Pretoria – Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Enver Surty, says he is encouraged by the progress made by the Eastern Cape Education Department in providing quality education to learners in the province.
“I am delighted by the enormous progress being made in the Eastern Cape. I am confident that we are beginning to turn this ship around and steer it in the right direction,” said Deputy Minister Surty.
On Friday the Deputy Minister wrapped up a three-day visit to the province, during which he received reports from senior managers as well as MEC Mandla Makupula on a number of challenges faced by the province.
The province presented a comprehensive plan to address concerns around teacher vacancies, drawing on Funza Lushaka bursary graduates as well as B.Ed. graduates.
The department has also managed to place a large number of excess teachers within the system into those existing vacancies.
“The department has identified 6022 additional educators within the system in the Eastern Cape, 2114 of those have already been transferred to substantive vacant posts and the department is currently busy with a person-to-post matching process to alleviate the vacancy rate across the system,” said the department.
The Deputy Minister was also encouraged by the province’s commitment to deal with non-viable or small schools.
The MEC emphasised in his report the importance of the school rationalisation programme.
The province has been holding public meetings with stakeholders in a number of the effected districts and 194 schools have been identified to pilot the provinces school rationalisation programme.
Deputy Minister Surty suggested that an innovative approach was needed to address urbanisation which effected the provision of infrastructure.
The province is reviewing its infrastructure contracts and will enforce compliance by service providers to ensure effective service delivery. The Deputy Minister volunteered his services to assist the province in this endeavour.
The Deputy Minister’s visit also saw him meeting with over 800 principals from two districts.
He explained the plans and priorities of government under the new administration with an emphasis on ensuring quality education for all learners.
He explained the non-negotiables of teaching, such as effective management of the curriculum, continuous teacher development and the use of the newly launched teacher development centres.
“These provincial visits are an important part of the monitoring and oversight role national government needs to play. It is also extremely valuable from the point of interacting with officials at a school level to get a real sense of the situation at schools in the province first hand.”
He said he looked forward to returning to the province to monitor the implementation of decision taken during the visit.
In 2011, national government placed the department under administration following a string of reports pointing to inefficiency and maladministration. – SAnews.gov.za
