Pretoria - While acknowledging that there is a lot still needed to be corrected to normalise education delivery in the Eastern Cape, the department seems to be on the right track.
This is according to Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation, Wendy Makgate, who received a progress report on the province's education.
Last year, Cabinet established a task team to take over the administration of the Eastern Cape Education Department, which is facing financial management problems that have crippled the schooling system.
Service delivery areas that were identified include the provision of proper and sustainable learner transport to all learners who qualify; filling of all critical vacant posts for schools of learners with special education needs; implementing reversal of irregular salary increases; filling of substitute posts on time; redeployment of excess teachers to where they were needed most, as well as the merger and closure of schools that were not educationally viable.
During an oversight visit in the province, Makgate and her committee heard that progress had been made in all six identified priority areas.
Among those the learner transport system, which had collapsed before the intervention, was now fully functional and was effectively implemented.
The Committee visited Mzontsundu Secondary School to assess, among other things, learner-teacher support and learner transport.
Today the team will visit the Walter Sisulu University's Potsdam campus.
