Hon Chairperson, Minister of Basic Education, Deputy Minister, Members of Parliament, director-general and staff, and distinguished guests in the gallery, I greet you.
The goals, principles and values that inform our policy framework are not the sole property of the ANC. They are a product of the social, educational and political struggle against apartheid, and represent the collective vision and wisdom of the Mass Democratic Movement.
There is enough evidence to outline the challenges in the basic education system. Research, published and unpublished, reliable and unreliable, informed and uninformed, relays all the forms of challenges in the sector. Most of the evidence does not raise issues other than what the ANC recognised and embodied in the Polokwane resolutions. These resolutions were made in a bid to find ways to make further improvements to our education system. There is therefore enough evidence of the nature and scope of the challenges facing our education system, as portrayed in the action plan of the department. The Minister has said as much.
As the ANC, we therefore maintain that it is not productive to continually lament the challenges facing the system. We should rather put measures in place to address these challenges.
At the recent Umalusi international conference we also saw academics relaying the issues that compromise standards in our education system, either in teaching, learning, assessment, aspects relating to the use of language in teaching, or achievement. Our observation was that the department could explore some of the issues raised during the Umalusi conference.
As the ANC, we present the 2012 Budget Vote based on the foundation laid by the President in his 2012 state of the nation address. The President did not give new strategic priorities that the Department of Basic Education should focus on, but instead highlighted the progress, and the challenges that required more focused attention. We therefore say that this budget is an interventionist one.
Chairperson, on the progress front, we as the ANC present the Vote, knowing that we, as a nation, are proud that the Millennium Development Goal report shows that South Africa is on track in ensuring that by 2015, children everywhere in South Africa, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary school, as stated by the Minister.
The net enrolment rate and the proportion of pupils starting Grade 1, who reach the last grade of primary school have increased, while through the Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy project the literacy rate of the 15- to 24-year- olds is also steadily improving.
The gender parity gap between girls and boys in primary and secondary schools is closing. The indicators show that at the primary school level the gender parity index, GPI, gap stands at 0,96%. Initiatives to improve access and retention like the National School Nutrition Programme, no-fee schools, workbook projects, expansion of Grade R and other programmes are really assisting with keeping our children at school.
We are also satisfied that the Caps processes have been finalised and the implementation thereof is going well, with only a few glitches, particularly in the orientation and training of educators, including some receiving the wrong textbooks or none at all. Learners cannot do anything without textbooks.
Who would not appreciate the good showing by the class of 2011 with their 72% matric pass rate? Our learners continue to surpass the expectations of many, shocking the prophets of doom in the process. We encourage the department to intensify the preparation of the class of 2012 at an early stage so that we remain above the 70% mark.
Chairperson, we are happy that the laptop issue is on track. This matter has constantly come up in our committee deliberations and we feel that the obstacles in regard to the matter should be dealt with. Teachers need these laptops for quality education.
The Minister might be aware that in one of our committee meetings in April 2012 we called her department and the Department of Higher Education and Training, as well as Umalusi, to meet with us so that we could have an understanding of the kind of matric learner the institutions of higher education expect from Basic Education. We wanted to create a space for conversation where academics and the departments did not speak past each other with regard to this matter, because of the potential damage it might cause our learners.
Pertinent issues were raised, including the standards, and the rationale behind the subjects of life orientation and mathematical literacy. Life orientation is not recognised in the point system of the universities' admission process. Also, mathematics literacy is said to erode the number of potential learners who can do mathematics and it is not recognised when seeking a place to study at university.
At this point we are sitting with a situation where institutions of higher learning subject learners to national benchmark tests, NBTs. While we are constantly being assured that the NBT is meant to place learners in the correct programmes, the reality out there suggests otherwise.
The increase of the 2012-13 Budget to R16,3 billion is a sure bet for confronting many more sector challenges that still face the department. We believe that the government's commitment to making basic education a top priority is reflected in the department's budget, which continues to take up a large proportion of government spending and receives a considerable share of additional allocations.
The point of departure of the 2012 Basic Education Vote is premised on the fact that the department is well aware of the challenges in the sector, particularly with regard to learner performance. Based on the mandate of the ANC and the findings of the different assessments the department has embarked on, we are sure that the department is able to pronounce on the relevant responsive initiatives that will further improve learner performance in the near future.
Over the past three years the department has embarked on an extensive process of planning and aligning programmes in the interest of improving the delivery of education. The Department of Basic Education has developed a long-term sector plan entitled The Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025. It is around this plan and the Delivery Agreement for Outcome 1 that the department and its entities are forging ahead in addressing the many challenges. The sector plan stabilises the policy direction of the department and the focus on strengthening and consolidating the initiatives through responsive interventions.
We as the ANC are happy that the issue of quality and learner performance is constantly on the radar in the Action Plan, as well as in the public domain. In our view, the plan has given the department a greater feeling of coherence and purpose than it has had in the past. We believe that the department is advancing in the right direction. The ANC welcomes the range of interventions that the budget proposes in order to strengthen the delivery of quality education.
We welcome the substantial expansion of government expenditure on Grade R in public schools over recent years. This has resulted in significant progress towards universal access to Grade R. However, the quality of the provision of Grade R at disadvantaged schools remains a concern. It is also a matter of concern that, despite the substantial increase in Grade R expenditure, the nominal amount allocated per Grade R child is significantly less than the per capita allocation for primary and secondary schools. While education provision efforts for these children are visible, the manner of interdepartmental co-ordination for Grade R education is still worrisome. We commend the department's strategy to revise the Grade R funding in order to deal with existing policy and implementation discrepancies.
For three years running, the President has been calling for our teachers to be in class, on time, with textbooks, teaching. This shows that something is going wrong in the teaching profession. Issues have been constantly reported relating to teacher absence from school; teachers being at school, but not in the classroom; and little written work being given to learners. While our site visits to schools have not revealed any anomaly in regard to teacher absence and teaching, the textbook challenge is enormous, and will be alluded to by the Whip.
Accountability in the day-to-day duties of our teachers has been strongly associated with pockets of neglect. Some are labelled as teachers who put union activities ahead of the call of duty. If we can intensify interventions to make sure that our teachers indeed respect the call of duty, we will have done great justice to learners.
The opportunity that our learners will have to write the annual national assessments, ANAs, will keep giving us feedback on where we are in regard to Grades 3, 6 and 9. We were happy at the announcement of the ANA results in 2011, and the department must take the results as a reflection of where the learner and teacher performance problems are.
However, our oversight visits to the Free State in 2011, and this year to Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape reveal that schools do not take the opportunity to learn what the ANA results can teach them. In the Free State we encountered a principal who did not even know how his school performed in the ANAs. While his school did not perform well in the ANAs, it was doubtful that he knew what to do to improve teaching, learning and learner performance. In Mpumalanga, we encountered a situation where schools were copying turnaround strategies from other schools verbatim, and there was a clear indication that they did not understand how they would implement those strategies. While the ANAs are a good gesture, their aim of assisting teachers, principals and parents to support children is proving elusive at some schools, because they do not thoroughly analyse the results.
We are pleased to see the budget allocation focusing on the utilisation of the ANAs to define interventions at schools and in districts. The allocation over the Medium-Term Economic Framework, MTEF, period is R160 million. Our duty will then be to monitor this intervention intensely to ensure that it is implemented as planned.
Education remains a societal issue. We are happy that the department has seen fit to continue intensifying the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, QLTC. We need every stakeholder in education to understand his or her role. However, our findings in Mpumalanga in January showed that districts are not assisting schools in this regard. Where QLTC committees have been formed, no activity or training has taken place. We are worried that the intended aim of the QLTC may be undermined if we do not swiftly enter the fray and assist our districts. We are encouraged, however, by the interaction with and contributions by other stakeholders through social contracts and accords with the business community and labour unions - that is at national level.
We commend the department for prioritising the implementation of a credible mathematics, science and technology strategy. We know that there is room for improvement in these areas, if the strategy is well implemented. We encourage the department to keep focused on the implementation of the strategy so that we can turn the situation around.
We have noted the Auditor-General's reports on provincial spending since 2009. The reports show that most provinces were not in good standing. While the national department receives unqualified audit reports, only a few provinces do well. Issues of internal controls are constantly raised.
While the 2010-11 Auditor-General's report shows improvement and stability in some provinces, the Eastern Cape remains in the red. As a committee we feel that there is room for improvement and we thank the national department for assisting in this regard, as it is currently doing.
What makes matters worse is that the problems of poorly performing provinces are compounded by the phenomenon of temporary teachers and temporary classroom structures. While we have seen that the temporary teacher issue was caused by a lack of thorough consideration at the beginning while addressing the staff establishment, we are worried that the temporary structure issue may suffer the same fate.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Deputy Minister, the director- general, the senior officials of the department, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, Umalusi, the SA Council for Educators, Sace, and the Education Labour Relations Council, ELRC, for the fruitful deliberations on the strategic plans and the anticipated allocations.
I would like to thank Minister for the leadership she provides, including the management in her department and provincial departments.
I would also like to thank the hon members of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and our core staff for their spirit of co-operation and their professionalism in working together. This has assured the committee that, "working together, we can do more".
The ANC supports the Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]