Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma says steady progress has been made in the improvement of education and school infrastructure.
“We have built hundreds of state-of-the-art schools to enable our children to be taught in a decent learning environment,” he said on Friday.
President Zuma was speaking during a meeting attended by Chief Executive Officers of companies that are part of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) in Pretoria.
He thanked the private sector for its role in the improvement of education, adding that there is a need to continue building schools.
“A lot has been achieved in education in a short period of time. We can count the increase in enrolments to an improvement in matric passes and annual national assessments results, and the provision of support as no-fee schools or nutrition in schools. We have to improve the quality of matric passes. We have to invest more substantially in maths and science teaching.
“We need to train more teachers including principals so that they can teach and manage schools better,” President Zuma said.
President Zuma emphasized the need to ensure that more students reach tertiary institutions and are able to enrol for scarce skills that will assist in developing the economy.
“We have an opportunity to collectively change the landscape of basic education in this country. As a country, progress has been substantial and our history provides many examples of South Africans coming together to achieve amazing things,” President Zuma said.
With regard to the National Development Plan (NDP), President Zuma said it meant to guide in bringing about transformation.
“It is about building confidence and trust, about growing the economy and expanding opportunities. This requires an investment in education,” he said.
Also speaking, Sizwe Nxasana, one of the founding trustees of the NECT, said it is imperative for the business sector to support government in improving the education sector.
“The NECT will support and play a role in the improvement of education,” he said, adding that as the NECT, they have been able to mobilise the private sector to intervene.
Currently, there are about 85 companies that are part of the NECT.
To date, the NECT has played a vital role in the improvement of about 4 362 schools.
The Department of Basic Education through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery (ASIDI) Initiative had replaced some inappropriate school structures and provided basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.
The bulk of the schools built are in the Eastern Cape, with the programme of building schools continuing.
The NECT is a partnership initiative aimed at strengthening cooperation between stakeholders in the education sector including government, business, labour and civil society with the goal to improve education outcomes in South Africa.
It was established through the Education Collaboration Framework in response to the call for collaboration in the education sector in the National Development Plan and was formally launched on 16 July 2013. – SAnews.gov.za
