The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and the Select Committee on Education and Recreation held a very productive and informative two day operational planning workshop at the National Department of Basic Education in Gauteng.
The workshop focused on the updated strategic objectives and targets of the basic education sector up to 2019 and implementation of critical programmes such as infrastructure and teacher supply, utilisation and development. The Committees have taken note of various challenges and improvements that several provinces and the national department have made so far. The issue of the rationalisation of schools, where schools are kept open to accommodate a small amount of learners, was raised by various provinces.
Some provincial departments further indicated that up to 80% of its budget was spent on the compensation of employee. Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Ms Nomalungela Gina, expressed concerns about the issue. “It cannot be right that we are spending the better part of the budget on paying employees. Needless to say, other programmes, like infrastructure, will suffer as the result.”
The workshop was also addressed by Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, who highlighted concerns with schooling in Northern Cape which has been disrupted for months by some community members. According to the Minister, a parent has referred to these disruptors as “Boko Haram” that is holding the kids hostage by not allowing them to go to school over the unhappiness about the lack of a road.
The Committees appealed to the community, parents, and residents to find a peaceful solution and to put education first. “The education of our learners is important and we need to ensure that they can get access to it in keeping with the right to education which is protected by the Constitution. We are especially concerned about the 500 matriculants affected by this as just a few months of schooling are left for them,” Ms Gina said.
The Committees also noted concerns expressed by the Minister regarding the lack of funds to pay teachers in the Eastern Cape. She attributed part of this problem to small schools, where you find 2, 8 or 10 learners or less attend a school and the department must provide educators. There are 191 schools with less than 50 learners. According to policy, schools should have a learner/teacher ratio of 1:35 for secondary schools and 1:40 for primary schools.
The Committees noted that this phenomenon took up extra educators and resources as the National Department of Basic Education now had to ensure that the basic minimum norms and standards were available at those schools with very little learners. Almost all the provinces present lamented budgetary constraints and shortage of funds to implement programmes. This led to huge backlogs on infrastructure. Costing of other programmes had come up continuously as a challenge to reduce the backlog.
Provinces present also indicated their challenges regarding educators’ development and retention. KwaZulu-Natal indicated that the turnover rate of educators in the province exceeded its supply, which led to them having to employ unqualified teachers. This included professionals with tertiary qualifications, but not any education qualifications.
The Northern Cape indicated that they found the resignation of teachers in the scare skills field who later came back as temporary teachers destabilising. They have 188 temporary teachers, way too much for a small province with 9118 educators. Attrition of teachers was also highlighted. The system is losing up to 900 teachers a year and the new Sol Plaatje University’s first intake for teacher education this year was a mere 60.
Limpopo’s education officials indicated that an investigation was currently underway as educators in this province were among the highest paid in the country. The amalgamation of former homelands, where some educators were paid on a much higher notch, can be attributed to this challenge.
The ageing educator workforce featured strongly across all provinces. The Education representative of Mpumalanga indicated that the number of newly qualified teachers recruited was still much less than the needed. Deputy Minister Mr Enver Surty indicated in his address to the workshop that the ministry wanted to leave a legacy of ensuring that every child in every school had access to information and communication technology. “We have to do it in this term of administration. That would be my legacy and the Minister’s.”
The Committee commended the department for the advances made regarding teacher development centres and Information Technology provision to schools.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Ms Rajaa Azzakani
Parliamentary Communication Services
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E-mail: razzakani@parliament.gov.za
