Pretoria - A skills development forum is to be created in the Western Cape to ensure that skills development programmes meet the requirements of a growing economy, says Premier Helen Zille.
"Our economy would grow much faster if we had more skilled people. And far more people would get jobs if they had the right skills. This is why we are establishing the Provincial Skills Development Forum in which, through partnerships with other actors in the field, we will design and align skills development programmes to meet the demands of our growing economy," explained Zille.
Tabling the State of the Province Address on Friday, the Premier said the foundation of any skills development programme must be the school system, where children are taught to read, write and calculate. To date provincially 1 222 schools now have access to internet-linked computer centres with 245 schools left to go.
In terms of school infrastructure, ten schools are in various stages of construction with another 15 in the planning phase.
Last year, the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Act was adopted where for the first time principals and deputy principals could be held accountable for their schools' results. Schools that are underperforming will receive intensive support which includes compulsory training for teachers and principals.
Every child in Grades 2 to 7 in the province will have their own maths textbook this year. "We are also the only province to provide reading books for Grades 1 to 6 in the 258 primary schools that serve our poorest communities," she said, adding that last year the budget for text books increased by R101 million.
Turing to health, Premier Zille said 80 percent of the province's health budget was spent on treating conditions that could be prevented if people made different choices about their lives.
The province aims to focus on the "downstream" causes of the burden of disease which include the spread of HIV and TB, domestic violence and road accidents, as well as "lifestyle" diseases caused by smoking, a lack of exercise and poor eating habits.
A second Safely Home Anti-Drunk Driving Operations War Room (or SHADOW centre) in George has been opened with a third in Worcester to be opened soon. The campaign includes testing blood alcohol levels.
The province has also opened two new drug treatment centres - one for youth, and a new school-based outpatient treatment programme in the eastern Metropole. It has also increased the number of centres that is subsidized to provide free treatment to the public from six to 24 in 2011.
"As a result, the number of patients receiving treatment this year has increased by 25 percent from last year (from 3700 to 4400)," Zille explained.
The province is also restructuring the Department of Social Development's services to align with the province's 49 education circuits in order to improve the availability of services to schools.
In the fight against HIV and Aids, the incidence of mother to child transmission has been reduced to 3 percent while between March and December 2010, the province doubled the number of antiretroviral access points from 81 to 162.
In 2010, the number of people receiving ARVs was increased by 24 000 to just over 92 000. A total of 75 million condoms would have been distributed by the end of this financial year.
New clinics are to be built in Kwanokuthula, Malmesbury and Grassy Park while this year the province will complete the Khayelitsha hospital, with the Mitchells Plain hospital due for completion in 2012. "We want to get to a point, eventually, where every person in this province lives in the broad vicinity of a hospital or clinic."
