Chairperson and Minister of Basic Education, we know that education has been made an apex priority by the government, and that it has been elevated to the level of being a societal issue. This means we should not expect to see education happening only within the four walls of the classroom.
We would like to applaud the Minister of Basic Education who, through the school-enriching programmes that have been put in place, will make sure that education is indeed being enhanced in so many ways to make it a priority and give it the status it deserves.
There are so many social responsibility programmes that the department has come up with through the leadership of our hon Minister. First, I would like to talk about the National School Nutrition Programme, one of the programmes that is there to enhance education.
This is a key government programme and is based on three strategic goals. The first is to enhance the active learning capacity of learners through the feeding scheme. We know that many learners are going to school now and that the level of absenteeism has been curbed, because most of the time learners are absent from school because they don't have anything to eat. Through this programme we can now see that most of the learners are attending school, and it helps a lot in enhancing education. The second goal is to strengthen nutrition education for school communities. This promotes a healthy lifestyle and good eating habits. The third is to promote and support the implementation of food production. We will look at this to see how we can contribute to food production.
About 7,2 million learners in about 20 000 primary schools are benefiting and the majority of those schools are in rural areas, informal settlements and on farms. We know very well that those are the areas where our people have been greatly disadvantaged.
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are the provinces that have benefited most from this programme, and we are proud and happy to hear that this programme has now been extended to secondary school level. Now we know that many more learners are going to benefit from this programme.
This programme does not only benefit learners at school, but also contributes to another one of the government priorities: job creation. In terms of this programme 2 355 small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs, have been contracted to do this job, as well as about 216 community-based co-operatives. This means that the vulnerable, mostly women, are given the opportunity to supply food to schools. In so doing, we are alleviating poverty in households. In addition, about 37 844 voluntary food handlers are being paid a stipend of about R500 per month, which really does contribute towards poverty alleviation. So, we would like to thank you very much, hon Minister. [Applause.]
We now come to another programme that is very important and for which we need to applaud the Minister of Basic Education. The Minister has reached an agreement with the Minister of Health to roll out a screening programme especially for Grade R and Grade 1 learners. As the ANC, we see that as a great step, because we believe that the earlier health-related barriers to learning are discovered, the better. This means that interventions can be made earlier to enable those learners to continue with their schooling.
This will help reduce the drop-out level caused by illness and also the level of school absenteeism because of learners having to go to clinics every now and then. Once this programme is implemented, we need to support it, and I applaud our Minister for that.
I am also glad to inform the House that this programme has been implemented in seven of the nine provinces. Learners undergo vision screenings, immunisation, oral health checks, height and weight measurements, and checks of their physical and locomotive functioning. They are also given deworming medication.
As Members of Parliament, we need to support this programme. We need to go out into our constituencies and make sure that parents and community members know about this programme and will support the screening of their children when it comes to their schools so that education will not be disturbed.
Okunye engithanda ukukuncoma kakhulu eMnyangweni Wezenfundo oholwa uNgqongqoshe M A Motshekga, ukubhekela othisha kanye nabantwana asebehhaqwe yilesi sifo esingumashaya abhuqe, ingculaza. Sithole kukhona izinhlelo ezinhle lapho othisha nabantwana benakeleleka khona.
Sinezinhlelo eziningi ze-Peer Education. Kulezo zinhlelo sibona uMnyango Wezemfundo usebenza ngokuhlanganyela nezinhlangano ezizimele futhi siwubona usebenza ngokuhlanganyela nezinyunyana zothisha. Konke lokho kuzobonakalisa ngempela ukuthi imfundo ibekwa phambili nokuthi futhi siyafuna ngempela ukuyisekela ngazo zonke izindlela. Lokhu kungezinye zezinto okufanele sizincome kakhulu. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[I also want to commend the Department of Basic Education, led by hon Minister M A Motshekga, for catering for teachers and learners who are already infected by this deadly disease, Aids. We found that there are very good programmes through which teachers and learners are being taken care of.
We have many Peer Education programmes. And in those programmes we see the Department of Basic Education working with private organisations as well as the teacher unions. All these issue will indicate that education is really an apex priority to this government and will also show that we really want to support it in every way possible. These are some of the issues that need to be commended by all of us.]
Another programme is school sport. There is a saying that goes, ...
Ingqondo ephilile nesebenza kahle yile enomzimba ophilile. [A healthy, well-functioning mind is found in a healthy body.]
That is true indeed. The programme in the Department of Basic Education confirms that. The year 2010 is a year of sport in South Africa - especially in South Africa. Everybody is talking about sport and, again, we thank the Department of Basic Education for making sure that learners at school are not left behind in the excitement of 2010.
They have come up with many good programmes. Competitions are taking place around the country, and we have seen our learners participating in those competitions. We are happy to say that 1 000 learners will win tickets to make sure they are part of the Fifa Soccer World Cup that is coming. They will be watching the games as a result of the competitions that have been organised by the Department of Basic Education.
Apart from that, the programme is also opening doors for learners. These are the options that we are always talking about. For example, if a learner is not capable of taking forward the "serious" education that takes place in a classroom, there are so many options for them through this programme. We know that we can come up with talented people. That is where we are opening doors: we have more options for learners to see and to discover their talents. We would like to thank the Department of Basic Education for doing that.
Another critical aspect of schools and social responsibility is the whole question of safety. The department has come up with another initiative on school safety. It has formed partnerships with the SA Police Service, SAPS, so that schools will have links with the police stations around them. As Members of Parliament, we need to support that, because it combats crime, which is troubling in our schools.
We are always talking about schools that are not protected. We want to improve our education system to the level of other nations, so we provide computers. But if we continue to have the level of crime that we have in our schools, the information technology systems that we want to introduce to our schools will be vandalised and stolen.
We are talking of school libraries now. If we don't support this school safety programme, we can have libraries, but we know that they will be vandalised and everything will be taken. So, for this good initiative, Minister, we are proud of you and we know that if we give our support to all our communities, our schools will be enhanced. We support the Basic Education Budget Vote. Thank you very much. [Applause.]