Key challenge remains delivery of curriculum - Dugmore

The key challenge for education remains to ensure that every school is able to deliver the National Curriculum Statement, giving every learner the opportunity to develop their full potential. So said Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore at a luncheon of the Cape Town Press Club in the Waterfront today.

He was sharing some reflections with the members of the club as it was almost exactly halfway through his term of Office since being appointed as MEC for Education in the Western Cape shortly after the elections of April 2004.

Said MEC Dugmore: "It has been a tough and challenging period, but also one in which I believe important steps have been taken along the road to a Learning Home for All. Besides developing the full potential of every learner and providing quality general education and training, we also have a responsibility to develop the human capital in our province to ensure that we produce learners with the knowledge and skills to contribute to the economic growth of our country and province."

He said the challenge to transform education range from the basics, "such as providing enough classrooms, to the complex task of ensuring that our learners achieve the outcomes required by the national curriculum."

That is why he had declared six key priorities for the WCED to focus to meet the challenges of skills development. The priorities are not only applicable for the 2006/7 Budget Year, but in fact, for the rest of his term of office, namely: Literacy and Numeracy; Further Education and Training in schools and FET colleges; Infrastructure Provisioning; School Safety; Redesign of the WCED; and building Social Capital in Education.

With regards to Literacy and Numeracy, he said: "Our learners are already showing improved scores in our system-wide provincial testing. Our Grade 6’s of 2005 showed a 7% improvement in Literacy scores and 2% in Numeracy since the previous tests in 2003. However, with only 42% of learners scoring at the required level for Literacy and 17% for Numeracy, it is clear that we still have a long way to go.

"We have recently announced a strengthened, sustainable and coordinated Literacy and Numeracy strategy for the Western Cape. I don’t believe there are quick fixes but if we are able to place this strategy at the centre of all our endeavours and provide sustained support to our teachers in the classroom, we can turn the situation around. The first thing our new strategy does is spell out a theoretical framework for teachers and teaching.

"Our strategy is based on three key strands, which is Teacher Support and Development; promotion of Mother-Tongue based Bilingual education; and advocacy for community and family literacy."

On the issue of Further Education and Training (FET) in schools and colleges, MEC Dugmore said he honestly don’t think there is reason to panic. "I know that the graduates of our new programmes will be better equipped to fulfil their potential in the 21st century than their predecessors were.

"Some schools reported disappointing results in the press and resulted in a public debate about the curriculum and the June exams. Preliminary analyses though suggest that not all schools are reporting poor results. Nobody is planning to be careless about this critical period. I hope that the media and parents will do all they can to support our children in this time."

Referring to the recent spate of incidents in the last two weeks in which learners were stabbing fellow learners, he expressed great concern. "Clearly it is not just the responsibility of the school alone to promote respect and tolerance, those are values best learnt in the family and home environment."

In conclusion, MEC Dugmore said what drives him most every morning is a simple vision. "I would like, for every parent to be comfortable to send his or her child to the nearest public school, within walking distance, confident in the knowledge that his or her child will acquire sound values, attitudes, knowledge and skills, in a safe environment, and is able to compete with any learner in any school anywhere in the province, in the country and indeed in the whole world."

SEE FULL SPEECH ON: http://www.capegateway.gov.za/education

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi:  082 550 3938, or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.