Speech by the Deputy Minister of Education Mr Enver Surty, MP at the Education For All Southern Africa Conference, Rosebank Hotel, Johannesburg, 7 February 2005

Chairperson
SADC Country Representatives
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great pleasure to be part of this conference where we have an opportunity as a region, to look at the progress made since we had committed ourselves to the goals of Education for All as agreed upon in Jomtien and Dakar subsequently.

South Africa has just celebrated its first decade as a democracy. It has been both an exciting and a challenging ten years. It has been exciting in that, in education we saw an integration of a fragmented and unequal education system that comprised of 15 different departments into a single department. The new department sought to offer equal opportunities and quality education to all South Africans, more importantly the many people that were excluded by the old discriminatory system.

Our constitution stipulates that all children and adults have a right to basic education, and that further education must progressively be made available and accessible. Since 1994 we have been faced with a challenge to create an education system that is accessible to all, where there is an equitable distribution of resources. We have had to create a system that is efficient and that fosters values that are characteristic of a democratic society.

South Africa does not have a separate EFA plan. Our commitment to the Dakar Framework for Action assisted us strengthen our education plans of making education accessible to all children and adults as stipulated in our constitution. The EFA goals have helped refine education and development initiatives aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past and promoting the values enshrined in our constitution.

I will take this opportunity to share with you today the road travelled by South Africa in its endeavour to ensure that by 2015 South Africa has: A comprehensive early childhood and development programme in place, an ECD programme that will be available to all communities, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged children

That all children have free and compulsory quality primary education

That learning needs of all young people and adults are met

That there is an improved adult literacy rate

That no gender disparities in the participation of learners at primary and secondary levels are evident

That the quality of education is improved especially numeracy, literacy and life skills.

South Africa through the equitable inter-provincial allocations of funds and education specific poverty targeting mechanisms, has been able to mobilise funds towards the elimination of backlogs in the provision of education to previously disadvantaged groups which include African people, women, people in rural areas, learners with special education needs, people from poor households.

Since 1994, legislative and policy interventions have resulted in the following achievements for our education system:

Teachers. We have a dedicated National Teacher Development strategy which will consolidate gains made after the transition. Since 1994, we have been able to achieve a 30% increase in the proportion of qualified teachers in South Africa. School Improvement and National Teaching Awards are presented annually to acknowledge excellence in the education system.

Rewarding good performance. A new performance related appraisal system linked to the IQMS has been established. The system will reward teachers that perform well within the public sector whilst keeping them in schools.

Near-universal compulsory education. Our education interventions have resulted in the sustained participation of over 95% in schooling since the mid to late 1990s and sustained increases in enrolment in all age groups at education institutions. These participation rates are comparable to those in the most industrialised countries.

Girls are performing well. In the Grade 12 Senior Certificate Examination and assessments, girls seem to be doing better at key competency tests. More girls participate in higher education. At higher education institutions, the female share of enrolment has increased over the years from 44.1% in 1993 to 51% in 1999 to about 54% 3.5% in 2001. Participation in mathematics, science and technology for female learners is improving, as is participation in higher education of female learners. This augurs well for the creation of knowledge, skills development, research and development envisaged in the Human Resource Development Strategy.

Early Childhood Development programme has had a 12% growth in participation in the reception Grade year since 2000, signifying the expansion of access to quality foundation for education by 5 year-olds countrywide.

Fewer out of school youth. We have been able to attract more youth back to the school. The number of out of school youth who should be in compulsory schooling has nearly halved since 1996 from 945,000 to 581,000 for 7-15 years old, and available data shows that between 1998 and 2000, between 1998 and 2000, the proportion of African students in FET colleges grew from 71% to 76%.

Dealing with poverty. We have started a National School Nutrition Programme in our primary schools to provide a meal to children from poor communities. The programme enables participation and enhances learner achievement. The National School Nutrition Programme is projected to be funded to the tune of over R838 million in 2004/5 from an amount of R460 million in 1999. We have established a national financial aid scheme for tertiary education.

Students receive financial aid through the NSFAS as bursaries or loans. The average annual increase in higher education enrolment has been just over 12, 000 per year since the mid-1990s while the average annual increase in the number of awards made by the financial aid scheme was almost 4,000 (a third of this average annual increase in enrolment). Between 1996 and 2001, the scheme disbursed over R 2.6 billion to almost half a million students in higher education institutions.

Curriculum reform and skills development. Our government recognises that the curriculum influences the quality of education outcomes. The curriculum has therefore been modernised to make it more relevant to the needs of citizens of a developing country aiming to achieve sustainable economic and development growth.

The development of scarce skills has been a major area of focus for us; Mathematics, Science and Technology have been identified as key development drivers for the country. The Department of Education’s contribution is to improve participation rates in these subjects. Dedicated schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology called Dinaledi schools have been established as part of a National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology aimed at 1) - raising the participation and performance of Black learners (especially females) in Mathematics and Science at Senior Certificate level; 2) providing high-quality education in the three subjects to all learners and 3) increasing and improving human resource capacity to deliver education in the three subjects. Schools of focused learning in the areas of Performing and Visual Arts and Sports have also been established in some provinces. In addition to the Dinaledi schools a White Paper in e-Education and an implementation strategy have been developed to consolidate these interventions in the system, and to create a corps of learners and educators who are fully ‘e’ competent.

Dealing with HIV/AIDS in Education. As part of the curriculum, HIV/AIDS education is responsible for the greater awareness on the this subject The Department of Education has developed and produced HIV and Aids resource guides that will be used by schools to prepare an action plan to respond to the pandemic. A study is being completed now to identify the factors affecting the supply and demand of educators including the impact of HIV/AIDS.
Values in education. The focus of the values in education initiative will be on familiarising learners with Constitutional values and symbols. The revised National Curriculum, completed in 2003, places emphasis on the principles of Social Justice, a Healthy Environment, and Human Rights and Inclusivity. The important role of History in encouraging respect for heritage and diversity in the broader population (in addition to learners) is also recognised.
 
Language in education policy. The Revised National Curriculum enhances multilingualism, diversity and respect for different language traditions in a national context and provincial departments of education are obliged to make the necessary arrangements to ensure that the language requirements of learners are met at local level.

Infrastructure in education remains a concern, and the context in which learners learn will receive attention in the coming years.

Challenges
The following are challenges facing developing countries such as our own are depressingly common and threaten to overwhelm our goals of quality education for all: Socio-economic conditions, poverty and unemployment rates in many of our countries encourage dropping out, low achievement and exclusion, particularly for the poor.
Lack of modern curricula in the right place at the right time. This is particularly true where teacher development and quality are a critical concern.
Lack of learning opportunities for young people and adults as means to enter the labour market or progress to higher education.
Lack of maturity of systems of implementation, monitoring, evaluation especially in terms of resource allocation and administrative.
The problems of coordination of various skills development agencies as well as Government in ensuring coherent quality programmes in Early Childhood, Adult Basic Education and vocational education.
The drain of teaching skills away from the continent.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on society and how these impact on education and training.
The low levels of development support in African countries especially support which is not tied with trade.

Challenges of infrastructure degradation and maintenance which play themselves out in many of our rural communities, and the transport and travel of learners to and from rural schools
Post-primary secondary enrolment, particularly for girls.
Strengthening the participation in, and completion of, programmes in scarce skills areas such as Maths, Science and Technology, South Africa still under performs when compared to other developing countries in the world.

Conclusion
Evidently, South Africa has had a lot to deal with in her efforts to redress the inequalities of the past. There are obviously some areas that need serious intervention to ensure we continue to build and maintain a system that is will provide quality education for all.

Our coming together as countries to fight poverty through education are bearing fruit, and continue to play a critical role in highlighting the plight of the poor, women, children as well as addressing problems that render us ill prepared for competition in the economic and social global arena, resulting from lack adequate education.

All indications are that there is tremendous progress made in our plans to meet the targets we have set for ourselves in achieving the EFA goals. The different challenges we may be facing in our countries should not discourage us from our vision of universal primary education for all by 2015. Clearly together we are a much stronger force, and it will take our commitment to the goals of EFA to improve the lives of people in our countries.

I thank you, and hope that you enjoy the conference. For our colleagues from other countries, I hope you enjoy your stay in South Africa.

Thank you.