Sorry, I meant "honourable". I made a mistake and said "horrible" Trollip. I am sorry, my apologies. [Laughter.]
Overall, for university infrastructure, government is spending R6 billion over this three-year Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period with an additional R2 billion in cofunding from the universities' own coffers, with an estimated 37 000 direct jobs being created. The President is not theorising about jobs; here is infrastructure spending on social infrastructure and jobs. This is a true story...
... izinganekwane lezi esizixoxelwa la singaze simile izimpondo. Abantu balokhu besixoxela izinganekwane emini, siyoze simile izimpondo. Nansi indaba yangempela, hhayi lezi zinganekwane zenu. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... not the airy fairy philosophical stuff that we are being told here. People keep on telling us airy fairy philosophical stuff that is not true in broad daylight; we may end up believing their stories. Here is a true story, not your airy fairy philosophical stuff. [Applause.]]
The government is now committed to establishing, by the way, what ostensibly will be three new universities to help expand our capacity and access to higher education. These include the two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, whose first students will be admitted next year. [Applause.]
President Zuma will go down in history as the President who built the first universities in a democratic South Africa. [Applause.] An amount of R2,1 billion has been set aside for infrastructure for these two universities, and over the next three years about 11 000 direct jobs will be created during the construction phase. In addition, we are establishing a new comprehensive university of health sciences, to be established on the campus of the Medical University of Southern Africa, Medunsa, which is being demerged from the University of Limpopo. I must emphasise that this will be more than just a demerger.
The new university will be a much expanded institution and will include not only the training of medical doctors, but also other health professionals such as dentists, veterinarians, nurses, physiotherapists, medical technologists, radiographers, and so on. Sister B, that is part of the answer to the questions that you raised.
We are indeed engaging all schools of health about the increase in the numbers of doctors. We have been talking not only with the University of the Witwatersrand, but also with the University of Pretoria, Tuks, as well as other universities, in the mean time, on how to increase the intake of doctors, especially. As we are all aware, government is seriously committed to accelerating the delivery of infrastructure to spearhead our country's growth under the leadership of Msholozi.
I want to emphasise that whatever the challenges we may face, we have made substantial progress over the last decade and a half in relation to schooling, with even more significant advances under President Zuma. The 2011 Census shows that our educational levels have increased significantly. The proportion of South Africans with a Grade 12 education or higher has risen from 28,8% in 2001 to 40,7% in 2011, an increase of 41,3%. School participation rates of 7 - to 15-year-olds in 2011 was 98,8%.
One of our most notable achievements has been the very significant expansion of Grade R enrolments, meaning that most children start with their formal education a year younger than was previously the case. The proportion of 5-year-olds in school increased from 45,6% in 2001 to 81,2% in 2011. This, together with our efforts to improve the quality of teaching, has begun to show up in the results of the Annual National Assessments. In Grade 3, the national average performance in literacy was 52% in 2012 as compared to 35% in 2011, registering an improvement of 17%. This is a true story.
Hhayi izinganekwane! [Not the airy fairy philosophical stuff!]
In Grade 3 numeracy, our learners performed at an average of 41% as compared to 28% in 2011. Our Grade 6 mathematics results have been disappointing, with an average performance of 27% as compared to 30% in 2011. But every effort will now be made to reverse this because we know the problem. The focus on the Annual National Assessments is the result of our increasing realisation that the Grade 12 pass rate is just one of many indicators of the health of our schooling system. Nonetheless, it is clear from the steady improvement in results in the National Senior Certificate examination that the education system has stabilised and is improving. A key indicator of better Grade 12 results is the number of learners qualifying for university studies at the Bachelor level. The 2012 figure of 136 047 is almost exactly double the level it was in 2000.
Other significant achievements include the Department of Basic Education's undertaking to provide over 50 million workbooks annually to learners. The National School Nutrition Programme has now increased significantly to cover 8,8 million learners in about 21 000 primary and secondary schools. In December 2012, the National School Build Programme under the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission was launched to address national backlogs in classrooms, libraries, computer laboratories, etc. As the President said in the state of the nation address this year, by the end of this financial year alone we would have built 98 schools, over 40 of them in the Eastern Cape. This shows that government is being programmatic in tackling mud schools and other inappropriately built school structures, contrary to the ridiculous claims by the DA.
Uyezwa Trollip? Nangu uhulumeni oholwa wuMsholozi uyaziqeda lezi zikole zodaka ezisasele njengamanje. [Do you understand, hon Trollip? Take this government under the leadership of Msholozi, it is eradicating the remaining mud schools.]