EC, FS & GP PEDs 2023/24 Annual Performance Plans

Meeting report

Free State Education Department annual report

An amount of more than R128.778 billion had been allocated to the Department of Education (DoE) to deal with projects in the province over the MTEF period. The province had claimed top position in the 2022 matric results, and for this, National Treasury had allocated R109 million for infrastructure investment in the province. This allocation was part of the performance-based incentive S programme aimed at improving effective planning and deriving efficiencies within the infrastructure delivery chain.

To build a capable, developmental and ethical state, for generations to come, the Free State was of the opinion that it should sustain investment in quality education. The Department described its seven programmes, and the amounts allocated to each of them.

Programme 1 was responsible for the overall management of the education system in accordance with the relevant prescripts.

Programme 2 provided for ordinary public education from grades 1 to 12.

Programmes 3 and 4 provided support to independent schools as well as compulsory public education in special schools.

Programme 5 dealt with early childhood education at grade R and Pre-Grade R levels.

Programme 6 referred to its investments in infrastructure.

Programme 7 provided support for examination and other related education services.

(See attached presentation for details)

Gauteng Education Department annual report

Mr Matome Chiloane, Member of the Executive Committee (MEC): Education, and his senior officials briefed the Committee.

The Gauteng Provincial Government had budgeted R6 billion to build new schools in high pressure communities. It indicated that the education system would collapse if nothing was done due to overcrowding, exacerbated by high in-migration levels. Allocated funds would focus on building more schools to avoid the issue of unplaced learners in Grades 1 and 8 l.

The province received a major boost of R1.5 billion from National Treasury to finally demolish mobile and asbestos schools. 18 new schools would be built in Gauteng. Resources would be accessed from private sector financial institutions to fund infrastructure projects upfront, after which they would be built, maintained and transferred to them.

To provide Gauteng learners with a competitive edge and to prepare them for the post-matric world, Gauteng would continue to roll out Schools of Specialisation (SOS). To date, it had 21 such schools, and by the end of the current administration, 35 should have been built.

The Department was pleased with the increasing number of children registered at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sites. As part of the process to bolster their education system, Gauteng was now ready to build an ECD of the future, starting with Tshwane, in Soshanguve. They were committed to rolling out ECDs of the future across the five corridors.

(See attached presentation for details)

Eastern Cape Education Department annual report

The Eastern Cape DoE had faced severe budgetary pressures that had impacted its ability to carry out some of its planned activities, coupled with the service delivery challenges experienced in different facets of its operational spectrum.

Despite this, the notable improvements in 2022 -- particularly the examination outcomes -- should be seen in the context of the system-wide education transformation plan of the Department. Its strategic thrust was to maximise opportunities for learners to achieve a good pass in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations whilst improving performance in the whole system.

The Department’s expenditure had increased from R37.507 billion in 2019/20 to a revised estimate of R39.796 billion in 2022/23. The 2023/24 budget allocation had increased slightly by 3.3% to R41.128 billion, mainly due to additional funds allocated for personnel and norms and standards in the baseline. Further reprioritisation of the baseline budget had been undertaken to increase funding provision for learner-teacher support material (LTSM), school furniture, coding and robotics, vocational and technical equipment, agricultural schools, maintenance of ECD centres, and information communication technology (ICT) in schools.

The Department provided the Committee with a breakdown of the budget for its seven education programmes.

(See attached presentation for details)

Discussion

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) said that the Department would continue to prioritise the rationalisation and realignment of unviable schools for optimum resource distribution, through the densification of schools for enhanced and effective school management that would result in improved learning outcomes.

 The Department had also stated that they would continue to ensure the provision of an appropriate package of support to viable secondary schools in quintiles 1 to 3.

It had also been resolved that the provision of quality education was the main factor behind the rationalisation of small and unviable schools. The second objective was improved financial efficiency and the re-distribution of resources to where they were most needed. The process of rationalisation of schools was complex, so it would be informed by a provincial education plan, based on a needs assessments and merger trends.

Infrastructure revitalisation and development would be aligned with the rationalisation process.

Ms Ndogeni wanted more information on the Eastern Cape's education system transformation plan and the rationalisation process.

She also asked about the challenges and successes experienced with the support programme to viable schools, and how viable schools were chosen for the support package.

She commented that the Department had mentioned that key amongst the reprioritisation drive was to accelerate the eradication of pit toilets, the beautification of schools and the fencing of various schools in the province in the 2023/24 financial year.

A substantial portion of the infrastructure budget for 2023/24 had been reprioritised to address sanitation backlogs, and she asked the provincial Department to elaborate on their plans for infrastructure development.

Referring to the training and development as highlighted in the budget policy statement on education in the Eastern Cape, she asked that the Department elaborate on the quality and training types that would be provided. She also wanted to ascertain whether the Department had any partnerships with tertiary institutions on ECD practitioner training.

Ms Ndogeni said that slide 9 of the Free State’s budget statement noted that it could no longer finance software. She spoke about the "smart" devices utilised in schools, and other multimedia services offered by schools. She wanted to ascertain whether the software was not part of the overall package provided to smart schools.

The Department had also resolved to continue teaching robotics and coding in the primary phase and to increase the number of schools that offered coding and robotics classes.

She also requested information on the training intended for teachers and how software was funded and needed across the system.

The Chairperson asked about the “Second Chance Matric Programme” that allowed learners to rewrite their matric exams. He said that students had complained about being barred from rewriting their exams on the basis of their age and a whole host of other reasons. He requested the Department provide information on how it tackled this matter, and the current status.

He also asked about the ECD migration from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the DoE.

He commented that in his area, children were just taken to a crèche to "go and play with tyres," with very little or no formative educational instruction taking place. He wanted to ascertain the challenges experienced by such children when they were integrated into the formal education system. He also wanted the Department to indicate what it would have done differently if it had the chance to redesign the whole system over again. The ECD phase was about developing young minds and preparing them to be future productive citizens.

He also referred to non-performing schools across the country and the value they brought to society, since they had not recorded any matric passes. It would have been better if these schools had recorded underperformance, as opposed to non-performance. What had the Department done to upskill teachers and assist the school governing bodies (SGBs) in dealing with the worrying trend of non-performance?

He said that his other questions would be for Gauteng, where the 2021 looting spree had left several schools vandalised, damaged or totally burned down in other instances. He wanted to ascertain how these schools had performed.

Mr M Bara (ANC, Gauteng) said the Eastern Cape Department of Education had reported on the launch of pilot programmes in coding and robotics as part of the curriculum. 136 schools had been identified -- 25 in the Grade R to Grade 3 category, and 111 in Grade 7. He asked the Department to provide an update on the challenges and successes experienced with this pilot rollout.

He also wanted to know about the training and development provided to ECD practitioners and the upskilling of their qualifications.

On the Free State’s plans for implementation in line with learners' attainment of the National Senior Certificate (NSC), and the intervention programmes implemented to assist learners in obtaining their NSC, he wanted to establish to what extent learners who were not academically inclined were encouraged to pursue vocational training. Vocational training required only a Grade 9 entry level.

Eastern Cape Department's responses

The Eastern Cape Education Department's Deputy Director-General (DDG) for School Administration said he would respond to the questions on infrastructure and rationalisation. The main question on infrastructure was related to the return of R100 million rand from the previous financial year.

The Department had done a lot to ensure that when it opened this year, all planning and implementation of policies and procedures had taken place at the right time. It used to procure at the beginning of each financial year, and this impeded its implementation later on. It had since instituted measures that aided earlier planning, execution and implementation of its plans.

The Department had also established a monitoring and evaluation unit that met monthly.

One issue they highlighted was the payments to the 60 infrastructure implementing agents. The Department had decided to effect tranche payments to these implementing agents, who could then pay their contractors as well. These measures have been implemented to prevent disruption of projects.

Linked to infrastructure development were other factors as well. When the Department moved learners from a non-viable school to a viable school, it was important to ensure that the schools were equipped for the task. One other non-administrative intervention was scholar transport. Scholar transport was a shared competency with the Department of Transport (DoT), and at times the lines of communication between the DoT and the DoE became “blurred".

Where scholar transport could not be provided, the Department’s focus was on providing extra classrooms and hostel facilities.

At the district level, there was up-skilling of subject advisors and circuit managers on the fundamentals for district performance. This ensured that there was uniformity across the districts. This process was largely driven by the Department of Basic Education (DBE). The Director-General for Curriculum Management also responded to some of the field of questions.

The DDG for Curriculum Management said the Department had never encouraged learners to repeat their matric. The DBE had a programme under which former matriculants could rewrite certain subjects during the month of June, as well as in December. It allocated rewriting centres across the province for both the June and December cycles. Through these interventions, it tried to alleviate the stress of schools having to accommodate these former matriculants as well. That was why they could rewrite certain subjects in June and December without repeating the entire grade and consolidating their results. This was a very big programme driven by the national DBE and located within the Minister's office.

The ECD migration in the Eastern Cape had been successful. The Department had managed to smoothly transition the functions from the Department of Social Development, and coordination had gone well.

The DBE was also in the process of setting up an information management system across the nine provinces. This would provide a one-stop-shop of information and resources that all nine provincial education departments could draw from.

The Department was also working with ECD practitioners on up-skilling and training. Formal partnerships had also been established with universities for officially recognised accreditation, and the national Ministry of Basic Education largely drove this process.

In the past, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) used to provide training programmes, but these were not accredited to the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), especially at NQF Level 6.

On coding and robotics, the DDG noted that pilot projects always had their unique dynamics that had to be managed and tested quite carefully. The coding and robotics policy had been established by the Department of Basic Education, which wanted to capture the outcomes in terms of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). The availability of learner resource material and textbooks in line with the CAPS remained a challenge.

One publisher had indicated their willingness to work with the Department on textbooks. Some training providers also provided lesson plans and other resource material. The Department had decided to go back to the annual teaching plan, and opted to train existing technology teachers in the coding and robotics curriculum.

The training of subject advisors and various strategies would be devised to assess how robotics was taught in schools. The Department would also be looking at the funding framework and the scope of these pilot projects. Funding baselines had been established by using the baselines of other technical subjects. There was a very small number of schools in the pilot, yet these schools were also representative of the various kinds of schools in the province. The Department hoped to learn lessons from these.

Ms Ndongeni said she had not heard any responses to her questions on pit latrines and toilets, but conceded that she could have missed those responses.

Free State Department's responses

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Free State Department of Education said that the software question was about corporate operational requirements, and had absolutely nothing to do with the software made available to schools. The software utilised by schools was provisioned for in terms of the various budgetary allocations.

Currently, the Department has five smart schools which it operated, and these are all well-resourced. Coding and robotics were funded through the Maths, Science and Technology (MST) grant. This was specifically for learners. Teachers were trained through the skills levy.

He said that when the ECD competency was moved to the Department it was integrated into existing programmes. Some ECD centres were already integrated into Programme 5. Those centres that came from the DSD were fully functional and funded. The Department had a record management problem, and has since ensured that these centres were integrated into the information management system (IMS). Additional support came through the Department’s partnership with the University of the North West’s Potchefstroom campus.

The provincial strategy on learner attainment was specific on the interventions required when dealing with under-and non-performing schools. The Department would embark on intervention measures as soon as results were released. Most grades were assessed, but the Department assessed grades 8 and 9 in particular. These interventions were seen as critical in stemming problems arising closer to grade 12. Additional support to non- and under-performing schools was also provided through spring, autumn and winter classes.

Saturday classes were encouraged and implemented in large numbers. This programme assisted the learners immensely. Schools would also begin to benchmark themselves, and had started their own extra classes programme. Learners could be observed walking to school on Saturdays with their textbooks in their hands across the province.

Mr Mzamo Jacobs, senior manager in the Free State Education Department, shared some statistics on the “Second Chance Matric Programme". In one region, 524 people had written, and 466 had passed. This gave a pass rate of 88.9 %. In Letshobela, 2 459 people had written, of whom 1 756 had passed. In Mangaung, 2 580 people wrote, of whom 2 095 had passed, and in Gariep, 908 wrote and 646 passed. In another region, 3 276 people wrote and 2 785 had passed. This gave the “Second Chance Matric Programme” a 78.9% pass rate. The performance was quite considerable.

Mr Jacobs added that the ECD migration had been successful, and that Grade R practitioners had received training on CAPS, and pre-Grade R practitioners on the national curriculum framework. There had also been up-skilling for advanced practitioners from Level 5 to NQF Level 6. This qualified practitioners as full teachers, and 450 had been absorbed into the Personnel Salary System (PERSAL).

South Africans needed a paradigm shift where career prospects were concerned. In South Africa, there had been an over-emphasis on academia, yet vocational training was a valid alternative.

Non-performing schools were those schools which recorded a pass rate of 65% and less. The Department had now set the target at 75%, to encourage schools to maintain higher pass rates

The meeting was adjourned.