Cape Town - The national basic education department has encountered much resistance to its intervention plans to turn around the troubled Eastern Cape education department, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday.
"It's a major problem. If the truth be told we have major, major problems in intervening in the Eastern Cape," she told a media briefing at Parliament.
"To the extent that I had, as the minister, to go back to the president and say we are [encountering] resistance from the leadership of the Eastern Cape in terms of Section 100 (b) [of the Constitution]," she said.
The Eastern Cape had not legally contested this section, but had "created a state of paralysis by just not co-operating with the national department" on the section.
"Had it not been because of the president's very busy diary, we were going to go there Friday to meet the whole executive of the Eastern Cape to find out exactly what their issues are," she said.
Myriad problems
The national government announced an intervention in the province in March after a myriad of problems surfaced.
These included the termination of temporary educators' contracts, suspension of scholar transport, non-delivery of textbooks and stationery, poor implementation of the school nutrition programme, and overall poor management of systems.
Also, a strategic leadership vacuum in the province, the organisation's structure and culture, poor financial management systems and a lack of monitoring and evaluation.
After visiting the Eastern Cape in June to assess the state of education, President Jacob Zuma appointed a joint task team in July to help strengthen education in the province.
The team included the ministers of basic education, Motshekga; finance, Pravin Gordhan; justice and constitutional development, Jeff Radebe; higher education, Blade Nzimande; and public service and administration, Richard Baloyi.
It also included MECs for provincial planning and finance, Phumulo Masualle; sport, recreation, arts and culture, Xoliswa Tom; economic development, environmental affairs and tourism, Mcebisi Jonas; local government and traditional affairs, Mlibo Qhoboshiyane; and education, Mandla Makupula.
‘We’re stuck’
Motshekga said she had to go back to Zuma and say "we are stuck with the Eastern Cape, we are not able to do the things we are supposed to be doing in the Eastern Cape, and actually, it has created a very serious problem of parallel structures which in a way is creating some form of parallel systems in the province".
Zuma had to travel abroad on Friday, but it had been agreed that as soon as he returned, "as early as next week we will have to go back to the province to resolve the impasse, but we have an impasse with them in terms of our understandings of Section 100 (b)".
It seemed the province believed Section 100 (b) and 100 (a) "are the same".
"We'll do the same things that we have done in the past. We work with them, produce documents, we leave, they shelve the documents and life continues. We say it can't happen the way it's been happening."
‘Rot goes deep’
For example, a senior official had been sent to the Eastern Cape for almost two years to develop a human resources plan for them. But, after he left, the plan was not implemented.
"... [W]e can't do the same thing the same way and expect to get results, and that's why we want know to send teams into the province, and as I say, we have an impasse with them," Motshekga said.
Section 100 (b) allows the national government to assume full responsibility for the provincial department.
Motshekga said the intervention had revealed "the rot goes deep".
"It's not only in terms of fraud around the supply chain. The 10 schools that we just assessed in the province... we found that... there are schools that have inflated numbers [of pupils].
"So it's not only the principal's salary that gets inflated, it's the money that gets sent to the school. "This school in particular, it means it got R1m extra for kids that are not there.
"Because of the impasse we've not [yet] been able to do anything, we just have the information..." However, the turnaround plan included a school-by-school and teacher-by -teacher head-count to establish the real situation.
"The rot is not only at head office, it's deep up to school level and we have developed a framework and a plan to be able to begin to clean up the system from schools to Bisho," she said.
- SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Eastern-Cape-education-rot-goes-deep-20110823
Information on South African Education system and public comment!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Dept ready for matric exams 2011-09-22 20:01
Pretoria - A total of 6 540 examination centres will be set up for this year's matric exams, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Thursday.
There would be 132 question papers written by 620 266 students. Of these, 512 029 were full-time students, she told reporters in Pretoria.
She said 53 question papers had been adapted for Braille and 45 for deaf pupils.
The exams start on October 24 and finish on December 1.
Marking in eight provinces will start on December 2. In Gauteng, marking will start on November 9 on a staggered basis as exams were being completed.
Marking will take place at 123 marking centres with 35 000 markers.
The minister said her department was fully geared for the national senior certificate exams.
"We can confirm confidently that we're ready to administer a credible NSC examination," she said.
- SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Dept-ready-for-matric-exams-20110922
There would be 132 question papers written by 620 266 students. Of these, 512 029 were full-time students, she told reporters in Pretoria.
She said 53 question papers had been adapted for Braille and 45 for deaf pupils.
The exams start on October 24 and finish on December 1.
Marking in eight provinces will start on December 2. In Gauteng, marking will start on November 9 on a staggered basis as exams were being completed.
Marking will take place at 123 marking centres with 35 000 markers.
The minister said her department was fully geared for the national senior certificate exams.
"We can confirm confidently that we're ready to administer a credible NSC examination," she said.
- SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Dept-ready-for-matric-exams-20110922
Significant Days
Events
Free State Arts and Culture celebrates International Translation Day, 29 September 2011
Defence briefs media on state of South African Air Force, 30 September 2011
World Trauma Day , 17 October 2012
World Spine Day , 17 October 2012
World Move for Health Day, 10 May 2012
World Mental Health Day , 10 October 2012
National Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Day , 15 October 2012
World Malaria Day , 25 April 2012
World Leprosy Day, 30 January 2012
Partnership against HIV and AIDS Anniversary , 9 October 2012
World Kidney Day, 11 March 2012
World Health Day, 7 April 2012
Mental Illness Awareness Month , 1 October 2012 to 31 October 2012
International Breast Cancer Month , 1 October 2012 to 31 October 2012
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day , 15 June 2012
National Epilepsy Day , 21 June 2012
World Head Injury Day , 20 March 2012
World Haemophilia Day , 17 April 2012
International Day of Innocent Children - Victims of Aggression , 4 June 2012
World Down Syndrome Day , 21 March 2012
Also see future events for this month
Free State Arts and Culture celebrates International Translation Day, 29 September 2011
Defence briefs media on state of South African Air Force, 30 September 2011
World Trauma Day , 17 October 2012
World Spine Day , 17 October 2012
World Move for Health Day, 10 May 2012
World Mental Health Day , 10 October 2012
National Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Day , 15 October 2012
World Malaria Day , 25 April 2012
World Leprosy Day, 30 January 2012
Partnership against HIV and AIDS Anniversary , 9 October 2012
World Kidney Day, 11 March 2012
World Health Day, 7 April 2012
Mental Illness Awareness Month , 1 October 2012 to 31 October 2012
International Breast Cancer Month , 1 October 2012 to 31 October 2012
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day , 15 June 2012
National Epilepsy Day , 21 June 2012
World Head Injury Day , 20 March 2012
World Haemophilia Day , 17 April 2012
International Day of Innocent Children - Victims of Aggression , 4 June 2012
World Down Syndrome Day , 21 March 2012
Also see future events for this month
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
The day is in support of the United Nations International Plan of Action which recognises the significance of abuse and neglect of older adults as a public health and human rights issue.
Throughout the world, senior abuse and neglect is largely under-recognised or treated as an unspoken problem.
Research indicates that public education campaigns like World Elder Abuse Awareness Day are vital for informing people in a growing number of countries about elder abuse and active involvement of the media is central to its success.
Read more on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
Throughout the world, senior abuse and neglect is largely under-recognised or treated as an unspoken problem.
Research indicates that public education campaigns like World Elder Abuse Awareness Day are vital for informing people in a growing number of countries about elder abuse and active involvement of the media is central to its success.
Read more on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
International Day of Innocent Children - Victims of Aggression
4 June
The United Nations (UN) International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is observed on 4 June each year.
The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN's commitment to protect the rights of children.
Read more about International Day of Innocent Children - Victims of Aggression.
The United Nations (UN) International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is observed on 4 June each year.
The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN's commitment to protect the rights of children.
Read more about International Day of Innocent Children - Victims of Aggression.
Address at the 16th SAOU School Principal Symposium by Mrs Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, Port Elizabeth
5 Sep 2011
Programme Director
President of South African Teachers' Union (SAOU), Dr Jopie Breed
SAOU members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me much pleasure to address the 16th SAOU School Principal Symposium. Thank you warmly for inviting us.
On 11 August 2011, I saw a disturbing editorial in The Star, on riots in Britain. The newspaper called it 'a timely riot'. It said the protest was not political. “The rioters had no agenda”.
It blamed the unrest on 'a disaffected criminal fringe made up of people who felt they have no stake in society'. It concluded the burning and looting in the erstwhile colonial empire highlighted 'the dangers posed by economic inequality and a troubled education system.'
Two questions sprung to mind: How does society produce "a disaffected criminal fringe, made up of people who felt they have no stake in society?" and, "does this ring alarm bells for the SAOU Principal Symposium?"
This report came in a year we chose to focus on creating a delivery-driven education system that will help improve quality.
On the same day, 11 August, I attended a conference of primary school principals in Mpumalanga, the lowest performing province. The interaction was framed around the 2011 results of Annual National Assessments (ANA) and an analysis from Basic Education and provincial officials.
Such analysis suggested strongly that invariably principals in the sampled schools left the process of managing ANA almost entirely to Head of Departments (HODs) and teachers.
The analysis concluded that most of the principals could only give generic answers to questions on whether there were specific interventions made to address learning deficiencies that were revealed by the ANA, or not.
These developments bring into sharp focus the work we do as educators, school managers, policy-makers and education authorities. The challenge is for us to say how best to stop the production of disgruntled communities “made up of people who felt they have no stake in society”?
Many would say the best way to tackle social and economic problems would be by providing quality education for all. I spoke at length about quality when I addressed the SAOU Congress two months ago.
Then I said we’re on track to achieve quality in education. Today’s key message is that we can deliver quality education by changing the way we work. It can’t be business as usual.
And thus I chose for today to focus mainly on a pillar of the system without which we cannot have quality education. It comprises school principals and school leadership teams. It is at this level that we need a paradigm shift to ensure schools are transformed into pockets of excellence.
I told SAOU members in June that it is through careful implementation of the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, that we intend to improve schooling. With the full cooperation of provincial education departments and other role-players, the Action Plan should direct our work towards more focus on quality teaching.
I also reported to you that we have made great strides in reviewing the curriculum and finalising the new Curriculum & Assessment Policy Statements. We said for reasons of quality enhancement, we launched the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU).
NEEDU will provide an independent evaluation of the state of education and the status of teaching and learning in schools.
In June we said there can be no quality in education without quality educators. That’s why we launched a Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development. It will help in achieving Output 1 of our Delivery Agreement – improving teacher capacity and practices.
As principals, affiliated to a professional entity like SAOU, key among questions you must ask should be: ‘How best to respond to the notion of “a troubled education system” and research studies on the state of education in South Africa?’
You should be able to say, ‘what is your role as principals in all this?’ And, ‘what is it that you’re going to do differently, to advance the objectives of the New Growth Path?’
In July, government and social partners signed a National Skills Accord as one of the first outcomes of social dialogue on the New Growth Path (Accord 1: National Skills Accord, July 2011). Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) was represented by General-Secretary Dennis George. Representatives committed to a “partnership and to combining our efforts in order to strengthen skills development as a crucial pillar of the New Growth Path” (Ibid).
Expanding skills as a platform for creating five million new jobs will not happen without school principals.
In the nine years to 2020, the education system will churn out thousands of learners yearning for more skills and more jobs. The economy will battle to absorb hundreds of young people schools could not retain at least up to Grade 12. In an endorsement of the National Skills Accord, Ms Lulama Nare, a community representative, reminds us that:
“Our economy rewards people with high skills, excluding vast numbers of our population. We must bridge that gap and ensure people have adequate skills to generate livelihoods.”
Of course, if this was apartheid South Africa, we would not worry about equal education and skills development. In 1945 JN Le Roux of the National Party said: “We should not give the natives any academic education. If we do, who is going to do the manual labour in the community?”
The representatives who met to discuss partnerships for achieving five million new jobs, by 2020, identified as one critical challenge: “The need to improve the quality of basic education.”
This was premised on the understanding that: “Performance in the schooling system is at the heart of building the skills base for economic growth and development and ensuring that the society is able to achieve our equity and development goals.”
They signed Accord two on Basic Education and Partnerships with Schools. We must ensure all educators know the contents of this Basic Education Accord, especially school principals.
The Accord commits all parties to endorse a campaign to adopt poorly-performing schools and to “assist such schools to develop proper governance, high standards of teaching, basic school-level discipline and an adequate supply of essentials.”
We can’t do this if one principal was to tell FEDUSA that “you can keep your accord and let me keep my school!”
Our role, with our partners, is “to strengthen basic education in the country as a platform for creating five million new jobs by 2020” (Accord 2).
We need principals for development. They’ll keep us firmly on a path to quality education, ensuring we do not populate the world with “rioters”, with “no agenda”.
This is how best to relate to the Symposium’s theme – “Quality school leadership, a prerequisite for quality education”.
Without quality school leadership, you can forget about quality education, about laying the foundation for skills development, about providing a platform for job-creation.
Quality education is unthinkable without “quality school leadership”.
Commenting on the Basic Education Accord, FEDUSA’s General Secretary, Mr Dennis George, proposed a viable path towards quality learning and teaching:
“We must identify the rotten apples within the system. Ineffective and lazy teachers, corrupt training providers and poorly performing structures must be identified and dealt with.”
We do have challenges. When we talk quality, we do so aware of the need to improve teachers’ working conditions. Our problems have a history. So, they must be appraised in context.
During a visit to South Africa, Robert McNamara, ex-president of the World Bank, said about the state of education in apartheid South Africa in 1982: “I have seen very few countries in the world that have such inadequate educational conditions. I was shocked at what I saw in some of the rural areas and homelands. Education is of fundamental importance. There is no social, political, or economic problem you can solve without adequate education.”
We would not have come this far without partnerships, thus the logic of the Basic Education and the National Skills accords. We value our social partners.
Relationships with social partners are informed by the quest to provide education of progressively high quality to all learners.
This symposium comes at the most opportune time after the release of the ANA results. They confirmed that many learners lack basic literacy skills, including, correct grammar, spelling of commonly used words and basic prepositions. In numeracy, learners were unable to work with two digit numbers.
We know that poverty impacts on learner performance. The results showed another dimension. There are schools in Quintile five whose results are as bad as some in the schools in Quintiles one and two.
The principal is the nerve centre for school improvement. When leadership is strong, even the most challenged schools thrive. But when it is weak, schools fail.
Quality school leaders encourage a focus on improving classroom practices of teachers. Indeed there are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a strategic leader.
The role of school leaders has changed radically with countries transforming education systems. This is in keeping with the dictates of the 21st Century and its rapid innovations.
We’re moving towards strengthening school leadership and accountability. Among other things, all principals and deputies will be required to enter into performance contracts.
Our department has identified differentiated development needs and interventions for principals and other school leaders, including on-the-job skilling and improving recruitment and selection procedures.
More often, it is principals with dubious or virtually no management and financial skills who render schools ineffective.
In the interest of quality school leadership, we’ve developed two key programmes – the National induction programme for newly-appointed school principals and the National coaching and mentoring programme for school principals.
I challenge SAOU to work even harder to enhance competencies of principals.
Lastly, allow me to remind the Symposium of this commitment we made when we signed the Basic Education Accord: “All parties agree to work together to change the mindset among teachers, learners and parents in order to rebuild dysfunctional parts of the basic education system and ensure quality education delivery for learners, particularly in poorly-performing schools.”
Keep up the good work, and thank you for giving me time to talk with you.
Issued by: Department of Basic Education
5 Sep 2011
http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=21353&tid=41921
Programme Director
President of South African Teachers' Union (SAOU), Dr Jopie Breed
SAOU members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me much pleasure to address the 16th SAOU School Principal Symposium. Thank you warmly for inviting us.
On 11 August 2011, I saw a disturbing editorial in The Star, on riots in Britain. The newspaper called it 'a timely riot'. It said the protest was not political. “The rioters had no agenda”.
It blamed the unrest on 'a disaffected criminal fringe made up of people who felt they have no stake in society'. It concluded the burning and looting in the erstwhile colonial empire highlighted 'the dangers posed by economic inequality and a troubled education system.'
Two questions sprung to mind: How does society produce "a disaffected criminal fringe, made up of people who felt they have no stake in society?" and, "does this ring alarm bells for the SAOU Principal Symposium?"
This report came in a year we chose to focus on creating a delivery-driven education system that will help improve quality.
On the same day, 11 August, I attended a conference of primary school principals in Mpumalanga, the lowest performing province. The interaction was framed around the 2011 results of Annual National Assessments (ANA) and an analysis from Basic Education and provincial officials.
Such analysis suggested strongly that invariably principals in the sampled schools left the process of managing ANA almost entirely to Head of Departments (HODs) and teachers.
The analysis concluded that most of the principals could only give generic answers to questions on whether there were specific interventions made to address learning deficiencies that were revealed by the ANA, or not.
These developments bring into sharp focus the work we do as educators, school managers, policy-makers and education authorities. The challenge is for us to say how best to stop the production of disgruntled communities “made up of people who felt they have no stake in society”?
Many would say the best way to tackle social and economic problems would be by providing quality education for all. I spoke at length about quality when I addressed the SAOU Congress two months ago.
Then I said we’re on track to achieve quality in education. Today’s key message is that we can deliver quality education by changing the way we work. It can’t be business as usual.
And thus I chose for today to focus mainly on a pillar of the system without which we cannot have quality education. It comprises school principals and school leadership teams. It is at this level that we need a paradigm shift to ensure schools are transformed into pockets of excellence.
I told SAOU members in June that it is through careful implementation of the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, that we intend to improve schooling. With the full cooperation of provincial education departments and other role-players, the Action Plan should direct our work towards more focus on quality teaching.
I also reported to you that we have made great strides in reviewing the curriculum and finalising the new Curriculum & Assessment Policy Statements. We said for reasons of quality enhancement, we launched the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU).
NEEDU will provide an independent evaluation of the state of education and the status of teaching and learning in schools.
In June we said there can be no quality in education without quality educators. That’s why we launched a Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development. It will help in achieving Output 1 of our Delivery Agreement – improving teacher capacity and practices.
As principals, affiliated to a professional entity like SAOU, key among questions you must ask should be: ‘How best to respond to the notion of “a troubled education system” and research studies on the state of education in South Africa?’
You should be able to say, ‘what is your role as principals in all this?’ And, ‘what is it that you’re going to do differently, to advance the objectives of the New Growth Path?’
In July, government and social partners signed a National Skills Accord as one of the first outcomes of social dialogue on the New Growth Path (Accord 1: National Skills Accord, July 2011). Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) was represented by General-Secretary Dennis George. Representatives committed to a “partnership and to combining our efforts in order to strengthen skills development as a crucial pillar of the New Growth Path” (Ibid).
Expanding skills as a platform for creating five million new jobs will not happen without school principals.
In the nine years to 2020, the education system will churn out thousands of learners yearning for more skills and more jobs. The economy will battle to absorb hundreds of young people schools could not retain at least up to Grade 12. In an endorsement of the National Skills Accord, Ms Lulama Nare, a community representative, reminds us that:
“Our economy rewards people with high skills, excluding vast numbers of our population. We must bridge that gap and ensure people have adequate skills to generate livelihoods.”
Of course, if this was apartheid South Africa, we would not worry about equal education and skills development. In 1945 JN Le Roux of the National Party said: “We should not give the natives any academic education. If we do, who is going to do the manual labour in the community?”
The representatives who met to discuss partnerships for achieving five million new jobs, by 2020, identified as one critical challenge: “The need to improve the quality of basic education.”
This was premised on the understanding that: “Performance in the schooling system is at the heart of building the skills base for economic growth and development and ensuring that the society is able to achieve our equity and development goals.”
They signed Accord two on Basic Education and Partnerships with Schools. We must ensure all educators know the contents of this Basic Education Accord, especially school principals.
The Accord commits all parties to endorse a campaign to adopt poorly-performing schools and to “assist such schools to develop proper governance, high standards of teaching, basic school-level discipline and an adequate supply of essentials.”
We can’t do this if one principal was to tell FEDUSA that “you can keep your accord and let me keep my school!”
Our role, with our partners, is “to strengthen basic education in the country as a platform for creating five million new jobs by 2020” (Accord 2).
We need principals for development. They’ll keep us firmly on a path to quality education, ensuring we do not populate the world with “rioters”, with “no agenda”.
This is how best to relate to the Symposium’s theme – “Quality school leadership, a prerequisite for quality education”.
Without quality school leadership, you can forget about quality education, about laying the foundation for skills development, about providing a platform for job-creation.
Quality education is unthinkable without “quality school leadership”.
Commenting on the Basic Education Accord, FEDUSA’s General Secretary, Mr Dennis George, proposed a viable path towards quality learning and teaching:
“We must identify the rotten apples within the system. Ineffective and lazy teachers, corrupt training providers and poorly performing structures must be identified and dealt with.”
We do have challenges. When we talk quality, we do so aware of the need to improve teachers’ working conditions. Our problems have a history. So, they must be appraised in context.
During a visit to South Africa, Robert McNamara, ex-president of the World Bank, said about the state of education in apartheid South Africa in 1982: “I have seen very few countries in the world that have such inadequate educational conditions. I was shocked at what I saw in some of the rural areas and homelands. Education is of fundamental importance. There is no social, political, or economic problem you can solve without adequate education.”
We would not have come this far without partnerships, thus the logic of the Basic Education and the National Skills accords. We value our social partners.
Relationships with social partners are informed by the quest to provide education of progressively high quality to all learners.
This symposium comes at the most opportune time after the release of the ANA results. They confirmed that many learners lack basic literacy skills, including, correct grammar, spelling of commonly used words and basic prepositions. In numeracy, learners were unable to work with two digit numbers.
We know that poverty impacts on learner performance. The results showed another dimension. There are schools in Quintile five whose results are as bad as some in the schools in Quintiles one and two.
The principal is the nerve centre for school improvement. When leadership is strong, even the most challenged schools thrive. But when it is weak, schools fail.
Quality school leaders encourage a focus on improving classroom practices of teachers. Indeed there are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a strategic leader.
The role of school leaders has changed radically with countries transforming education systems. This is in keeping with the dictates of the 21st Century and its rapid innovations.
We’re moving towards strengthening school leadership and accountability. Among other things, all principals and deputies will be required to enter into performance contracts.
Our department has identified differentiated development needs and interventions for principals and other school leaders, including on-the-job skilling and improving recruitment and selection procedures.
More often, it is principals with dubious or virtually no management and financial skills who render schools ineffective.
In the interest of quality school leadership, we’ve developed two key programmes – the National induction programme for newly-appointed school principals and the National coaching and mentoring programme for school principals.
I challenge SAOU to work even harder to enhance competencies of principals.
Lastly, allow me to remind the Symposium of this commitment we made when we signed the Basic Education Accord: “All parties agree to work together to change the mindset among teachers, learners and parents in order to rebuild dysfunctional parts of the basic education system and ensure quality education delivery for learners, particularly in poorly-performing schools.”
Keep up the good work, and thank you for giving me time to talk with you.
Issued by: Department of Basic Education
5 Sep 2011
http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=21353&tid=41921
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Determine Your School Ethos?
Determine Your School Ethos?: This online Tool will help you determine your school's ethos. Answer the questions as best you can. The questions are specifically created to establish
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