The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and private sector partners launched the Western Cape Education Foundation (WCEF) in Cape Town today (Tuesday, 20 May 2003), to drive public/partnerships in education in the province.

The partners in education launched the new foundation at a business breakfast at the Holiday Inn Cape Town, attended by about 60 representatives of companies, foundations in education and education officials.

The mission of the WCEF is to improve the quality of education in the Western Cape through effective partnerships between the WCED and friends in the private sector and civil society.

The Western Cape Education Minister, Andrè Gaum, said the foundation would play a key role in bringing together those involved in education in the province, "so that we can cooperate even more closely in our efforts to improve the quality of education in this province.

"We have developed various ways of working together in the past, as we have sought to coordinate what we are all doing in education.

"Our efforts have now evolved into this foundation, which will streamline our cooperation considerably, and place us in an excellent position to use every resource available to us as effectively and as efficiently as possible."

Ron Swartz, the Head of Education in the Western Cape, said the government had conceded on various occasions that it lacked the full capacity to bridge all the enormous socio-economic and educational gaps left by the system of apartheid.

"Elsewhere in the world, governments are increasingly turning to public/private partnerships to increase its resources and capacity to deliver on the burgeoning challenges of public sector management."

Mr Swartz said that public/private partnerships were mobilising large resources, whether in the form of money or expertise.

"It is estimated that, in South Africa, corporate social investment totaled approximately R2,2-billion in 2002. Education received about 36% of this, amounting to about R792-million. The obvious question might be: what has been achieved with this investment?"

There were excellent examples of achievements in the short term, he added. "Mostly, however, we are able to determine only after a few years what real impact was made through the interventions."

He said the partners responsible for setting up the WCEF would like to build a relationship that advocates a "win-win" approach, for both the department and the stakeholder in the private sector.

"A successful partnership requires a highly coordinated approach, a relevant and dynamic structure, and a set of clearly defined strategies and priorities that it can base its work on. I would submit that the establishment of the WCEF is the first step in this process."

A key benefit of the foundation would be to enable the WCED and partners to coordinate their efforts on various fronts. Close coordination would enable:

• The WCED to ensure that projects advance the principles of equity, redress and transformation;
• The WCED to advise on the feasibility of a proposed project and the intended beneficiary of the project;
• The proposing company to stipulate the conditions attached to the project, to ensure that its sponsorship adds value to the school/office's long-term functioning;
• Both the WCED and the proposing company to select the most suitable service provider;
• Both the WCED and the proposing company to ensure that projects are not duplicated in a school/office and that projects are distributed fairly across the province.

The WCED made a list of programmes available to guests at the launch, designed to meet the department’s strategic goals over the next two decades. The document included lists of opportunities for partnerships designed to support these programmes.

The key objectives of the WCEF are to:

• Encourage access to quality education for all in the Western Cape.
• Support sustainable development by investing in the human resources needed for sustainable development.
• Promote quality education through effective public/private partnerships.
• Raise funds for educational projects in the Western Cape.
• Develop resources for education in the province.
• Provide a forum for sharing knowledge, ideas and expertise by all concerned.
• Seek greater alignment between private sector initiatives and the core objectives of the public education sector.
• Foster consensus on priorities for public/private partnerships, to ensure the most efficient use of available resources.
• Monitor, evaluate and report on projects, to ensure that the WCEF learns from its experience.