Chairperson, firstly, allow me to congratulate the hon Ministers on their recent appointments and use the opportunity to commit the ID to making a positive contribution to the huge challenges in our education.
These challenges belong to us all. We must begin a programme of educating and encouraging our communities to play a more active role in our schools. There are still far too many parents who neglect their duty to play an active role in the education of their children and simply leave this responsibility to the teachers alone. Ironically, this behaviour is more prevalent in the poorer areas. Equally guilty are the many businesses in our communities who also turn a blind eye. We must remind them that they will one day become the beneficiaries of a poorly skilled work force and, unless they make an investment in our education today, they will also suffer the consequences tomorrow.
Over the past 15 years, we have spent more on education than most other developing nations, yet the ID believes that we still do not have enough to show for it. The ID remains concerned about the massive inequalities in education, which we believe OBE has made worse, because rich schools have the resources to implement it whereas poorer schools do not. We need more focus on reading, writing and mathematics and each school must be given access to electricity, water and sanitation. Each school must also have social workers who can identify and deal with problems like sexual and substance abuse.
We would like the department to consider replacing the no-fee schools with a child education grant. This will help to target poor learners rather than poor schools, covering school fees, transport and uniforms. This will mean that schools will no longer have to struggle to collect school fees and poor learners at wealthier schools will also be covered. The current system of quintile ranking continues to discriminate against poor children who are attending wealthier schools.
Lastly, in last year's budget debate, the ID extended a call to the Minister to expand the National School Nutrition Programme to secondary schools. We are grateful that that call has been heeded. The ID supports this budget. I thank you. [Applause.]