DG Provincial Engagements

Newsroom » Newsletter: DG Provincial Engagements

As the sector draws near to the end of the current administration, the DBE has begun serious reflections on the gains made in the last five years, in a bid to capitalise on our successes and identify gaps for which measures should be put in place to strengthen the delivery chain of education at all levels.

The Director-General, Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli, began his engagements with provinces in January 2019 with the following aims:

To reflect on progress made in meeting goals and objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4), the African Agenda 2063, the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2016-2025, the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Action Plan 2019: Towards Schooling 2030;
To strengthen the alignment of Policy formulation and implementation from National to Provincial, District, School up to Classroom level;
To carry out Minister’s obligation (Section 8) in terms of the National Education Policy Act (NEPA), no 27 of 1996;
To strengthen collective efforts in providing Quality Basic Education; and
To ensure that different role players in the value chain of providing Quality Basic Education close ranks in realising the objectives and goals.

The Director-General’s initiative in engaging key education officials and school principals from the nine provinces, through the 27 engagements scheduled for the first half of the year, will assist the sector to reflect honestly, in the spirit of wanting to strengthen the foundations and build a solid education sector that will see the goals of the NDP being implemented in a comprehensive and cohesive way. The end result of all these initiatives is aptly portrayed in the following NDP quotation:

“By 2030, South Africans should have access to education and training of the highest quality, leading to significantly improved learning outcomes. The performance of South African learners in international standardised tests should be comparable to the performance of learners from countries at a similar level of development and with similar levels of access.” (National Planning Commission: National Development Plan, November 2011).