Chairperson. "Pouring money into an education system that doesn't work is hardly making a dent." This was the subtitle of an article published in The Star on 22 February 2010 by Angelique Serrao, under the title "South Africa's trillion rand education scandal".
Evidence that our education system does not work can be found in the statistics on the performance of the Grade 12 class of 2009. Although the pass rate dropped to a shockingly low figure of 60,6%, the drop-out rate of this class should be our main concern. This figure indicates that our Department of Basic Education is in the main a malfunctioning department. At the end of 2009 only 335 000 of the 1,4 million Grade 12 learners who enrolled for Grade 1 in 1998 successfully completed their Grade 12 year. Therefore the real drop-out rate is 77%.
Mention is often made of a lost generation of learners. The Minister and her department are solely responsible for this state of affairs. Dr Mamphela Ramphele is quite correct in her observation that a whole generation of learners has been betrayed by the government. During her oral reply on 10 March to a question posed to her by an ANC Member of Parliament relating to the retention rate in our schools, the Minister of Basic Education tried to downplay the low retention rate by focusing only on the drop-out figures for Grades 10 to 12. She stated that "up to Grade 12 we have almost 100% retention". This is a serious misrepresentation. The government is lying with statistics.
Statistics on last year's Grade 12 class indicates a drop-out rate of 33% at the end of their Grade 9 year. The Minister also tried to explain the growing drop-out rate during the three final schooling years as follows:
Normally, when learners have reached Grade 12, some of them have branched off to FET colleges and some continue to matric. There is normally a misunderstanding when retention is calculated.
Minister, on the one hand I want to draw your attention to the fact that the number of learners who currently leave school to attend FET colleges is negligible when it comes to the calculation of the retention rate. On the other hand, Minister, you have to understand that the failure rate at the end of the Grade 12 year should also be taken into account when the actual drop-out rate is calculated.
During the oral questions session, the Minister also tried to give reasons for the high drop-out rate, such as learner absenteeism, discouraged repeaters, issues of criminality, teenage pregnancy and other social issues, which obviously include drug and alcohol abuse, school violence and sexual activity at an early age. Another reason, which the Minister failed to mention, is that thousands of learners are promoted annually to the next grade without having mastered the knowledge and skills required to pass the preceding grade, causing a significant number of learners to be functionally illiterate when they reach Grade 10 and to drop out before they reach Grade 12.
The problems mentioned by the Minister are caused by the department's failure to provide remedial education and specialised services to a significant number of learners with special needs. If the needs of learners with learning problems and disabilities are not addressed during their first four schooling years, those learners will also develop behavioural and personality problems.
The Department of Basic Education is in breach of section 28(2) of the Constitution, which states that:
A child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.
By doing away with educational aid centres in all its regions countrywide, as well as support classes and specialist teachers who were responsible for assisting and guiding learners with learning problems and learning disabilities, the department not only ignored the best interests of such learners, but also contributed to their high drop-out figures. Support classes with remedial work focused on supporting learners with spelling, reading and calculation problems in their mother tongue.
Credit should be given where credit is due. The implementation of the Foundations for Learning Programme in 2008 to improve learner performance in reading, writing and numeracy in all South African schools is laudable. Renewed focus on the basics in education was a step in the right direction, but the department is unable to implement the idea properly. The portfolio committee found that, within a year after the announcement of the campaign, a significant number of schools had not received the necessary documentation and training.
As far back as July 2001 an education White Paper was proclaimed under the title "Special Needs Education - Building an inclusive education and training system". The vision and goals of this 20-year developmental perspective died the day the document left the presses of the government printer. Today, and nine years later, this document remains a set of prospective plans. The national department has thus far failed to draft the necessary policy documents; to develop curriculums; to formulate norms for post provisioning; to provide the relevant training to educators; to appoint professional staff; to optimise the expertise of specialist support personnel; to establish district support services countrywide; and to budget for additional funding in order to meet all the necessary requirements to provide, on the one hand, for learners with special educational needs and, on the other, for learners with mild to severe learning difficulties.
Benewens die feit dat daar nie na behore voorsiening gemaak word vir die behoeftes van leerders met leerprobleme nie, word daar ook nie genoegsame aandag gegee aan die toekomstige beroepsbehoeftes van leerders met bepaalde talente, vermons en belangstellings nie. Tegniese skole gaan steeds mank aan vele gebreke. Die tekort aan fokusskole, soos byvoorbeeld landbouskole en kunsskole, het tot gevolg dat groot getalle leerders die geleentheid ontneem word om by skole in te skryf waarvan die kurrikulum op bepaalde beroepsvelde gefokus is.
'n Verdere leemte in die voldoening aan noodsaaklike onderrigbehoeftes is die gebrek aan moedertaalonderrig vir die meerderheid leerders in Graad R tot Graad 6. Dit is wetenskaplik bewys dat leerders alle vaardighede ten beste deur medium van hul moedertaal verwerf. Die department het verlede jaar aangekondig dat alle leerders tot en met Graad 6 voortaan in hul moedertaal onderrig sal word, wel wetende dat daar 'n groot tekort is aan onderwysers wat bekwaam en toegerus is om aan die meerderheid leerders onderrig deur medium van hul moedertaal te gee. Daar behoort ingegryp te word deur onder meer die beskikbaarstelling van beurse en salarisvoordele aan studente wat bereid is om hulle te bekwaam om onderrig deur medium van 'n moedertaal te gee aan leerders in die grondslag- en tussenliggende skoolfases.
Twee dae gelede het honderde leerders op Menseregtedag as deel van die gelyke onderwysprojek by die Parlement betoog met die doel dat die regering 'n biblioteek aan elke skool in ons land moet voorsien. Dit is 'n verdere wesenlike behoefte wat nie op dowe ore mag val nie, en waarvoor dringend voorsiening gemaak behoort te word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Apart from the fact that proper provision is not made for the needs of learners with learning problems, sufficient attention is also not paid to the future career requirements of learners with specific talents, abilities and interests. Technical schools are still suffering as a result of many deficiencies. The shortage of focus schools, such as agricultural schools and art schools for example, results in large numbers of learners being deprived of the opportunity to enrol at schools where the curriculum is focussed on specific professions.
An additional deficiency in meeting essential educational needs is the lack of mother tongue education for the majority of learners in Grade R to Grade 6. It has been proven scientifically that learners optimally acquire all skills by means of their mother tongue. Last year the department announced that all learners up to and including Grade 6 will in future receive tuition in their mother tongue, while being thoroughly aware that there is a great shortage of teachers who are qualified and equipped to teach the majority of learners in their mother tongue. Interventions should be made by, amongst others, making bursaries and salary benefits available to students who are prepared to qualify themselves to teach learners through mother tongue instruction in the foundation and intermediary school phases.
Two days ago on Human Rights Day, as part of the equal education project, hundreds of learners demonstrated at Parliament with the aim that the government must provide a library at every school in our country. This is an additional fundamental need that must not fall on deaf ears, and for which urgent provision should be made.]
Any amount budgeted will be wasted as long as grandiose visions and programmes are not implemented properly and competently. Given the deteriorating state of affairs in our schooling system, it is difficult to ascertain whether adequate funds have been allocated for basic education after the education portfolio was split into two departments. The DA believes that there is not enough money in this budget for basic education. More money is required to meet many educational needs. The DA provides for these needs in its alternative budget by adding an additional R1,4 billion to the amount appropriated for basic education. [Interjections.] In the final analysis, the success of a state is primarily determined by the ability of its education system to produce capable and productive citizens. The escalating unemployment and resultant poverty, the disintegration of public order and administration, the general collapse of morality and the growing culture of lawlessness and violence around us are the symptoms of a country in distress, mainly as a result of its dysfunctional education system. I thank you. [Applause.]