Hon Chair, hon members, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you warmly for affording us a chance to present our Budget Vote. Our theme this year is "A delivery-driven basic education system informed by the Delivery Agreement".
Indeed, we are truly honoured to account to the nation in the month of freedom. We entreat Parliament to approve our budget at a time when the nation is renewing its sacred vows and commitment to the values of human dignity, equality and freedom for all. An educated citizenry will help us unite the nation, promote democracy and protect our freedom. Education is our hope for attaining the regeneration of Africa as envisioned by Pixley ka Seme and other pioneers of the ANC.
The value of education is echoed in our Delivery Agreement, which states that in the context of high unemployment and skills shortage, reducing poverty depends on giving South Africans a better educational start in life. This is precisely what makes education the apex priority, the real reason for working together to create a delivery-driven basic education system.
Our allocations this year testify to the commitment of the ANC-led government to educating and skilling our children. The overall budget for our department for the 2011-2012 financial year has increased by R6,3 billion to R13,8 billion.
In 2010, when we presented our 2010 budget speech, we made bold to say that we had made strides in education since the advent of democracy in 1994. We committed to doing more to resolve challenges affecting the delivery of quality education. Our systems, we conceded, needed improving in terms of efficiency and effectiveness to deliver on our targets.
Last year we acknowledged the shortcomings in the system, some of which demonstrated by research that our weakness lies in the quality of our outcomes. In the light of the systemic challenges in education, we then made a commitment to Parliament that by 2010 we would develop an education sector plan that would serve as a blueprint for turning around schooling.
The action plan was meant to establish key outcomes and performance deliverables for the entire education system, including the national and provincial departments. On 2 August 2010 we gazetted the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025. This step we took after consultation with the Council of Education Ministers, and in terms of the National Education Policy Act.
Alarmed by the results in the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate exams in 2009, we committed to improving the pass rate by 10% by 2014. Last year, despite the fact that we found ourselves plunging into a sea of bewilderment when the ship of basic education came face to face with a looming teachers' strike, we weathered the storm and achieved an impressive 67,8% pass rate, showing that our systems are improving. We recorded an increase of 7,2% on the 2009 pass rate, which was 60,6%.
We also committed ourselves to the national policy pertaining to the curriculum statement. Regarding the curriculum, we promised to proceed with due deliberation and decisiveness to implement recommendations of the ministerial committee established in 2009 to review the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement. We are satisfied with the state of progress on preparations for the incremental implementation, from January 2012, commencing with the Foundation Phase and Grade 10.
There was clear evidence, given the low levels of performance that still persisted widely in the system, that we required an effective performance evaluation system through which the quality of education could be enhanced.
Accordingly, on 17 March 2011, we launched the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit, which we call NEEDU. I'm glad to announce the appointment of its inaugural chief executive officer, Professor John Volmink, with effect from 1 July 2010. Since then, six additional staff members have been appointed to the NEEDU team.
By launching NEEDU, we have delivered a vital agency that will advance the goal of creating a delivery-driven basic education system. We therefore look forward to the support of this House in finalising the relevant legislation.
Last year we also promised to provide high-quality workbooks in literacy and numeracy for Grades 1 to6 learners, and in life skills for Grade R learners, to improve and enhance the quality of learning. We have developed high-quality workbooks as promised. Workbook 1 was rolled out to schools from January 2011 and Workbook 2 will reach learners in June 2011. These workbooks have been developed differently and with huge savings. Much has been learnt from the process of their development, and the money will be ploughed back into the system to add more learner support materials. Going forward, we will be able to add more workbooks in other subjects and extend their provision to other grades, beyond Grade 6. That is delivery, for a delivery-driven basic education system!
We have also committed ourselves before this House to improving performance in Grades 3, 6 and 9, from an average performance of between 27% and 38%, to at least 60% by 2014. One way of doing this, we said, was to administer annual national assessments that are standardised and internationally benchmarked. The analysis of the results of such assessments would inform the plans we adopt to improve the quality of learning and teaching.
We started in February 2011 with Grades 1 to 6 and Grade 10. Approximately 6,5 million learners participated in the process. We will release the report by 29 April 2011.
Our deliverables for 2011 include improving teacher subject and pedagogical knowledge fully to realize the rights of all learners to quality education.
Armed with the knowledge that the early years of the child are very critical for acquiring skills and concepts that lay the foundation for lifelong learning, we committed to up our efforts in the area of early childhood development. Last year the department trained more than 10 000 early childhood development, or ECD, practitioners through the Expanded Public Works Programme. We will strive further to expand access to Grade R, ensuring that it provides quality programmes to compensate for socioeconomic deprivation and low family literacy, and is universal by 2014, as we have promised.
I come to challenges. In spite of the footprints we have made, we still have many rivers to cross. Current institutional challenges include inefficiencies, resulting in poor management and weak financial controls. This we see in some provinces continuing to receive qualified reports.
Among other things, we are faced with poor accountability in different parts of the system, including poor planning, monitoring and evaluation. The education system is also plagued by learner-related challenges around learner wellbeing, exacerbated by poverty and social deprivation, ill discipline and youth criminality, and reproductive health-related problems such as teenage pregnancy. It is against this background that we launched the Bill of Responsibilities in partnership with Lead-SA and the SA Interfaith Council. This will help in raising awareness around the Bill of Responsibilities so as to promote the Bill of Rights, constitutional values and civic responsibilities.
Whilst great progress has been made, the sector needs to intensify ongoing work in the area of curriculum development, implementation and monitoring.
It is also important to note that our educational outcomes continue to reflect our country's socioeconomic patterns of inequalities, mainly based on race and apartheid old settlement patterns. So, one of our major challenges remains addressing inequalities in the system. In line with our theme that "Every child is a national asset", and working with our provinces, we will strive to make sure that no child is left behind.
Given the many challenges plaguing the education system and the need to respond to them effectively, better to support the national goal of achieving inclusive growth and economic freedom, we have decided to raise the bar and work even harder towards a delivery-driven basic education system.
Following a process of consultations and deliberations within the department, and with the Deputy Minister, we have come to the conclusion that during the 2011 financial year, we should up our current delivery programme through the establishment of a planning and delivery oversight unit.
This unit's mandate will be to take forward the processes and initiatives currently under way, guided by the current administration's outcomes approach. Among other things, it will have to work with and through provinces to weave together all current initiatives so as to allow for a coherent value chain from policy to implementation in the classroom.
Our single most important deliverable for 2011-12 will therefore be the establishment of this high-level planning and delivery oversight unit, whose task will be to fast-track the delivery process. We will give full details on this unit soon; approximately eight weeks from now.
The department has been allocated an additional amount R29,2 million for 2011-12, to attain full functionality of the fairly new Department of Basic Education. The department will continue to focus on the following levers to steer this quality education outcomes improvement programme.
Given the role of the gateway subjects in accelerating economic transformation and growth, we will do more to improve performance in mathematics and science. We are already developing a mathematics, science and technology strategy to reinforce the Dinaledi Schools programme, which has received a conditional grant amounting to R70 million for 2011-12 and will reach R105 million in the 2013-14 financial year.
An allocation of R80 million for the printing and distribution of the curriculum review documents has been secured for the current financial year.
To further enhance quality within the system, there is an additional allocation of about R14,1 million for the National Curriculum Statement examinations and assessment function in the 2011-12 financial year.
All our efforts that are aimed at enhancing the quality of learning outcomes will indeed benefit immensely from heeding the President's call, in the 2011 state of the nation address, for undivided focus on the "Triple Ts", that is, teachers, text and time. Thus, working with the provincial Departments of Education, we will ensure that indeed we deliver on the objectives of providing a textbook for every learner, in every subject.
Plans for the central procurement of learning and teaching support materials are under way. But all these efforts will not adequately produce a delivery-driven basic education system without quality teachers. We will therefore up our work on teacher development proactively to advance the "Triple Ts" and ensure that teachers are in class, teaching, at least seven hours a day, as the President has directed. Teachers are a critical resource for improving quality.
On 5 April this year, with Minister Nzimande, we launched the Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development. It is key to achieving Output 1 of the Delivery Agreement, that is, improving teacher capacity and practices.
The Funza Lushaka bursary has increased to R449 million and will reach R893 million in the year 2013-14.
Improving conditions of service for teachers is our top priority. We will continue to monitor the full implementation of the occupational-specific dispensation by provinces to ensure that unintended consequences are addressed.
Our targets include attracting young qualified teachers and filling vacant posts to help advance this year's clarion call for the creation of decent jobs and economic freedom for all.
We have also begun a process of supporting and collaborating with our teacher unions and higher education institutions on teacher professional development work. We see this as an important milestone in creating a high- level professional culture of commitment to teaching and professional development.
Our Lifetime Achiever, Mr Piet Swart, selected at the last National Teaching Awards, is an epitome of our capacity to produce excellent educators. We just need to do more. He is with us here today. In his 30 years of teaching, Mr Swart counts as his greatest achievement the role he played in 1996 to convince parents to agree to a phased-in multicultural policy for his school, Horskool Ben Vorster in Tzaneen. His school has won the trophy for the best performing school in the Mopani district 9 times out of 10 in Grade 12 results. He has also consistently produced 100% passes in his school with good quality outcomes. [Applause.]
The baseline of the Department of Basic Education has been adjusted with an amount of R43,9 million for the Expanded Public Works Programme. This allocation will help strengthen our resolve to make millions of our people literate and numerate, and help us to deliver on the commitment made to the UN programme Education For All in Dakar in 2000 - that of halving illiteracy rates by 2015.
We will intensify our work on strengthening the school management programme.
The funds allocated for school infrastructure will be used for building infrastructure in line with our improvement plan. We will work with communities at all levels, encouraging their participation and urging them to take ownership of school buildings.
We will eradicate mud and unsafe structures. For 2011-12, we have prioritised 85 mud schools and 246 inappropriate structures. We will provide water to at least 807 schools, provide sanitation to 391 schools and electrify 286 schools. For free-standing facilities without adequate resources, we will build 29 administration blocks, 25 libraries and 6 laboratories.
An allocation of R5,4 billion for the Education Infrastructure Conditional Grant has been introduced for this financial year, and it will increase to R6,2 billion in 2013-14. The School Infrastructure Backlogs Indirect Grant of R700 million for 2011-12 has also been introduced, and it will increase to R5,1 billion in 2013-14.
Working with provinces, by 2014 we would like to have attended to 3 627 schools that need to be brought to basic functionality and safety levels.
Learner wellbeing is another crucial element demanding our undivided attention. Therefore we will continue to pay serious attention to the health, safety and protection of our children; mainly children at risk.
In the current financial year, the National Schools Nutrition Programme reached 10 million learners in approximately 21 000 schools. For this financial year, this programme's conditional grant has increased to R915 million, to cater mainly for implementation in Quintile 3 secondary schools.
With education being a concurrent function, we are indeed very worried that 18 of our districts are underperforming. We are very aware that provinces are also not performing satisfactorily in different areas. This includes slow spending on some programmes and overspending in other areas. We will work with provinces, particularly those that have received qualified reports, to deal properly with the Auditor-General's concerns. The planning and delivery oversight unit is very key in this respect.
On the intervention in the Eastern Cape Department of Education, I made a ministerial statement before Parliament on 16 March this year. The Eastern Cape department of education had struggled, for the past 16 years, to establish itself as a stable and fully functional department. These challenges resulted in a Cabinet decision to invoke section 100(b) of the Constitution, in March 2011, to allow the Ministry of Basic Education to work with the province to implement a comprehensive and sustainable intervention.
We are working with the Department of Finance, the Department for the Public Service and Administration, as well as the Department of Transport in the province, to improve and deal with some of the challenges confronting the province. The intervention, I can say, enjoys the support of the leadership of the province and all key stakeholders. It is envisaged that the intervention will turn around the situation swiftly to enable delivery of key services in the education sector. In conclusion, I want to give a special thanks to all the patriots who supported the class of 2010. Again in 2011, we appeal to them to support the class of 2011. They are our children and they are our future.
We want to thank all professionals, academics and research communities, and the nongovernmental organisation sector. I want to deeply thank the Deputy Minister, Comrade Enver Surty, for his sterling support, the chairperson and members of the portfolio committee, MECs, heads of department, and the director-general in particular, Mr Bobby Soobrayan. I wish to thank all our officials, all teachers, their respective organisations, principals' associations, school governing bodies, learner representative councils, learner formations and the rest of civil society, for supporting all our efforts to deliver a quality, transformative and humane education system.
We want to welcome the continued support of Lead-SA, with whom we're launching a campaign to support the class of 2011 today. Lead-SA has worked tremendously to make the Bill of Responsibilities a reality. Through their efforts, I am convinced, we are strongly reaching out to our people with the message that with rights come corresponding responsibilities.
We also want to thank corporate South Africa for all the support. We also acknowledge, and are grateful to, the European Union for the Primary Education Sector Policy Support Programme, whose overall objective is to contribute to improving learner performance in literacy and numeracy at primary school level.
Our solemn promise to South Africans is that 2011 will not only focus on the theme of "A delivery-driven basic education system informed by the Delivery Agreement", but will also be about the general provision of education as a public service: faster, better and smarter.
We are confident that with the planning and delivery oversight unit these commitments will be realized. So, together we can improve the quality of basic education.
Lastly, we want to urge all our people within our borders to stand up and be counted during the 2011 census. I thank you. [Applause.]