Hon Chairperson and hon Ministers, we have looked at the department's strategic plan and we have examined its performance plans. All these are excellent documents containing excellent intentions and objectives. The hon Minister thus deserves our honest and critical assessment of the system without, of course, our adopting a holier-than- thou attitude.
My contribution to this debate is going to be based on the following four themes: uncertainty as a result of conflicting public statements; mismanagement as a result of educationally unsound policies; implementation issues leading to paralysis; and lastly, infrastructural backlogs.
Firstly, the director-general made a bold claim during one of our committee briefings that the system was stabilising. I am not querying this claim, but the system cannot stabilise if it continues to struggle under conflicting views on education coming from members of the executive.
For example, the President of the country announced during his state of the nation address a year ago that colleges of education were going to be reopened. The IFP welcomed this announcement, as we recognised, and still do, that the early childhood development, ECD, phase desperately needs appropriately trained teachers for this level. But colleges remain closed. Why? This is because the Minister of Higher Education and Training, hon Nzimande, subsequently contradicted the President and said that colleges were not going to be opened. What is the result? The ECD phase continues to suffer as a consequence of this dithering.
The second example, among other examples, is the Eastern Cape intervention. Initially, the President wanted the head of the department there, Mr Modidima Mannya, to remain whereas you, hon Minister, wanted his immediate dismissal - supported by the unions, of course. Let us not forget the stoking hand of the provincial executive committee, PEC, of the ANC. Surely uncertainty is the greatest enemy of stability.
Our second biggest problem is management at all levels, but most acutely at provincial, district and school levels. The IFP firmly believes that the management of the system can be improved if we, inter alia, do the following, and I know that what I am going to say now may sound very unpalatable and provoke some members, particularly those from this side, excluding Ministers, of course!
Firstly, let us bring back employment on merit and throw cronyism and nepotism out of the window. Let Luthuli House rethink the cadre deployment policy very carefully and assess how it affects the system. [Interjections.] There you are - I have said it already! We are not against the policy per se, but by reviewing it we have to look for skilled and competent people who can do the job, which is generally not the case at present.
Secondly, let us review the interviewing processes. Union representation on interview panels must be removed. Most often, managers who have come through this process lack the most important ingredients necessary for effective leadership, which are authority and peer respect. Timidity and fear step in instead. Accountability suffers and the system crumbles.
According to the strategic overview, one of the objectives of the department is to ensure access to quality education by reviewing and refining the areas that do not contribute to quality education. The pedagogical situation is not similar to the factory floor situation. Let us use terms and concepts fit for and relevant to the education system. We do not believe that terms like "site stewards" are relevant to our schooling system. [Interjections.]
This brings me to another challenge, which is implementation. Many programmes that are meant to improve the quality of education are languishing in educational limbo, for instance, performance agreements for principals and deputy principals. It has been almost three years since the agreements were signed. The question is: Who is holding the process to ransom? The head of the Education Labour Relations Council, ELRC, cannot tell us. Yet the Minister regards this performance agreement as key to the achievement of quality education, as we also do.
The IFP supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]