Cape Town – Government’s anti-poverty strategy is helping to remove the obstacles inhibiting equal access to quality education for all children, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told Parliament on Tuesday.
Delivering her 2013/14 Budget Vote, Motshekga said government spending on education had increased by R1.24 billion from R16.34 billion last year, to R17.5 billion this financial year. This increase, she said, confirmed “government’s commitment to education”.
Motshekga gave an overview of the state of education in South Africa. In 2012/13, South Africa had a total of 12 433 949 million learners in its 25 000 schools. More than eight million children in more than 82 percent of public schools received free education in non-fee paying schools.
Almost 100 percent of children in the compulsory seven to 15 years age group were in school. Access to education for Grade 1s, which stood at 39.3 percent in 2002, had increased to 84.8 percent.
The minister said that the conditional grant for the National School Nutrition Programme had increased by R266.6 million in 2013/14 to R5.173 billion. In 2015/16, the figure will be R5.704 billion.
The HIV/Aids Life Skill Education conditional grant totals R213.5 million.
“With education comes critical skills and out of these, come great prospects for absorption in the labour market, entrepreneurship, leadership and other economic opportunities. Through government’s anti-poverty strategy, we’re progressively removing obstacles inhibiting access to equal, quality education for all children, across the race, gender and class divide,” said Motshekga.
She, however, expressed concern about access to textbooks and workbooks in the foundation phase. "Our 2011 survey puts us at 78% for literacy and 83% for maths. This is still unacceptable. We want to have every learner with a book in every subject.
The issue of school infrastructure was another area of disquiet. An infrastructure investment plan was being finalised. This year, R6.30 billion will be allocated to provinces for this purpose. The amount will increase to R10 billion in 2014.
A total of 200 “inappropriate” schools will be replaced. Of these, 132 are in the Eastern Cape.
“Schools in the Eastern Cape will never be the same again. Those who had seen the new schools we built in the Eastern Cape will agree they are state of the art institutions with fully-furnished libraries, labs and admin buildings.
“By end of May, we will hand over the completed schools to the province so that they can pass them on officially to the people… We have developed plans to close once and for all the chapter on ‘potholes’ and ‘hanging ceilings’ in the classrooms,” said Motshekga.
Sanitation will also be provided to 873 schools, water to 448 and electricity to 369 schools.
Motshekga said she was also alarmed by the recent upsurge of gender-based violence and heinous crime against women and children.
“We will step-up in every school the DBE-LeadSA Stop-Rape campaign that we launched with the President in March 2013. We will use schools to promote access among children to the full range of public health and poverty reduction services.”
Turning her attention to the industrial action by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which ended last night, Motshekga said: “We have made progress and peace with Sadtu and they’re back in the classroom.”
It had been important for her to find an amicable way to resolve the two-month long dispute with Sadtu, Motshekga said.
“The interest of the child will best be served where and when there is uninterrupted harmony within the system, and between key role players.”
Deputy Minister Enver Surtie said that a few teachers were trying to “tarnish” the professional reputation of Sadtu members. He urged the majority not to allow this group to succeed. – SAnews.gov.za
