Pretoria - Government's interventions in the fight against poverty and inequality and to keep learners in school seem to be paying off, says President Jacob Zuma.
Delivering his fourth State of the Nation Address in Parliament, Zuma noted that over eight million learners attend no-fee schools and benefitted from government's school feeding scheme with school attendance now close to 100 percent for the compulsory band, 7-15 years of age.
"A major achievement is the doubling of Grade R enrolment, from 300 000 in 2003 to 705 000 in 2011, we appear poised to meet our target of 100 percent coverage for Grade R by 2014," Zuma said.
However, he noted that government remained concerned by the report of the General Household Survey in 2010 that just over 120 000 children in the 7 - 15 year old band were out of school.
During the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, government resolved that the South African legacy would be to promote universal access to education.
Zuma also congratulated the teachers, learners, parents and the communities for the efforts, which saw an increase in last year's matric pass rate, adding that government's intensive focus on education was paying off.
"We will continue to invest in producing more teachers who can teach mathematics, science and African languages. Our call to teachers to be in school, in class, on time, teaching for at least seven hours a day remains pivotal to success... we thank the teacher unions for supporting this campaign."
With regards to higher education, Zuma said government was exceeding targets with close to 14 000 learners being placed in workplace learning opportunities over the past year, and over 11 000 artisans having completed their trade tests.
He was pleased to see an increase in the number of learners attending Further Education and Training Colleges and urged parents to encourage their children to enrol in these colleges as the country needed the skills like artisan, which are being offered in FET.
To expand access to tertiary education, Zuma announced that R200 million was utilised to assist 25 000 students to pay off their debts to institutions of higher learning.
He further announced that a total of R300 million has been allocated for the preparatory work towards building new universities in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape.
