Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, with regard to curriculum review, the R6,1 billion for education, workbooks for schools, and infrastructural improvement in twenty years, I myself don't think I will be around. All these are welcome, but I want to argue that they will come to naught if certain things are not done. These are small things but, like dynamite, they come in small packages.
I plead with you, Minister, to lend me your ears now. I will refer to my prepared notes to see how, together, we can bury some of the evils that are infesting our education system.
One, please do away with the policy of cadre deployment. The hon Minister must stand before the national executive committee, NEC, of the ANC and say the following: "Comrades, our policy of cadre deployment is failing us. We must start to appoint people on the basis of merit and not on political connectedness."
The youth of this country deserve no less than this. The policy of cadre deployment has resulted in incompetence because the wrong people have been put into managerial positions within the department. In fact, even Fikile Mazibuko of Nehawu admitted as much at an education indaba recently held in Gauteng.
The second evil is the quality of teachers. Quality education begins with quality teachers. There is no system in the whole world that is better than its teachers. In fact, recent surveys have shown that teachers who teach subjects for which they are not suitably qualified have a higher percentage of students who drop out of the system.
The number of unqualified teachers, particularly among Africans, stood at 7%, which translated to 22 621 unqualified teachers. In the budget before us, teachers and the human resources programme are receiving 8,3% of the allocation. I want to argue that this is far from sufficient when compared to the curriculum programme, which is receiving about 22%, if my calculations are correct. The IFP submits that this budgetary allocation is insufficient to bridge the gap between policy formulation and policy implementation. Currently this gap greatly favours the whites.
On classroom visits, we noted that our classrooms have become veritable black boxes - nobody knows what is taking place inside them. For historical reasons, teacher unions have resisted any efforts towards classroom inspections. I must argue that now is the time when teachers can no longer lock themselves in their classrooms. Efficient monitoring and teacher evaluation must become a sine qua non of this department. This cannot be achieved with 2,4% of the budget, which is all that was allocated to this programme.
The IFP wishes to see every child receive quality education and have equal opportunities to ensure that the learner has every chance of success.
Ngiyabonga ke mhlonishwa. Cishe sizwene njengoba ngicele ukuthi asilalelane. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.] [Thank you, hon member. I hope we understood each other as I have requested that we listen to each other. Thank you. [Applause.]]