“The annual provincial online engagements set a clear course for the new academic year as a highly valued, information-rich platform,” were the sentiments shared by the provinces that have been part of the engagements, which commenced on 27 January 2026, with the Northern Cape Province.
Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, has been continuing his annual virtual engagements with provincial and district officials, and school principals to ensure the system’s readiness for the 2026 academic year. This week, he hosted engagements with the KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga and Free State Provinces, and the last engagement is set for Tuesday, 10 February 2026.
The presentations delivered during the engagements, include a wide range of education topics. The National Assessments and Public Examinations Chief Directorate opens each engagement with a presentation on the tracking and analysis of Grade 12 learner performance, whilst flagging the importance of the Business Intelligence application for further analysis to enable a deep dive into the subject participation and performance of learners across provinces and districts. They also deliver a presentation on the importance of increasing Accommodations and Concessions for early intervention. The DBE team for Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, presents a Thematic Analysis of District Presentations, with a focus on the analysis and monitoring of data sets for improvement in sector priority areas.
An update on key developments in Early Childhood Development (ECD) follows, outlining the 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes for universal quality access, along with a focus on the Early Learning Index 2024 findings for the various provinces. On Foundational Learning (Language and Literacy), the South African National Literacy Strategy and Plan: 2024-2030 outlines key language interventions and support programmes, along with the new National Home Language Reading Programme (NHLRP) to strengthen the teaching and learning of home language reading in the Foundation Phase. In respect of Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum, the Language Across the Curriculum, focusses on Social Sciences. Insights on Foundational Learning for Numeracy are shared, whilst unpacking the National Mathematics Improvement Programme (NMIP). Lessons learned from the 2025 Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) implementation are shared along with demographics, challenges and opportunities for language vitality in each province.
The Teachers, Human Resource and Institutional Development Branch, provides a progress report on the Online Teacher Development Platform (OTDP) as a multi-phase initiative designed to coordinate integrated Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) activities. DBE’s Legal and Legislative Services give a short synopsis on the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act and the drafting of the Regulations, whereafter DBE delivers a presentation on infrastructure. The New Leaders Foundation emphasise the benefits of credible data as part of the Data Driven Districts (DDD). Lastly, but most importantly, the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) shared audit findings and recommendations on the improvement of the system.
DG Mweli hosts two sets of annual engagements annually, with the first phase of the engagements taking place during the beginning of each academic year to implement programmes to improve learning outcomes across provinces. The second phase is hosted during October, ahead of the NSC examinations, and in preparation for the following academic year. The DBE presentations focussed on a wide range of topics.