Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, has been continuing his virtual engagements with provincial, district and circuit managers. Thus far, he has met with seven out of the nine provinces – the North West; the Northern Cape; Gauteng; Eastern Cape; KwaZulu-Natal; Limpopo; and the Western Cape. The provincial engagements are a way of assessing the state of readiness in the provinces in terms of concluding the 2025 academic year; conducting the internal and external examinations; and commencing of the 2026 academic year. DG Mweli will be concluding these provincial engagements with the Free State and the Mpumalanga Provinces before the end of October 2025.
Western Cape Provincial Engagement
The virtual engagement with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) was chaired by Ms Simone Geyer, DDG for Delivery and Support, with 371 online attendees registered. “This is a critical time of the year across the system as we prepare for the NSC examinations and for the new academic year,” she said.
Mr Brent Walters, Head of Department, in his welcome address, said that: “We are today, tracking learner performance, whilst reporting on a long list of important topics in preparation for the internal and external examinations, as well as the 2026 academic year. We welcome the DBE’s comments as they have a holistic overview of the performance of the entire sector and are grateful for Mr Mweli’s continued leadership”. He handed over to Mr Juan Benjamin, Chief Director for Curriculum in the province, to lead the presentations covering all eight education districts.
Reporting on Early Childhood Development, the province indicated that it had exceeded the target of 2,000 for the Bana Pele Mass Registration Drive with 3,159 applications received; 2,795 applications completed; and 2,136 applications approved for bronze level. Training on silver level registration has been completed and the period earmarked for site visits is October 2025 to March 2026. All Home Language interventions are linked to the reading strategy and monitored through classroom support visits by subject advisers, whilst all Grades 1 – 3 teachers have been trained on reading methodologies. In respect of MTbBE, a total of 187 schools has been covered during the MTbBE advocacy campaign. The province indicated that it would require ongoing support from the DBE regarding MTbBE implementation, especially in respect of isiXhosa terminology. The province is revisiting the current list of focus schools based on economic opportunities; thus, no new schools were established.
Dr Phumzile Langa, the DBE’s Director for Rural Education expressed her gratitude to Ms Karin Dudley and her dedicated Interprovincial Rural Education Committee (IPREC) team for their continued support in the four rural districts. In respect of the NSC examinations, marking centres will commence on 1 December and will conclude on 11 December 2025 as per the national marking plan. Challenges are being experienced with admissions due to migration patterns. Grade R and Grade 10 placement is a challenge because of the high number of applications and not enough available spaces. Admissions teams are fully functional and work collaboratively to place learners and to put infrastructure in place where required. The WCED is not experiencing any shortages of Foundation Phase qualified educators. The DBE identified 533 Grade R practitioners at Public Ordinary schools to be upskilled for 2026.
Ms Mataole Ramohapi, Director in the Office of the DG, flagged her concerns about the performance of especially Afrikaans Home Language in the Foundation Phase and up to Grade 7 in the province. Intermediate phase Social Sciences also required attention. She complimented the province for offering Art subjects and Information Technology across all education districts.
On the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, the DBE’s DDG for Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring, Mr Barney Mthembu, indicated the National Examinations and Assessments Chief Directorate were developing guidelines with lessons from previous examinations to be shared with provinces. Provinces were also cautioned to be vigilant against possible Operation Dudula and service protest interruptions during the examination period and into the commencement of the new academic year.
Limpopo Provincial Engagement
The engagement with the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE), took place on 17 October 2025, with 165 online delegates attending. Dr Naledi Mbude-Mehana, the DBE’s DDG for Transformation Programmes, National Language Unit (NLU), steered the meeting on behalf of the DG. “Foundational phase literacy is important to combat cumulative disfluency,” she said.
Mr Martin Seshibe, Head of Department, expressed his excitement about the engagement: “Today’s agenda focusses on pertinent matters; these discussions with their birds-eye focus, are always beneficial”. DG Mweli congratulated the province for being the only one that has completed their Term 3 results for the tracking of learner performance across all grades and all ten districts. Mr Solly Mabusela, Acting DDG for Curriculum requested Mr Pedro Masetla and his team to drive the presentations focusing on the health status of the LDoE. “Senior Phases and the challenges that persist from Grades 8 and 9 remains the albatross of our system; however, performance in Grade 12 is currently at 86%, a clear indication that we will not decline.”
Dr Barney Mthembu accentuated that the focus should be on quality indicators and distinctions. Economic and Management Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology, Natural Sciences and Mathematics were not performing well in Grades 8 and 9; and is the reason why Mathematics and Physical Sciences participation is declining.
Ms Desiree Letshwiti, Chief Education Specialist for technical subjects, expressed her concern about the limited availability of Subject Advisors in Limpopo based in different education districts, and overseeing other specialisation subjects: “Technology subjects are not given the respect they require, and more support is needed. Life orientation teachers must be empowered to advocate for technical careers in engineering as well as artisans”.
Ms Maureen Modiba, Director for Curriculum Implementation and Quality Improvement (GET), added that there is inadequate support for teachers in the General Education and Training (GET) band: “We have more learners in the GET band, and more Primary Schools than High Schools, yet the curriculum support system has always been biased towards the Further Education and Training (FET) band. We will continue to monitor and support the PED and Districts and hope to see improvement in teaching practices and learner performance, especially in Grades 8 and 9. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) can assist for the lack of Subject Advisors and assist in the lower grades”.
The LDoE has conducted registration clinics across the ten districts to capacitate un-registered ECD Centres to register using E-Cares system, with a target of 1,719 ECD Centres to be registered on bronze level. To date 1,732 applications has been received with 1,340 applications completed. The department will be embarking on silver registration in November 2025. A total of 47 Natural Sciences and MS TECH Subject Advisors and Grade 4 teachers were trained in the MTbBE approach and terminology use in teaching, learning and assessment; however, the province required the NLU to intervene and provide much required assistance in respect of this programme. Dr Aron Nkosi, Director for Curriculum Research, provided an update on Focus Schools, complementing the province for being a trend setter in terms of focus schools. He appealed to them to continue the expansion of focus schools. The province is making good progress with the establishment of 18 Technical, 9 Agricultural and 6 Mathematics and Science focus schools, with the formation of Commercial, Services and Art Focus Schools in the pipeline.
On Rural Education, Dr Phumzile Langa, Director for Rural Education at the DBE, mentioned that the Provincial Rural Education Committee and the work done in this area are examples of best practice.
DG Mweli concluded the engagement with a call for the province to harvest its Equitable Share allocation towards support and monitoring at schools and for the 1% Teacher Development Skills Levy to be utilised in respect of teacher development.