DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 13/03/2020

INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 09/2020

401..     Ms C V King (DA to ask the Minister of Basic Education:

How will the district development model, to which the President, Mr M C Ramaphosa, referred in the State of the Nation Address on 13 February 2020, function in the basic education sector?                                                                                             

Response

The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, launched the District Development Model (DDM) in OR Tambo (ORT), Ethekwini and Waterberg municipalities in 2019. The DDM is intended to enhance service delivery through collaboration of all government departments in all municipalities through a single plan called the One Plan.

The basic education sector is already steps ahead in the implementation of the DDM. Firstly, the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga MP, gazetted an amended Policy on the Organisation, Roles and Responsibilities of Education Districts in January 2018. The Policy, in addition to providing norms for the structure, size and resourcing of education districts, mandates that education districts should be aligned to municipal districts and metros. This is done in a manner that makes educational sense and takes into account other factors such as geographical orientation. For example, a municipal district/metro might have more than one education district in order to enhance manageability and support to schools. Subsequently, ORT municipality is comprised of two education districts - ORT Coastal and ORT Inland, Ethekwini metro is comprised of Umlazi and Pinetown education districts.

Education districts within a municipal district/metro, like all other government departments, should contribute to the development of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). The education sector must identify catalytic projects/programmes, e.g., school nutrition, infrastructure and sanitation to enhance service delivery, and impact positively on the lives of the people; and to address their needs. The identified projects must be informed by research. For example, one of the immediate needs in ORT district municipality is that more than 60% of the youth have not passed the National Senior Certificate (NSC). To this necessity, the education sector is providing the Second Chance Matric Programme (SCMP), which provides learning materials and tuition to ensure that more youth can attain the NSC. Overall, all planning for capital projects in the basic education sector, will be done and coordinated through the One Plan of the District Development Model in each of the district municipality or metro.