As part of the implementation of section 100 (1b) general monitoring by the national Department and Came to the province to oversee progress and also to interact with education stakeholders.
I received reports from the MEC, top management, as well as district officials. The reports were mainly on the following matters: Infrastructure, LTSM ( learning, teaching support material), financial matters, curriculum delivery as well as HR and reporting on progress with regards to the profiling from the Education Collaboration Framework.
The reports received were encouraging especially the one dealing with the delivery of text books in the province. We have thus far received delivery of almost 6 million books and with the assistance of the post office we will conclude the delivery of textbooks by mid-November.
The province continues to make progress in managing its human resources budget which in the main led to the challenges that the province has been facing. Whilst it has made great progress in managing.
We are obviously disappointed with the outcome of the auditor general’s report which gave the province a disclaimer. In my meeting with the auditor general the reason for the disclaimer was mainly due to the inability to resolve issues raised in previous years mainly due to capacity constraints.
We've already started working on issues identified by the auditor general and we are hopeful that by the time we conclude this intervention in the province we will leave the it with a healthy financial report, Infrastructure remains an area of great service challenge and we have requested both the province and the national department to attend to this issue immediately. A team from National office, consisting of built environment experts will also assist with those schools that are completed but still face challenges with forming collaborations with other departments such as The Department of Correctional Services who will assist the department in supplying and refurbishing school furniture infrastructure.
The meeting also reflected on the provinces readiness for the upcoming National Senior Certificate examinations, I remain hopeful that the province will continue with its steady increase in the forthcoming examinations.
We are also ready and excited for the 2014 school year.
For more information please contact :
Troy Martens
Cell: 079 899 3070
