When I entered office in July 2024, I was clear that South Africa’s education system could no longer continue on a path of piecemeal change.
With more than 13 million children in our schools, every policy decision we take carries enormous consequences for their futures. We must shift from rhetoric to reform, from aspiration to evidence and from piecemeal adjustments to systemic transformation.
With this conviction, and Cabinet support, I have operationalised the National Education and Training Council (NETC) — an institution provided for in law since 2009 but activated for the first time this year.
The NETC is not another bureaucratic structure. It is a bold step to embed expertise at the heart of policy development and delivery in basic education.
Its purpose is simple but vital: to provide independent, expert and evidence-informed advice to the minister of basic education. Education is too important, too complex and too wide-ranging for the government alone to decide on the way forward.
The NETC brings together the collective wisdom of experts and practitioners to ensure our policies respond to the daily realities in schools and classrooms.
In line with its founding regulations, the NETC is deliberately diverse, but not constituency-based. Members contribute as individuals on the strength of their expertise and professional experience.
Its role is advisory, not decision-making, but its power lies in its independence and the quality of that expertise and experience. Crucially, the NETC will identify what needs to change and map the planning, costing and implementation steps required to make reforms impactful and sustainable at scale.
Its work begins with four assignments central to the challenges facing our schools:
1. Strengthening foundational learning
Too many children reach Grade 4 unable to read for meaning or apply basic maths. Without these skills, they struggle in every subject.
The NETC will advise on a minimum integrated package of support for all schools offering grades R to 3 — covering essential learning materials, effective teacher training, sufficient time for reading and maths, and early assessments with targeted interventions.
2. Reforming the school resourcing model
For more than two decades, the quintile system has guided funding. While it has channelled resources toward poorer schools, it is blunt and outdated. Too many schools are misclassified, receiving too little or too much support.
Beyond this, we must:
- Ensure fairer teacher distribution to reduce class sizes where it matters most;
- Address subject and language scarcities;
- Improve timely provision of learning resources;
- Tackle infrastructure backlogs; and
- Link resources more directly to outcomes.
3. Reviewing existing assessment, progression and promotion policies across all grades
Public debate has been clouded by myths about a “30% pass mark”. What matters is whether current policies governing movement from one grade to the next prepare learners for success after school.
The NETC will analyse whether current policies strike the right balance between holding standards high and creating realistic pathways, while improving public understanding.
4. Reducing the administrative burden on educators
Teachers are the backbone of our system, yet their energy is often consumed by non-instructional admin.
The NETC will propose practical ways to cut duplicative reporting, expand the use of assistants and harness technology to make accountability smarter. Respecting teachers means protecting teaching time.
The NETC’s agenda is ambitious but practical. Each priority responds to frustrations voiced by the sector, builds on international best practice and is designed to move us closer to a system that values outcomes over compliance, teachers over paperwork, and learners over ideology.
The NETC is not a “talk shop”. Its recommendations will feed directly into the policymaking processes that I lead with the Department of Basic Education and supplement the work of existing statutory bodies such as the Council of Education Ministers and the Head of Education Departments Committee.
As minister, I see my role as a convener of expertise and a steward of evidence, planning and delivery. Good ideas do not belong to the government alone. They emerge from research institutions, teacher unions, governing body associations, civil society and classrooms across South Africa. Our task is to listen, weigh evidence with humility and act decisively.
This work is not easy. It will test our resolve and demand collaboration across the sector. But with evidence as our compass, the Cabinet’s support for this step and the wisdom of the NETC to guide us, we can deliver a fairer and more resilient education system in which every child has a genuine chance at success.
The task is urgent, the stakes are high, and the time for action is now. DM