizens of our country are given the opportunity to realise their full potential.
Over the past number of years, we have witnessed a progressive change in the nature of work and its intensity in relation to school and college organisation, curricula and teaching methodology and even in students’ attitudes.
Education, in particular, therefore, has no recourse but to accept the responsibility of preparing everybody to successfully live, learn and work in today and tomorrow’s society.
In pursue of the vision of a Home for All under the Leadership of our Premier Ebrahim Rasool, our Provincial Government have adopted an economic development plan, Ikapa Elihlumayo - to grow and share the Cape.
There are a number of lead strategies, which underpin Ikapa Elihlumayo: the Micro Economic Development Strategy under MEC Tasneem Essop; the Social Capital Development Strategy under MEC Koleka Mqulwana; and the Infrastructural Development Strategy under MEC Marius Fransman. As Education we have been mandated to lead the Human Capital Development Strategy, with a focus on youth.
In pursuit of our vision of a Learning Home for All, the mission of our Human Capital Development Strategy is to ensure that all our learners acquire the relevant skills, knowledge, values and behaviour they need to realise their full potential, lead fulfilling lives, contribute to building their communities, contribute to the growth of our economy, and be internationally competitive.
The contributions of all of you to this initiative, is perfectly in line with the objectives of our Human Capital Development Strategy, which identify social networks as a key component of our Human Capital Development Strategy.
Our strategy describes Social Capital as networks in communities "that enable it to take responsibility for, and to take leadership in projects that are designed to improve the conditions of the collective in that community. In doing so, the community mobilizes and exploits the varied resources available to it to meet its identified objectives."
Last Friday we honoured some of our best teachers in various categories, to show our appreciation for them, and acknowledge and encourage them in their efforts to develop our young people as better South Africans.
We have also announced that the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will add 292 posts to the total number of teaching posts, to meet new demands and to provide additional support to poorer schools in 2006 - in other words, no teacher will loose his job.
This will increase the total number of teaching posts from 30,080 to 30,372. The department is currently informing schools about the allocations, following consultations with teacher unions, principals associations and school governing bodies.
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. Therefore, some of the creative ways we are looking at using the additional posts to enhance education next year, include the following:
- Using posts to ensure curriculum redress and support strategic programmes, for example the Dinaledi schools to improve mathematics and science results;
- Allocating 21 posts to other focus schools to support subjects in Arts and Culture, Engineering, Agriculture and Business Management;
- Allocating 70 posts to our Education Management and Development Centres (EMDCs), to provide additional support to clusters of schools, which 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;
- 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 provide resources for between 300 and 450 assistants.
The overall basket of posts will include the 458 ad hoc posts we added last year. Some of these posts will go to small, combined schools offering secondary education. We will use most of these posts to improve the teacher: learner ratio where this support is needed the most. We are firm in our hope and even firmer in our resolve.
Our President Thabo Mbeki has called on all of us to assist with growing the economy by six percent. This is critical if we hope to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014. I think we all agree that education and training is central to the growth of our economy - there cannot be one without the other.
So, 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 grow fast enough.
In addition to our teacher deployment plans for 2006, we have already put in place a myriad of initiatives and programmes to fast-track the skills profile of our country, including providing an innovative framework for developing and implementing sector and workplace strategies to improve workers' skills.
We are firm in our hope because we see evidence of the willingness of our social partners to join hands as we urgently seek ways of addressing the human capital shortfall amongst our youth. This is why we know that tomorrow will be better than today. But we relish in the present. Today, we right here are the creators of hope.
Creating opportunities for personal growth and opportunity for advancement for young people through this initiative, you are investing in communities and contribute to the national effort of broadening the skills base of our country.
With bringing the independent and the public education sector together, I am sure we can all learn from each other on the importance of managing resources effectively.
It is of utmost importance that the necessary skills are developed and mastered, in order to manage the funds and resources of especially our public schools more effectively, efficiently and economically.
This initiative fits in perfectly with the aims and objectives identified by the national strategy document A Nation at Work for a Better Life for All. This is exactly what our Western Cape Capital Development Strategy envisages.
Some South Africans wonder if we have the capacity to host the World Cup 2010. If only they realised that the world has enough confidence in our ability.
The world and FIFA in particular did not take this decision in blind faith. They made this decision because they have hope in South Africa, they have hope for Africa.
Through these types of partnerships, we celebrate opportunity, we celebrate the spirit of corporate social responsibility and sound economic investment.
Let's work hard. And think back to today as the day when we acted in the present. A day when we embraced partnerships, a day when hope became real to us.
So, once again, thank you to all of 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
