speech delivered by the kwazulu-natal mec for education on ... · the service excellence awards are...
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KWAZULU-NATAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION POSTAL : Private Bag X 9137, Pietermaritzburg, 3200, KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa PHYSICAL : 247 Burger Street, Anton Lembede House, Pietermaritzburg, 3201 WEBSITE : WWW.kzneducation.gov.za
Speech Delivered by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education on the
occasion of Service Excellence Awards held at Isibaya Casino in
Durban.
3rd June 2014
Programme Director
Members of the Top and Senior Management in Education,
Organised Labour
Our partners and sponsors
Members of business Fraternity
The entire education corps present here today
Invited guests from within the Education Sector and beyond
Ladies and Gentlemen
Excellence is not an act, but a habit
It gives me great pleasure to be with you here today to grace this Service
Excellence Awards event. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle once asserted:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit”.
These awards are significant in that they come at the time when our
fledgling democracy is celebrating 20 years of freedom, peace and
prosperity. They also occur amid revolutionary changes in the schooling
system occasioned by a plethora of progressive polices such as Action Plan
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2014; Towards Schooling 2025, and the National Development Plan (NDP). I
will elaborate of these policies later in my address.
Programme Director at the core of these polices is quality education for the
African child and the rest of pupils in the public sector schooling system.
What we have acknowledged a long time ago is that excellence in public
schooling is not an event but a process that involves the whole society. We
are therefore pleased that these awards go a long way in acknowledging
some of the key partners in the deliverance of quality education –
educators and learners. Education for us is and will remain a societal issue.
No single stakeholder acting independently will produce the desired
outcomes as envisaged in the NDP. We all have to play our part.
Salute to Teachers & Learners
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education wishes to salute all schools
and teachers who have entered the Service Excellence Awards. The
Department also acknowledges their extraordinary efforts, which have
been achieved often under very difficult conditions and in service to our
children, many of whom come from poor communities.
The Service Excellence Awards are but one of the ways in which the
Department acknowledges and encourages dedicated and caring teachers
in their efforts to develop each learner as a citizen of a democratic, non-
racial and non-sexist South Africa.
We need to extend the service excellence awards beyond teachers to
include office based educators and officials employed through public
service act. Service excellence should permeate the entire system if we
are to transform and improve the performance of the department.
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Objectives of the Service Excellence Awards
The awards programme aim is to promote sharing of best practices,
learning, rewarding good performance and to gauge citizen satisfaction
towards government performance.
Anchors
The public service excellence awards are an off-spring of two important
pieces of policies, the white paper on the Transformation of the Public
Service and White Paper on Service Delivery. Key to these policies is the
delivery of public services which meets the basic needs by putting people
first.
Apart from the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery, the
most powerful mandates for the development and implementation of a
Service Commitment Charter come from the Constitution; the Promotion
of Administrative Justice Act; the Promotion of Access to Information Act
and the Public Service Regulations.
According to the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery, all
service delivery sites, including schools, are expected to comply in respect
of the Batho Pele
Our Government is fully aware of the hindrances to service excellence and
has come up with various programmes to promote integration, transversal
work and team work amongst government departments, individuals and
sections. It is part of my vision that in this department we vigorously
promote teamwork where one hand knows what the other does. We need
to work towards a cohesive system.
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Consequently I want to be an MEC that is closer to employees at all levels
so that I will not only understand your frustrations, but be part of the
strategy that will realise practical and workable solutions to alleviate those
frustrations.
Turning around service delivery will mean undoing the legacy of the
apartheid public service whose orientation was towards serving the
interest of white domination. In essence blacks were generally reduced to
subservience, and particularly the majority who felt the most of apartheid
brunt is Africans. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Department is fully committed
that the public service we are building must never allow the tradition of
apartheid education and the dead past to ‘weigh like a nightmare on the
brains of the living’. We must build a public service whose orientation must
be the realisation of a developmental state: a public service which meets
the service needs of the province by putting people first.
Consultation
Our people yearn for a public service that is responsive to their needs. The
majority of our communities may not understand entirely the complexity of
providing quality education, but they do understand that education is an
important lever to breaking the cycle of poverty and inequalities.
Consultation of communities and stakeholders is a central pillar of our
democracy.
Service Standards
As we acknowledge this year’s achievers, let us be reminded that the
standards that have been set must continuously improve and be in line
with the ever changing needs of our communities. Action Plan 2014; the
National Development Plan, Vision 2030, Provincial Growth and
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Development Plan and the Department Strategic Plan outlines key service
standards that the Department must strive to achieve. Key to all the plans
is the achievement of the following:
1. Improving the quality of teaching through pre-service and continuous
teacher development.
2. Courageous and effective leadership
3. Improving government capacity to deliver which includes efficiency in
the provision and utilisation of teachers so that excessively large
classes are avoided.
4. Improving resources to create a conducive and safe learning
environment: teachers, books and infrastructure.
5. Community and parent involvement.
6. Learner support and well-being.
Through the Department strategic plan there is clear minimum
expectations in the form of performance indicators and targets to meet
these standards. There is urgency that the department service standards
are communicated to quantifiable targets relevant to the schools’ specific
communities. The same must be done by schools: schools must be able to
communicate to the public the minimum service standards and targets for
the year, more crucial in this are the learner achievement standards and
expectations. Parents deserve to know what will be taught, by whom and
when so they can measure and assist learners at home. Parents must be
able to provide feedback to teachers on a child’s learning progress in home
and school.
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Accessibility
Although there has been good progress with the delivery of basic services
and access to primary services in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, inequality
still exist between, among and within districts. About 80% of all our schools
in the province have been declared ‘no fee’ paying schools which means
they have been given a quintile ranking of between 1 and 3. This internal
barometer obtained through the Resource Targeting List process
demonstrates the province-specific deprivation indices.
We thank those schools who entered in the 2013 ‘contest’ driven by a
belief that in spite of being in a relatively poor resourced areas, they were
doing some good work which they could put forward for scrutiny. These
schools believed that while they might stand a chance to win the contest, it
would be worthwhile experience to be beneficiaries of good advice by the
evaluators (adjudicators).
It is important that public institutions are accessible and within reach to
customers. It is of great significance that learners are at school, in class and
on time for teaching to take place. For this to happen, an organic covenant
must be in place between department, communities, stakeholders,
parents, learners and teachers - making education a societal issue.
Incidences of hunger at school, learners walking long distances to schools,
HIV/ AIDS and OVCs are challenges to overcome for effective curriculum
delivery to take place.
The issue of poverty is also is a huge impediment to access and is partly
addressed in the education system through various measures: (a) Orphans,
foster children and those receiving a poverty-linked social grant are
exempted from paying fees and in least poor schools poorer parents
receive school fees discounts. Poverty upsets the affordability of education,
access to education and prospective benefits from education. (b) A poor
child is also often a hungry child, and hunger impacts immediately on
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school attendance and academic performance. The National School
Nutrition Programme aimed to foster quality education by, among other
things, alleviating short-term hunger and addressing certain micro-nutrient
deficiencies in children. (c) Improving the learner achievement rate, in
particular quality passes, which to some extent contribute in breaking the
cycle of poverty.
One of the devastating impacts of the HIV epidemic is the increase of
orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) most of whom are of school
going age. A quarter of South Africa’s 905 453 orphans reside in the
province (DSD, 2010). Learners from HIV affected families are more likely
to experience depression, post-traumatic stress as well as negative
educational outcomes (Cluver, 2011). The Department recognised the
importance of promoting good health among learners and has therefore
undertaken a range of activities as part of its health promotion
programme. A national framework on health and wellness has been
developed and aims to improve the understanding of health-related issues
among educators and learners. Peer education programmes have been
used to educate youth about HIV and AIDS prevention, care, treatment and
abstinence. Guidelines for the management and prevention of drug
use/abuse by learners in public schools and further education and training
institutions were launched and distributed to schools.
Redress
Our call to those manning our front and back offices and in particular those
who interface with the public, is a need to appreciate that education is a
complex enterprise which is not easy to grasp and hence an expectation of
empathy and patience when dealing with stakeholders. What is required
at interface level is a public servant who is informed, empathetic, patient to
listen and provide proper guidance to customers. In addition, when offices
and institutions interface with the public they must demonstrate use
simple and acceptable language and be easy to identify. In the final
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analysis, a uniform acceptable code of behaviour is what should define our
workplaces. Our values of honesty, caring, empathy, professionalism,
integrity, fairness, excellence, team work and selflessness must be a
defining feature of what we are known for.
There is an increasing belief that the ability of some schools to convert
school resources into acceptable education outcomes could be linked
school management, especially dysfunctional management structures.
Furthermore, remarkable differentials in performance among schools in
formerly disadvantaged communities suggest that results are highly
dependent on effective school management.
The department has identified a number strategic intervention key to
improving education governance and management in schools. These
include: (a) education management capacitation and resourcing initiatives.
(b) improving the school management’s capacity to mediate the
curriculum; (c) Ensuring that principals role as curriculum and instructional
leaders is asserted; (d) ensuring that principals play a prominent role in the
regulation of teaching time, (e) school management engages in monitoring
and support for planning and delivery in relation to curriculum coverage (f)
school management play a more prominent role in the procurement and
management of books and stationery as well as the quality assurance of
tests and the monitoring of results.
Policies that Guides us
This Action Plan 2014 is the Department of Basic Education’s strategy to strengthen weak areas in the education systems that were identified as requiring support. It was developed in line with the Presidency’s 2009 National Strategic Planning and draws direction from the guiding document, Improving Government Performance: Our Approach.
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By improving performance in specific areas, learners will benefit from a higher quality of education. The nation as a whole will also benefit, as school graduates with better skills and knowledge levels enter further and higher education and the workplace. Programme Director let me take this opportunity to summarise the Action Plan 2014. The Plan says improvements that can be expected, and further explains what ordinary citizens can do to contribute towards better schooling. Short-Term Goals, Long-Term Vision
The Action Plan sets out the goals that the national education system will
be working towards and the actions to achieve these goals by 2014. These
are the first steps towards realising the bigger, longer term vision of quality
education in schools by 2025. This vision is called Schooling 2025.
Everyone has a Part to Play
As far as possible, the Action Plan indicates to each stakeholder in the
system what activities such stakeholder should be engaged in to realise
each goal in the plan. It also suggests ways in which those outside the
education system can also provide resources or expertise in support of
these goals.
Clear Goals, Flexible Strategies
The Action Plan sets out 13 goals to be achieved, related to learning and
enrolment. In addition, it sets out 14 areas in education that need to be
improved to reach these goals. The DBE is not, however, telling people
exactly what they must do to achieve these goals. The approach is to allow
for flexibility so that schools and their communities can come up with
strategies that best suit their own situation.
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Towards Schooling 2025
Towards Schooling 2025 is a long term plan for the basic education
sector which will allow for the monitoring of progress against a set of
measurable indicators covering all aspects of basic education including
amongst others, enrolments and retention of learners, teachers,
infrastructure, school funding, learner well-being and school safety, mass
literacy and educational quality.
Making sure that every young South African receives quality schooling is an
urgent need. Yet we realise that this cannot be realised overnight. We
need a clear vision of where we want to be in 2025, or before then if
possible. And we must make sure that every year we move a bit closer to
our vision, recognising that a large improvement is an accumulation of
many smaller changes.
By 2025 we must see the following in every South African school:
Learners who attend school every day and are on time because they
want to come to school, the school is accessible and because they
know that if they miss school when they should not, some action is
taken. These learners understand the importance of doing their
schoolwork, in school and at home, and they know their school will
do everything possible to get them to learn what they should. Much
learning happens through the use of computers and from Grade 3
onwards all learners are computer literate. Part of the reason why
learners want to come to school is that they get to meet friends in an
environment where everyone is respected, they will have a good
meal, they know they can depend on their teachers for advice and
guidance, and they are able to participate in sporting and cultural
activities organised at the school after school hours.
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Teachers, who have received the training they require, are
continuously improving their capabilities and are confident in their
profession. These teachers understand the importance of their
profession for the development of the nation and do their utmost to
give their learners a good educational start in life. They are on the
whole satisfied with their jobs because their pay and conditions of
service in general are decent and similar to what one would find in
other professions.
A school principal who ensures that teaching in the school takes
place as it should, according to the national curriculum, but who also
understands his or her role as a leader whose responsibility is to
promote harmony, creativity and a sound work ethic within the
school community and beyond.
Parents who are well informed about what happens in the school,
and receive regular reports about how well their children perform
against clear standards that are shared by all schools. These parents
know that if something is not happening as it should in the school,
the principal or someone in the Department will listen to them and
take steps to deal with any problems.
Learning and teaching materials in abundance and of a high quality.
The national Minimum Schoolbag policy, which is widely understood,
describes the minimum quantity and quality of materials that every
learners must have access to.
Computers in the school are an important medium through which
learners and teachers access information.
School buildings and facilities that are spacious, functional, safe and
well maintained. Learners and teachers look after their buildings and
facilities because they take pride in their school.
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National Development Plan – Vision 2030
Building a future for South Africa's youth
South Africa has an urbanising, youthful population. This presents an
opportunity to boost economic growth, increase employment and reduce
poverty. The National Planning Commission (architect of the NDP),
recognised that young people bear the brunt of unemployment, and it
adopted a "youth lens" in preparing its proposals, which include:
A nutrition intervention for pregnant women and young children in
and out of school.
Universal access to two years of early childhood development.
Improve the school system, including increasing the number of
students achieving above 50 percent in literacy and mathematics,
increasing learner retention rates to 90 percent and bolstering
teacher training.
Strengthen youth service programmes and introduce new,
community-based programmes to offer young people life-skills
training, entrepreneurship training and opportunities to participate in
community development programmes.
Strengthen and expand the number of further education and training
(FET) colleges to increase the participation rate to 25 percent.
Increase the graduation rate of FET colleges to 75 percent.
Provide full funding assistance covering tuition, books,
accommodation and living allowance to students from poor families.
Develop community safety centres to prevent crime and include
youth in these initiatives.
A tax incentive to employers to reduce the initial cost of hiring young
labour-market entrants.
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A subsidy to the placement sector to identify, prepare and place
matric graduates into work. The subsidy will be paid upon successful
placement.
Expand learnerships and make training vouchers directly available to
job seekers.
A formalised graduate recruitment scheme for the public service to
attract highly skilled people.
Expand the role of state-owned enterprises in training artisans and
technical professionals.
As a country, progress has been substantial and our history provides many
examples of South African coming together to achieve amazing things:
These include our democratic transition, our constitution a regular and
credible elections.
We still have a lot to do if we are to move towards the inclusive and just
society envisaged in our constitution by 2030. Fortunately the challenges
that confront us are not insurmountable. The success of this plan will be
judged by its ability to change relationships among people, within families,
between people and the state and within the state itself. The plan is about
bringing about transformation - to achieve a virtuous cycle of confidence
and trust a growing economy and expanding opportunities.
To achieve our vision, each South African must make a contribution. Active
citizenry requires showing inspirational leadership at all levels of society,
Leaders should mobilise communities’ o take charge of their future, raise
grievances and assume responsibility for ensuring outcomes achieved.
Conclusion
It is appreciated that some of these schools have consistently been
entering for the Service Excellence Awards without despair. These schools
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have displayed high standards and enthusiasm in implementing the Batho
Pele principles. They made well in making sure that all staff members were
capacitated and mentored to achieve their set goals and service standards.
The service impact of these schools is felt by their surrounding
communities and was well displayed through various community initiatives
such as gardening projects which benefitted poor families and learners
around the school.
Programme Director, I now hand over to you to call upon the nominees
and winners in each category.
Thank you!!