Basic Education Minister, Mrs Angie Motshekga, accompanied by the Director-General (DG) for Basic Education, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, undertook an oversight visit to the North West Province Department of Education and Sport Development to meet with District Directors, Circuit Managers, Subject Advisors and School Principals at Mmabatho Convention Centre in Mahikeng on 30 August 2016.
These provincial visits are aimed at empowering the Provincial Education Departments to promote quality and efficiency within the schooling system. The Minister also sought to promote uniformity in the sector whilst ensuring that provinces worked towards common goals as stipulated in the Action Plan to 2019 Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2030, which is also aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP).
The Minister also used the visit as an opportunity to monitor and evaluate the state of the Province’s readiness for the end of year examinations; and discuss the monitoring of learner performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, the availability of Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM), as well as the status of the National School Nutrition Programme.
The Province presented a report to the Minister which included learner enrolment, infrastructure improvement and the merger of small schools. The report also shared best practice in various areas of schooling, including performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, learner attainment and quality learning and teaching.
The DG applauded Provincial Officials for their sterling work in supporting progressed learners and further appealed to them to improve the National Senior Certificate results again this year. However, Mr Mweli said that the Province still needed to work hard to address factors around curriculum coverage as well as learner dropout and repetition rates in order to achieve quality and efficiency in schools.
The Minister congratulated the Province for having received an unqualified audit for four consecutive years and challenged them to work towards a clean audit. Minister Motshekga thanked the Principals for their hard work in turning schools into centres of excellence and indicated that the sector was doing well in terms of access, equity and redress. However, the Minister indicated that the sector still needed to improve efficiency and quality outcomes. Minister Motshekga promised the Principals that the Department will continue to strengthen LTSM in order to ensure that every child had a textbook for every subject.
The MEC for Education and Sport Development for the North West Province, Mr Sello Lehari, thanked the Minister for having visited the Province, saying that they would continue to collaborate with the DBE in improving quality education.