Madam Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Malema, hon Minister Nzimande ... [Interjections.] Memela? Sorry, did I not say that? [Laughter.] My complete and humble apologies; it was completely unintended.
Hon members, officials present, ladies and gentlemen, we welcome the commitment by the national Minister of Basic Education, hon Minister Angie Motshekga, to enhancing the culture of learning and teaching in our schools for better education outcomes and the improvement of quality learning in our schools. A number of the initiatives the Minister outlined are being rolled out in the Western Cape. This includes the Quality Teaching and Learning Campaign, which was part of the Education Labour Relations Council summit with Basic Education held in Gauteng last Saturday.
Investment in quality public education is one of this administration's top priorities and is arguably the best investment any government can make. That is why I am especially pleased that the Western Cape education department will receive an allocation of R11,8 billion in the current fiscal year and R38,2 billion over the following two years of the Medium- Term Expenditure Framework. This budget is fully aligned to our overarching goal of providing quality education to all the learners in the Western Cape, which is the cornerstone of our vision for an open opportunity society for all.
The provision of quality education is fundamental in ensuring that none among our young people should have their path in life determined by the circumstances of their birth, including both their material and demographic circumstances, but that their future is determined, rather, by their talents and their efforts. Given that quality education depends primarily on the quality of teaching offered, our educators are the most important asset we have. In order to improve learner outcomes, it is imperative that teachers are able to properly convey their subject to their learners. Therefore we will focus on improving teacher skills and increasing the levels of job satisfaction.
We have fundamentally overhauled teacher development by applying the principles of "fit for purpose" in practice. Instead of generic training workshops, each session will be designed and tailored to suit and target individual teacher needs by placing personnel from head office and the districts in teaching posts. We have created an additional 134 teaching posts on top of the total teacher allocation to alleviate overcrowding and provide support to struggling schools.
In order to ensure that our teachers are happy in their jobs, we have reduced the administrative and curriculum workload on teachers as well, as outlined by the Minister, and we are limiting other distractions that undermine learning activity to an absolute minimum, but quality teaching can only take place in a text-rich environment. That is why we will spend an extra R100 million on providing text to schools. This spending is in addition to the norms and standards allocation to schools, and we will target the foundation phase specifically.
The additional R100 million has been funded in part by embarking on a number of cost-saving initiatives. For example, we have saved R16 million by simply cutting out business-class flights, launches, gifts, parties and other unnecessary expenditure. [Applause.] Through simple cutbacks and the redirection of resources, we believe we can make text-rich classrooms possible.
Providing the necessary teaching materials is only half of the equation. We need to know where our learners' strengths and weaknesses lie. Therefore, we will spend R30 million this year on testing in order to target individual learning needs and improve learner outcomes. While much of our focus is on learner outcomes at lower grades, we are also fully committed to improving the top end of the system in order to help more learners pass Grade 12. We are, for the first time, spending an amount of R10 million on learner support packs, winter schools, tutors and mentor principals.
Practical steps such as using experts in their respective fields to teach complex sections of the syllabus are precisely the kinds of hands-on interventions which will make a real difference in the classroom. However, we can invest as much as we like in improving learner outcomes through teacher development, textbooks and testing, but we cannot expect the learners and teachers to be happy if the classrooms they are in are overcrowded or in poor condition. Therefore I am pleased that we will be allocating, over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, R1,9 billion to improve the quality of our school infrastructure. This amount will pay for four schools currently under construction, six schools currently out on tender, 25 new schools, 20 replacement schools, 350 new classrooms that will expand access to our more successful schools and alleviate overcrowding, 100 new Grade R classrooms and the provision of 126 mobile classrooms to deal with immediate pressure points before the end of the second term in 2010. [Applause.]
We do also recognise that some of our schools are in desperate need of maintenance, be it leaking roofs or proper sanitation. We will therefore spend R330 million on planned maintenance in the next three years.
While our infrastructure and maintenance allocations will contribute significantly to improving learning outcomes through the creation of a safe and decent learning environment, we also need to ensure that our learners are not scared or hungry. In 2010-11 we will spend R22 million on a safe schools programme, which will contribute towards improved physical security measures such as metal detectors, fences, alarms and safety gates, as well as the implementation of behavioural and attitudinal programmes in our schools. In order to ensure we have no hungry children in our schools, our School nutrition programme will receive R174 million this year and will help feed 345 000 learners every school day, placing special emphasis on providing more nutritious meals to poor and vulnerable learners.
An essential part of our vision of an open opportunity society for all is allowing greater access to educational opportunities for children with special needs. Therefore we have allocated R688 million in the provision of special needs education, representing a 17% increase.
We also remain conscious of the tough current economic climate. To assist parents in financial need, we have increased the percentage of learners in no-fee schools from 38% to 40%. This is an increase of 23 schools, bringing the total number of no-fee schools in the Western Cape to 676.
It is evident from the above that we have aligned our 2010-11 budget with our strategic priorities of improving learner outcomes and providing quality education to the learners. There is no doubt that we have an enormous task ahead of us, but we commit ourselves to working tirelessly as a team to achieve the strict targets we set ourselves in our November 2009 strategic plan, which we started to implement from 13 January 2010 onwards. Thank you. [Applause.]