Godwin Khoza taking a stand for education in South Africa – a giant leap is needed

The state of the South African education system has been in stark light of late, especially given the World Economic Forum's report placing South Africa at the very bottom of the rank in education. It is well accepted that education is the foundation of success in any nation, and it is clear that there is an urgent imperative for South Africa and its citizens to act swiftly. A group of active citizens doing just that are led by Godwin Khoza at the The National Education Collaboration Trust. Godwin Khoza and his team have a strategy and focus to ensure that the giant leap that is required in the country's education system is achieved. It really does seem that despite all of the gloom, there is a silver-lining. -LF

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:   The National Education Collaboration Trust strengthens partnerships between government, business, and civil society, to achieve the education goals of the National Development Plan. Godwin Khoza, Chief Executive of the National Education Collaboration Trust joins us now for more. As you could tell, Alec sings your praises. Perhaps you could provide a little bit more perspective on the organisation and its objectives. I understand you took office in January this year. The plan that you've outlined so far: how is it going?

GODWIN KHOZA: Well, it's going well. We've made quite considerable progress. Just to put the whole story in context, I've been helping to set up the Trust before I actually took up office, so we've been working since July 2013. My count at the end of April…we're about 1563 warm bodies in between eight districts, some 4362 schools in five provinces, and doing work in the inner city. We're doing well.

ALEC HOGG: Why I like this Gugu, is it's a collaborative unit. It's our future in this country. We've just been talking to Gerhard Papenfus about people talking past each other. In education, and certainly what you're heading – your organisation – for once we're all pulling in the same direction. We did this in the '95 World Cup Rugby and we did this for the FIFA World Cup. If we do it on education, can we lose?

GODWIN KHOZA: Losing is not an option. In fact, we did this between 1990 and about 1994/1996 when everybody thought we have to bring back the teachers' and the kids' focus to education, because all this time they were focusing on bringing down Apartheid, so we did that. We had the National Education Crisis Committee. Communities were organising themselves into committees and bringing everybody together to bring everybody back to education. We had a giant leap. We need another one. We need another one and we're going to achieve it.

ALEC HOGG: With people like Sizwe Nxasana involved here – and it was interesting to hear, in the Budget Speech – Pravin Gordhan rates this so highly that he made specific mention of the National Education Collaboration Trust. He mentioned Sizwe, you'll remember as well. He's obviously a figurehead. He's a very smart guy. Have you managed to get other business leaders or other private sector people behind you to push your wagon?

GODWIN KHOZA: Yes, absolutely. In fact, with Sizwe, we got more than his smart brain. I think we got his heart and the hearts of a few other people who sit on the Trust and support the Trust. I think I'm in the right place. Mark Lamberti is part of the Trust. Futhi Mtoba and a few other business people, but they come from the BLSA, and they come with a BLSA mandate. What makes the Trust even stronger is the fact that the Minister of Basic Education and her DG too; they sit on the Trust, including two representatives of two separate unions and a civil society representative. It's a powerful space that we need to use to drive education. Partly through some technical interventions, which we'll do through government as well as loan technical interventions such as creating space for dialogue, getting the different parties to talk to each other, fostering the common vision, and in fact, getting people to continue talking about the vision of the National Development Plan put across.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:  Unfortunately, there's a negative reputation, which precedes South Africa's education system as well. We saw that recently in the WEF report as well. That noise: does it not distract you and your organisation, by any chance?

GODWIN KHOZA: Excuse me. Which noise?

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:  The noise regarding the WEF report regarding South Africa's education system.

ALEC HOGG: But it's good because it shows where we are, don't you think? It's motivating.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:  Exactly.

GODWIN KHOZA: That's our reason for existence. If that noise wasn't there, if the concern wasn't there, then we could be doing other things in society. Because there's a need, we've come together to address that. I think we need to go beyond the noise and work towards finding solutions. We spend a considerable amount of time in this country, just complaining about the status quo. It was up to 2012, when we got some key people from society and said 'enough is enough. We know about the gaps. Can we now start looking for solutions', and this is an avenue for us to work together to look for solutions.

ALEC HOGG: Yes, it was brutal. The NDP is brutal on education. We've been so honest in this country – sometimes a bit too honest. Moving on to what the Trust does on a day-to-day basis, what are your interventions and how can active citizens get involved?

GODWIN KHOZA: We first reviewed the kind of partnership work that has happened in the past 20 years, we identified the gaps, and we're trying to avoid those. One way of avoiding those gaps is to carefully choose areas where we intervene and properly program those areas, so we're going to have to measure what interventions we're making, what they will cost, and what kind of expertise we require. Go out in the market, and find the best people to do those things. My job is not to deliver these things. My job is to make these choices, to run processes that look for the best expertise in the country, commission them to those specific places and spaces, to plug the holes and fix things, and to improve the quality of education. I'll give you an example. In the six districts where we have people already, we've appointed three lead agencies.

One of those is a big consulting firm – Deloitte, which we've given the responsibility to work with the district, to plan in detail, and to coordinate the work of other NGO's that work there. The second one is consortium of NGO's, which we've taken to the Eastern Cape. The third is a consortium of key people who have come together to form an NGO, so we've looked for the best capacity and we're doing the designs with them. We've given them the tasks, clearly defined, clearly measured, and resourced, and our job will be to monitor, and to make sure that these things happen properly.

ALEC HOGG: Great projects.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:  Well, we certainly wish you all the best in your endeavours, and we'll be following up and being active citizens in that initiative.

GODWIN KHOZA: Should I just pass a parting shot? We're in the second dialogue of key players in education representing a cross-section of South Africans next week, on Friday. This is our second dialogue. We continue to talk about the vision that the NDP has given to the education sector and we continue to talk about how we take that forward.

ALEC HOGG: Godwin, more strength to you and may the good Lord give you all the courage to overcome this huge task that we have in our country. It is where the future lies. We educate. An educated nation is a winning nation. That was Godwin Khoza, the CEO of the National Education Collaboration Trust.