Enquiries: - KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education

SPEAKING NOTES FOR MEC FOR EDUCATION IN KZN, MR SENZO MCHUNU ON THE
OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL OPENING AND 20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
AT PHESHEYA PRIMARY SCHOOL
UTHUNGULU DISTRICT
MONDAY – 30 APRIL 2012
Programme Director
Inkosi uZungu
Uthungulu Education District Director – Mr David Chonco
Lower Umfolozi Circuit Manager – Dr Musa Madondo
Ward Manager – Mr Mhlungu
Chairperson of the SGB – Mr Ntanzi
Principal of Phesheya Primary School – Mrs DJ Sibiya
Principals from neighbouring schools
Teachers
Learners
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen;
(1)
The year, 2012 started on a very unpleasant note for the Department of
Education in KwaZulu Natal. It seems to me that no day has gone by without a
negative report on the radio, in newspapers and even television about things
that need fixing in our education system in this province. From a principal who
has been away from school for 9 years while on the payroll of the department to
learners stabbing one another on school premises to the very latest one, which
was deeply appalling and extremely disconcerting.
I’m talking here about a principal, who is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed a
teacher in the head with a spear. This incident happened within school premises.
It is shocking and it leaves one with so many questions.

Have our schools become the battlegrounds? Aren’t schools supposed to be
centres of excellence? These incidences have dictated that I seek the real
definition of a school… since I began to doubt my understanding of the meaning
of a noun, school.
What is a school? Among the definitions I found, I thought these are a lot more
relevant.
“A school is an institution for educating children.”
“A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students or pupils under
the direction of teachers.”
I have to say that among the definitions I found, there was nothing mentioned
about a school being a battleground for posts among teachers. Nor did I get
anything about schools being centres where communities can stage their
demonstrations to voice their dissatisfaction about a principal. And indeed,
nowhere did I find anything about a school being a centre where communities
can just walk in and chase the teachers away – without following due processes.
All these things are happening in KwaZulu Natal. Instead of dealing with strategic
issues of the department, I am finding myself crisscrossing the province resolving
matters that were left unresolved for many years – some of which are not even
rocket scientist’s terrain – but simple logic.
A school is an institution where learning and teaching takes place. This is where
we prepare our children to face the challenges of the future. This is where young
minds are moulded so that they are armed with ammunition to run the country
effectively, to run the country’s economy. Better still, to run international
organisations or just run the economies of the world.
But when I look at what is happening in our schools, I am saddened by how
communities, unions, teachers and even department officials have over the
years conspired – and still continue to denigrate the institutions of learning. I think
it is a sign that we need to seriously look deep into our souls and ask ourselves,
what has gone wrong? What is wrong with us as a people.
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I thought I should just talk about this first because it is something that has been a
sore point for me for some time now and instead of it getting better – we seem to
be sliding further and further into lawlessness… We seem not to be progressive at
all, in the way we are doing things.
(2)
Having gotten this out of the way, let me take this opportunity and express my
humble gratitude that you have invited us to be part of this auspicious event. It is
a day to celebrate success through hard work. It is a day to rejoice because the
school is 20 years old this year. We celebrate because, even though Phesheya
Primary School is situated in a township, the values, ethos and culture cultivated
in this school has earned it so much respect from the Department and from its
peers.
It is no wonder every parent in the surrounding communities want their child to
be taught in this particular school. For this we want to express our deepest
gratitude to the principal, Mrs Sibiya, the School Management Team as well as
the School Governing Body.
I have said so many times that effective teaching and learning can only take
place if these two structures and the principal are intact. Even if the MEC and
Head of Department were to be nowhere, but if these structures are in place,
high level teaching and quality education can be delivered in schools. So I want
to take this opportunity to thank Phesheya Primary School Governance and
Management structures for being a formidable team that knows what it wants to
achieve with this school.
Indeed, Phesheya is a shining example of the kind of schools we want in KwaZulu
Natal. Keep up the good work!!!
(3)
The school was established 20 years ago but it was never officially opened. And
that is the reasons we are here today.
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School Profile
The creation of Ngwelezane township necessitated that a school be established
for the community. Named after the late Inkosi yakwaZungu, the enrolment of
the school was 400. This already indicated that there was a huge need for a
school in the area. There is need to acknowledge Mr Ntombela in whose land,
the school is situated. We should also acknowledge the harmony that has existed
between the school and the Ntombela household even though they share a
space and some facilities which – in other areas could cause friction.
Phesheya Primary has grown over the years, attracting even learners from the
affluent parts of the community because of the quality of work that is being
produced.
Grades R-7
Current enrolment 1924
PPN 43
SMT
SGB
7 members (Principal, Deputy Principal and 4 HODs)
Fully functional (newly elected)
Phesheya serves communities of Nqolothi, Bomvini, Macekeni, Mqutshini and
Sigisi. These communities are largely dominated by unemployment and
pensioners but there’s also a high rate of HIV and AIDS. Therefore learners who
attend the school are mostly orphaned, vulnerable and infected or affected HIV
and AIDS. They benefit from the OVC grant and the School Nutrition Programme.
As part of the its community development programme, Phesheya Primary School
further serves as an Adult Education and Training Centre.
(4)
There’s another reason why I am so grateful to the SGB and the school for inviting
me to be part of this celebration. The Department of Education in KwaZulu Natal
is responsible for 6 028 public schools. Now, considering that there are only 365
days in a year it is impossible to visit all of them in one year.
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But I certainly want to stress that my firm belief is that education takes place in a
classroom in schools and therefore, I have been preaching to the officials of the
department to spend more time visiting schools. I was in Harding just last week
meeting with SGBs from Sisonke and Ugu Districts. One principal stood up and
said the department should start visiting rural schools. Well, I’ve been to just over
30 schools since the beginning of 2012 – I therefore wanted immediate answers
from Ward Managers, Circuit Managers and the District Directors as to why they
hadn’t visited rural schools.
I want to re-emphasize this, Ward Managers and Circuit Managers please do visit
schools. You are employed fulltime to do exactly that. I am tired of getting text
messages and reading reports from newspapers about sins that are taking place
in schools. Sins which, upon investigation, are found to be true. These are things
that we should know about and resolve before they become controversial and
make the department look bad.
Gone are the days when education was managed purely from offices. Teaching
and learning and therefore, education takes place in school, in a classroom. We
are merely there to ensure that this is happening – to support schools. If we stay in
our air-conditioned offices then we are abandoning our responsibilities.
(5)
Fundamental Challenges that are a barrier to delivery of quality education in KZN
In KZN, we’ve realized that there are a number of things that need to be
addressed inorder to be achieve the ever-elusive quality education. We have
therefore identified six fundamental challenges that are a barrier to the delivery
of this quality education and they are as follows:
Management and Delivery of the Curriculum at Schools
Shortage of teachers and teacher capacity
Infrastructure
Management (from school level to HQ)
Finances
Lack of classroom equipment to assist the teacher
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If I start talking to each of these challenges you’d see that most of them are of
our own making. We lack the innovation and the ability to think logically. But I
should hasten to say that some of them are beyong our control. Some of the
thenm stem from the legacy of the past. Now I don’t want to dwell on this. But I
do want to say, one of the architects of apartheid in South Africa, Hendrik
Verwoerd is no longer with us. He was murdered in 1966 and therefore let us
accept that he died with all his policies.
(6)
Consultations with SGBs
We have reached a conclusion that we must act decisively on all these
challenges. But I want to talk more about the one that addresses the issue of
classroom equipment. Our classrooms are just to bare. They make us feel that we
are feeding children poison. It is for this reason that we have considered what we
call a standard package equipment for each classroom across 6028 school of
the province.
This will require money – and we don’t have it. We’ve had to look into the
resources that we already have and see how we could make this a reality. The
only thing we could do required us to embark on a roadshow to engage School
Governing Bodies. We have engaged with SGBs from 10 Districts, this afternoon
we will be meeting SGBs from Uthungulu and Umkhanyakude.
We want to take a percentage of the money from Norms and Standards
allocation and utilize for this purpose.
We realise that our classrooms leave much to be desired and we cannot deliver
quality if there are not laboratories and computers in our schools. I have noted
that Phesheya Primary has been able to buy some equipment for its Media
Centre Has initiated and purchased Media Centre materials such as 5
computers, TV’s , Video Machine and some Library material. But you will agree
with me, five computers are not nearly enough serve 1924 learners and 43
teachers.
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(6)
As a province we want to become the best in the country. It is for this reason that
we’ve worked hard to improve matric results since the 2008 baseline of 58%. We
improved in 2009 (61%) and again in 2010 (70.7%). Of course in 2011 we took a
slight dip of 2% achieving 68.1% but this is still above the 2009 showing.
KZN Results per District
District 2010 Pass % 2011 Pass %
Umlazi 78.85 76.98
Amajuba 78.78 73.08
Umgungundlovu 75.86 72.27
Umzinyathi 69.22 70.94
Pinetown 71.24 68.51
Uthukela 73.4 68.42
Ugu 69.08 68.37
Zululand 66.57 66.57
Sisonke 62.02 65.99
Ilembe 69.33 65.66
Uthungulu 63.98 63.73
Umkhanyakude 63.53 55.27
Uthungulu District Results per Circuit
Circuit 2010 Pass % 2011 Pass %
Eshowe 67.52 57.74
Mtunzini 63 62
Nkandla 52.78 56.40
Lower Umfolozi 70.70 71.50
I ask all the teachers, parents, community leaders to pull together with us in
ensuring that indeed, education does become everybody’s business. Let us not
look away even when we see that a particular school is doing badly because of
poor management. Do inform the office of the HOD and the Office of the MEC if
you come across such problems.
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We need community leaders, Mayors and Amakhosi and Councillors to work with
us in this. Let us all dirty our hands - if not for ourselves – let us do it for the benefit
of our children and the future of this country. Let us unite and be a formidable
force that cannot be broken.
(7)
As we have said so many times we are strenghthening education at foundation
phase. This year we have introduced English as a subject from Grade 1 for the
first time. We ask for your support as we introduce the new Curriculum called
CAPS.
(8)
KZN had the highest number of learner pregnancies in 2010 in the whole country.
It is also a leader in national HIV and AIDS statistics. Now we, in the Department
of Education in KZN, bear the brunt of most of these social ills. When a child
comes from a child-headed family because he or she is orphaned, that child
becomes our burden. We therefore felt the need to tackle these social ills, even
though they are not our core business.
Early this year, a campaign called My Life My Future. In this campaign we are
dealing mainly with three things, learner pregnancy, alcohol and substance
abuse. We are asking communities, Amakhosi, Izinduna and Councillors to get
involved. But most importantly we are calling on parents to particularly assist us in
the fight against this scourge.
Just last week, a very disturbing incident was reported of a 15 year old who
raped an 8-year old girl. Not only did he do that, the boy further tried to brutally
rip the girl’s eyes out. Now this is something that’s really hard to imagine why a 15
year old would be so brutal. All I can say that the boy needs to be put as far
away from society as possible.
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In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for being
with us today. We count on your continued support in providing quality
education to our learners.
Thank you
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