Hon Deputy Speaker, I will not begin my speech with, once upon a time, because I do not intend to tell a fairy-tale about the plight of children in South African
schools. I do not intend to be the Brothers Grimm and paint a picture of an imaginary and magical land that does not exist. I'm here to present the cold, hard facts that we need to reflect on as a Parliament, and the DA is here to also present workable solutions.
While the President spoke about how he met with the people of South Africa during the election campaign, he did not speak frankly of the true state in which the people of our country live, nor did he ever offer apologies for how his party has disappointed and left, particularly our young people, hopeless.
Over the last month I met with teachers who expressed how they are working under awful conditions no human being should. They are overwhelmed and overworked. They expressed how they are not only teachers to our young but they are mothers and fathers to orphans of missing parents; they are social workers to the broken; they are nurses to the sick; and they are police to the disruptive and drug dealers on school premises.
Mr President, the fact is that the majority of our children come from broken homes with unemployed parents who are filled with despair and hopelessness. They come from poverty-stricken homes; abusive homes. They are broken and bring their brokenness to their teachers, their playground and their classroom, which leads to bullying and excessive violence. They witness violence and use violence to solve disputes.
These socioeconomic ills spill over into our environment. The recent murder of a KwaZulu-Natal teacher and the stabbing of Daniel Bakwela by a fellow learner in Gauteng sent shockwaves throughout the country, and that should really worry you, Mr President. Violence has become a real phenomenon in our schools.
Nkokheli, you cannot talk about education in this country and totally ignore the wave of violence that is crashing through our schools.
IsiXhosa:
Kubi ezikolweni, ootitshala babetha abantwana, abantwana babetha ootitshala, abantwana bayabethana kwaye bayabulalana.
English:
Our teachers and learners need our support, and social workers and nurses have a supporting role to play in our schools and must serve that role.
To mitigate this spate of violence our schools in the Western Cape has introduced a Safe Schools hotline. It allows learners, staff, parents and communities to get help where abuse, crime, drug use and gang activity occurs. This excellent model should be extended to all provinces as co- operation on the ground is vital to preventing violent acts before they occur. Mr President, this is one of the initiatives that we need to combat social violence. We need you to come on board and give a directive, Mr President.
I was actually taken aback when you reinstated Minister Angie Motshekga as the Minister of Basic Education. She has been presiding over this ministry for a decade and under her the state of public education has worsened. Under her we tragically lost two learners in pit latrines ... [Applause.] ... and the number could be more. Under her, eight out of 10 Grade 4
children cannot read for understanding or meaning. Under her we performed poorly in both the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, Pirls, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, Timss. Under her the World Economic Global Information Technology Report of 2016, which ranks the quality of education in 139 countries, ranked South Africa at 137. Out of 139, we were at the bottom. You are a Mabena, Mr President. Just like your predecessor you disappoint South Africa.
In your speech you emphasised implementing the early grade reading programme. As we speak, we have 1,1 million learners in Grade 4. We simply cannot wait a decade to have our learners reading. Our foundation and intermediate phase teachers are already trained. They need professional development.
The SA Democratic Teacher's Union, Sadtu, has been blocking annual assessments for years and this is a policy impediment. Unless you act, you threaten the future of the generation to come. A DA government will prioritise the future of learners over ambitions of union members.
In the Western Cape we have prioritised basic reading and numeracy skills, and we are seeing results. We are the only province to achieve more than 600 points for reading and Mathematics. That is according to the Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, Sacmeq. This is significantly higher than the national average of 522 points.
You see, Mr President, in the Western Cape 45% of learners in Grade 4 - whilst you are still coming up with your programme, we in the Western Cape are already doing it - can read for meaning in their home language, compared to 9,2% in Limpopo and 22,1% nationally.
However, I would like to applaud your action to move co- ordination of disability initiatives to the Presidency. I hope that in its mandate the needs of the disabled in basic education will be a priority. [Applause.]
You also talked about coding. A fantastic idea. However, you know what? You need to read to be able to do coding. When I
listened to your speech, I hoped that you would give us an update on school infrastructure and how you are progressing with the tablet distribution programme. Or has this one also been abandoned? Mr President, the lack of consistency concerns us all.
IsiXhosa:
Ngoko ndiyakucela Mongameli, yeka ukuphupha, vuka. Yeka ukubamba apha uyeke, ubambe phaya uyeke.