Hon MEC, I am indebted to God to ensure that people, don’t just become educated with certificates or degrees that hang on walls or look good in CV’s must, people must become truly educated and do meaningful work that transforms fixed mind-sets to growth mind-sets.

Hon Members, I want to focus on the recent NCOP oversight visit to various schools and the concern that KZN’s NSC results were on a downslide.

For me, I was surprised at the attitude of a few district officials who were extremely defensive of weak performance.

More disconcerting was the spend of approximately R50 million on boot camps to improve the maths and other science subjects for matric, yet there was no plan available how these activities were carried out and costs incurred or value for money since results showed the unexpected outcomes.

I have brought to the attention of the department how consultants have assisted other Provinces, at a fraction of this cost with very positive outcomes. So, how the minds of education planners are applied needs monitoring at the portfolio committee level about the rationale of when to use costly internal weak capacity vs cost-effective external consultants. It’s all about decision making Hon. MEC.

However, the major issue in the reports of senior management which makes for a good academic exercise but research has to show critical thinking about current gaps or weaknesses and how do we at least achieve the MDG’s of providing universal primary education rather than focussing on SDG’s, which, realistically SA can only look forward to after our NDP2030 is fully implemented.

Finally Hon. MEC, education planners should look at the UNDP 2015 report , (HDI) Human Development Index and the Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) and the Gender Inequality Index (GII) and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), to look at indicators which needs to be tracked for Monitoring and Evaluation purposes.

SA HDI value for 2014 is 0,666 hence we are in medium HDI category at 116 out of 188 countries. The HDI masks inequality in HD, hence IHDI accounts for inequality and SA falls to 0,428 a loss of 35,7% due to inequality.

It is important to note that national and international data can differ because international agencies standardise national data to allow comparability across countries. Therefore harmonisation is important through indicator measurement for donor funding for SA.

The MF supports this R45 billion Education budget and  Provincial Implementation Plan.

Thank you.

Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi

MPL KZN Legislature

Minority Front