The Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) held recently a workshop aimed at resuscitating the Educational Development Trust (EDT) for the department with various stakeholders at the Education Leadership Institute in East London.
The MEC for Education, Mahlubandile Qwase shared his vision and the strategic imperatives of the department and identified the areas in support of education development. He is of the view that a fully functional EDT responsible for the coordination of donor funding could achieve the long term vision of the Department of Education.
He stressed that the role of the Trust is to look at all the current national education strategies and policies that need to be translated into practical projects. The MEC mentioned that the research findings and surveys conducted by Imbewu Trust were previously not considered for interventions due to the fact that the Trust was not structured according to the mandate of the department. He recommended that the EDT should serve as a point of departure for reviewing policies against the proven real issues.
In her presentation, Judith O’ Connell, National Business Initiative (NBI) Programme Manager in the Western Cape highlighted the importance of working within an agreed policy framework and joint governance structure as the building blocks for a successful public-private partnership.
She stressed the need for the workshop to deliberate on how to ensure the establishment of a fully functional and sustainable board that would strengthen donor funding management and education development in the Department of Education. This will ultimately lead to greater and improved learning outcomes and learner performance in the province.
O’Connell also highlighted examples of the issues that could undermine a successful public–private partnership if not considered upfront.
These include:
- Investing in schools without taking into account whether or not there is capacity to use the equipment in support of teaching and learning
- Making donations of equipment without proper needs assessment
- Providing bursaries on an ad-hoc basis rather than awarding them in support of talent, need, special programmes or helping learners to access higher quality schools
- Engaging schools without establishing a partnership with the Provincial Department through which a programme can be sustained and the value of such a partnership monitored.
She ended her presentation by sharing the three attributes that are necessary for any development to succeed such as ownership, commitment and competence levels of the beneficiaries.
Frank Muller from PricewaterhouseCoopers gave a detailed presentation (1MB) on the King III report that revolves around leadership, sustainability and corporate citizenship. The presentation outlined the ethics, responsibilities and the level of accountability the board should adhere to.
The Chief Financial Officer for Eastern Cape Department of Education, Philiswa Mdikane indicated that the Department has a budget of R22,679 billion in the 2010/11 financial year of which 88% ( R17,372 billion) is allocated to personnel costs. She noted that with the numerous challenges faced by the department there is a need for a focused and coordinated funding strategy in order to harness and channel all available resources towards education priorities.
Mdikane added that the complex procurement processes promote a negative perception to the donors which lead to the break-down of the partnership. "An autonomous body like the EDT would thus be best positioned to deal with procurement processes outside government’s bureaucratic environment," she added.
Ruth Troskie, NBI Project Executive in the province provided an overview of the partnership between Eastern Cape Provincial Government and NBI. She mentioned that the purpose of the partnership is aimed at improving service delivery by providing technical support and coaching/mentoring to senior officials in the Eastern Cape Provincial Government.
Troskie shared the NBI project management model that could offer a solution to the current operational challenges for donor funding management. Hilmi Daniels, internal Auditor of the Eastern Cape EDT briefly provided an overview of the statutory requirements together with the legislative imperatives of the Trust and the changes thereof.
The acting Superintendant General of the Eastern Cape Department of Education, Prof Harry Nengwekhulu shared the governance structure and model used in the Limpopo Province for Education development funding and proposed that this model be customized and adopted for the Eastern Cape.
The purpose of the workshop was to brainstorm and discuss issues pertinent to the establishment of a fully functional, sustainable board to strengthen donor funding management and education development in the Department of Education that will ultimately lead to greatly improved learning outcomes or learner performance in the province.
The role of the donors, trustees, patron and the project manager or administrator to be recruited soon, should be clearly defined to ensure a functional and effective autonomous EDT. Consideration should be given to the requirements of all donors and the lessons learnt from the past.
Source: Eastern Cape Education
