The DBE's Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, has bemoaned education districts' failure to maintain education excellence from the Foundation Phase up to the Senior Phase and urged them to prioritise learner profiling in their intervention strategies aimed at improving literacy and numeracy in the early grades. Drawing inferences from the data presented by Alfred Nzo West and East Education Districts during his recent visit to the Eastern Cape Province, Director-General Mweli learnt that learning outcomes in the Foundation Phase was astonishingly high but declined in the Intermediate and Senior Phases, especially in Social Sciences; Mathematics; Natural Sciences; and Home Languages.

DG Mweli has continued with his Education District and Learner Support Programme in the Eastern Cape as he is working towards completing his engagement sessions in 75 education districts across the country. DG Mweli's recent series of engagement sessions with key education district officials was conducted in the Alfred Nzo West Education District on 22 July 2026 and the Alfred Nzo East Education District on 23 July 2026. DG Mweli will conduct another series of engagement sessions in the OR Tambo Coastal Education District on 28 July 2026; Chris Hani East Education District on 29 July 2026; and Joe Gqabi Education District on 30 July 2026.

In their response to several issues highlighted during the engagement sessions, including home language decline, education districts indicated that learners were not fully encouraged to speak isiXhosa at home, leading to underperformance in the Home Language at school. They even pinpointed dialects or rather language variations as the contributing factor to a declining school performance in isiXhosa. Furthermore, the education districts flagged an urgent need for the appointment of subject advisors and home language teachers in the Foundation Phase to bolster curriculum coverage in various subjects.

In his reflection, DG Mweli said that the solution to challenges relating to learner performance in home languages could be effectively addressed if home language teachers were adequately empowered. “As a sector, we must ensure that qualified home language teachers are recruited to address learning gaps in isiXhosa. Another aspect that should be considered in improving foundational learning is to encourage schools to become data driven in such a way that each learner from the Foundation Phase up to the Senior Phase is thoroughly profiled to track their academic performance in various subjects. Provisionally, we have learnt that the education districts have been working very hard to improve quality learning outcomes at General Education and Training (GET) level. However, more work still needs to be done to intensify assessment, data capturing and assurance in providing intervention support to schools”.