The Department of Basic Education’s Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, warmly welcomed learners back to school this week, after their winter school holidays, which ended on 21 July 2025.  

DG Mweli, accompanied by provincial and district officials, recently visited several schools across the Eastern Cape Province to keep provincial intervention to schools aligned with the national intervention strategies aimed at improving quality learning outcomes. The improvement of quality learning outcomes in the General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET) bands are amongst the top priorities of the 7th Administration, under the Government of National Unity (GNU). The DG’s school visits and provincial engagements with key senior education officials promote uniformity in terms of learner support programmes across all nine provinces. Issues that were discussed during the engagement focused on improving learning outcomes from Grades R to 12.

During his meeting with education district officials in the Sarah Baartman, Amathole West and OR Tambo Education Districts, DG Mweli said that the Eastern Cape Province was on track in terms of supporting schools. He, however, encouraged education districts to remain hands-on in ensuring that schools are adequately supported to promote participation and success rates in Mathematics and Physical Sciences subjects. “We need to concentrate more on improving quality results for our learners to participate in the global economy. During the meeting, it was clear that education districts needed to work harder to increase learner enrolment in Technology, Technical and BCM subjects. All districts are showing signs of improvement and we are hopeful that they will achieve excellent results this year. As part of our discussion, it was also clear that Grades R to 9 require thorough intervention. As such, the DBE and the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) will work closely to ensure that the process of ECD institutionalization is accelerated,” DG Mweli said.