Xandla xa Xipikara xa Palamende, Phuresidente wa tiko ra hina na vuthu ra yena ra Vaholobye, vanhu lava nga tshama eka galari, ni vanhu lava yingiselaka sweswi, ndza mi losa. [Deputy Speaker, the President of our country and his team of Ministers, people who are seated in the gallery, and people who are listening now, I salute you.]
Since the amendments in the Bill have been highlighted, I need to talk about discipline as an issue in our schools; matikhomele lamanene eswikolweni swa hina. [discipline in our schools.]
There is a need to explain discipline before you can go into it. In Longman's Basic English Dictionary, to be specific, the word "discipline" is unpacked as the training of people so that they will obey orders and control their own feelings and behaviour. It doesn't stop there. Collins Paperback Dictionary and Thesaurus also unpacks "discipline" as conduct, self-control, strictness, bringing to book, and correcting, just to mention a few.
Levels of discipline in our different schools can be measured as low or high. We can therefore talk of a level of discipline in a school. No school can achieve as much as it should without embracing the whole issue of discipline. Actually, success remains married to discipline. Our schools should therefore ensure that they have discipline of an extremely high order in order for them to know for sure that an excellent result is certain, especially with this Bill that we are giving to them.
Perhaps we need to talk about ways of ensuring that schools have the envisaged discipline, since our greatest investment as the ANC is in education. The core principle of ensuring improved results is to start at the beginning, and that is punctuality.
This also speaks to President Zuma's "Three Ts", teachers, textbooks and time. We should focus on the third "T" in particular, which is time. We need to have kids at school at the right time. With discipline the learners and educators will always be punctual. It would actually be embarrassing to go on an oversight visit to a school, and instead of going to talk to the staff, you had to wait at the gate and talk to learners who were late. It would even be more embarrassing if you had to wait for educators who came to school after it had already started. The purpose of the Bill is to stop that. Moreover, punctuality should prevail throughout the day, such as during breaks when there is time for food, and also when learners go to their studies - it is not just at the beginning of the day.
Secondly, learners need to listen and not to chat during lessons. Cell phones should be switched off during lessons. Nothing should interfere with learners' contact time. The Bill talks of learners' contact time.
Another matter deserving of mention is that our democracy ensures that our learners are no longer walloped, as it used to be in the apartheid era. This is because we believe that learners are human beings that can be talked to, and not necessarily beaten.
Therefore, we are calling upon all parents to instil discipline at home so that educators can do their job of ensuring that they pass at the end of the year. Schools that achieve extremely highly are also found to be those that are well behaved. From this particular debate it has become evident that discipline has the ability to produce better results. This calls for self-discipline, which will not necessarily need any monitoring.
In conclusion, if every child in every school in South Africa, as well as every educator in our beautiful country, and all the school governing bodies could take it upon themselves to maintain discipline, results in schools would improve so much that self-employed fault-finders could dismiss themselves. South African schools should strive to be disciplined so as to achieve 70% and above.
It would not be correct for me to sit down without responding to what hon D C Smiles of the DA said about the unions. As much as we agree that the unions need to be monitored, it must be noted in this Parliament that they have played an important role. It is because of the unions that we no longer teach 120 learners in a class. Some of us taught 120 learners in a class, whilst next door others were teaching only 20. The unions were necessary and they remain relevant. However, we are saying that the unions should discharge their responsibilities with dignity and discipline. I thank you. [Applause.]