KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR Z.L. MKHIZE, PREMIER FOR THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL, ICC, DURBAN, RELEASE OF MATRIC RESULTS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2011, January 5 2012
Programme Director; Head of Department of Education, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi;
MEC for Education, Mr Senzo Mchunu and other members of Cabinet present;
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Education;
Members of Parliament;
All officials from the Department of Education;
Members of the Schools Government Bodies;
Members of the Parents Association;
Teachers' organizations;
Honored guests;
Members of the media present;
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
Let me start by congratulating the Minister for Basic Education Angie Motshekga and our MEC for Education Mr Senzo Mchunu for the excellent matric results. We all have a reason to smile as we start the New Year.
I want to pay tribute to the courageous learners all of whom have worked hard to achieve top marks.
I also want to salute many thousands of learners not present here this morning whose performance has ensured that KwaZulu-Natal is recorded as one of the provinces that has performed exceptionally well during 2011 academic year. This is despite the fact that KZN is the province with the highest number of learners who enrolled for the matric examination.
We are encouraged that the people of this province responded positively to our "back to school campaign" hence we had many learners sitting for the examination.
The fact that so many of our learners enrolled for the matric examination and passed is a clear demonstration of our collective will to accelerate progress towards achieving a rising quality of life through education.
The determination and hard work of teachers should also be commended.
Many schools have shown outstanding resourcefulness and dedication by starting early and leaving late in order to get more learning time. This has also served to avoid the distractions that often prevail in the home and community environments.
The need has been noted for us as a province to work harder in science subject, especially in maths and physical science. We need to take heed of this advice as these subjects are the springboard for a future career in the sciences, a critical field in today's world.
It is for these reasons that we established a specialized institution for accelerated training in mathematics, science and information communication technology - the Moses Kotane Institute.
This is a pioneer project which we launched few years ago in partnership with the National Research Foundation (NRF), National Department of Science and Technology, the provincial Departments of Economic Development and Education, and UKZN. We urge our students to take full advantage of the institution.
The most important objectives are to improve the quality of teaching in our schools, and to drastically upscale the quantum of students matriculating with mathematics, science and ICT.
There is a need to focus on the quality of human capital being produced. A modern knowledge-economy demands human resources that are numerically and scientifically literate, technology fluent and skilled at problem solving.
We therefore want to ensure that our education system create a supply of quality science and technology human resources from the school system for the provincial and national economy.
As government we acknowledge the need to continuously improve the learner/teacher ratio. Many schools, especially in townships and rural areas, are overcrowded and still have unacceptably high learner/teacher ratios, which puts a strain on educators thereby having a deleterious effect on teaching and learning.
We also emphasize the role of parents and the family in the process of teaching and learning. The family, parents in particular, are an important stakeholder in ensuring that homework is done, and that the child attends school diligently in the first place. The importance of this facet of education can never be exaggerated.
We as government have committed to facilitate teacher development and support. We will continue in our endeavor to improve the standard and quality of the learning experience by harnessing the best tools and personnel available in order to improve the standards of those who are the coalface of the delivery of quality education, the teachers.
To this end we encourage cooperation between unions and our education departments, including other stakeholders such as governing bodies, learner and civic formations.
The right to education and the future of our children and thus our country are in our hands. We therefore have to at all times act with this in mind. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. At this juncture in our history, we cannot jeopardize and/or compromise our future generations through the pursuit of self-interest. We need to put the child at the forefront of our minds.
Importantly, we have taken a position as this province that our education has to be relevant to the needs of the economy. We believe that our education should be judged by the extent to which it makes an individual self-sufficient and able to maintain sustainable livelihoods on leaving school, irrespective of the level attained.
In our interaction with teachers, lecturers and other stakeholders we have been emphasizing the importance of working together to ensure the provision of education that is aligned to the social and economic development needs of the wards where learners come from.
This type of education should also provide local children with a firm base for the acquisition of knowledge, skills and positive attitudes for personal growth.
We are fully aware that the provision of such education depends on the availability of physical infrastructure, basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity, housing, roads and health services.
All of these needs are being strengthened to support the schooling system, and the provincial budget in the province provides substantial additional funding not only for the education sector but also for the supporting sectors.
We are investigating a number of initiatives to address the issue of technical and professional skills shortage in the province. The Departments of Education and Economic Development are collaborating on a major research study aimed at quantifying the skills needed in the economy, sector by sector.
The Department of Education's FET training programmes is being strengthened over the next three years. While this represents a major investment, and it is expected that 345 000 students will be trained through these existing FET programmes over the next three years, the output, especially in the technical trades, is not nearly enough to meet the demands of the market.
In addition to this training, government wants to ensure that FET training programmes provide artisan training to students in a number of fields relevant to the automotive and construction industries, such as spray painting, panel beating, brick-laying, plastering, plumbing and tiling as well as general skills such as entrepreneurship and financial management.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the release of the matric results for the 2011 academic year is important for numerous reasons buy key amongst those is the fact that this year we are celebrating 100 years of the existence of the ruling party, the African National Congress.
The founding of the ANC was driven by intellectuals such as Dr Prixy Seme and Dr John Langalibalelele Dube. Dr Dube went on to establish Ohlange Institute a few kilometers from this venue. He modeled it on the Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T Washington to "train the mind, the heart and the hand." The school emphasized intellectual development, skills development, the ethos of Ubuntu and the creation of a fully developed individual.
Over the years, ordinary people of this country across all races and from different organizations - civil society, faith based and pressure groups - used the ANC as a vehicle to defeat Bantu Education. It is relevant today that our post apartheid education should reach all children of South Africa and equip them for the role in taking the lead in the global economy and geopolitics.
Bantu education was designed by the apartheid government to prevent Africans from receiving an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society. Through Bantu Education, Africans received an education designed to ensure that they worked in manual labour jobs under white control. Our education must show the mindset shift in the way in impacts on our children.
Public records show that in 1982 the apartheid government spent an average of R1, 211 on education for each White child, and only R146 for each Black child.
The quality of teaching staff also differed - roughly a third of all White teachers had a university degree, the rest had all passed the Standard 10 matriculation exam. Only 2.3% of Black teachers had a university degree, and 82% had not even reached the Standard 10 matriculation (more than half had not reached Standard 8).
Whilst we reflect on these racial disparities in education, it is very important to acknowledge the fact that education became a driving force that united the people of this country against the apartheid.
It became a major focus of resistance, most notably in the 1976 Soweto uprising. We can simple say it was through education that we were able to mount a united force that led to the collapse of the apartheid system.
The people of this country revolted against the system which they felt it would lead to underdevelopment, poor self-image, economic depression and unemployment.
Today, we can look back and be proud of the progress we have made on the education front.
The ANC government has recorded significant achievements since 1994 in
transforming our schooling system from its apartheid past.
Access to our primary and secondary schooling has reached near universal enrollment, with the participation of girls the highest in the world. Participation rate for children aged 4 and 5 (Grade R) in early child development has now reached more than 70%. The matriculation pass rate has increased from 58% in 1994 to 65% in 2007 and to more than 70% over the past two years.
From the current results, the following can be said about KZN:-
* We have largest entrants who wrote matric results - 122 000
* There is a decline from 70.7% in 2010 to 68.1% in 2011 - we have asked the MEC for Education Senzo Mchunu to call the academics, experts and senior government officials to analyze what is the basis for this decline so that we can take the necessary steps to turn the situation around.
* Numerically, KZN has the largest numbers who passed matric - 83 201
* Bachelor pass in KZN is 2nd to Gauteng - 30 000 vs 27 000 in KZN;
* Average decline of all districts results compared to 2010;
* Except in Umkhanyakude which moved below 62% achieved in 2010 to 55% - all others remained above 62% which was a minimum level achieved in 2010 and Sisonke and Umzinyathi were only 2 that increased above last year's performance.
Because we have identified education as a top priority, this year we will launch a special Centre of Academic Excellence under the Premier's Priority Project. This centre will be based in UMkhanyakude District Municipality and its main aim is to improve education in the district. More details will be announced in the next few months.
It is clear some learners are affected by factors beyond their individual means.
Education performance shows impact of poverty. Better pass in Q 4 & 5 though Q 1 - 3 have few schools with best results even attaining 100%.
We are encouraged by full participation of female learners which is an indication that there are no gender barriers parity.
We must intensify the mobilization of grassroots cadres, community workers, volunteers, religious leaders, traditional leaders, community leaders and the members of the public to join education forums in the townships, villages and suburbs to elevate education to be a societal issue - identify community factors which impact negatively to education.
This year, it should be the duty of all of us to work towards the achievement of the following:-
· Empowerment of parents and communities to understand educational needs of learners in the nearby schools;
· Advocating for learner-educator and parent partnerships in order to bridge the gap that exists;
· Advocating for a crime free school environment;
· Promotion of culture of learning and teaching;
Collectively, we must identify and remove the key constraints to the provision of quality education. We must guide against the use of valuable time and energy on highlighting our differences in such as way that we magnify our weaknesses and diminish our strengths.
Our major focus should be on the provision of quality education. Quality education has reshaped life in most countries and made it possible for the millions of people to live a fulfilling life. Education is the engine of the economy. No doubt, without quality education, there can be no socio-economic development in this province.
We undertake to invest more information technology and technical equipment infrastructure such as laboratories and libraries to further equip learners to function in a knowledge economy as masters of information technology.
We certainly know that for KZN to produce highly capable individuals, high quality cadres of teachers are also required.
Teacher development remains the key driver of the envisaged change and as government we will ensure that we have ongoing programmes that are specifically designed to provide them with necessary support and training.
We need to learn that in life when you stumble you need to take stock of your bearings, rectify whatever may have been the reason for it, and go on, having learnt from that mistake.
I urge us all to pick ourselves up and build on lessons learnt to move KZN to be amongst top achieving provinces in the country.
I thank you
Issued by the Office of the KwaZulu Natal Premier, January 5 2012
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