Chairperson, the Free State supports the Adult Basic Education and Training Bill. It is our view that this Bill lays a firm foundation for dealing with a problem that has been worrying us in the province in relation to adult basic education, and that is the problem of the status of educators at adult centres and their conditions of service.
It is no secret that educators at adult centres do not enjoy a full-time employment status like other educators at the same post levels as prescribed in section 1 of the Employment of Educators Act of 1998. This also ties in with a need to have conditions of service at adult education centres regulated by special regulations issued by the head of education in the province. Such conditions of service shall make it possible for educators to address the specific needs of the country economically and socially, more so when they include stipulated hours of work.
South Africa needs citizens who feel that life is worthwhile, citizens who are in control of their own lives and who can make informed choices for themselves, and who value democracy. Citizens who regain their self-esteem because education has freed them from the shackles of apartheid are the people who will carry the country forward. People who carry the task of ridding the country of illiteracy and creating a citizenry of independent literate people are adult educators. Adult educators work with adults who have a wealth of prior learning and experience of life. These educators need a support system to carry them through the times of self-doubt when their learners lose heart as a result of a normal slow process of gaining self-empowerment.
Adult educators need to be masters of all the learning areas. They are people who work with two generations of South Africans upon whom transformation lies. An adult learner is also a parent. The level of parental education directly impacts upon the level of released potential of the child learner. If one wishes to improve learning amongst our youth, we have to equip their parents in order for them to take charge of their future.
The Free State also supports the amendments proposed in the Education Laws Amendment Bill. These will also help our province to deal with a problem that is rife in the Free State, and that is that property owners, especially farmers, refuse to sign agreements with the department of education. We also hope that implementation of the Act will provide a tool with which to deal with such situations. The amendment dealing with school governing bodies is also welcomed because it will do away with the problem of school governing bodies who refuse to allow the reasonable use of schools by the department for activities not related to the school or any activities which are deemed necessary by the government, under reasonable circumstances. For example, usage of schools as marking centres without payment and the utilisation of schools for election purposes, are some of these activities.
The Free State town of Bethlehem has recently witnessed an upsurge in school gangsterism, and schooling was disrupted to a certain extent. Regulations regarding safety in public schools are also very important. That is why our province believes that it is very important that guns and other weapons must under no circumstances be brought onto school premises. In conclusion, it is the sincere hope of our province that provisions in the the two Bills will help our country deal with the situations we have already talked about and others which other speakers referred to, and many more other challenges facing our country in relation to education. [Applause.]