Chair, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, despite the efforts and the progress that I have seen, the people of South Africa are extremely frustrated that it is taking so long to deliver improved quality education to meet the human resource development needs of the country and to end poverty and inequality. With this in mind, the ACDP welcomes the budget increase of almost 6%.
Government's mantra of ``do more with less'' is now becoming ``do more with more''. In the case of the Department of Basic Education, DBE, it's no less a challenge as underspending and lack of delivery have been serious problems, particularly in the area of infrastructure backlogs.
In the last financial year the department received R2,3 billion to replace 496 schools and to provide 1 257 schools with water, 878 schools with electricity and 868 schools with sanitation. Only 12 out of 49 mud schools in the Eastern Cape were replaced, only 106 schools got water, 144 got sanitation and 118 got electricity. This resulted in nearly R1,7 billion for infrastructure being redirected away from Basic Education, and it's a great shame.
Apart from infrastructure, quality education requires quality teachers and quality textbooks. These are two areas in which the department in some way has failed to deliver.
The ACDP regards the disruption of learners' studies by union activities as extremely problematic and we are calling on government to commit fully in ensuring that the teaching profession is held to a higher professional standard. The DBE promises to improve accountability measures to ensure that all teachers are in school, on time, regularly and teaching. Seriously this begs the question, why have you waited until now because this is not exactly a new revelation?
The ACDP has welcomed the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit's 2012 report on the state of literacy, teaching and learning in the Foundation Phase. There are grave concerns about poor levels of reading and it is in the Foundation Phase where the education battle is often won or lost.
We note that problem areas identified include difficulties experienced by teachers and learners regarding language. We support the introduction of English as a compulsory additional language in African language schools. Learners must have a solid grounding to assist them when they move from the Foundation Phase to the Intermediate Phase. A good grounding, of course, in a learner's home language is just as important and we welcome the new policy that will come into effect in 2014, mandating the learning of an African language in all schools.
Provincial education departments have been cutting independent schools' subsidies unilaterally by as much as 40%, which is not in line with the present norms and standards for school funding. These subsidy cuts have resulted in some schools closing down and others operating under impossible financial constraints. The ACDP is calling for allocations to independent schools to be made by National Treasury and ring-fenced at provincial level. [Time expired.]