Mr Mathanzima Mweli has, from 20 to 27 September 2024, visited eight districts in the Eastern Cape Province, and will be visiting districts within the KwaZulu-Natal Province this week. “As the DBE, we visited many provinces, districts, circuits and schools as part of our learner support programme. It is our intention as the DBE to visit all provinces ahead of the NSC examinations to ensure monitoring and support”.

DG Mweli explained the nature of his monitoring meetings with districts as follows: “When we meet with districts, we meet with the District Management Team from 06:00 to 07:30. This includes the District Director, Circuit Manager and Curriculum Specialists who present on what they have done in support to schools, and continue to do as the last push until the last learner writes the final paper. Districts report on the performance of each school and circuit as they are at the coalface of performance. The districts are required to prepare presentations on the support to be provided to 2024 Grade 12 learners and what worked in 2023. The presentations also include information on the Performance of the Class of 2023 in gateway subjects; the performance of the Class of 2024 when they were in Grade 11; and the Term 1 and 2 performance per circuit for 2024.

He added that, “after the presentation, we proceed to visit the selected schools. Some districts spread them across the circuits; however, this is not always possible to visit every school due to the vastness of provinces, and a sampling approach is used to identify schools. The majority of provinces have also provided Grade 12 learners with tablets, loaded with relevant material and textbooks. These learners support programmes have also resulted in improved performance of township and rural schools across the country. Programmes and intervals are also varied. We cater for learners who are struggling, average performing learners and high flyers as we need to improve both quantity and quality passes”.

There are three forms of support to schools: learners camps, clustered and standalone schools. The best performing schools usually resort under the latter, whilst struggling schools fall in the category of clustered schools or camps. Throughout his visits to schools, DG Mweli has been advocating the Japanese Kaizen Principle of continued improved performance.