Chair, again, it is incorrect for Baba uMpontshane to say there are pockets of excellence when our education system is predominantly public.
Private schools only make up 5% of the sector. Public schools make up more than 95% of the sector. I am saying that 75% of what we see as success in the sector comes from public schools; it is not pockets. I admit, and I agree with you, that we do have lots of challenges in other parts of the sector where we are not getting value for money. I do not think it is an issue, really. We are agreed completely on that part.
What I want to correct is the fact that, basically, our education system is public. If 95% are public schools, you cannot even compare public schools to private schools. What are you comparing between 95% and 5%? What characterises high-end public schools which charge up to R200 000? It is means, right? So, it is more often an economic factor rather than anything else that you are comparing.
You are talking about those schools which charge R200 000 and comparing them to schools like Mbilwi Secondary, which is a no-fees school and which is amongst the top ten schools in the country. So, we are really comparing things that are not comparable.
On your second point, we as a sector are also quite worried, because our system stands or falls on the feet of teachers. And if we cannot get it right there, I think we might as well just forget it. That is why we are engaging with teachers patiently and consistently, because they are going to determine whether we succeed or fail.
Where we have high success rates, even in public schools, it is because we have good principals and good teachers, not good infrastructure, necessarily.
Denron Secondary, for instance, is in the Top 10 schools. It is a rural school with nothing, but because there are good teachers and good principals, they are performing quite well.
I am spending lots of my time engaging with teachers across the sector; it is enough to say that if we are to succeed, it depends on them. We are working very closely with them, but as you say, also making sure that we begin to be very firm in terms of incorrect behaviour by teachers. If it breaks, it breaks, but we cannot have a situation which is loose and we hardly know whether we are coming or going. That, definitely, is the direction that we are taking, to say we strengthen the contradictions, and the contradictions may produce a different result, but we cannot keep a system which is unsustainable.
I have very bad teachers from other sectors, but because there is life after Parliament, we have to work with them as colleagues. I am sorry, Chair. Thank you. That is the answer. [Time expired.]