Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille launched a national education campaign in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria at the weekend, aimed at alleviating a learning and teaching crisis in the country.
Zille said the DA’s campaign, if implemented across the country, would improve the quality of the public education system.
“We want to get the education system right,” said Zille.
While she appreciated government efforts to pump R165 billion towards education, she promised to increase the budget when the DA took over the government.
Zille said schoolchildren would be tested independently during the end of Grade three, six and nine.
She added that there would soon be a change in laws in the Western Cape so that schools could be measured by the results pupils would be getting.
School principals would be held responsible for consistent failures and repeated non-performance would result in their removal.
“We will stop the cadre jobs for chommies. “We have found out that some teachers were teaching subjects they did not pass themselves,” she said.
Zille said an independent survey indicated that the South African Democratic Teachers Union was responsible for 42% of all school days lost from 1995.
DA youth leader Khume Ramulifho charged that the ANC government had failed many young people because of its erratic education system.
Source: www.thecitizen.co.za, 20100222
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