Madam Speaker, the Congress of the People would like to congratulate both Ministers on their respective appointments. We look forward to working with you in this noble mission of landscaping human resources for the country.
About 13 years ago Minister of Higher Education and Training, I, together with my colleagues in higher education, presented in front of you what is now the Higher Education Act when you were chair of the Education portfolio committee. Today I stand in this House in the opposition benches, speaking to you, as a Minister of education, wanting to ensure that the contents of that Act are enacted. The question for me and you is: What happened in the 13 years we were missing in action?
Education has gone through a series of changes since 1994, from one slogan to the next; from "The culture of learning and teaching" in the 90s to "The teacher must teach, the learner must learn" slogan of today; which all show the same intention, except that, unfortunately, the intention is not coupled with consistent input.
I-Cope iyathemba ukuba noko singakhe sizole ngoku ... [Cope hopes that at least we can tone down now ...]
... and that we could concentrate, focus and influence the outcomes that we would like to see.
If we place education within the context and the locus of an economy, and rightfully so, and if we call it the knowledge economy, as Dr James has called it, and if we want to contribute to a sustained economy, then education needs to behave and operate the way other economies behave and operate.
If education centres must be seen as centres of production of knowledge, they must therefore produce what the economy needs, at the right time the economy needs it. They must, like industries, package the right mix in the curricula. The Minister of Basic Education has mentioned here the issue of ethical behaviour. I venture to suggest that the curricula must include ethics at a school entry level, seeing where the country is sometimes tempted to go. It must distribute the right quantities of learners and teachers and deliver a quality product that is competitive. In other words, a certificate from Fort Hare must get the same place in the economy as a certificate from Wits. [Applause.] It must also trade on the right platforms. It is now a good thing, because we have a department of planning, and so I think that together we can, with precision, plan and landscape the skills that we want to have for this country.
I would urge that education be seen as a chain from production to retail; linking primary education to secondary schooling; linking secondary schooling to high school; linking high school to colleges or universities, and then linking that to the marketplace. Any supply chain manager will tell you that the chain is as strong as its weakest link. The failures of primary schooling cannot be fixed at tertiary institutions. The failures of tertiary institutions cannot be fixed in the marketplace, and that is why, Minister Motshekga, you need to lay and relay that very firm foundation at basic education level. And that is what Professor Njabulo said in the Mail & Guardian when he said that: "The lower levels of education represent the greatest strategic need in our country."
Over the last two weeks we have been listening to the Departments of Education and their agencies presenting budgets and plans to us. The plans, like most of them, are commendable and they make the right noises, but I get worried when plans do not talk about the future that we can all envision. The question is, Mr Minister of Higher Education and Training: What is the national grand plan for higher education in the next five years, and what is the execution strategy?
The absence of such a plan, coupled with the absence of a national design for education that is congruent to the current and future needs of this country, makes for a mismatch and disconnection between the technikons and the economy. We therefore expect Ministers to provide a road map of what we want to achieve. I think that the chairperson for basic education has alluded to this. We need to understand how many learners we want to produce at what level of schooling, so that there is a calculated flow from primary to secondary; a calculated flow from secondary to high school; a calculated flow from high school to colleges or universities and a calculated flow to the economy. Alongside this, there will be bottlenecks that we will need to fix and eliminate.
Speaking of wastage, we need, in education, a tracking system for the learners who enter the education system. There are learners who, when they have entered the system, especially at tertiary level, are missing in action. There are learners who are missing in production. Where are they?
Baninzi abantwana abalahlekayo ... [There are many learners who are getting lost ...]
... in the system and we are unable to account for them. Who is accountable for the missing children in the system? Fortunately, Minister Motshekga has spoken about accountability and I thought that this will be taken to its logical conclusion. In other words, Ministers ...
... ngeba ndithi ... [... what I am trying to say is that ...]
... you need a strike team, but I'm afraid that the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Cosatu, and the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, Sadtu, might take me literally and take to the streets. [Laughter.] Again ...
... ngeba ndithi ... [... what I am trying to say is that ...]
... we need a crack team, but again, I might be taken literally as introducing drugs to your team. We need a dedicated, passionate and focused team that will make that kind of intervention. That will ensure that education is a producing industry.
Lastly, hon Minister, the Mail & Guardian of 19 June says you must be a worried man; I think they are right. To me, you should be worried about a lot of things, including the universities in rural towns and the academics and students at those universities. The state of rural towns and their appalling service delivery record make for very unattractive destinations. They make for a brain drain and they perpetuate poverty in rural areas. You need to make conditions conducive for these universities to function properly. There is merit, therefore, in a conversation between you and the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform in this regard.
Given the above considerations and more, and the fact that the Minister of Basic Education is really grateful for the March budget that she has been given, the budget for education indeed takes the biggest slice of the national budget of this country. Therefore, we trust that in your own hands, the future of this country is safe. Thank you very much. [Applause.]