APPROPRIATION BILL
(Second Reading Debate)
Vote 6: Education – R2 726 880 000
The SPEAKER: We then proceed with Motions. Motion 1 reads as follows:
That the Second Reading Debate of the Appropriation Bill be continued.
The first debate today is the debate on Vote 6: Education. The hon MEC, Mr Kganare.
*Mr D A KGANARE (MEC): Hon Speaker, esteemed Premier of the Free
State, respected Members of the Executive Council, hon Legislators, colleagues
in Education, ladies and gentlemen and the audience at large.
We will start
by asking ourselves this question: What
is Education to us as we observe the development of various issues?
Education
is a mammoth task that needs to be tackled jointly. Education is the whole society’s
responsibility in shaping its future. We
can compare education to a Setswana idiom that is translated: “What you learn at your mother’s knee”. What do I mean by that? I mean that education or its standard
actually points towards the leaders of society and their destiny. It is through education that we know whether
our society is destined for prosperity or disaster.
When I
say: In education we must all lend a
hand, I mean what happens in education affects our lives; it affects all
activities in other departments of state.
To me education is what a Setswana idiomatic expression describes as:
* “Child is father to the man”.
The
idiom does not only refer to the child, it also means that we will reap what we
sow. It may not be that you expect a
good turnover when you sit on your laurels.
What we sit down with, plan and take decisions on affects our children,
their future, and the community as a whole.
Education can either build or destroy or shape better lives for the
future of our community. I sincerely
believe that all of us here understand the meaning of these words. We bear
testimony to all the efforts in Education.
South
African blacks have experienced an education that was not meant for them to
develop at all. We were shaped to accept
orders and not question them. That is
why we trail behind today, in trying to stabilise Education. Let me appeal to you to make a commitment
that says: Education must be fought for
and shaped so that it becomes the instrument to pave the future of the African
nation.
Is it not our
feeling that together we will come out as victors?
Allow me to
thank the hon Premier of the
A special
word of gratitude goes to the Portfolio Committee for Education, as well as the
officials in my department for their support from day one to date.
Last year, as
with the others, has not been easy for the Department of Education. The
Department experienced extensive instability due to vacancies that could not be
filled, and as a result, had to have acting officials. This was due to the
suspension of the Head of the Department and the Director of the Education
Institute for approximately 14 months.
We also had
acting directors for the Human Resource Directorate, and we still have acting
Chief Director of Formal Certification.
This meant that officials had to struggle in performing their duties,
and this was not easy. Officials had to
work under extreme pressure, and I would like to acknowledge all their efforts
today.
I am pleased
to be able to report that we have managed to fill in three of the four crucial
senior management posts. The fourth one
will be filled soon.
Mr Luki
Nkonka, was appointed Head of Education as of
We are also
grateful to the media for having portrayed a more balanced picture of what was
happening in the Department of Education.
This could have been brought about by the fact that they may have
realised that we were up front about issues in Education. We were very open to their questions, and
nothing was swept under the carpet, because our intention was not to have any
secrets. We take it that we serve the
society and therefore, what takes place in the Department is for public
consumption.
The
Department’s transparency was observed when the Heath Special Investigation Unit
was called to investigate issues that cast a shadow over our Department. The first part of the head count was
conducted to find out if there were ghost workers. The second part will be conducted at the end
of August 1999.
District
officers were instructed to focus on misconduct cases, suspend principals
involved and to be very strict when dealing with irregularities.
It stands to
reason that the Free State Department of Education is accepting the many
challenges confronting it. We do not wish to build on the foundation of
historical imbalances that were due to skewed funding of education along ethnic
lines in the former education departments, which we inherited. Redressing these
imbalances was and is still a tremendous task.
It is against
that background that the good progress that was made in the Department with the
Batho Pele Campaign should be
welcomed. The Department adopted the
following four objectives as its priorities for transformation:
·
Improvement of service delivery;
·
Affirmative action and
representativity;
·
Rationalisation and restructuring; and
·
Human resource development.
These
principles of the Batho Pele Campaign
are incorporated within the Department’s transformation process. This is a clear indication that the
Department is determined to follow its vision to improve the quality of life of
The
Department also intends creating and sustaining stability in its entirety. There have been no flare-ups in the
Department in the past year, despite the UDM’s attempt to disrupt schooling in
Denneysville and unreasonable demands by some learners to be given farewell
money in the middle of the year.
Due to this,
we have taken the position that any protest action by learners, causing wilful
destruction at schools, will result in the closure of the said schools, and no
learners will be readmitted until parents have brought learners back to school,
with a commitment from the two parties to abide by the school’s code of
conduct. We are conscious of the
requirements of the law and we will act accordingly.
#Everything in the
Department’s power will be done to ensure stability in schools.
The only
partners in education who will remain comfortable are teachers who teach,
officials who perform their duties, principals who take responsibility for
their schools and learners who learn.
An agreement
was reached in the Education Labour Relations Council that teachers will
henceforth work a full seven to eight hours a day, five days a week for a full
month. As a result, principals are
expected to take action against teachers who fail to meet this requirement and
should principals fail to monitor this situation, the Department will take
action against them.
It should
also be realised that Grade 12 learners, who fail their final examinations,
place a very serious financial strain on the Department. If we re-admitted all the failed learners
this year, we would have had to find R40 million from somewhere and employ additional
500 teachers immediately. We would also
have had to build additional classrooms.
This was impossible. It is for
these reasons that the Department did not re-admit all the failed learners this
year.
The
unfortunate thing is that there is a perception that education is free and by
not readmitting these learners, we are denying children their right to free
education. I think this should be put in
the proper context. It should be stated
very clearly here that free and compulsory education goes up to Grade 9. Once the policy has been fully implemented,
there will be serious implications for Grades 10, 11 and 12. In addition, the Further Education and
Training Act (Act 98 of 1998), which has been passed, will greatly change the
face of the senior classes, as they will fall within the FET (Further Education
and Training) band.
Let me also
explain that although parents may not be required to pay for education, the
State has to pay teachers’ salaries, stationery and textbooks, water and
electricity and the maintenance of schools.
The State is committed to provide education in terms of the South
African Schools Act and the Free State School Education Act.
It has to be
borne in mind that the State has many more responsibilities in other
departments that still cater for the needs of the same learners and the nation
as a whole.
I am sure you
are all aware of our efforts to promote the Culture of Learning, Teaching and
Service (COLTS).
*Despite the limited
success of the COLTS Campaign, we are not happy with the 1,1% increase in the
pass rate in the Grade 12 November 1998 final examination. At the beginning of this year each school
presenting Grade 12 was given a benchmark which is the minimum passing rate for
the Grade 12 final results. All districts
were visited by the HOD and senior management, and Principals of all school
offering Grade 12 were addressed by me personally.
It should be
stressed that the emphasis put on Grade 12 does not mean we neglect other
grades. It is important to note that Grade
12 results are a culmination of efforts throughout the other bottom
grades. That is why standardised
examinations, which were started with last year, will be continued this year in
Grades 6; 9 and 12.
Grade 12
standardised examinations are conducted on core subjects in June. The
examinations for Grades 6 and 9 form part of the promotional examinations at
the end of the year and again a few core subjects are targeted.
Various
policy initiatives were started last year and are now in full swing. I refer to
amongst others, the Education Policy Reserve Fund of the National Department of
Education, with its three projects of teacher development for Curriculum 2005,
District Improvement Plan and Education Management Development.
In the second
part of my address, I will give particulars of other initiatives. I must state that much effort and time went
into the development of these projects. However, it should be noticed that the
Tender Board again, as in the past, caused problems. It could possibly happen again that we are
unable to use all the money before the end of the financial year, and in the
process, lose a huge percentage of our Budget.
At this
juncture, ladies and gentlemen, hon Madam Premier and hon Speaker, against this
background allow me, to move closer to the Budget itself, with a total
allocation of R2, 272 billion for this year.
The increase
of R306 880 million on the previous Budget allocation represents an increase of
12,68%.
Although
the percentage appears high in comparison with the previous year, it was
determined last year that Education has been under-funded in the past,
resulting in critical backlogs.
#Programme 1:
The R232, 736
million for this programme is to provide for all administrative expenditure,
including personnel expenditure for all administrative staff members at Head
Office, as well as those at the twelve education district offices. Other costs also included in this programme
are bursaries for staff, rental of buildings and purchasing of school
stationery and textbooks.
We had
promised that we would deliver 100% of both stationery and textbooks before the
school holidays last year. We managed to
reach our target with regard to the provision of stationery. However, we were disappointed by publishers
who did not meet our deadline for textbooks, hence we have only delivered 90%
of textbooks so far. In order to avoid
future disappointment, we will blacklist all the publishers who failed us this
year.
The National
Department of Education made available, an amount of R12, 7 million during
November 1998 for the acquisition of additional textbooks as part of the
Presidential commitment to provide learners with support material. Orders have already been placed with
publishers and the Tender Board has appointed distributors. The said grant must be exhausted by mid-March
1999.
The
stocktaking of textbooks, prescribed books and unused school stationery is to
take place this year. This exercise
should determine the exact amount of stationery and textbooks currently used in
schools. This will curb the tendency to
oversupply and overspending on books.
Appropriate
steps will be taken regarding unused books discovered through the above-stated
exercise. The computerised Book
Provisioning System will be updated to ensure correct record keeping of books
allocated to schools. This system will
ensure accountability of principals for learning materials allocated to their
schools. Through this system, an effective
method of recovering books from learners at the end of the year will be
effected.
A new system
for internal control of consumable stores and inventory was recently introduced
in the Tempe Departmental Warehouse and will be extended to all chief user
points. The system referred to as
Logistical Information System (LOGIS), is intended to assist Accounting
Officers, by inter alia, reducing
deficits, optimizing information technology solutions, controlling and
regulating stock levels and inventory whilst simultaneously satisfying internal
user demands.
Additional to
this, the system will provide the Department with quality data and appropriate
technological infrastructure, workstations and well-maintained item
catalogues. The sub-directorate accounts
for approximately R4, 6 million that covers normal subsistence, transport, stores
for office use and equipment as well as rentals.
Due to
serious shortage of official transport in all Directorates within the
Department, the purchase of more Government Garage (GG) vehicles, as well as
subsidised vehicles, will be embarked upon within the allocated financial
parameters. An allocation of R4 million
has been made to both GG vehicles and subsidised cars respectively.
This exercise
will be conducted through the newly implemented schemes. The above shortage is further exacerbated by
the fact that whilst the Department grew in terms of staff throughout the past
years, the only purchase of official vehicles was in 1996, when 62 vehicles
were purchased for R2,468 million.
Provisioning
of furniture for inter alia new
schools, new classrooms, and replacements and over enrolments will be addressed
within the financial parameters allocated towards this. Repair of broken furniture will also be given
attention and where possible, the use of own technical institutions and human
resources will be engaged in order to reduce costs.
I now wish to
make a few remarks regarding the Education Institute. The former Director, Mr F Rumboll, left the
institute at the end of November 1998.
As mentioned earlier, the vacant post was filled with effect from
Professional
support by learning facilitators is high on the priority list of the Education
Institute. Critical posts will have to
be filled both at the Head Office component and in the education districts.
This section
also needs to be provided with the necessary resources like transport,
stationery, training equipment, support materials, policy documents and
learning and teaching files in order to render an efficient and professional
service. Learning facilitators will also
be allowed to visit institutions of learning as frequently as possible to
address particular needs and to improve education in general.
The urgent
need to fill the most critical vacant posts of learning facilitators and
curriculum managers has to be addressed.
For example, there are only four learning facilitators responsible for
the intermediate phase, which is Grade 4 to 6, in the whole Province.
The
Department is very grateful to various partners who are very active in
partnership programmes. This is an
indication of support towards the Department’s stance that education is a
shared responsibility and can therefore, not be left solely in its hands.
Various
partnership programme initiatives that were started last year are now in full
swing. I refer to, among others, the
Education Policy Reserve Fund (EPRF). An
amount of R10 million was made available to the
An amount of
R2,3 million was allocated to Teacher Development for the Curriculum 2005
Project and R1,5 million for the Education Development Management Project. Funds for Quality Assurance, the Provincial
Assistance Unit and the COLTS Campaign are administered at national level. Unfortunately, access to these funds was only
made possible towards the end of 1998 with the result that activities to make
these initiatives work could only start in 1999.
The effect of
the late activation of the business plans for these projects was further
compounded by financial, administrative and tender requirements at both
national and provincial level as well as lack of human resource capacity to run
such comprehensive projects. This
resulted in an amount of R2 million utilized in the current financial
year. However, systems and procedures
are already in place to fully utilise the 1999/2000 allocation to the benefit
of our clientele.
Most of our
international partners form part of the Presidential Education Initiative (PEI)
projects. The
The focus of
the Swedish Government is the support of the best practices in school library
services. These programmes and budgets
stretch over more than a year, exceeding R9 million.
The Free
State Materials Development Project, funded by the Flemish Government, is in
its third year of operation. Excellent
progress has been made, particularly with the implementation of Curriculum
2005, and the delivery of numeracy learning of teachers for Outcome Based
Education (OBE). The Flemish
contribution amounts to approximately R1 million per annum for this project.
Additional
funding opportunities are explored through various groups such as the European
Bankers and international organisations like Sangari. For special projects such as the national
Early Childhood Development Pilot Project, R2, 6 million will have to be made
available for the continuation of the project.
This money is earmarked for transfer payments to the training
organisation, subsidies to 100 pilot sites plus the administrative and
developmental costs involved.
However, I
must emphasise here that this project is not meant to provide for crèches but
rather Grade R. Ideally this Grade R is
meant to be in junior primary schools as part of the foundation phase. We are working towards that.
In order to
explain the distinction between a day-care centre or crèche and ECD further, we
could say that ECD concentrates on children in the reception year, the 5 to 6
year-olds. Currently 4000 learners are
benefiting from this pilot project.
Local
partnership programmes are worth mentioning at this stage. There are partnership programmes for farm
schools without which this Department would not achieve much of the progress
made. Tswelopele is one of the farm
school projects that has shown much progress in the improvement of farm schools
by providing learning materials, encouraging farmers’ participation and raising
funds for various farm school projects.
Telkom is
amongst local businesses that are actively participating in education. In the previous year, the Department saw the
launch of the
Other
companies are contributing in the form of participating in bursaries and in the
Free State Education Awards. These
include the SAB, Lesedi Stereo, Nestlé, Maskew Miller, Longman and Telkom. We are working towards increasing business
involvement in education.
The Financial
Management Directorate’s primary objective is to manage the budget
allocation. Four programme managers were
recently appointed to cover the whole spectrum of education. These programme managers must determine needs
and agree on the allocation according to priorities, with the assistance of the
Financial Management Directorate.
Another
objective of the Financial Management Directorate is financial capacity
building outside the Directorate. The
financial directorate will conduct an ongoing training project of the
head-office and district personnel.
It is the
task of the Financial Management Directorate to ensure the successful planning
and implementation of the norms and standards for public school funding with
effect from 1 January 2000, and to monitor progress during 1999.
Rules and
regulations regarding financial matters are to be made available to all relevant
officials and workshops are to be conducted in this project.
A head count
of all administrative staff was conducted during November 1998 and a further
head count of all Chief Education Specialists (CES) educators will be conducted
during August 1999.
The Human
Resources Directorate plans to fill all critical vacant posts in the coming
financial year. The Directorate is also
in urgent need of sufficient computer equipment.
Training of
Head Office and District personnel on various human resource matters will have
to be given attention. The cabling and
decentralising of all district offices will also have to be dealt with so that
district personnel can handle personnel matters on their own.
It will be
necessary to create and fill a sufficient number of administrative posts at
schools to address backlogs. Promotional
posts for heads of departments and deputy principals will also have to be
filled.
The
historically black schools are faced with the problem of a shortage of
educators, because of the inequalities and imbalances of the past while the
previously white schools are overstaffed.
As a means of redressing these imbalances, the Department of Education
and the teacher organisations signed an agreement in the Education Labour
Relations Council to re-deploy educators from schools that are overstaffed to
those that are understaffed.
As a result,
1 716 posts were advertised on 27 February 1999 and these are to be filled by
teachers on the redeployment list.
Should these teachers be redeployed away from their homes, the
Department of Education will be obliged to pay their relocation costs that
could amount to a total of R105, 952 704.
I must stress
that the need for discipline is paramount, for without it, no proper learning
can take place. The Department will take
all necessary steps to ensure that discipline is maintained at all institutions
of learning in the
In order for
discipline to be maintained at schools, it is crucial that permanent
incumbents, instead of acting individuals, fill all promotional posts in
schools. Currently, there are 364 vacant
principalship posts in the Province. The
filling of these posts will cost the Department of Education approximately R31,
668 million.
The following
posts have to be filled as a matter of urgency:
·
Support staff for principals;
·
A total of 66 administrative clerks at
a cost of R1,811 304 million;
·
A total of 80 cleaners at R1,679 760;
·
grounds men at R1, 317 312; and
·
The 43 housekeepers at hostels at R1,
180 092.
To reward and
motivate officials with long, consistent and satisfactory service, the
Government issues certificates to officials who have served for 20 years, and a
wrist watch to the value of R900 is awarded to those who have completed 30
years of service. Presently 1 888 officials
qualify for certificates and 364 qualify for both the certificate and
wristwatches which will cost R327 600.
The
impression might be created that it is a waste of money, but it is important to
appreciate people. This cost money, but
it is not a waste, unless we are saying that human beings are not important.
This
programme, to which R2,181 billion has been allocated, caters for the running
costs of 2 703 schools, 798 241 learners and 25 243 educators.
The
current educator/learner ratio is 1:32 and by means of redeployment and the
reduction of excess teachers, this will be increased to 1:34 during the
1999/2000 financial year.
Without
challenging the decision of the Executive Council that schools must be built by
the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport or undermining the very
good working relationship between the officials of the Departments of Education
and Public Works, Roads and Transport, I would like to state that the budget
for the building of schools is included in the budget of the Department of
Public Works for the 1999/2000 financial year.
This budget has been cut by 37%.
This cut has a direct influence on the building of new schools and
additional classrooms.
The
Department of Education is now dependent on the funds that are made available
by the Department of Pubic Works, Roads and Transport to attend to the huge
backlog in the provisioning of school facilities. At present, the Department of Education is
only responsible for minor works at existing schools, which forms part of
Programme 2 of the Education budget.
The
Departmental Works and Physical Planning Directorate aims at providing the
following services in the 1999/2000 financial year.
The National
Department of Education has indicated that they intend to provide an amount of
R4,7 million for minor works at existing schools according to a business plan
that has already been approved.
An amount of
R9 million has been allocated for the prefabricated building programme. This includes the erection and refurbishment
of prefabricated classrooms. Through
this programme, we are hoping to curb the problem of classroom shortages.
The
Directorate: Departmental Works and Physical Planning will also liase and
monitor the capital works programme of 11 new schools at a cost of R22, 420
million. This will be executed by the
Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.
Currently the
Department of Education, in close co-operation with the Department of Finance,
Expenditure and Economic Affairs as well as the National Department of Finance,
is investigating a financial offer in the form of a donation from a consortium
of European Banks to build new schools in the Free State. Should agreement be reached, this project
will address the backlog by providing for the building of 105 new schools of
which 73 are platooning.
The three
School Management Directorates will put in-service training high on its list of
priorities in order to ensure that school management teams are in proper
control of schools and that members of school governing bodies are all
effectively trained. More principals
will be appointed permanently and such newly appointed principals will be given
the opportunity to undergo an induction course.
The
Canada/South Africa Education Management Programme (CSAEMP), which is funded by
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and managed by McGill
University in Canada, has made 100 000 Canadian Dollars available to the
Department of Education’s School Management Development Directorate. The funds will be utilised for:
·
Workshops for SMDs, TDAs, LFACs, LFs,
Youth Leadership Officials, Principals, Teachers, District Managers and Senior
Management;
·
Assisting with the production of a
Principal’s Handbook;
·
Website for the Department; and
·
A mission to Canada.
Learners at
farm schools struggle to get to their schools as they often have to travel long
distances. This poses a problem for the
Department. With more money, this
problem will be addressed more effectively.
We have, however, in the past enjoyed the support of some farmers who
provided transport. The Department of
Public Works also came to our assistance by providing busses and bicycles to
some farm schools.
The
remoteness of many farm schools also brings about greater expenses in transport
for school management developers, learning facilitators and teachers’
development appraisers.
Because of
the situation at farm schools and the very low income of communities, the role
of non-governmental organisations again proved to be indispensable in the
upliftment of schools in the past year.
A Primary
School Nutrition Programme, a feeding scheme for needy children in primary
schools, especially the deep rural schools, has been established. This programme is a Presidential-Lead
Programme managed by the Department of Education in collaboration with the
Department of Health.
About 401 000
primary school children will benefit from this programme during the 1999/2000
financial year. The Department’s
appreciation is extended to the Department of Health for this generous contribution
to the education of the children of this Province.
Some
envisaged activities of this Directorate at district level are the further
training of school governing bodies and representative councils for learners,
workshops on classroom management for teachers and workshops for principals on
financial and comprehensive school management.
It is our
concern that some schools still practice and prefer the old prefect system to
the Representative Learners Council or RCLs as stipulated by the Act. This is an unfortunate situation as it is our
perception that democracy is nurtured in schools, and in order to do so,
schools should encourage a harmonious co-existence of different student
organisations operating within the schools’ codes of conduct.
After the
election of school governing bodies, one of the major tasks facing the three
School Management Directorates was to capacitate more than 20 000 elected
members of the school governing bodies.
The training process will continue in the coming financial year. It is envisaged that this training will be
completed by the end of the second school term of 1999.
At farm
schools, training of school governing bodies will take place during the new
financial year.
The 1998/99
amount of R13, 767 million for the programme of Private Ordinary Schools has
been increased to R15, 239 million that will be divided equitably among the 42
schools involved.
An amount of
R70, 310 million has been set aside for this programme to provide for the 19
schools with approximately 4000 learners involved. Seventeen of these special schools cater for
children with disabilities ranging from severe to mild. The funding for these 17 schools is based on
a formula subsidy. The two child-care
schools are fully funded by the Department.
The National
and Provincial Departments are deeply committed to establishing an inclusive
education and training system as part of our constitutional responsibility to
build an inclusive society. This
commitment will result in most of the learners in these special schools being
moved to mainstream schools.
Only learners
with severe barriers to learning and development will be retained in the few
special schools that will remain in operation.
This process
of inclusion will gradually be phased in over a period of time.
I then come
to teacher training: Allow me to deal
with these now, namely: Teacher
Education, Further Education and Training Colleges.
Currently,
the R73, 244 million for this programme must provide for seven public colleges
of education and one state-aided college.
With the reduction of colleges from seven to four, the budget for
programmes is bound to be reduced even more when the colleges are incorporated
into universities.
Four of these
public colleges have hostels with an average cost of R800, 000 per annum for
catering facilities.
The process
to rationalise colleges of education in the Free State Province is
underway. The Department, together with
the Free State stakeholders in teacher education, has seen fit to reduce the
number of colleges from eight to four.
This process commenced with the formation of the Provincial
Rationalisation Committee, the centralisation of admission and the reduction of
the number of first year students from 1000 to 500 for all colleges.
A plan is in
place to phase in Further Education and Training programmes in those colleges
that would no longer offer teacher-training programmes. This is done in response to the higher needs
of Further Education and Training in the province and to improve utilization of
the buildings and staff of the former teacher education colleges. This will help us avoid a situation where
buildings remain unused and staff unemployed.
Due to
over-crowding in schools, it has become imperative for the Department to make
room for learners in schools by refusing admission to Grade 12 repeaters who
are beyond the school-going age, that is, out-of-school youth. This year approximately 3000 learners have
been accommodated in the said colleges.
Lere-La-Tshepe,
a newly established community college, requires a very extensive expansion to
its programmes that are geared towards the community college concept. The former Boitjhorisong In-Service Training
Centre has been incorporated into this college.
All technical
colleges are geared for state-aided colleges and are therefore, financed by
means of a subsidy.
An amount of
R7, 126 million has been allocated to this programme, comprising R44,7 million
for personnel expenditure and R2,3 million for subsidies towards colleges that
had been disadvantaged in the past.
Financial
assistance by means of subsidies will be phased out as fees are increased at
these colleges in order to place them on par with other colleges.
The Further
Education and Training Act of 1998 has paved the way for transformation of
technical colleges into community colleges through the introduction of
provincial legislation which will be Tabled before this House not later than
July this year.
These FET
institutions will offer multiple entry and exit points and a range of qualifications
at different levels which will allow for articulation within FET and with
general and higher education.
The defining
characteristics should be:
·
That it allows for more specialisation
than general education,
·
That it provides more context-based skills
in preparing learners for higher education in the place of work; and
·
Effective citizenship.
Further
Education as a system should involve a range of providers, such as secondary
schools, colleges, private or independent providers, as well as commerce and
industry. These providers may also offer
programmes below and above the FET band.
This Further
Education and Training should occur in a variety of sites and through different
modes of delivery.
The need for
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics graduates in this country call
for the major addressing of this urgent need from the side of the Department of
Education.
The
introduction of both the second chance programme of SYSTEM at Lere-La-Tshepe
College for those matriculants who failed, and the SYSTEM programme for teacher
training at Tshiya College of Education are attempts by the Department to
address this problem.
The immediate
aim is to expand the SYSTEM programmes to other institutions in the Province,
in order to ensure balance access to learners in need of these studies. The financial support for this endeavour will
indeed lighten Government’s burden.
One of the
areas to benefit from this direction that the Department has taken, is
Botshabelo. The Free State Department of
Education has identified a need to establish a technical college in Botshabelo
to respond to the high rate of unemployment in this densely populated township.
The existence
of such a college will assist with employment and poverty alleviation... [Interjection]
The SPEAKER: Hon Member, you have five minutes left.
Mr D A KGANARE (MEC): The existence of such a college will
assist with employment and poverty alleviation of the pre-employed, employed
and unemployed groups in the area.
This effort
should be seen as a crusade to take FET to the rural part of this
Province. The idea is to make FET
accessible, even in remote parts of this Province. To this end, satellite colleges in the
Southern Free State are also being considered.
As far as
non-formal education goes, an amount of R22,311 million for this programme has
been divided amongst the three sub-programmes as follows:
·
An amount of R13,415 million for
out-of-school education;
·
An amount of R6,284 million for Adult
Basic Education and Training, henceforth referred to as ABET; and
·
An amount of R2, 612 million for Early
Childhood Development, henceforth referred to as ECD.
I have
already referred to ECD and the concentration that we have as far as ECD is
concerned.
Training of
ABET officials will be further increased in the coming financial year. The amount of R245 000 from the European
Union donated for capacity building in ABET in the Province, will be made
available by the National Department.
The funds will be accessed in trenches to cascade assessment, monitoring
and evaluation and LSM training throughout the year.
An amount of
R84 451 has been set aside for Auxiliary Services, to deal with learning
support services, Information Technology, Learning Assessment, Evaluation and
Examination, including Psychological Services which encompasses remedial
services, counselling for children with learning difficulties, guidance
clinics, primary intervention workshops with parents, teachers and learners for
balanced citizenship.