Speech by Minister Trevor Manuel at the National Teaching Awards Ceremony: Presidential Guest House
25 Feb 2011
Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga
Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande
Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Mr Enver Surty
Director-General and Officials of Basic Education
MECs
Representatives of Trade Unions
Representatives of Embassies and sponsors
Social partners and stakeholders
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honour to address the National Teaching Awards gala dinner because we celebrate the efforts of women and men who epitomise the best that South Africa has to offer, the best that our education system has to offer and the best that our public service can show.
These teachers who have won tonight represent the noblest values of teachers all over the world: a passion for children, a desire for a better future, a yearning for knowledge and a commitment to community. Few other professions are as future oriented than teaching, where most of the fruits of the profession are only visible many years hence. It takes a special type of person with unique skills and attributes to excel in teaching.
We also celebrate the efforts of our best teachers today knowing full well that teachers operate in a difficult environment. Our society is a complex one, undergoing an at times stressful transition, our societies are sometimes violent, often poverty ridden and frequently ridden with social dislocation and marginalisation that affect our children in complex ways. We also know that teachers often do not always get the support required from provincial departments or district offices and from other arms of the public service, be it social welfare or policing.
What makes tonight very special is the fact that this is the 11th year of the National Teaching Awards which were established with a clear purpose of celebrating, honouring and giving recognition to teachers who walk that proverbial "extra mile" with regard to quality teaching and learning in our schools.
Your achievement shows that despite the "times of challenge and controversy" we face in our education system, our schools continue to have a cadre of torch-bearers tirelessly working hard to deliver quality teaching. Better education is sorely needed by the young and this beautiful country of ours that is in dire need of development.
I can say with confidence that, given the level of excellence displayed by tonight's recipients, we have entered the road that will help us overcome the many challenges confronting our education system.
While education has always been a high priority for this government, since 2009 it has become the single highest priority or apex priority as it is called. This ladies and gentlemen, is partly in recognition of the importance of education. It is also partly in recognition of the fact that we have not made as much progress in improving the quality of education, especially in poor communities, that we would have liked. Let me be more specific, we have not yet eradicated the shadow of history in reversing the legacy of Apartheid education. While we knew that this would be a multi-decade challenge, we did expect to have made more progress.
While commending these distinguished teachers and principals here with us tonight, we also need to highlight a few of our challenges.
They include:
- serious gaps in the teaching of maths and science
- low levels of literacy and numeracy in our schools
- low competence and skills levels of at least half of our teachers
- poor infrastructure in some areas
- poor teaching and learning in some schools
- low grasp of English.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The impact of these challenges cannot by any means be underestimated. They continue to impact negatively on our learners, especially in the area of acquisition of skills that can and must assist in growing the economy of our young democracy.
As a country, if we are to transform our education system and reach the goal of "peoples education for people's power" as set out in the Education Roadmap, we must emulate the great efforts shown by these outstanding and exemplary teachers.
I believe success will not come our way overnight. It calls for constant engagement with the challenges I have tabulated.
This we must do better to construct a different tomorrow for our children and generations to come.
In some ways it is unfair of me to talk about the complex problems facing our education system when we are here to celebrate those who truly value quality education, those who display the highest professionalism and those who give their most to our children.
However, i know that all of you gathered here, especially the award winners would echo my sentiments when I say that all is not well in our education system and all is not well with the state of professionalism in teaching in our country.
When Presdient Zuma stands up and promotes the three Ts of education - time, textbooks and teaching - does it mean the same to all 400 000 of our teachers? When President Zuma commented in 2009 about the fact that township schools teach an average of 3½ hours a day whereas former model C schools teach about five hours a day, were all 400 000 teachers listening? When President Zuma announced last year that new workbooks would be delivered, were all the official in all provincial education departments listening?
Ladies and gentlemen, i know that we are making progress in improving matric results. I know that teachers and professionals operate in very difficult environments. I know that we inherited an absolute mess. But despite all of that, we cannot be satisfied with our performance, at least in the aggregate. Many townships schools are still failing to provide the most basic teaching environment. Maths and literacy scores are low by International and African standards, even in some of our leafy suburbs. Average literacy scores at grade three are higher in Kenya than for the top 20 per cent of schools by income in South Africa.
With a few exceptions, and you are a subset of those exceptions, the schooling system is failing the majority of children in our country. I wish to site three reasons why, in my opinion, we are failing. Firstly, in a developmental state, surely the role of teaching unions cannot just be about salary increases. Surely it is the role of teaching unions to promote quality education, to promote time on task, to support weaker schools, to provide professional advice and counsel to poorly performing teachers and to act against those who sully the good name of this profession. On the contrary, in several areas, teacher unions are part of the problem, jostling for power over promotions and acting to undermine centres of excellence.
Yes trade unionism is possible in a profession. Many professions around the world have strong trades unions who represent their members in ways that do not undermine the professional ethic of teachers. I put it to you today, that in South Africa, we have not found that medium. And so what should be a healthy conversation in a developmental state about teaching quality in the poorest of schools always degenerates into a fight about resources, about politics and about power. Nothing, i repeat nothing should be more important that the quality of teaching, especially in poor communities. There are simply no excuses that deserve to be tolerated.
Secondly, some provincial education departments are run in ways that frustrate the best efforts of schools instead of complementing them. In several provinces, school books have still not been delivered this year. In at least one province and in several school districts, the school feeding scheme has collapsed due to some sort of mismanagement. In many school districts, promotions have become contested, undermining the spirit of rewarding quality teaching.
In many cases, not all, but in many cases, school districts are bureaucratic post offices raising the regulatory burden on principals and teachers without adding any value to the quality of teaching and learning.
The third set of problems that we have to resolve is to provide the appropriate channels for communities and parents to support schools and principals. While we have the legislative framework for community involvement in education, this is often paid lip service to in practice. The problem lies in several quarters, with schools, with the department and with parents themselves. In many areas, the legislated powers that school governing boards have are undermined by district decisions on which teacher to hire or who to promote. Resources are often managed more inefficiently by the bureaucracy than by the schools themselves.
In some cases, parents also fail to understand their roles. They make huge sacrifices, paying significant sums of money either in direct or indirect schooling costs to get their children into the best school that they can afford but then play little role in the education of their child or in the running of the school. Education cannot be outsourced, it starts at home and the home environment is critical to the performance of learners. In fact, several studies reflect that it is the most important factor that determines learning outcomes.
Our government is excited by the plans contained in the Delivery Agreement, signed by Minister Motshekga and the President last October, the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, and the implementation plan for teacher education and development.
I want to commend the Minister of Basic Education for introducing standardised annual assessments in literacy and numeracy. Government has been trying to do this for years but has not succeeded until your efforts in the past two years. Well done. However, we must build on this so that the results go to parents and we can begin to benchmark schools to increase accountability in the schooling system. I believe that this reform can help increase the information that parents have and could help parents interact more meaningfully with teachers and their children.
Through the Accelerated School Infrastructure Development Initiative, we will be able to improve safety and basic functionality of our schools, by among other things, eradicating mud and unsafe structures.
We have adopted decisive steps efficiently to strengthen literacy and numeracy skills as well as teaching at the foundation levels through the workbooks project. Basic Education began rolling-out the workbooks to learners in Grades 1 to 6 from January 2011.
On behalf of The Presidency, allow me to therefore thank warmly my colleague, Minister Motshekga, not only for having made it possible for us to grace this esteemed occasion, but also for ensuring that education gets the attention it rightly deserves.
Allow me to convey, on behalf of The Presidency and our people, a special word of thanks to our dedicated and motivated teachers for their sterling work and high standards. What you do for the nation's children moves us closer to realising a better life for all.
You are being honoured tonight precisely because you stood the "ultimate test" in "moments of challenge" by striving endlessly and selflessly, against all odds, for quality teaching and quality learning.
Again, congratulations to all recipients of the prestigious teaching awards!
Lastly, may your outstanding work and excellent achievements inspire all our colleagues in the teaching fraternity to do more to help us achieve quality education and open access for all our people, in particular, for the poorest of the poor.
I thank you all.
Issued by Department of Basic Education, February 25 2011
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