Five-year education plan responds to key challenges
The Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, recently announced the department’s five year plan for schools in the province.
During his budget speech, on July 31, the MEC said that the five-year plan responds to the key challenges facing the people of Gauteng.
“We need to ensure that education contributes to the reduction of inequalities in our population,” he said.
Lesufi added that among these is access to affordable quality schooling in the communities they live in.
“We will focus on modernising public education and build an education system that can compete internationally.
“It is within this context that we have now taken a decision to ensure that 80 per cent of our children in Gauteng should do pure mathematics by 2019,” he said.
To sustain the improved Grade 12 performance of the province, the Department of Education has extended the Secondary School Intervention Programme (SSIP) to reach all secondary school learners with various interventions.
“This is to ensure that whatever knowledge gaps learners have are sufficiently arrested by the time the learner sits for the final matric examinations.”
To improve learner performance across primary school a grade, the department has begun institutionalising and mainstreaming into districts the key interventions programmes.
This is to ensure that the support to teachers, learners and schools becomes a daily task of the district officials to ensure a sustained quality improvement trajectory across primary schools.
“Through this process, we aim to improve learner performance in the Annual National Assessments as well as in township and rural schools.”
In modernising public education and responding to new educational imperatives for quality learning, the province will work towards introducing smart paperless classrooms to ensure that all learners and teachers have progressive access to broadband and innovative learning and teaching tools which will enable learners to meaningfully participate in the economies of the future.
“We are ready to respond to the call made by Congress of South African Students of ‘one learner one tablet in our lifetime’,” said Lesufi.
“It is also true that education delivery is dependent of quality teachers, who are motivated. To be the best therefore, we must recruit the best.”
He says from now on the recruitment of teachers will be mainly and strictly be on merit only.
“We have strengthened our recruitment programmes to ensure that all staff are recruited on four key attributes, talent, skill, competency and qualifications.”
He pointed out that a school stands and fall on principals.
“With this in mind, we have now reviewed the recruitment of principals to ensure only the best are appointed.
“We have strengthened our short listing processes and will monitor each appointment of principal to eliminate favouritism and other unwanted practises. We are committed to improve the quality of teaching by focusing on the continuous development of teachers,” he said.
Lesufi said that they will work towards ensuring that all schools in the province are appealing and safe.
“As part of our contribution to Women’s Month, we will be launching a programme for young handywomen to focus on repairing broken windows, doors that do not close, toilets that do not work, water supply and general degradation that de-motivates learners and teachers.” – @CarmenBoksburg
