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Education Alliance, 20 January 2015 Campaign for Quality Public Education for All A meeting of the "Education Alliance" was convened on the 19th of January 2015, Johannesburg. The progressive Education Alliance consists of SADTU, NEHAWU and POPCRU, progressive youth, students, learner formations and the National Association of School Governing Bodies. The first alliance meeting for this year was convened deliberately at the beginning of the academic year to take stock of the re-opening of schools and to finalise the Programme of Action for the year. Today, members of the Education Alliance visited Landulwazi Comprehensive high School in Thokoza, Ekurhuleni and pledged their support to the underperforming school. Landulwazi received a 41% matric pass - a drastic drop from 2013's 72% pass rate. The Education Alliance has the responsibility to ensure that it plays a tangible role towards the realisation of "People's Education for People's Power". We want to cautiously welcome the start of yet another academic year. Our caution is informed by the reality that stubborn challenges characterize our education system to this day. These challenges, if not addressed with the urgency warranted, will go a long way towards undermining the strategic objective of opening the doors of learning for all. We do acknowledge however that tangible progress has been made in the correct direction by the democratic government as led by the African National Congress. As the Education Alliance, we remain committed to advancing the cause of the working class and will do so unapologetically with Education at all levels being our focal point. Re-Opening of Schools The various components of the Education Alliance have been closely monitoring the re-opening of schools in both the inland and coastal areas. We can report that except for a few instances, the process by and large unfolded as expected and as hoped for. However, we find it extremely concerning that in one of the provinces, Limpopo, the learners of the Malamulele area have not been afforded the opportunity since re-opening to attend school in the wake of community protests. Equally, we condemn the irresponsible act of postponing the re opening of schools in Swaziland all because the fields of the king ought to be weeded. This is treacherous as the king is borrowing from the future of the children what he will never be able to pay back. SADC has some responsibility to protect these children from this form of abuse by King Mswati. Basic Education On the 5th of January 2015 the Minister of Basic Education released the 2014 matric results which have often been misleadingly used as a yardstick for our education system. The results none-the-less revealed a worrying fact statistically. Out of the over a million learners that entered the system in 2003, less than half of those made it through. This is a clear manifestation of underlying systemic root causes that require our urgent attention. It is our view that the gap between policy intent and implementation must be rapidly reduced. We must strive to create an "ideal school" in which all the minimum requirements that will produce a conducive learning and teaching environment are met. We believe that 20 years into democracy, there should be no schools without the basic infrastructure required for teaching and learning. This is precisely the reason why we welcome the "digitalization" effort of our classrooms as led by the Gauteng Department of Basic Education with extreme caution. Whilst this is certainly a step in the right direction, it must not lead to an unintended consequence in which the gap between schools that are resourced and those that are not is widened. We have a responsibility to ensure that the roll out of the "digitalization" process does not provide an opportunity for rogue elements both within and outside of the government to fill up their pockets. On our part, we recommit ourselves to the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign. The QLTC principles are clear; the Department must provide resources, teachers must teach, learners must learn and parents must take interest in the education of their children It is against this back drop that we are calling upon all the parents to play an active part in the school careers of their children and fully participate in the upcoming school governing body election process. The SGBs are an important component in the process of education transformation in which all must be treated equally including the learner representatives. Similarly, we are calling for the intensification of SGB members training and induction to ensure that the ideal corporate governance environment is created in every school TVET Colleges We note the progress that has been made by this government to open the doors of learning and vigorously drive for an increase in the number of students in TVET colleges. It is worth mentioning that the number of TVET college students has increased drastically in the last few years in line with international standards. As the Education Alliance, we thus want to register our concern regarding the quality of training that the students are sometimes exposed to in this space. There must be a greater emphasis on the continuous professional development of lecturers so that we can improve the quality of teaching at that level, increase the pass rate from its current less than impressive level and ensure that the graduates from this system are employable. We call on all progressive forces to take the representation in TVET Councils seriously and to also ensure that such institutions deliver programmes that will produce students that will serve & benefit society. Higher Education Universal access to education remains a concern. Increasing costs have made it difficult for the working class child in particular to access this critical space of human development. We do welcome the fact that the government has increased the NSFAS budget but this is still not substantive enough to cover those in need. As part of our campaigns to ensure universal access and ultimately free quality public education at all levels, we are calling for the total scrapping of university application and registration fees. For instance, it is difficult for us to understand why a prospective student in need of financial assistance in the first place would be required to pay an application fee and a registration fee. It is our firm belief that the country needs to urgently consider other possible forms of higher education funding. Firstly, these must include the increasing of the skills levy that private companies contribute, a particular percentage of that must be ring fenced and dedicated towards higher education. Secondly we call on the ANC government to continue increasing the country's higher education and training budget in relation to the GDP. Thirdly, there must be an urgent consideration of the possible role that other Finance Institutions such as the Public Investment Company, State Owned Enterprises, Trade Union Investment Companies, the Top JSE Companies and the Forbes listed rich individuals can play. The drastically increased funding that we are calling for must be directed towards postgraduate studies as well for the previously disadvantaged. In our view, it is futile to preach radical transformation in higher education whilst there is a lack of adequate measures to ensure that post graduate studies are within reach of the previously disadvantaged. We also want to register our displeasure with the dominance of a neo-liberal orientation in our universities. Education is NOT ideologically neutral as some would like to have us believe. We are not convinced that the ideological orientation in our universities and even the curriculum in our schools will produce patriotic South Africans, who will have an appreciation of where this country comes from and who will also seek to be more than just an obedient part of the labour market for capital. Conclusion Education is a societal issue and we must all take joint responsibility for its failures and successes. The ultimate long term goal of our Programme of Action will be campaigns that will agitate for the delivery of free quality public education at all levels. Education is a public good which must accessed by all for the greater good of humanity. Issued by: SADTU Secretariat on behalf of The Education Alliance Contact: SADTU General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, 082 783 2968 NASGB General Secretary, Matakanye Matakanye, 072 283 4653 COSAS Secretary General, Khulekani Skosana, 082 346 7959 NEHAWU General Secretary, Bereng Soke, 082 455 2713 YCLSA Deputy National Secretary, Isaac Luthuli, 074 815 9131 SASCO Deputy President, Thabo Moloja, 071 717 5980 POPCRU General Secretary, Nathi Theledi, 082 567 7803 -- -- 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. 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