2 March 2009
Earlier this year, during education Minister Naledi Pandor's visit to
Mbizana, as part of our back to school campaign, the Minister and Eastern Cape
Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase agreed that the dire situation in some of our
schools and continued under achievement required concerted and joint effort in
order to turn the situation around. They both acknowledged the significance of
the Premier's turn around plan introduced last year that is focusing on learner
attainment improvement strategy, infrastructure delivery, timeous delivery of
Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) and School Nutrition Programme.
Subsequent to the Mbizana ministerial visit, a follow up meeting was held on
the 24 January 2009, at the Esselen Park Convention Centre. The meeting was
attended by the Premier, the Minister, MEC, the Eastern Cape Provincial
Director-General, Director-General of the Department of Education and Acting
Superintendent General of Education in the Eastern Cape.
At this meeting an agreement was reached on the draft implementation
protocol on the provision of administrative support to the Eastern Cape
Department of Education with the national Department of Education. The purpose
of the protocol is as follows:
* To support the implementation of the provincial plan by identifying and
agreeing upon areas of support to the Provincial Department of Education and to
schools that underperformed in the 2008 National Senior Certificate (NSC)
examinations and take steps to address these in a co-operative manner.
* To identify the roles and responsibilities of the various authorities in
regard to improving the administrative and management effectiveness of the
Eastern Cape Department of Education.
The focus area, actions and desired outcomes of the protocol includes
amongst others the following:
* To ensure that quality education is provided by all schools in the province,
and that the ECDoE is properly organised and resourced to sustain an enhanced
level of performance. This will be achieved by providing support to the
turnaround strategy of the ECDoE.
* The department shall nominate a senior official as a representative to serve
on the provincial "Overarching Task Team" established to monitor performance by
the departments.
* An overall project head shall be appointed in the office of the
Superintendent General, who shall take responsibility for managing the
provisions of the protocol and reporting to the parties on its
implementation.
* Project managers shall be appointed to manage each of the five aspects of the
provincial turn around plan, and they will report to the oversight committee on
their areas of responsibility. Project managers may be drawn from either of the
two departments, or other government departments. Persons from outside
government may also be appointed as and when required.
* Project managers shall be provided with necessary human and other resources
to be able to constitute a project team, which will intervene directly in their
area of responsibility, as well as ensure that sufficient capacity is built to
sustain the higher level of performance.
The five identified areas by the province for immediate attention are:
* financial management, including procurement and supply chain management
* human resources management, including a review and adjustment of the
organogram, the filling of management posts, and the strengthening of
management and leadership at provincial head office, districts and school
level
* implementing the performance management and development system
* school functionality issues, including resources provisioning and their
improvement of under performing schools
* management post provisioning issues, including the declaration of a post
basket, and the filling of teaching posts.
The desired outcomes of the protocol is to provide quality education for all,
and to secure the necessary administrative and management conditions for this,
by providing support in the identified areas.
It is worth noting that the protocol was agreed upon as a result of the
MEC's request for assistance. Today the MEC welcomed two officials from the
National Department of Education who were introduced by the Director General,
Mr Duncan Hindle at a meeting with the Eastern Cape Top Management. These
officials are Mr Martin Mulcahy and Mr Sihle Mlambo who will conduct an
analysis and evaluation of the education system. After two weeks a detailed
report will be presented to the Minister and MEC detailing the extent of
support required in line with the needs identified by the Eastern Cape
Department of Education.
Enquiries:
Loyiso Pulumani
Media Liaison Officer
Tel: 040 608 4797
Cell: 083 275 0675
Fax: 086 514 9815
Issued by: Department of Education, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
2 March 2009
