Report
of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on oversight visits to the
The Portfolio Committee on Basic
Education, having undertaken oversight visits to the
1. Introduction
1.1 A multi-party delegation of the
Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and the Select Committee on Education
and Recreation conducted oversight visits as follows:
1.1.1
On Wednesday, 26 January 2011 the delegation visited
the region of Ntabankulu, in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality, Eastern
Cape. The Committee held meetings as follows:
o
Ntabankulu Circuit Office – Meeting with Members of
the Provincial Legislature and officials of the National Department, Provincial
Department and the Provincial Legislature.
o
o
Ntabankulu Senior Secondary – Meeting with relevant
stakeholders, educators, the school governing body and parents.
1.1.2
On Thursday, 27 January 2011, the delegation visited the
region of Bergville, in the Uthukela District, KwaZulu-Natal. The Committee
held meetings as follows:
o
o
1.2
In the spirit of co-operation the Committee had
invited officials from the Ministry and Department of Basic Education to form
part of the overall delegation on the oversight visits.
1.3
The purpose of the oversight visits was to assess the
state of readiness of schools in these regions and the impact the extreme
weather has had on them. There was an additional need to give support to the
provincial departments of education in identifying the challenges and assisting
in finding effective solutions to many of the challenges being faced. The
visits formed part of the Committee’s oversight responsibility to monitor and
support progress in the implementation of education priorities, more
specifically the expectation pronounced during the 2010 State of the Nation
Address, for both learners and educators to be in school, in class, on time,
learning and teaching seven hours a day. The Committee also aimed to assess
school readiness in terms of the level of delivery of learner and teacher
support material (LTSM), specifically workbooks to Quintile 1 and 2 schools as
a key government initiative identified to improve the quality of schooling.
1.4 The visits coincided with the oversight
programme of the provincial legislatures who were conducting oversight visits
at selected schools in both provinces since the commencement of the school
year. In an effort to accommodate our delegation, it was agreed that the
Committee would join the provincial committees in the
1.5 This report provides a summary of the
key issues that emerged from the interaction with stakeholders, officials of the
National Department, provincial departments as well as the committee’s
deliberations, observations and recommendations.
2. Delegations
2.1
Portfolio
Committee on Basic Education: Hon H H Malgas, MP (ANC)
(Chairperson), Hon N Gina MP (ANC) (Whip), Hon Z S Makhubele MP (ANC), Hon A
Mda MP (Cope) and Hon N M Kganyago MP (UDM).
2.2
Select
Committee on Education and Recreation: Hon R N Rasmeni MP (ANC –
2.3
Portfolio
Committees on Education:
2.3.1
Eastern
2.3.2
2.4
Provincial
Departments of Education:
2.4.1
2.4.2
2.5
Ministry of
Basic Education: Mr R Van den Heever, Parliament Liaison Officer.
2.6
National
Department of Basic Education: Mr M Dintsi: Deputy Director, Physical
Planning and Mr M Tshitema: Deputy Director, Quality Improvement and
Development Support.
2.7
Parliamentary
Staff: Mr M Dlanga (Committee Secretary: Select Committee on Education and
Recreation), Mr L Brown (Committee Secretary: Portfolio Committee on Basic
Education), Mr D Bandi (Content Advisor), Mr L Mahada (Parliamentary
Researcher) and Ms O Siebritz (Committee Assistant).
4. Engagements
at the Ntabankulu Circuit Office,
4.1
The delegation was warmly welcomed by Hon M Mrara,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Eastern Cape Provincial
Legislature. He explained that although the Committee had requested to meet the
full provincial committee, this was not possible due to the provincial
committee programme of visiting schools during this time. This meant that all
Members of the Provincial Legislature were site visiting various schools in the
seven Districts identified as part of their oversight and monitoring responsibilities.
The Chairperson suggested that the Committee link up with his team in
Ntabankulu and form part of their programme for the day.
4.2
Challenges
Hon Mrara
drew the Committees’ attention to the challenges faced in the region as
follows:
4.2.1
Prior to these visits there had been numerous visits
by a range of stakeholders, politicians and officials from various organisations
over the past few years. Unfortunately during these visits, many commitments
were undertaken by these groups - commitments that, to date had not been met. A
major challenge was how to manage the process of commitments made when dealing
with the numerous challenges.
4.2.2
During the December 2010 period, there had been
changes in the appointment of a new Head of Department and MEC for Education. Since
schools reopened on 19 January 2011 there was very little time for the new
incumbents to be properly inducted into their positions. This led to a host of
meetings during the December 2010 – January 2011 period on the issue of the
readiness of schools for 2011 and how best to move forward. These meetings
helped in establishing a sense of clarity and direction for the coming new
school year.
4.2.3
Financial and budgetary constraints saw the province
exhaust the approximate R24 billion budget allocation. Due to accruals and
maladministration the province was faced with an over-expenditure of around
R1.6 billion in the 2010/11 financial year.
4.2.4
School Nutrition Programme – this has been suspended
due to mismanagement of funds.
4.2.5
Scholar Transport – With the exception of the farm
schools this has been suspended. Although at least R300 million was budgeted
for, this project was also affected by mismanagement and corruption. With investigations
underway, individuals had already been suspended.
The
provincial department was faced with a dilemma and needed to make hard choices
as many of the service providers were owed by the department. It was necessary
to start afresh to prevent a repetition of previous problems.
4.2.6 The province had to suspend at least 3 000
temporary teachers in its employ. With many schools employing as many as 50
percent temporary teachers, this meant that some schools would cease to
function when the suspension was implemented. There was a need for the Province
to re-instate these temporary teachers.
4.2.7 There was also an urgent need to address
the issue of foreign teachers in the employ of the Provincial Department vs.
temporary and unemployed teachers, a matter that was creating considerable tension.
4.2.8 Administration was generally corrupt and
needed to be overhauled. According to Hon Mrara, there were allegations that syndicates
operated with the assistance of government officials to acquire tenders to
provide services. Tenders for the distribution of learner and teacher support material
had been cancelled due to alleged fraud in the tendering processes. This had
left at least 1 100 schools without the necessary stationary and workbooks. The
province had resolved to piggy-back on the Limpopo and
4.2.9 Learners experienced many challenges gaining
acceptance into Higher Education Institutions (HEI) which was exacerbated by
the points system for admission. It was disappointing that the Further
Education and Training (FET) Sector in the province was becoming less effective,
experiencing inter alia a current low enrolment of 14 000 students, which was
way below the set target of 80 000 for 2014.
Overall, the
Province was not ready for the opening of schools for 2011 for a variety of
reasons. Schools, however, would have most probably been ready if not for the
above-mentioned challenges.
Due to time
constraints the meeting resolved to move on to the stakeholder meeting and
reconvene at a later stage to follow-up and seeks a way forward.
5. Stakeholder
Meeting at the
5.1
The meeting was officially opened by Hon Mrara, Chairperson
of the Portfolio Committee on Education in the Eastern Cape Legislature. The
purpose of the meeting was to ascertain the challenges faced by the schools in Ntabankulu
and the surrounding areas; key to which is the readiness for the opening of the
schools, the availability of scholar transport and the delivery of Learner Support
Material.
5.2
Challenges
The
following are the challenges that were raised by the principals of various
schools in the Ntabankulu area:
5.2.1 Most
schools lacked adequate infrastructure such as buildings, laboratories, libraries and computer classrooms. Some schools
had visible cracks, which posed a
danger to both learners and educators.
5.2.2
There was a view that primary schools were given
priority over high schools which had been neglected.
5.2.3 The funds allocated to schools were
received late. This disrupted the planning programmes of the schools. Some
schools had backlogs that date back to 2008.
5.2.4 There were schools with temporary teachers who
were on suspension. The view was that whilst the department was conducting the
audit on teachers, temporary teachers should be allowed to teach until the
investigation had been completed.
5.2.5 The Provincial Department of Education had
suspended the School Nutrition Programme until further notice. The schools were
of the view that there was no valid reason for the suspension. The alleged
corrupt activities that led to the suspension of the school nutrition programme
had to be investigated - but not at the learners’ expense.
5.2.6 The status of access roads and bridges that
linked schools and the communities were in a neglected state. This caused
learner absenteeism during the rainy season.
5.2.7 The Ntabankulu area fell under the Lusikisiki
District. There was a need to revisit the demarcation of the area and consider
integrating the Ntabankulu Circuit into the Mt Frere District.
5.2.8 The majority of schools were neither fenced
nor electrified. Members of the community acted as security guards due to the
number of burglaries experienced by the schools in the past.
5.2.9 There was insufficient non-teaching staff
such as clerks and administrators. Educators were sometimes performing administrative
duties which infringe on their teaching time.
5.2.10
5.2.11 The schools did not have access to the basic
necessities such as clean water and proper ablution facilities. The
infrastructure projects were sometimes abandoned without being completed due to
alleged corruption in the tendering process.
5.2.12 The furniture provided to schools was substandard,
breaking within months of being procured by the schools. The quality of the
furniture which includes desks and tables should be investigated.
5.2.13 Although some schools had received learner support
materials, many were still waiting for their delivery.
5.3
Responses to the challenges
Members of Parliament, Members of
the Provincial Legislature and Officials from the National Department of Basic
Education deliberated on the engagement with the stakeholders and responded as
follows:
5.3.1 It was
acknowledged that the Portfolio Committee on Education in the Eastern Cape
Legislature visited
5.3.2 The list of schools that were scheduled to
be constructed included those that was abandoned before completion as well as
those affected by disasters.
5.3.3 The National Department of Basic Education
had developed a programme that sought to eradicate mud schools. The challenge was
also the prefabricated structures constructed before 1994 that had subsequently
collapsed. The Portfolio Committee in the Province had requested that the National
Department intervened in this regard.
5.3.4 Schools Nutrition Programme: there were
schools that had to benefit from the programme but were not receiving it currently.
An amount of approximately R7 million was allocated to this programme in the
5.3.5 Scholar
Transport: this programme had been affected by corruption. At
5.3.6 Substandard
school Furniture: the Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges had
since been mandated to assist with providing furniture that was supplied to
schools. However, only three Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges were
capable to provide this service in the province.
5.3.7 Temporary
Teachers: statistics from the department indicated that there were approximately 3 000 ghost teachers on the
payroll of the Department. After the department
had conducted its own audit it was discovered that only 3 000 temporary teachers were in the system.
5.3.8 Re-opening
of Colleges of Education: the Portfolio Committee in the Province had been lobbying
for the re-opening of the Colleges of Education. It was noted that this had become a competency of the Department of
Higher Education and Training.
5.3.9 Integration
of Ntabankulu Circuit into Mt Frere: this process was under discussion at a
political level. There was a process of re-alignment of districts underway. The
department had been assigned the task of creating an organogram in line with
the re-alignment.
5.3.10 Vandalism
in schools: Communities had a responsibility of looking after their schools. This responsibility included
looking after the infrastructure of the schools
and ensuring that schools were not vandalised.
5.3.11 Employment
of clerks and security guards at schools: schools did fill vacancies of non-teaching staff; however,
there was a moratorium on the filling of vacant posts. This moratorium also included
the employment of security guards.
5.3.12 Access
roads: the District would take up this matter with the Executive Mayor of
the area.
5.3.13 Curriculum: the District only
implemented the curriculum and did not have the power to change it. The District
would further strengthen the training of teachers on the curriculum. The
department had acknowledged that there were challenges with regard to the
understanding of the curriculum by educators in some schools. Curriculum Advisors
were sent to support schools. At some schools they were denied access by the unions.
The Minister had issued a statement on re-packaging the curriculum and the
department was in the process of preparing Intermediate Phase teachers for the
implementation of the curriculum in 2012.
6. Engagement at Ntabankulu Senior
Secondary, Ntabankulu
6.1
This school was situated in the small town of
6.2
School Nutrition Programme and Learner Support Material:
learners benefited from the programme. The learner support material including
textbooks were delivered to the school the week before. It transpired during
the engagements that besides minor challenges the school was ready for opening.
6.3
Challenges
The
following were highlighted as challenges:
6.3.1
There was a lack of proper infrastructure such as libraries
and laboratories.
6.3.2
Insufficient number of classrooms.
6.3.3
No proper ablution facilities.
6.3.4
The school had two temporary teachers. They have since
been suspended due to the current moratorium on the employment of temporary
teachers.
6.3.5
Some of the classrooms had leaking roofs.
6.4 Responses to the challenges
Members of
Parliament, Members of the Provincial Legislature and Officials from the
National Department of Basic Education deliberated on the engagements and
responded as follows:
6.4.1
The district office was aware of the challenges at
6.4.2
6.4.3
The responsibility to build schools resided with Provinces.
The National Department assisted only where there was a need. The funds
allocated to schools had to be used for their intended purposes. According to
the statistics of the Department of Basic Education the
6.4.4
An amount of approximately R238, 000 had been
allocated to the school. The school paid for services that it did not benefit
from, an example being the refuse that the municipality did not collect but which
the school was billed for.
6.4.5
The schools used its paper budget to pay for services,
maintenance and individuals who were protecting the school premises.
Major Concern of the Delegation
The ongoing
education crisis in the
7. Engagement at
7.1
This is one of the schools that had been affected by
the storms and floods in
7.2
Challenges
The
following were the challenges that the delegation discovered:
7.2.1
The access road and bridge that link the school with
the village was in a bad state making it impossible to get to the school during
the rainy season.
7.2.2
Learners sometimes missed classes when it rained to
avoid being swept away by the rivers when trying to cross them to get to school.
7.2.3
The roof was not properly fixed since the school was
hit by a storm in 2010.
7.2.4
The school still needed to receive the learner workbooks
although the stationery and the textbooks had been delivered.
7.2.5
The school did not benefit from the School Nutrition Programme
or the Scholar Transport Programme.
7.2.6
There were no proper ablution facilities.
7.3 The Committee learned during the
discussion that the school was on the list of those that had been identified
for renovation with the contractor already having been appointed to begin work.
The whole district was faced with the lack of ablution facilities and access to
clean water.
8. Engagement at
8.1 Challenges
The
following were the challenges facing
8.1.1 The school was situated on a hill and had
been badly affected by storms every year. The School Governing Body proposed
that the school be moved from the current location to prevent it from being
exposed to the storm. The incidents of storm damage to the buildings had been
reported to the department in good time and the relevant data was then
captured; however, the response rate was slow. There was a move to try and
build overlapping walls and re-roof the entire classroom to counter the strong
winds. Although steel structures had been added,
they were still affected by the wind. When it rained all classes leaked and
water ran down the inside walls housing electrical sockets, posing the danger
of electrical fires. As a result of the damp walls, there was no way of posting
educational materials on the walls.
8.1.2 The school was also in need of an administrative
block – currently a classroom had been converted into an administrative office.
8.1.3 It was also reported that a learner died at
the school due to strong wind causing a structural beam to collapse on him.
8.1.4 The school did not benefit from the Scholar
Transport Programme.
8.1.5 The Learner Support Material had not been
delivered yet; however, the school had used its allocated budget to procure
study material whilst still awaiting a delivery
from the Department.
8.1.6 The delegation was concerned that although
the workbooks were delivered on the
day the committee visited the school, only the literacy workbooks had been received. The numeracy workbooks
crucial to the improvement of numeracy skills
had still not been delivered.
8.2
Responses to the challenges
8.2.1
Mr Lancaster indicated that the challenge of meeting
the infrastructure needs of schools outstripped the allocated budget. Due to
budgetary constraints, the province had to cut back and put on hold all
projects which had not yet commenced. He agreed that the school buildings were
old and experienced regular storm damage. Despite this, the buildings seemed to
be in good condition due to the efforts of the school governing bodies and
community.
8.2.2
The District needed to make a submission to the
directorate responsible for infrastructure in the Province. The
9. Recommendations
The
Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, having conducted the oversight visits
to the
recommends
the following:
9.1
National
Department of Basic Education
9.1.1
There is a need to ensure that the review of the
quintile system that is in process eliminates inconsistencies in the current
classification of schools.
9.1.2
The Department of Basic Education should submit time
frames to the Committee of its strategy to eradicate mud schools.
9.2
Departments
of Education (National and Provincial)
9.2.1
There is a need to strengthen Inter-Governmental
Relations in order to facilitate effective service delivery particularly in
services that cut across jurisdictional boundaries. This included the need for
schools to improve relations with municipalities and make inputs on their
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) in order to ensure that municipal services are
provided to schools.
9.2.2
There is a need to ensure that outstanding Learner
Support Material, including workbooks are delivered to schools as a matter of
urgency in order to facilitate effective learning and teaching. In future the
Department should ensure that all learner support material is delivered to
school on the first day of schools’ reopening.
9.2.3
The Department should monitor schools to ensure that
they use allocated funds for intended purposes.
9.3
9.3.1 There is a need for an urgent national
intervention to address administrative and
financial challenges facing the
province which seriously undermines teaching and learning in the already
struggling education system to ensure the following:
9.3.1.1 The Eastern
Cape Department of Education should lift the suspension of temporary teachers
and re-instate them as a matter of urgency as their absence poses serious
challenges to teaching and learning.
9.3.1.2 The School
Nutrition Programme and the Scholar Transport Programme should be re-introduced
as a matter of urgency to all the learners who qualify.
9.3.2
The Eastern Cape Department of Education should submit
reports to the Committee on the findings of the investigations of the
mismanagement of funds of the School Nutrition Programme and the Learner
Transport Programme, including the manner in which the Department will address
the recommendations made in the reports.
9.3.3
The Committee would follow-up on reasons for delays of
the responses from the disaster fund.
9.3.4
The Department of Higher Education and Training should
consider re-opening Teacher Training colleges.
9.3.5
The schools around the Ntabankulu area should be
integrated into the Mt Frere District to avoid school personnel traveling to
the district office which is located at Lusikisiki, a distance of approximately
180 kilometers from Ntabankulu.
9.4
The National
Department should monitor the implementation of the following:
9.4.1
Access roads and bridges that would allow learners and
teachers to reach schools timeously during the rainy period.
9.4.2
Schools that were hit by flood damage to be renovated
by the Province immediately.
9.4.3
Learner and Teacher Support Material to be delivered.
9.4.4
The National Department had developed a programme to
eradicate mud schools. The programme started in the
The
Committee requests that the Department submits, in writing, an update on
progress in respect of all recommendations made within 10 days of the
Department receiving the report.
10. Appreciation
The
delegation, led by Hon H Malgas MP and Hon R N Rasmeni MP, thanked the Members
of the Provincial Legislatures, Provincial Departments of Education and the National
Department of Basic Education for the support given during the oversight visit.
Although the visit was arranged at very short notice, the legislatures were
able to accommodate our delegation and this proved successful.
Report to be considered.