The Portfolio Committee on Education embarked on school visits as of Wednesday, 11 to 20 January 2012. The Committee comprising of Members of Provincial Legislature (MPLs) and Chairpersons of committees shall visit eight schools in Nelson Mandela Metro Cacadu District, Mthatha, Kokstad, Queenstown, Amathole and Aliwal North. Prior to the visits, the Provincial Department of Education appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Education to account on the following aspects:
- Availability of Learner Teacher Support Material
- Educator provisioning
- Status on Infrastructure
- Scholar transport and
- School nutrition.
The school visit programme is conducted annually at the beginning of the year to assess the state of readiness of the Eastern Cape Schools. It is a fact finding mission to validate the accuracy of the reports tabled before the Portfolio Committee and a means to interact with the relevant stakeholders in schools. The findings of the Committee shall be tabled before the House for consideration and the adoption of House Resolutions. In 2011 the Legislature visited 83 schools. It is encouraging to note that all the schools visited recorded an improved pass rate.
Section 114 of the Constitution mandates the Legislature to exercise oversight of the Provincial Executive Council and any provincial organ of state to ensure that the Executive and all organs of state implement their planned programmes and such programmes address the commitments made for this term.
For more information:Bulelwa Ganyaza
Senior Manager: Media Liaison
Cell: 083 514 5526
