Education and Recreation Select Committee: Outstanding Minutes

Meeting report

Committee Minutes dated 20 April
The Chairperson tabled the minutes for consideration.

Members corrected all the spelling and grammatical errors in the document.

The Committee referred to page 7 and discussed whether the phrase “inferior education” was appropriate. Did these words refer to the training given to educators or the quality of education that these educators offered to learners?

The Chairperson suggested that the training received by these educators had been developed for the Bantu system of education.

Mr M De Villiers (DA, Western Cape) commented that there had been changes in the education sector especially around the colleges where teacher training had been handicapped by the legacy of apartheid policy. The question now was whether teachers who had trained in the past had fitted into the new system of education that had been introduced in the post-apartheid era. He suggested that an alternative word or phrase be inserted in pace of “inferior education”. If apartheid-era teacher training was inferior, then it meant that he was an inferior educator.

Ms B Mncube (ANC, Gauteng) commented that the issue was that educator training received in the past was now outdated but not inferior to that being received in post-apartheid South Africa. She pointed out that there had been a revision of the country’s education system that had outdated apartheid-era teacher training.

Mr De Villiers submitted that this issue had arisen when he had asked about the re-opening of teacher training colleges. The Department of Higher Education had responded that it had decided to close the colleges because there was a new system.

The Chairperson felt that this was an issue that dealt with the quality of teacher training because the new system had been put in place to address inequalities. However, he felt that to talk about inferior was to refer to a person and this created other problems.

The minutes were adopted with amendments

Committee Minutes dated 4 May
The Chairperson explained that the minutes were based on a briefing by the Department of Sport and Recreation on its strategic plan and budget vote.

Members rectified all the grammatical errors in the minutes.

Mr Mashamaite (ANC, Limpopo) referred to a statement (in the minutes) that the Department did not have money to provide Members of Parliament with T-shirts for the World Cup tournament and asked that it be deleted. The statement gave the incorrect impression that Members had requested T-shirts from the Department.

Ms Mncube replied that there had been a misunderstanding as the Committee had never requested T-shirts. However, the minutes were a correct record of what the Minister had said and this could not be changed by the Committee.

Mr W Faber (DA, Northern Cape) fully agreed with Ms Mncube, however the Committee had been misinterpreted by the Minister and he did not know how that could be rectified.

Ms Mncube advised that the Committee could possibly say that the Minister had misunderstood the Committee in the minutes but they could not change the actual statement made by the Minister.

The Committee adopted the minutes with amendments.

Committee Minutes dated 12 May
The Committee considered and approved the minutes with amendments.

The Committee agreed that Ms D Ranto (ANC, Eastern Cape) would reword a portion of the minutes to reflect what the Committee had agreed to and circulate the changes to all Members.

Committee Minutes dated 21 May
The Committee considered and adopted the minutes with amendments.

Oversight Report
The Committee considered and adopted its oversight report.

Other business
The Committee also took time to comment on the quality of the minutes produced by the Secretariat.

Mr Mashamaite asked the Committee Secretary to pay closer attention to spelling and grammar to reduce the amount of work that the Committee had to do in that regard.

The Committee also debated when it would be appropriate to refer to submissions as those made by the ‘Committee’ and those made by Members of the Committee in the minutes.

The Committee requested the Committee Secretary to make a follow-up on a promise by the Department of Arts and Culture for World Cup tickets for Members.

The meeting was adjourned.