Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, hon Deputy Ministers, hon members and the public, the Gauteng department of education's programme fully supports national and provincial targets for the transformation and provision of quality education in the province. The 2010 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, of the department is based on and planned in the context of limited resources and slow economic growth as a result of the impact of the global economic meltdown. The planing and roll-out of services is based on the current mandate of government and its priorities.
The department has focused on the provincial priorities and goals of ensuring, among others, the promotion of quality education and skills development. The central and underlying priority focus for the department over the 2010 MTEF period is improving the quality of learning and teaching in all schools. The department conducted a study to measure the quality of learning and the level of learner attainment in Grade 3 and Grade 6. The results have shown that our learners are not at the optimal level with regard to literacy and numeracy. They are performing well below the required levels for their respective grades. These results have been corroborated by other national and international studies that have also indicated that learners are performing poorly in comparison to other regional countries and provinces, despite higher or similar expenditure in education in Gauteng.
An identification of some of the factors affecting performance included incomplete curriculum coverage in classrooms, inadequate assessment and promotions in many schools, class size, teacher competency, quality of learner and teacher support material, LTSM, improper allocation of time to learning outcomes, poor time management by teachers and the quality of school infrastructure.
In order to address the challenge of the quality of learning and teaching, priorities and strategies have been adopted. The department plans to address these challenges in the next five years and in the 2010-11 MTEF period through the provincial goals that aim to ensure that Gauteng has effective schools and learning institutions, a Gauteng department of education head office and districts that provide relevant, co-ordinated and effective support enabling young people to make the transition from school to further education, work that provides further training opportunities and strengthened partnerships with all stakeholders. This will result in education becoming a societal priority.
In order to achieve these goals and priorities, the department has been allocated a budget of R22,4 billion. This is an increase of over 17% from the R18,9 billion allocated in 2009-10. It illustrates that the department has reprioritised its budget towards the improvement of schools and ensuring that quality learning is provided at all levels, especially by the head office and district office. The increases are mostly as a result of prioritising the sector's concern for improving the quality of learning in institutions, maintaining and providing learning space and fighting the scourge of poverty through the no-fee schools policy, nutrition, scholar transport and skills development and training.
The budget also accommodates expansion in Grade R, Abet and FET. The significant increase in Programme 8: Auxiliary and Associated Service is as a result of funding allocated to the Gauteng City Region Academy. The department has also received additional funding for subsidies and providing support and services in affected programmes for the incorporation of institutions in Merafong. However, the increase in the budget was mainly due to the implementation of the occupation-specific dispensation, OSD, resolutions for educators, the roll-out of no-fee schools status to all quintile 3 schools and infrastructure development and maintenance.
In order to improve the quality of education the department has introduced the maths and science technology strategy, the literacy strategy and the school safety and security strategy. These will focus on improving the education levels in the following bands, with clear targets. As the intervention strategy in the foundation phase, the department has made improving literacy and numeracy from Grade R to Grade 3 by introducing English as the first additional language a priority. The province endeavours to improve literacy and numeracy to at least 60% each.
In the senior primary phase, the department has developed and approved a language and literacy strategy and the maths and science technology strategy to assist educators in bridging the gap that currently exists. A reading and writing guideline is being developed to assist the school management team, SMT, with the delivery of the curriculum. The province will increase learner performance in the intermediate and senior phase in both the language of teaching and learning and mathematics to 60%.
In the transition from primary to secondary schools, the aim of the programme is to improve learner language competency and mathematics skills in the senior phase, especially in Grade 8 and 9. The improvement in these subjects will improve the survival rate at senior secondary school and university. To achieve this aim the province will have to increase performance to an average of 60% in language of teaching and learning and mathematics.
In the senior secondary intervention programme, the department will review the quality improvement intervention programmes focusing on Grade 12 and expand the programmes to incorporate Grade 10 and Grade 11 learners at risk. The focus of the intervention will be to improve performance in mathematics, science, accounting and language in the further education and training, FET, phase. Improvement in these subjects is being addressed through learner-focused intervention programmes. The interventions should improve learner performance in mathematics to at least 60% and 50% for physical science. The overall performance of Grade 8 learners will increase from the 2009 pass rate of 71% to at least 80%. The focus is on aligning the whole system to support these interventions and to ensure that we use our scarce resources in a targeted school-based approach that supports classroom practice.
The increase in the 2010-11 budget for the department was primarily a result of compensation for the transfer of employees to non-profit institutions and payments for their capital assets.
In respect of compensation of employees, the budget has increased to make provision for the implementation of the OSD resolutions and the cost-of- living increases. As the department fully implemented the OSD resolutions, it created pressures in the personnel component of the budget. It was also as a result of the recruitment of additional educators to meet the learner- educator ratio policy requirements of 1:40 and 1:34 for public primary and secondary schools respectively.
The budget shows an average increase of 14% over the MTEF period and a 16% increase for 2010 and 2011. The budget has increased from R13,8 billion in 2009-10 to R16,1 billion in 2010-11.
In respect of goods and services, the increase of over 16% is a result of additional allocations made to section 20 schools due to the no-fee schools policy and the quality interventions in support of national and provincial priorities. The budget has increased from R2,7 billion in 2009-10 to R3,1 billion in 2010-11.
Regarding transfers, the increase of R1,6 billion ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]