Basic Education Minister, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, Deputy Minister, Dr Reginah Mhaule, and Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, briefed the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the highlights of the Department’s Third Quarter Report on 10 March 2026, accompanied by Senior Management Officials.

Minister Gwarube expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to present the performance report for the Third Quarter of the 2025-2026 Financial Year, reflecting the Department's progress in implementing the priorities contained in the Annual Performance Plan (APP) and the Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP), structured across five programmes, covering Administration, Curriculum Support, Teacher Development, Planning and Assessment, and Educational Enrichment Services. “Our goal remains to set meaningful targets for measurable outputs to change our people’s lives on the ground. The report outlines the progress against each of those targets, but we had to adapt some targets in response to budget constraints, whilst ensuring core priorities of the sector are supported,” the Minister added.

Minister Gwarube emphasised: “The Third Quarter coincided with an important period in the Basic Education Sector as the system administered the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, with more than 920,000 candidates writing across 6,800 centres. The central focus of the Department's work continues to strengthen the foundations of learning particularly in the early grades. In this regard, the Department launched the Funda Uphumelele National Survey, which provides important evidence on reading outcomes and supports the targeted interventions identified. The DBE continued with the expansion of the ECD Mass Registration Drive through the Bana Pele Registration initiative. The safety and well-being of our learners remains a key priority for the department, and so we continue to strengthen the South African Police Service and Safe Schools Protocol and our joint efforts in that regard, in that quota, for us to prevent violence, bullying and other safety risks at our schools”.

DG Mweli indicated that preliminary figures will be provided on the number of learners who have enrolled for Mathematics and Physical Science for 2026 as provinces were still registering the information for all subjects via the Education Management Information System (EMIS). He indicated that the Entrepreneurship pilot project has commenced at the General Education and Training (GET) phase and the intention is to continue to the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase.

Ms Nosipho Mbonambi, DBE’s Director for Strategic Planning reported that, “in the current financial year, the Department has achieved 75%, but we must note the increase in the number of quarterly indicators to 24 as compared to nine in the previous financial year. Three of the 24 indicators have been partially achieved, meaning the achievement is 50% or more, but it's not at 100% and three have not been achieved, meaning the achievement is below 50%. We have provided milestones as highlights in respect of the indicators as we are advancing towards our annual target”.

In addition, Ms Mbonambi highlighted the Ministerial participation in the G20 Leaders Summit, the Deputy Minister’s lead in the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Triennial in Accra, Ghana and the DG’s virtual engagements with provincial and district officials in October 2025, as well as his visits to marking centres in November 2025. Other notable achievements include the draft revised history curriculum, which was submitted to Umalusi in August 2025 for appraisal. On Inclusive Education, the draft regulations for home education have been developed. The number of Funza Lushaka graduates placed is 922, with the placement rate at 49.6% out of a total number of 1,858 students. The National School Nutrition Programme continues to feed over 9,4 million learners.

DBE’s DDG for Finance and Administration, Mr Pat Khunou, reported that the total budget for 2025-2026 is R38.2 billion, 90% of which goes to conditional grants, as well as other transfers such as the compensation of employees, goods and services and the payment of capital and financial assets. Thus far, R30 billion has been spent with spending at more than the 80%. He mentioned that the initial allocation was R35 billion, but it increased to R38 billion due to further appropriations from Treasury, including R2.769 billion for ECD, allocations for the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal conditional grant increases on Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) and flooding disasters.

Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Ms Joy Maimela, indicated that the DBE’s APP and quarterly reports are important instruments to enhance effective oversight and monitoring performance against the Department’s set targets.