Extract of a speech delivered by Democratic Alliance Leader Helen Zille at the closing event of the DA's Education Campaign in Port Elizabeth, March 7 2010
We are not the only party holding an event in Port Elizabeth today. A short distance from here, the ANC is also holding an event. The difference between these two events tells you all you need to know about the differences between the DA and the ANC. The ANC is launching its campaign to sign up a million members by 2012, when it plans to hold the mother of all parties to celebrate its centenary. The truth is the ANC is planning another party, with a million guests. If Julius Malema's 29th birthday party cost R400 000, we can only guess what the ANC will spend on its 100th birthday party. While the ANC plans its own entertainment and self-indulgence, the DA is focusing on the voters. We are here today as part of our campaign for better education for all our children. We are focusing on the people and especially on the children who will shape our country's future. We are not focusing on ourselves. That is the essential difference between the DA and the ANC.
I have said before, the ANC is a kleptocratic elite masquerading as a political party. The DA promotes the Open Opportunity Society for All, because that is the best way to serve South Africa.
I should not be giving strategic advice to the ANC but let me proffer this word of caution. It is probably the most self-defeating strategy for a divided organization to undertake a mass membership drive. Every political party knows that party membership does not translate into votes at the ballot box. The ANC is divided into at least four factions (Cosatu, the SACP, the ANCYL and the rest). It is a party comprising four distinct armies at war with each other. A membership drive in these circumstances will have one predictable consequence - each of the warring factions will seek to benefit their army most through the recruitment drive and one outcome is inevitable - an intensification of the war within the ANC in the struggle for membership advantage.
The ANC must be careful that its centenary celebrations do not turn into a funeral.
But we are here to talk about something else today. We are here to talk about how we get better education for all. The good thing about having won the Western Cape is that where we govern we can put our policies into practice, and can put our money where our mouth is. There is no more important place to do that than in education.
Education for millions of our children is in crisis, but the truth is that we can fix it. There are many schools that serve the poorest of the poor that have shown this. One of these is Ethembeni, right here in Port Elizabeth, which has had a 100% matric pass rate for 12 years. Teachers at these schools are the real heroes of the new South Africa, and we must learn from them.
In the last few weeks, we have taken a central message to people around South Africa:
Our education system may be broken, but it can be fixed. It will not happen overnight, but with sustained focus and the right interventions, we can turn it around.
This is our approach in the Western Cape where we govern. Since the DA was elected into office last year, we have made education our top priority.
We understand that the open, opportunity society that we are trying to build hinges on giving all our children the skills and the knowledge to be the best they can be - whatever their background or financial circumstances.
We think that a good education is the best affirmative action there is.
When it comes to the schools that are performing well, our approach is "call us, we won't call you." This is what we have told the 167 Western Cape schools that achieved a 90% or more grade 12 pass rate last year. And they are grateful for it: they would rather get on with their jobs without unnecessary state interference.
This leaves us to focus on the schools that perform badly. In the Western Cape, we have developed a turn-around strategy for these schools. Individual plans with each one of the 85 schools that received a less than 60% pass rate have been drawn up by the school in consultation with the Education Department.
Measures to improve performance in weak schools include compulsory literacy and numeracy tests for all grade 3, 6 and 9 learners. Parents will be notified of their child's results and will be informed whether their child is ahead, behind or on track.
We are also prioritising the allocation of resources to schools in impoverished communities. To relieve overcrowding and provide better facilities, we have put out tenders for the building of 12 new schools and 200 new classrooms. 126 Mobile classrooms have been allocated for priority schools.
These measures are all important ways of expanding educational opportunities to those who need it most. But, more than anything else, the key to better learner outcomes is improving the quality of teaching.
Often, what determines a child's success in the classroom, is not their background, their financial circumstances, the curriculum or the resources of the school. It is who the teachers are.
You do not need to be an education policy expert to know this.
The primary school I was at had only pit latrines. It had no electricity and it had corrugated iron classrooms. There were children at that school who were so poor that they arrived barefoot. They did not even have socks to wear. That is why shoes were not compulsory in my school, because we did not want to distinguish between people whose families could afford shoes and those who could not. We had two or three grades to each class and two languages in each class.
When my father's business started doing well, he was able to send me to a better high school. When I got there, I was far ahead of all the other children in my grade who had been to some of the best schools in Johannesburg. This was because the teachers we had had in that poor school were so dedicated that by the time I went to high school I was actually in advance of the other children.
There are many dedicated teachers in South Africa today. They don't teach for the money - many of them could earn more in other professions. And they don't teach because of the easy hours - the best teachers work from early in the morning until well into the evening and on weekends.
They do it because, for them, teaching is not just a job. It's a calling. There are thousands of excellent teachers in South Africa who go beyond the call of duty, every single day. I have met many of them and I have seen the difference they make in children's lives.
I have also seen the negative impact that poor teaching and school management can have. When teachers spend as little time in the classroom as possible, don't get involved in extra-mural activities and don't care if they finish the curriculum or not, the learners suffer.
The truth is, for every teacher who views teaching as a vocation, there is another who sees it as vacation.
This is why the central plank of our education policy in the Western Cape is to hold teachers and principals accountable for learner outcomes through performance contracts. Those who do not perform will be managed out of the system. Those who do perform will be rewarded.
This will be complemented by greater powers, that will soon be signed into law, to inspect schools and assess teacher performance in the classroom, where it counts.
No other province in the country has such rigorous accountability mechanisms. We shall apply them with gusto.
We are also in the process of setting up a number of Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics or STEM Centres of Excellence. The first two will be in Tokai and Khayelitsha. These schools will be run along the lines of a public benefit school. This means that they will remain state schools, but have greater freedom and autonomy to reward teachers for good performance and remove teachers who don't perform.
Ensuring that our teachers are motivated and incentivised to perform their duties is key to the success of our plan. What the unions, notably SADTU, must understand is that holding teachers to account for poor performance does not constitute targeting the entire teaching profession. And it certainly doesn't mean that we do not appreciate good teachers.
It simply means that we believe the rights of our children to a decent education are more important than the rights of undedicated teachers to sheltered employment.
Issued by the Democratic Alliance, March 7 2010
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