Expanding access to quality education

23 Nov 2010

A key priority for this government is to improve learner outcomes in
this province. To achieve this objective, the Western Cape Education
Department has undertaken a two pronged approach to improve learner
outcomes. The first approach is to assist and support our
underperforming schools. Interventions include increased educator
support, the delivery of additional resources and the improvement of
school infrastructure.

While these interventions will see benefits in the medium-term, a more
short term approach to ensure better learner outcomes needed to be
taken. Therefore, it was decided there was a need to expand access to
quality education, which is the cornerstone of the opportunity society.

This would ensure that more learners would be given the opportunity to
pass their matric and would see more learners reading, writing and
calculating at the required levels.

At the beginning of the year the WCED approached a number of our schools
to determine how best to expand access at successful schools. It was
then decided that the most cost-effective and immediate solution was to
build additional classrooms at various schools in the Cape Town
metropole. However, the schools selected had to have had consistently
achieved good academic results, as well as, have a high learner
admission rate and demand each school year.

Feedback from our principals and governing bodies on the initial plan
was positive, and the WCED then chose 19 schools to participate in the
first phase roll-out of the 'classroom expansion plan'. The main
objective of the classroom expansion plan is to ensure that learners
from a diversity of backgrounds, most especially from disadvantaged
communities, are given an increased opportunity to gain entry into some
of our province's successful schools, therefore, expanding access to
quality education by expanding the necessary infrastructure at each school.

To date, an additional 107 classrooms are either currently under
construction or are in the final stages of design and planning, and are
all due for completion between January and July 2011. Once this first
phase is completed, there will be an additional 107 classrooms,
benefitting 3 700 learners across 19 successful city schools.

It must be noted that had the department built four new schools to
accommodate the same amount of learners, the costs would be
significantly higher. By undertaking to expand access to these schools
with additional classrooms, the department would be accommodating
learners at a rate that is 40% cheaper.

The cost of this phase of the plan is approximately R70 million,
however, if we were to build four new schools, the cost would amount to
around R120 million. Therefore, by undertaking to expand access to these
schools with additional classrooms, the Department will make a saving of
approximately R50 million. The saving made can in turn be used to fund
other aspects of the WCED's infrastructure improvement plan.

Funding has been made available to each school to build themselves the
additional classrooms, and the department is closely monitoring and
auditing this process. Each of the schools that admit more then 37
learners for each classroom will be allocated an additional educator
post if it is required, and a full set of textbooks for that grade will
be delivered.

This plan forms part of our R1.9 billion infrastructure plan, which,
includes the building of 25 new schools over the current MTEF, the
replacement of 20 schools that were built with inappropriate materials,
and the already successful installation of over 145 mobile classrooms at
schools where there was severe overcrowding.

The classroom expansion plan is an excellent example of a partnership
between the department and our schools to fulfil our mutual objectives
of providing a safe and secure learning environment for all our
learners. It will also offset some of the need to build new schools and,
most importantly, expand access to quality education, thus ensuring that
more children are given the opportunity to excel academically.

Media enquiries:
Bronagh Casey
Tel: 021 467 2377
Cell: 072 7241 422

Issued by: Western Cape Education
23 Nov 2010