Esteemed members of the Press Club
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is almost exactly halfway through my term of Office; so I thought that this occasion would be an opportune time for me to share with you some reflections and challenges since being appointed as MEC for Education in the Western Cape shortly after the elections of April 2004.
It has been a tough and challenging period, but also one in which I believe important steps have been taken along the road to a Learning Home for All.
Our key challenge is to ensure that every school is able to deliver the National Curriculum Statement giving every learner the opportunity to develop their full potential.
Besides developing the full potential of every learner and providing quality general education and training, we also have a responsibility to develop the human capital in our province to ensure that we produce learners with the knowledge and skills to contribute to the economic growth of our country and province.
As a provincial education department, we also have the responsibility for the six Further Education and Training Colleges in the Province and it is these colleges, which have a critical role to play in skills development aligned to the Micro Economic Development Strategy of the Western Cape.
The fact that we have not been producing sufficient numbers of matrics qualifying for entrance to higher education especially from historically disadvantaged schools and matrics with mathematics and science, remains a huge challenge.
While the setting up of 50 Dinaledi (Maths, Science and Technology) and 28 other focus schools is, I believe, improving quality of passes in these key subjects, our challenge remains quality in each and every school.
When I came into Office, 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, twelve schools in the rural areas did not even have electricity!
I am proud to say that as I speak there is not a single school in our province today, which does not have access to electricity and also that every high school now has a computer lab.
The fact that 419 of our schools voluntarily accepted the status of no-fee schools this year and that they and some additional schools will be declared no-fee schools by Minister Naledi Pandor later this year, will bring relief to many of our mainly rural schools. At the same time, over 650 of our 1,500 schools do not have school halls and many do not have sportsfields.
While the introduction and gradual expansion of no-fee schools will greatly assist in the day to day running of our schools, it is clear that dedicated funding to overcome the historic inequalities in regard to school infrastructure will be required.
The National Department of Education's process of compiling a national audit of needs at all our schools with a view to presenting a consolidated bid to treasury will hopefully lead to additional resources for this purpose.
I have also been encouraged by efforts by Minister Pandor to provide incentives to our educators. As you may very well know, the Education Labour Relations Council earlier agreed on a R4.2 billion package to encourage and reward teachers.
This agreement provides for improved career pathing for qualified post level one teachers, as well as accelerated salary progression for all teachers on certain salary levels.
The agreement makes provision for the new rank of Master Teacher. We can promote Senior Teachers on Salary Level 8 to the rank of Master Teacher on Salary Level 9, if they meet performance criteria determined by the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS).
The agreement on accelerated pay progression now enables teachers to progress more rapidly through a salary level, for example, by three notches after three years of good performance. Teachers can also achieve three notch increases over five years, for example, if they achieve three good performance ratings during this period.
Whilst on the one hand we must make sure that the conditions of service of teachers is continuously improved, I learnt from my trip to the UK last year, that the single most important contributing factor in 80% of successful, effective schools, is LEADERSHIP. If our schools are effectively led and managed by principals and senior management, great success can be achieved.
We can never invest enough in building the leadership of our schools and moves at a national level towards ensuring that every aspirant principal will have to complete a Diploma in School Leadership and Management before being able to apply for such a post, will have a fundamental impact on the management of our schools.
The challenges we face in seeking to transform education range from the basics, such as providing enough classrooms, to the complex task of ensuring that our learners achieve the outcomes required by the national curriculum.
That is why I have declared six key priorities for the WCED to focus on as we start implementing our Human Capital Development Strategy and meet the challenges identified by our President and Premier, especially in the area of skills development.
The priorities are not only applicable for the 2006/7 Budget Year, but in fact, for the rest of my term of office, namely: Literacy and Numeracy; Further Education and Training in schools and FET colleges; Infrastructure Provisioning; School Safety; Redesign of the WCED; and building Social Capital in Education.
We have a duty to ensure that all of our learners achieve the outcomes required by the national curriculum, especially in our poorest schools. We have to start at the beginning with reading, writing and calculating in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases, from Grades R to 6.
The WCED has been studying learner performance in Literacy and Numeracy in Grades 3 and 6 over the past few years. This is arguably the most complex and difficult task we face as we seek to provide quality education for all.
Our learners are already showing improved scores in our system-wide provincial testing. Our Grade 6's of 2005 showed a 7% improvement in Literacy scores and 2% in Numeracy since the previous tests in 2003. However, with only 42% of learners scoring at the required level for Literacy and 17% for Numeracy, it is clear that we still have a long way to go.
We have recently announced a strengthened, sustainable and coordinated Literacy and Numeracy strategy for the Western Cape. I don't believe there are quick fixes but if we are able to place this strategy at the centre of all our endeavours and provide sustained support to our teachers in the classroom, we can turn the situation around. The first thing our new strategy does is spell out a theoretical framework for teachers and teaching.
The new curriculum, the National Curriculum Statement, for the first time stipulates the specific assessment standards for each grade. This means that teachers now have a good map for the skills needed and the required pace of development.
Our approach emphasizes the explicit teaching of phonics in the context of a whole language approach and also that mental skill and competency are a critical aspect of becoming numerate - there is thus clearly a place for drill and practice with regards to mental mathematics.
Our strategy is based on three key strands, which is Teacher Support and Development; promotion of Mother-Tongue based Bilingual education; and advocacy for community and family literacy.
We have a new curriculum with a fundamentally different approach to teaching and learning. World-wide there are discrepancies between the intended curriculum and that which is actually taught in the classrooms.
Our teachers have to have "time out" so they can stock up on new skills. And they need more than a quick workshop at the end of a long hard day. The training that we envisage for teachers will be very carefully designed.
I have just declared that the basket of posts will grow by 500 next year to 30,872 at a cost of R83.5m. It represents the highest increase in the number of posts over this period.
The total number of learners in the Western Cape has stabilised between 919,000 and 920,000 over the past two years, in Grades 1 to 12. Despite this trend, the WCED has continued to increase the total number of teaching posts to address specific challenges.
While I agree that this allocation does not make any significant impact on our teacher-learner ratio, which is currently 39:1 for primary schools and 35:1 for high schools, the situation cannot be described as a 'crisis'.
We continually have to balance the demands of personnel and non-personnel expenditure and the declaration of an extra 500 posts was the best scenario, which could be managed for 2007. I remain convinced that as a country we need to move towards improved teacher-learner ratios especially in our primary schools.
Strengthening of Early Childhood Development, for Grade R and pre-grade R remains a critical part of our strategy. Here again investment in the quality of our pre-school and grade R educators as well the creation of safe and resource-rich centres, are fundamental. I have already increased the subsidy for grade R sites from R3 to between R6 and R8 per learner per day in the poorest communities.
With regards to language, research tells us clearly that our children have better chances of educational success if they learn through their mother-tongue for as long as possible. Therefor we have a duty to tell parents this and we must help our schools to manage this better.
The first target of our language-in-education transformation plan is that, wherever possible, learners should have mother-tongue instruction until the end of Grade 6 at the earliest.
A second part of our transformation plan is to introduce at least three years of trilingualism for all our learners before the end of the GET band. We plan to make sure that all three of the languages of the province are given status.
I firmly believe that paying proper attention to supporting learning through the mother-tongue and helping teachers to manage both this and making sure that their learners get excellent teaching of English as a second language will help make a major difference in the schools where learners are really struggling to meet the performance demands.
We must admit that those inside the classroom need help, we don't have to, or we cannot provide all the solutions in our classrooms. We must ask what are the literacy levels in our learners' homes? Do their parents read? Can their parents read? Is there anything to read?
Do family members TALK to one another? Do they tell stories? Does the child belong to a library? Read for pleasure? Do our parents know exactly how to help their children? Have we tried training them to offer good support at home?
While the classroom itself remains the key, because of the skills of the teacher and the resources of the school, I am calling for a provincial campaign which goes far beyond the classroom walls and which gathers momentum in families, communities and workplaces. I hope that the rallying call of "Each One Teach One" will be taken up in the media, in the homes and in the streets of our province.
Earlier this year we appointed 510 Teaching Assistants to support Foundation Phase teachers in poor schools across the province, where they have the greatest need for this kind of support.
The Teaching Assistants are helping teachers to improve the Literacy and Numeracy skills of learners in the Foundation Phase in schools, which covers Grades 1 to. I am looking forward to the outcome of the study into how this intervention impacted in our over efforts to improve quality.
We are focusing on developing skills needed to meet the objectives of the provinces Micro Economic Development Strategy, by increasing numbers in our FET colleges, while also encouraging learners to enter Higher Education, especially those planning to study maths, science and technology.
Thanks to thorough preparation in our schools and by the WCED administration, we are firmly implementing the new national curriculum for Grades 10 to 12, starting with Grade 10 this year.
I think it's important for the media and the general public to understand that the curriculum revision for this country was long overdue. Most subjects have been running on a syllabus dating back to the 1980s and some back to the 70s.
Post-1994 there were major revisions to school history syllabi, but generally subjects have been governed by interim steps set out in 1996 which simply drew all the disparate syllabi from the different racially-segregated departments into one common one.
The new curriculum is thus a much-needed curriculum for the 21st century. There is definitely much new content. Critically there is a new approach as well - a learner-centred and investigative one, which demands high-order critical thinking. The old model where the "body of knowledge" lay in the text book has been exploded with the knowledge-revolution of the information age.
Our children need all the old skills (the so-called) basics but there's a "new basic" been added: that's "information literacy" - the skills to de-code, de-construct, investigate, explore, select, classify and then to "en-code" - write it all up in a coherent way.
But any period of curriculum shift is a challenge for a teacher who needs to master the new content him or herself, manage the pace of learning and set and maintain standards.
You will remember that the introduction of the new curriculum into this country was called "Curriculum 2005" because that was the year the first Grade 12 class would have graduated with the new certificate.
The process of implementation was slowed as Curriculum 2005 was revised so that we could have a better chance of getting it right, And now we're finally there; we're into the FET implementation period and we all need to work together to ensure that this is a success.
Some schools reported disappointing results in the press and resulted in a public debate about the curriculum and the June exams. Preliminary analyses though suggest that not all schools are reporting poor results. Nobody is planning to be careless about this critical period.
I'm pleased that schools have signaled their problems in fact and allowed us to step in to support. Many schools have taken very practical steps themselves to work smarter. That's what tests are all about - they are a means of diagnosing so that one can know what to do next. I hope that the media and parents will do all they can to support our children in this time.
Generally we'd love parents to take an active part in the learning life of their children. With new demands our learners also need career guidance, motivation and ongoing support. Our biggest drop-out of learners has always been at the Grade 10 level.
It is for this reason that special care must be taken in subject selection for the FET band. Our campaign to grow enrolment at FET Colleges at this point is also part of our wish to grow the pool of learners who experience learning success, who value education, and who stay in the system until they have a viable qualification.
We have a good system of loans for intending college students and additional money is being directed to our FET Colleges, via a re-capitalisation project. We will shortly be placing supplements into the media to support our enrolment drive and would value it if you could attract high-profile extra attention to this campaign.
Back to the schooling system and supporting the implementation of the new curriculum: What are we doing? Part of the solution clearly lies in ongoing teacher development with strong focus on content based knowledge of the subjects. The orientation provided across the province has assisted but can never replace ongoing development of our teachers.
As the National Curriculum Statement is introduced over the next year into Grades 8 and 9 there will be better system alignment.. We will continue to increase funds spent on Learner and Teaching Support Materials for learners.
We are engaging actively with schools and have provided extra support with study skills material. The department is supplying teachers with exemplars of grade 10 exams; as well as a Manual on exam setting; and workshops to mediate the manual.
In the October/November exams this year, we will introduce a pilot national exam in ten schools, each one writing three national subjects. Next year all schools will write a common national grade 11 exam as part of preparing our first cohort of 2008 matrics who will write the senior certificate exam in terms of the new curriculum.
The department will work with our schools to develop a policy that ensures all learners spend at least five hours a day minimum contact time with teachers even during our exams period.
We are looking at developing guidelines to bridge the gap between the GET and FET especially in subjects requiring specific foundational skills, example Accounting.
We are also developing courses in consolidating numeracy with teachers in Grade 8 with a view to expansion (to help bridge the gap between primary and high school).
I honestly don't think there is reason to panic. I know that the graduates of our new programmes will be better equipped to fulfil their potential in the 21st century than their predecessors were.
While we still have a long way to go before we have enough classrooms where they are needed the most, we have made significant progress over the past year.
In 2005/06, we set a record by completing no less than 15 schools in one year and in time for the opening of the 2006 school year. We are completing a further nine schools, as well as 60 additional classrooms. The province will build a further 11 schools during this financial year, bringing the total number of school built during the last two years to 35.
Crime, family violence and gangsterism and the influence on the psyche of our youth, the levels of unemployment, parental educational levels and drug and alcohol abuse, continue to stretch our collective wisdom.
However, sometimes, because of the way the media use their headlines, an impression is created that government only responds to crises. This is far from the truth. In fact, we have an integrated Prevention, Crime Control, Intervention and Response Strategy.
The WCED has developed safety structures for schools to support and encourage safety at school level. This starts with encouraging a team spirit within the school and surrounding community and a willingness to engage in a continued process of critical assessment and change. The School Safety Committee (SSC) consists of a wide range of service providers.
The School Safety Committee is responsible for ensuring that safety is part of the school's vision, conducting safety audits, compiling and revising safety plans, advising with regard to selection and implementation strategies, conducting an audit of service providers relating to safety and security at the school.
Our Safe Schools Programme has provided 100 schools with security infrastructure, ranging from remote control gates with CCTV cameras, intercom systems in order to do evacuation and safety drills, safety gates, burglar bars, maintenance on broken fences, and barbed wire, depending on the need as identified by the safety committee and verified through a risk analysis by the Safe Schools Co-ordinators.
The 100 schools identified have been secured appropriately and access control has been improved. These schools were identified based on the criteria as stipulated in the procedural manual.
Twenty-eight schools received an alarm system linked to an armed response unit that has a car in the vicinity of the school and is able to respond to the schools need in less than seven minutes. Armed Response subsidies were paid to all schools that installed an alarm system.
In addition to infrastructure, WCED in partnership with Community Safety identified 400 high-risk schools that needed additional human resources to control crime.
Of these, five Bambanani Volunteers were deployed to 100 schools identified as extremely high-risk, at a cost of R6-million. At least one of the Bambanani Volunteers is a parent and member of the SGB. Furthermore, many schools involve parent who assist with the monitoring in and around toilets on school premises.
We have also, with Community Safety helped pioneered the appointment of Learner Support Officers (LSOs) based at schools and EMDCs. The LSOs contribute significantly to building safer environments, by reducing truancy, dropouts and bunking and promoting crime prevention.
Perhaps what is not reported on and what is not common knowledge, is the fairly successful outcomes of our crime prevention and attitudinal or behaviour modification programmes, through learner seminars, corrective, assertive discipline and positive discipline, conflict resolution and mediation training, and establishment of peer mediators on school premises.
This is part of a long list of ongoing programmes and projects, in conjunction with numerous partners, tackling many issues, including substance abuse, sexual abuse and cultural diversity.
In addition I think we need to review the codes of conduct of schools. I also support the planned random searches of learners to assist in creating weapons and drug free schools. We are also considering additional measures, including the possibility of cameras at certain schools.
In my view the WCED's Safe Schools programme has developed to the point where our schools generally offer safer environments under the most difficult circumstances. But, clearly, recent incidents indicate that massive challenges remain.
The spate of incidents in the last two weeks in which learners were stabbing fellow learners, to the point where at least one stabbing occurred every day, is of great concern to me and the department.
Clearly it is not just the responsibility of the school to promote respect and tolerance, those are values best learnt in the family and home environment.
Having said that, we are in the process of reviewing our Safe Schools Programme, with a view to strengthen it. Although there are many of our officials who are doing excellent work, I think they need more support and resources.
In his State of the Province Address earlier, Premier Ebrahim Rasool said that: "The fourth element of the battle plan against poverty must be safe, healthy and integrated communities. Strong communities based on vibrant and loving families is the cornerstone of prosperity..."
"Ordinary people are the most important actors in achieving developmental success over the long term. What guarantees such success is when ordinary people are organised and networked into and across community structures both to protect and serve communities".
I am convinced that it's through inspired partnerships and the conscious cultivating of social capital that we will find the power to make huge and real strides in learning and development in this province.
I'm talking about all kinds of partnerships: from the small local partnerships between, for example, parents and the school, right through to macro-partnerships between government departments, with civil society, with business, with labour.
Therefore in terms of my vision for the Learning Cape as a Learning Home for all, we will have not just learning schools but also learning homes, learning streets and learning communities. We need a community mobilisation such as we have never imagined it before.
About two weeks ago we held our inaugural Community Schools Initiative Week under the broader banner of the Learning Cape Festival. I am very pleased, encouraged and inspired with the response of our schools to relook at the relations with their communities.
I believe a school is part of the community, and there is a reciprocal relationship between safe schools and safe communities. A community that feels ownership and pride for its school, does not vandalise it and does not allow others to do so.
Some 200 of our schools rose to the challenge and reached out to serve their communities in a different way. Many of our schools opened their doors to everyone and enable the whole community to become a learning community. I have witnessed some amazing and creative initiatives.
The principal of Westridge High School in Mitchell's Plain told me that they have regular incidents of burglary, and that they had suspected that it was maybe residents of a nearby informal settlement.
But I thought the way they responded to this was fantastic; they have used the Community Schools Initiative Week to make friends with the residents, and actually delivered to them blankets, clothes and food.
Another school, some years ago, had a problem of gangsters frequently having running battles on the premises. What they then did, was to offer one of the classrooms to the local neighbourhood watch as a base, and the school appears not to have any problems now.
Kalkfontein Primary in Kuilsriver presented an amazing sight. The whole school was lit up and in use, as it is three times a month, as a medical clinic being run by students from Stellenbosch University.
The parking lot full of Bambanani volunteers made visitors feel secure and welcomed. Inside, the classrooms were filled with mothers and babies, a pharmacy and signs of huge efficiency. There were educational speakers, entertainment and every indication that this is a community hub to be proud of.
This meeting in particular will be interested to hear that this service runs under an impressive Kuilsriver Network called the "Local Integrated Network of Kuilsriver" or LINK.
I can't list the achievements and wonderful work done in all of our schools and I'm not going to try: these are just some examples of communities and schools that are already fully mobilised.
Some of my other social capital priorities include the provincial association of RCLs; convening a conference of all our 1500 SGBs in the province; building links with local government; Youth and Heritage Celebrations; strengthening school sport; developing; roll-out partnerships with businesses through the Western Cape Education Foundation; forming a Retired Teachers' Association; and pilot projects regarding past pupils associations.
Our sixth priority for 2006 will be to look at redesigning the WCED to implement the Human Capital Development Strategy. The process will also provide us with an opportunity to address the issue of transformation in the WCED.
Restructuring is critical to ensure that our organizational structure and culture is aligned to our strategy. At the same time the opportunity will allow us to make sure that our department represents all the people of this province. The critical challenge will be to ensure that our department is structured in such a way as to give maximum support to our schools.
Ladies and Gentlemen: you know what drives me every morning as I get up for work, is this simple vision. I would like, for every parent to be comfortable to send his or her child to the nearest public school, within walking distance, confident in the knowledge that his or her child will acquire sound values, attitudes, knowledge and skills, in a safe environment, and is able to compete with any learner in any school anywhere in the province, in the country and indeed in the whole world.
I thank you.
For enquiries:
Gert Witbooi
Media Liaison Officer
Office of the MEC for Education
Western Cape
Tel: 021 467 2523
Fax: 021 425 5689
Email: gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za
Visit our website: http://wced.wcape.gov.za
