Hon Chairperson, the EFF and its leadership, education is a basic necessity for every one's development, self-actualisation and dignity in particular for a black child.
The demand for a well capacitated basic education system that is decolonised and afrocentric is at the heart of self-love. What we have now is an excuse for basic education. At a core of education in particular basic education, is the need to develop and advance indigenous knowledge to achieve sovereignty and economic freedom.
Any education that is not based on this clear principle will only subject this and many generations to condemnation of being cheap and easily accessible labour to economic, cultural and recreational life which they are not meaningful participants but spectators.
This is why early childhood education is central to the foundation of education towards economic freedom and total sovereignity to production of African knowledge, goods and services.
We must make Early Childhood Development, ECD, compulsory and ensure universal provision of ECD programmes. Making ECD compulsory and universally accessible is the first step; the
second step is to move towards the development of curriculum which focuses on nutrition, book reading, story telling and the other land based activities. Children must understand, not only is the land theirs, but it is linked with the economy, cultural participation and all forms of life.
All ECD practitioners must be employed on a fulltime basis, with full pay and pension contribution by government. The treatment of ECD practitioners, who many are women and are unpaid volunteers, do not receive any form of training or recognition for the important work they do. This is a clear demonstration of how not serious you are with the future of the black child, Minister. The Department of Basic Education must train more ECD practitioners. Let us agree on a target of 40 000, ECD practitioners whom 50% should be women and youth by 2021.
We can also agree as Parliament that the department should submit a comprehensive and clear plan on how they will be training these practitioners. This proposal must be submitted by the end of September 2019.
Minister, we need to move towards one education system as a country. All learners should fall under one school system and all matric learners must write the same examination. So, we do not want Independent Examinations Board, IEB. Some of us who went through IEB know that we are privileged by virtue of going through IEB. [Interjections.]
So, it is important, Minister that we make sure that we do not create a parallel education system. Our brothers and sisters in the township must be able t enjoy the same benefits as those kids who are in white schools.
How do you continue with a colonial and apartheid system that entrenches inequality in our society? How do you tolerate a system that does not educate, but systematically keeps the economy in the hands of white minority?
While we are moving towards one education system as a country, in the immediate, we must uproot racism and sexism in all private schools. In fact, we need a commission of inquiry into the admission, language and dress codes of all private schools.
No school should be having only white learners. They must be forced to enrol black, coloured and Indian learners. Subsidize those who cannot afford and ensure that the school environment is the representation of South African demographics.
However, also we must do away with the nonsense of using Afrikaans as a tool to discriminate against black people in former white only schools. We must confront this devil head-on; deal with it now, so that in future our children do not deal with this nonsense.
Basic education is the foundation phase of making of a learning being, in which, it is of utmost importance that a learner must find themselves in the knowledge that they engage with.
However, as it stands, the syllabus is alienating and shouts out to the learner that their appearance in the world is not adequate. This is seen through the use of school's code of conduct which polices, that the ways in which the learners appear at school is not wanted. So, the ways in which they engage with language, the ways in which they are expected to be
in the school and the ways in which they are expected to participate they have to taung. They are expected to cut their hair. So, it is important that we make sure that their hairstyles, ways of speaking and ultimately ways of being in the school is African and afrocentric in nature.
Let us also agree that by 2020 teachers are properly trained and are professionalised. Let us make sure that teachers matter. Let us make sure that we take care of all the needs of the teachers, so that teachers do not go to school to teach with the stress that they have of not being able to teach in the schools that they are deployed.
It is a shame that this government build soccer stadiums for 2010 World Cup worth billions in a few years, yet you are unable to do away with pit toilets for 25 years. In 2014 the World Cup was announced within six years you were able to build complex stadiums, but for 25 years ...
[Interjections.]
In 2014 there was an announcement of the World Cup in South Africa if you did not know!
[Interjections.]
In 2010 we had the tournament, but for 25 you were unable to build toilets for schools. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]