Budget Vote Speech on Education and Recreation by Eric Adolph
2004-06-22. Rev. Eric Adolph, MP and Permanent Delegate to the NCOP. Honourable Minister I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating you on your new appointment to this challenging portfolio.
Education has gone through a huge
transformation over the past ten years and has brought with it a number
of challenges to be tackled. There are many issues which you will have
to grapple with during your term of office, such as curriculum reform,
funding and mergers of higher education institutions, the backlog in
class rooms, sanitation and electricity at especially the rural and
farm schools. I do not have the time to go into all of the issues now,
so I will just restrict myself to two.
An issue which we in the Independent Democrats are passionate about is that of children's access to education. The ID agrees with the President sentiments that no child should be exposed to the harsh conditions of educating the poorest of the poor, but we maintain that an even greater tragedy is that some of our children are not even attending school. This runs counter to their constitutional right to a basic education and also denies them the opportunity of being able to break out of the poverty cycle they find themselves in. I am not even referring to quality education to all learners from diverse backgrounds.
ID knows that there are areas of our country where the concentration of children not attending school is particularly high, such as some of the rural areas in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and North West provinces. ID would therefore motivate for an audit of these areas being done so that we can understand the reasons for their non-attendance and find solutions to this unacceptable situation. In some cases it will only involve informing parents of their rights and in others it will mean introducing specific government schemes.
ID is not a party that just complains though, and we want to work with the department in ensuring that every child in South Africa gains access to the basic education they are entitled to. We already ran our successful Access to Education Initiative†and we will be extending this programme over the next few years to ensure that more children gain access to schools in South Africa. Also, learners who cannot afford to pay school fees should not be excluded from basic and quality education, hence initiatives to address this problem must be made to ensure that these learners are accessing education as it is their constitutionally entrenched right.
The other issue that the Independent Democrats are concerned about is that of teacher supply, especially in scares subjects. We seem to be heading for a crisis, with our higher education institutions not delivering enough teachers, particularly in the maths and science fields to cope with the demands of our country.
Teaching has unfortunately begun to lose its appeal as a profession and many university students are deciding to pursue other more lucrative careers. This problem is compounded by the fact that the teaching conditions in many classrooms have become unmanageable, with a breakdown in discipline and respect for teachers.
The Independent Democrats argue that action needs to urgently be taken in resolving this crisis and through the introduction of incentives to make teaching a viable option for our young graduates. ID appreciate the department's initiative to re-introduce a bursary scheme that would allow many underprivileged matriculants an opportunity of gaining a university or technikon education in teaching.
ID would request that the department should review bringing back those educators who took sewerage packages who are sitting at home with all the skills and experience. We believe that this would be more cost effective to bring back quality education to our learners. Also consider the introduction of teacher assistants to help keep discipline in classes, particularly in those schools that have over 60 pupils in a classroom.
A further threat to our teachers is that of HIV/AIDS. Like in other sectors of our economy, HIVAIDS is having a devastating toll on our teachers. The department is burying educators on a monthly basis who needs to be replaced. The department needs to seriously address this problem and ensure that it runs successful awareness campaigns for both learners and educators.
The Independent Democrats look forward to working with the Minister and her department on these and other issues affecting education.
I thank you.
An issue which we in the Independent Democrats are passionate about is that of children's access to education. The ID agrees with the President sentiments that no child should be exposed to the harsh conditions of educating the poorest of the poor, but we maintain that an even greater tragedy is that some of our children are not even attending school. This runs counter to their constitutional right to a basic education and also denies them the opportunity of being able to break out of the poverty cycle they find themselves in. I am not even referring to quality education to all learners from diverse backgrounds.
ID knows that there are areas of our country where the concentration of children not attending school is particularly high, such as some of the rural areas in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and North West provinces. ID would therefore motivate for an audit of these areas being done so that we can understand the reasons for their non-attendance and find solutions to this unacceptable situation. In some cases it will only involve informing parents of their rights and in others it will mean introducing specific government schemes.
ID is not a party that just complains though, and we want to work with the department in ensuring that every child in South Africa gains access to the basic education they are entitled to. We already ran our successful Access to Education Initiative†and we will be extending this programme over the next few years to ensure that more children gain access to schools in South Africa. Also, learners who cannot afford to pay school fees should not be excluded from basic and quality education, hence initiatives to address this problem must be made to ensure that these learners are accessing education as it is their constitutionally entrenched right.
The other issue that the Independent Democrats are concerned about is that of teacher supply, especially in scares subjects. We seem to be heading for a crisis, with our higher education institutions not delivering enough teachers, particularly in the maths and science fields to cope with the demands of our country.
Teaching has unfortunately begun to lose its appeal as a profession and many university students are deciding to pursue other more lucrative careers. This problem is compounded by the fact that the teaching conditions in many classrooms have become unmanageable, with a breakdown in discipline and respect for teachers.
The Independent Democrats argue that action needs to urgently be taken in resolving this crisis and through the introduction of incentives to make teaching a viable option for our young graduates. ID appreciate the department's initiative to re-introduce a bursary scheme that would allow many underprivileged matriculants an opportunity of gaining a university or technikon education in teaching.
ID would request that the department should review bringing back those educators who took sewerage packages who are sitting at home with all the skills and experience. We believe that this would be more cost effective to bring back quality education to our learners. Also consider the introduction of teacher assistants to help keep discipline in classes, particularly in those schools that have over 60 pupils in a classroom.
A further threat to our teachers is that of HIV/AIDS. Like in other sectors of our economy, HIVAIDS is having a devastating toll on our teachers. The department is burying educators on a monthly basis who needs to be replaced. The department needs to seriously address this problem and ensure that it runs successful awareness campaigns for both learners and educators.
The Independent Democrats look forward to working with the Minister and her department on these and other issues affecting education.
I thank you.
