Basic Education Director-General, Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli, called upon provincial officials and school principals to strengthen a culture of reading when he visited the Eastern Cape and Limpopo Provinces during 28 to 31 January 2019, to ensure the effective functionality of schools.

Mr Mweli was impressed with the collective efforts invested by officials in both provinces in transforming the landscape of education. He applauded the Eastern Cape Province for having achieved a 5.6% improvement rate in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examinations and urged school principals to provide adequate support to progressed learners to achieve more bachelor passes and distinctions during 2019.   

Mr Mweli encouraged education stakeholders to work towards attaining the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP), which mandates the sector to ensure that by 2030, 90% of learners in the General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET) bands are eligible to perform at 50% and above, in both Languages and main stream subjects. 

Mr Mweli explained that the provincial meetings presented education officials with an opportunity to zoom into various critical areas that needed to be prioritised in turning the sector around. These include the following: “the prioritising and strengthening of reading across the curriculum; the improvement of learner performance in the GET band; the promotion of technical subjects; ensuring that technical schools are fully resourced and supported to deliver quality education; and the strengthening of quality assessments and School Based Assessments.