On Tuesday, 6 March 2012, Deputy Minister for Department of Basic Education (DBE) Enver Surty visited two primary schools and a high school in the King William’s Town district accompanied by delegates from his office as well as officials from provincial office.
The three schools are Manezi Primary School at Zwelitsha, Bhisho Primary School in Bhisho and Thembalesizwe High School at Ilitha Township.
The visit was about monitoring the functionality of the schools, the challenges they face, and how the Department of Basic Education works with Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) in order to improve the infrastructure of the schools. The Deputy Minister said they have decided to visit the primary schools because they believe that primary schools are the basic foundation of education and it is where education is set.
“Primary schools were previously neglected even though they are the foundation of our education", said Surty. “Part of our visit is to monitor and see if the National Annual Assessment (ANA) programme performance addresses the challenges that teachers encounter,” he added.
Surty said he is aware that South Africa is not doing well in terms of skills that involve mathematics that is why they are concerned with literacy and numeracy in foundation phase. He engaged the principals and school management to give their opinion with regards to quality education and also to find out if the required resources are available. The Deputy Minister did practical observation and went into classrooms and engaged the leaners with question from their workbooks.
Through his observation on the functioning of the school, Surty was impressed with the engagement and participation of leaners. He encouraged the teachers to carry on with the good work they are doing.
“It is encouraging to see the work teachers are doing even under the difficult challenges that they encounter”.
Surty emphasised the importance of introducing the first additional language in the foundation phase, "because global and national official languages assist a person further in life".
“The plan for 2013 is that the curriculum will start from grade-R and flow through to grade 12. We believe that most of the problems in the old curriculum were caused by the lack of flow from level to level. I believe that workbooks should be utilised, and also teachers must be enabled so that effectively deal with the problems learners encounter”.
Surty suggested that parents must be involved and be reminded about their role.
Functional schools with quality education should be given attention. Thembalesizwe High school at Ilitha also had an opportunity to embrace the Deputy Minister's visit, the school was previously one of worst performing schools in terms of grade 12 results. Last year the school achieved 100% pass rate in matric.
Surty was interested to know if the school has received any attention, and assistance from the ECDoE. He was satisfied to learn that construction development is underway at the school.
