Two schools, one in Gauteng and one in the Western Cape, will be used to pilot a new sign language curriculum.
|||Johannesburg - Two schools, one in Gauteng and the other in the Western Cape, will be used to pilot a new sign language curriculum, and from next year, all public schools will be required to teach a vernacular language.
These announcements were made by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga when she delivered the department’s budget vote for the 2013/14 financial year in Parliament on Tuesday
.
The department’s overall budget for this period is R17.592 billion, a R1.248bn increase over last year’s R16.344bn.
Motshekga revealed that of the country’s 12 433 949 pupils in more than 25 000 public schools, more than 8 million - 82 percent - were in non-fee schools.
She said the department was on track in reaching the 75 percent matric pass rate target by 2014.
The matric pass rate last year was 73. 9 percent.
To further improve academic performance, Motshekga said the department had established a maths and science task team to identify teaching and learning difficulties in these areas.
Dinaledi schools, whose focus is on maths and science, have been allocated R105.1m.
Technical secondary schools are set to receive R220.9m as part of a recapitalisation programme aimed at refurbishing facilities and providing new equipment at these schools.
Motshekga said R859.3m had been allocated for workbooks.
She added that the department was planning to replace 200 inappropriate schools and provide sanitation facilities to 873 schools, water to 448 and electricity to a further 369.
nontobeko.mtshali@inl.co.za
The Star