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Department of Education

Zuma outlines the future of SA education

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:28

President Jacob Zuma has addressed school principals from around the country in Durban as part of his quest to improve the quality of education.

In his speech, the President outlined the new split Department of Education's hands-on approach to improving South Africa’s learning.

“We have essentially come together to launch a new drive to truly change the learning, teaching and management of our schools,” the President said. “The question we must answer today is why our policies have failed to deliver excellence and what we should do about it.”

“Going forward, we must today then agree to strengthen the partnership for the renewal of our education system. It must be a partnership in which we all agree to finally move towards burying the impact of apartheid in education.” He said.

“Government as a key partner must continue to spend money on improving infrastructure and resources. We want all our schools to be underpinned by a culture of achievement, professionalism and positive results. As said, we must do things differently. This includes promoting a culture of accountability.

“We must improve the physical conditions of our schools and provide the working tools such as textbooks, laboratories and other equipment. We must invest in skills development for teachers.”

The President also explained that the training focus should include the many unqualified teachers in our education system, with emphasis on maths and scientific learning. Through partnerships with the private sector, investments in schools and institutions of higher learning will be encouraged.

“We must revive the situation where state owned enterprises were centres of training for artisans and other trades to produce much needed technical skills for the nation. We must revive and strengthen our partnership for renewal of education with all our teacher unions.

“We must strengthen our partnerships to intensify our mass literacy campaign, which is as of this year reaching more than 500,000 people who could not read and write.” President Zuma said. “We are well within target to ensure South Africa is free of illiteracy by 2014. A literate population is an advantage for democracy.”

Caitlin Smythe - The Skills Portal