Hon Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, hon members and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and compatriots, indeed we welcome the blow-by-blow account of progress made on the delivery of a better life for all, as presented by President Jacob Zuma in the 2012 state of the nation address. South Africa is on track to deliver on these key priorities we have singled out as part of our electoral mandate.
We mostly welcome the national focus on massive public infrastructure development. In this regard, quality education and skilling are of paramount importance. As we said in July 2011 when we launched the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, Accord on Basic Education with organised labour, business and community representatives:
Performance in the schooling system is at the heart of building the skills base for economic growth and development and ensuring that the society is able to achieve our equality and developmental goals.
Despite challenges, there is progress in education. The system is more equitable and propoor than it was before 1994. We have built a relatively stable schooling system that has extended the right to basic education to over 12 million learners in more than 24 665 public schools. Our current achievements show exceptional delivery on section 29 of the Constitution and a progressive shift towards a social reality wherein everyone has a right to basic education.
We are three years ahead of the 2015 targets of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. As the President has reported, indeed we have doubled Grade R enrolments from about 300 000 in 2003 to more than 705 000 in 2011. We also proudly report that more young South Africans are completing Grade 9. There is a growth from 80% in 2003 to 88% in 2010. As you know, more black South Africans are completing Grade 12 according to the 2010 Household Survey. The percentage of learners who qualified for Bachelor's Degree studies has increased to 24,3%, which places us on target for our 2014 commitment.
Free schooling and meals are central to our propoor policies to maximise access and eradicate poverty. Over 8 million learners in over 80% of public schools benefit from the no-fee school policy. Over 90% of schools in Limpopo, Free State and the Eastern Cape are no-fee schools.
As the President has acknowledged, we have achieved a lot in our dialogue with teacher unions. So, I don't know what is the jumping around about this. Indeed, we have achieved a lot and I think it gives us a reason to appreciate and acknowledge that we are making progress in communicating with our teacher unions. [Applause.]
The Triple T' of teachers, textbooks and time, to which the President called for focus in 2011, will benefit from well-informed and well-prepared teachers. We are already, in partnership with our teacher unions, implementing the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for teacher education development. It is the first time that our teacher unions are involved with us in teacher development. So, the monies I think the member raised an issue on, belong to the SA Democratic Teachers Union, SADTU. I think it is unfair because it belongs to them. Indeed, they are working with us to implement this framework and it is the first time that we have been able to achieve that.
We are also using specialist teams comprising our best teachers and educators from higher education institutions and NGOs to ensure quality teacher development.
We will turn the teacher laptop initiative into an effective tool for entrenching information and communications technology in teaching and learning in line with the White Paper on e-Education. There were indeed challenges in the initial roll-out which we are ironing out, in consultation again, with unions and Treasury. An announcement will be made soon and again we are working with them on this.
A process is under way at the Education Labour Relations Council, ELRC, where again we will sit with our teacher unions to simplify and streamline the Integrated Quality Management System, IQMS, because it is an important matter that needs to be resolved if we have to improve accountability. Therefore hon members would know that this is the system we currently use to evaluate educators' performance and which was agreed on at the ELRC in 2003. Once again, another instrument - the Teacher Performance Appraisal - will replace the existing IQMS.
Processes are being finalised to evaluate principals and deputy principals. Again, we are working with teacher unions on this one, not only SADTU, but all of them. This would inaugurate a new era of performance agreements, accountability, sound school management and the accruing benefits of quality teaching and proper use of time. Again, this is the first time that we are going to be able to get this as a system. Once again, thanks to all our teacher unions for the good work in that area. [Applause.]
We have published for comment the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit Bill and the closing date is 17 February 2012.
Hon members will recall that in 2011 the curriculum review process was completed. Again, on those review teams we not only had academics, but we also worked with all our teacher unions on the curriculum reviews. At the heart of this has been the need to promote and improve curriculum implementation and new learning outcomes. This year, regarding the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement, Caps, which is being introduced in Grades 1 to 3, we've trained teachers and developed learning groups support material for a successful roll-out. We will support and monitor its implementation. We want to report that in 2011 we provided a targeted intervention in all underperforming schools, with 4 612 schools visited by the end of the second quarter.
Again, as we promised, progress has been made on the provision of learning and teaching support materials. In 2011, we provided high quality workbooks to around 6 million learners. I am told that one of the DA members was saying that her dream is to produce these books. He or she dreamt about things which are already there. He or she doesn't need to dream about books when they are already there. [Applause.] We have the pleasure to announce that the National Workbook Programme has been extended from Grades 1 to 6 to Grades 7, 8 and 9. [Interjections.]