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COSATU Northern Cape Statement, 3 July 2014 Northern Cape Education Budget The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the Northern Cape welcomes the education budget as tabled by the MEC, Comrade Grizelda Cjiekella at the Provincial Legislature on Wednesday, 02 July 2014. We particularly welcome the fact that the MEC could identify the shortcomings of the department when it comes to the Annual National Assessment. This realisation brings hope to us that the department of education is honest to the people of the province and is committed to improving the results of our children. The Literacy Strategy targeting the lower grades is aimed at laying the solid foundation for quality learning and teaching, which will make sure that the Grade 12 outcomes are improved both in quality and the quality of passes. The MEC made a declaration that the department has learned serious lessons over the past two decades and is committed to work very hard to improve its performance. We are particularly pleased that the department acknowledges the significance of Early Childhood Development, however we are not happy that she was silent on steps to be taken towards the formalisation of both ECD and ABET as part of investing in quality public education. We are impressed by the fact that a massive portion of the budget has been set aside for infrastructure development which is in line with the commitment of our government to embark on infrastructure projects as part of job creation. Most importantly is the commitment to build hostels, particularly in the rural areas in order to eliminate the challenges of learner transport. This will go a long way in addressing the socio-economic challenges of the working class in those areas. The fact that there are 63.9% of learners who benefit from the no-fee school policy is a step in the right direction towards the attainment of free and compulsory education. History has taught us that all prosperous nations invested massively in education which in return produced an avalanche of skills. We note the fact that the department commits to continue with the continuous programme of teacher development and the provision of teaching and learning devices. We therefore call on the department to ensure the reduction of workload by employing more teachers to reduce unbearable educator-learner ratios. We also call on the department to ensure prompt delivery of the LTSM to all schools. Safety in our schools is a challenge that needs to be addressed urgently. We would have appreciated to hear the MEC outlining the plan to keep our schools safe and to secure the property, particularly during school holidays. As COSATU we are committed to working together with our affiliate SADTU to provide support to the Northern Cape Department of Education in achieving its set goals of delivering quality public education as well as ensuring universal access to education in the Northern Cape and the country as a whole. For more information please contact the COSATU Northern Cape Provincial Secretary, Anele Gxoyiya, @ 082 829 1961 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
