Chairperson, the Minister of Basic Education has finally come very close to admitting that her department has been and is failing hundreds of thousands of South Africa's children. She has finally stated that the focus in education can no longer only be on quantity and making our schools accessible to all of our children, but that the focus must now be on quality. But her commitment is not reflected in her budget.
Consider just two priority areas as examples. Firstly, universal access to Grade R has very nearly been achieved, but what of the quality? The department's own report last year found that, for the majority of Grade R offerings, the impact on Grade 1 proficiency was zero to minimal. The curriculum has not been fully developed or implemented, and few Grade R teachers are qualified to teach. There is no allocation in the budget to deal with this.
Secondly, every child should be taught by a qualified, competent teacher. This can only be achieved by training more teachers and ensuring that the teachers who are currently in our schools are competent.
The budget for bursaries for teachers is reducing, not increasing. Existing teachers' professional development will be co-ordinated by the SA Council for Educators, Sace, and funded by the Department of Basic Education budget. I would invite the Minister - if she were here - to take a look at the Sace courses. Her budget, very simply, is funding many service providers, but not much training of any real value. She is certainly not funding an increase in teacher competence.
Primarily quality is an attitude, but it costs money to achieve. This budget is certainly not going to fund even the foundations of quality education for our learners.