Pretoria – The Department of Basic Education on Tuesday told Parliament it is making progress towards meeting its objectives in the current financial year.
The core business of the department is to develop curriculum and assessment policies and monitor and support implementation by provinces.
The priorities are aligned to the delivery agreement of outcome 1, which is "improving the quality of basic education and the action plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025”.
Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the first quarterly report, the department said it was monitoring the implementation of the 1+4 intervention model.
It has completed lesson plans for all four terms and has distributed to all provinces. The department has also completed the monitoring instrument that will assist to track progress of the model.
In terms of the replacement of inappropriate schools, in the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI), 116 schools had been completed as at 30 June 2015.
A total of 228 inappropriate schools in the Eastern Cape are affected by rationalisation and mergers and have not been allocated to any implementing agents, said the department.
A total of 439 of 741 schools targeted for sanitation projects have been provided with sanitation facilities, 518 of 1120 schools have been provided with water and 295 of 914 schools have been provided with electricity.
For the period under review, the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) reached 15 232 Quintile 1-3 and 5 116 Quintile 1-3 secondary schools, as well as 262 specials schools in all nine provinces.
“This brings to a total of 9 125 358 learners that benefited from the programme," said the department.
The department is also finalising the draft national policy on HIV, STIs and TB. The policy was gazetted and published on 5 May 2015 for public comments, which closed on 19 June.
A total of 2 497 educators received training on sexual and reproductive health programmes.
The department said the printing of 2016 workbooks commenced in May 2015.
“As of 29 June, 2015 a total number of 23 432 954 Grades 1 to 9 workbooks had been printed which represented 88% of the 26 500 000 volume 1 workbooks.”
The department is also making progress when it comes to the development of state-owned textbooks. The following books have been developed and completed: Grades 4-6 Mathematics textbooks, Grade 10 Technical Mathematics and Grade 10 Technical Science. – SAnews.gov.za
