Honourable Speaker, strengthening education, and building a skills and human resources base remains one of our key focus areas in this term. Of critical importance is that society must take responsibility for the education of their children.

As Government, we aim to ensure that children receive a solid foundation in preparation for subsequent schooling through the Early Childhood Development programme.

We realise that the abject poverty faced by a sign cant portion of our learners often militates against effective learning. We are pleased that the School Nutrition Programme has built momentum and its overall management has improved. In 2009 the total number of beneficiaries

increased by 140 000 to approximately one and half million learners.  Our determination to broaden access to education remains steadfast.  We have made substantial progress in the implementation of the No Fee Schools Policy, bringing the number of these schools to 5 134 and bene. tting 1 686 573 learners.

Honourable Speaker, and Honourable Members, the Matric results for the Province this year, while at 51%, far from what they should be, tell the story that the tide is turning; that we are rising! Through the implementation of the Learner Attainment Improvement Strategy we

are strengthening the effectiveness of our schooling system. In this regard we re-iterate the message coming from the State of the Nation Address that education and skills development are at the centre of our policies, and that learners and educators must be in school, in class, on

time, learning and teaching for seven hours a day. We will pay particular attention to supporting those schools which achieved a less than 50% matric pass rate.

We will also establish a provincial Maths and Science Academy to spearhead teacher development and capacity building. W also welcome the support for Maths and Science teaching in rural areas to be provided through the American Embassy.  Download full version of the speech from www.ecprov.gov.za