Hon Chair, participation of our teachers and school management on the Teaching and Learning International Survey, Talis, report has been a good benchmark for our education system against the best in the world, and like all research it got South Africans talking.
This report illustrates what we already know. Actually the large number of those issues within that report is understated. You
see Chair, South Africa has two types of education system: One in poverty and the other in financial stability. Eighty percent of our learners attend dysfunctional schools, where a family member might never see their child again because the violence between learners can escalate to death; where drugs and alcohol move freely into school premises because of gangs in the area or a tavern which is 100 metres away; where children may never safely arrive at school because of the condition of their transport; where a child has no chair to sit on because members of the community vandalised the school; and where a child attend school with no school facilities to keep them free of outside influence and peer pressure.
These are the daily realities of many learners in this country. To more surprise the department's Programme 5 which seeks to promote social cohesion, safety and implementing of schools sports spend a mere R7,1 million a year which means the department spends R788 000 per province, and R500 per school to monitor and support a school within this programme. This is not a commitment Minister, it is a sham!
Sporting facilities are nonexistent in the majority of schools. The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has a miserable budget, but yet it is expected to give support to schools. Adjustments must be made because within that budget of basic education there is no clear-cut allocation for violence. We need clarity, Minister. For in the system we lost many learners. We lost Kulani Mathebula, Daniel Bakwela, Felies Sithembile, Odirile Mafora, David Metlape and Madan Mothlamme. All these learners were between the age of nine and 19. They were all killed by their peers from the same schools or nearby schools.
How long must this list be for you to understand that you have a crisis at schools, Minister? These learners will never finish their matric, they will never go to university or obtain a job, get married and have children. They will never experience the Fourth Industrial Revolution which this government fondly talks about all the time.
What is also disappointing is that even the President paid no attention to school violence in both His state of the nation addresses this year. That means the ANC shows no interest in the
safety of our learners or does not believe it is a crisis. Minister we need a holistic approach. We need to be pre-emptive and preventative measures.
As the DA we have five things which we could do to combat violence in schools. Every provincial department should establish a safe schools call centre - I have been talking about this for years now - in all provinces so that communities can immediately report and get advice on violence, bullying, gangs and drug use. This has been very useful in the Western Cape and learners in other provinces need a similar resource.
We need support of afterschool programmes to keep learners occupied, safe and socially engaged, like what we are doing in the Western Cape with afterschool game changer.
Mamelani [Listen.] We need serious collaboration across this department.