Chair, let me acknowledge the Minister of Science and Technology in her absence. She was here. And how can I forget my younger brother, Mr Ramurula, who is also here with us - he is a human resources specialist. Let me also acknowledge Mrs Dina Molefe, the principal of Ramokoka Primary School in North West. I gave her special invitation to be here and want her to stand up for the House to greet her.
Mme Molefe, ke kopa o eme. [Mahofi.] [Mrs Molefe, will you please stand up? [Applause.]]
She is the principal of a school I visited in the rural North West. At that school we were replacing an old dilapidated building which was built in 1910 by the Germans with a new one.
What is special about her is that, when I was enquiring about the annual national assessment results, which I always do on my visits, I was really shocked beyond belief by what this school from a very poor rural community had achieved. Their scores are among the top 100 in more than 10 000 schools. [Applause.] These were the highest scores I had ever seen coming from the black communities. They scored 75% in maths and 69% in literacy. That is why I say she really stands out.
When I asked her how she had got that right, she said that they had done everything that I had said they should do. She said that there was nothing more that they did than to follow to the letter what they were supposed to do in schools. I really want to thank her for coming. [Applause.]
I also want to thank Business SA, which has joined us here today. We have very great partners in Business SA. Let me also thank the diplomatic corps which always assists us financially.
I also thank members for a very good debate and acknowledge the valuable inputs that they have given to us. I want to indicate to members that we take those inputs seriously and will consider them in our strategic plans and follow up on them.
I just want to make a few comments. Mr Mpontshane, fortunately we always agree. Some of the people have to come back home because of political orientation, ... yileya yokuqala. [... the very first one.]
We have agreed on the reopening of colleges.
Hon Lovemore, we have agreed on the centrality of teachers. Unfortunately, you had to present your written speech despite the fact that I had said the same thing. I'll tell you where we differ or disagree. [Interjections.] Give me a chance, because I kept quiet when you were speaking! Hon Alberts, we agree on the centrality of African languages and mother- tongue teaching. However, there is a real world in South Africa. Afrikaans had an advantage at the time the old regime was providing 15% to develop it and put all the resources into supporting it. The regime did not do that for the nine African languages, in order to put them at the level where you can use them efficiently as languages of learning. That is the reality of our situation and it does not mean we are not conscious of or sensitive to the importance of mother-tongue teaching. If we had it, I am sure we would ride on it.
Hon Lovemore, I would have expected you not to tell me about what McKinsey said, because we have all read the McKinsey report. I said that we had an integrated teacher development strategy. Comment on that!
We have different provinces implementing different strategies. You are telling us what we are doing. For instance, Gauteng is using mentoring and the Western Cape is using monitoring in the classroom. All the things you said we should do are being done by different provinces. For instance, Limpopo is using replacements, where teachers are taken out of class and are substituted for, sometimes for up to six months, in order to be grilled on content. Look at what we are doing and criticise us on that. That is the problem with your analysis.
In that McKinsey report it is indicated that the Western Cape's system is among the 20 improved systems. Maybe the reason you didn't talk about it is because the research was done under ANC leadership. We are learning from each province what works and what does not work, and this is something that we constantly do as a collective in the Council of Education Ministers,