NC, NW and WC PEDs 2023/24 Annual Performance Plans

Meeting report

Western Cape Annual Performance Plan and Budget 200023/24
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) set aside R46 million to tackle gang and drug activities at schools.

The money was earmarked from its R1.47 billion Budget for the 2023/2024 financial year.

The Budget also featured massive infrastructure investments and new teacher training initiatives. There were 18 areas in which there were a number of programmes related to drug abuse.

The Department would continue with its rapid build programme in the coming year, spending R350 million.

The rapid build programme has already realised the construction of more than 740 classrooms.

The Department aimed to deliver no less than 21 new and replacement schools for occupation by the start of the 2024 academic year, three times the number of schools built in 2022.

Just over R76 million had been set aside for school safety to secure learner placements.

The Department planned to spend an additional R135 million in the current year to improve support to learners with special needs in the Western Cape.

An additional R68 million would specifically be spent to improve support for learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

As part of the Rapid School Build (RSB) programme, the WCED would construct two new schools for learners with special needs and an additional 28 classrooms at existing special schools, or full service schools which would be able to cater for learners with ASD with high support needs. It would be able to provide outreach services to public ordinary schools to support learners with ASD with low to moderate support needs.

See attached for full presentation

North West Annual Performance Plan and Budget 200023/24
North West Member of Executive Council (MEC) for Education, Ms Violet Motsumi, Ms Pamela Rasetshwane, Chief Director: Strategy And Governance, Mr G Molema, Chief Financial Officer, and a delegation of provincial education department officials briefed the Committee.

The Department of Education in the North West was allocated a budget of R20.57 billion, an increase of 1.1%.

Included in this Budget is an amount of R153 million in the 2023/24 financial year for the Early Childhood Development Grant (ECDG), National School Nutrition Programme Grant (NSNPG), and Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG).

The province had no standardised indicators for 2023/2024 and had the following seven indicators; Administration, Public Ordinary Schools, Independent Schools, Special Schools, Early Childhood Development Centres, Infrastructure Development, as well as Examinations and Related Services.

The Department would spend about R1.29 billion on Infrastructure Development, whereas Administration had received R981 million for the year under review. An amount of R50 million had been allocated as a subsidy to independent schools, whereas R904 million had been allocated to special schools.

See attached for full presentation

Northern Cape Performance Plan and Budget 200023/24

Ms Moira Marais, Head of Department, Northern Cape Department of Education, Mr Alistair Andrews, Chief Director: Systems and Financial Analyst, and Dr MI Ishmael, Deputy Director-General (DDG): Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, briefed the Committee.

For the period under review, the Northern Cape would receive about R22 billion towards education in the province.

One of the flagship programmes in the province was the ten flagship cyber labs spread across the vast Northern Cape.

The Department of Education launched this innovation in an effort to modernise the education system, and to provide solutions towards being responsive to the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

These cyber labs were unique as it responded to four zones which represented the economic drivers of the Northern Cape, namely Mining, Agriculture, Astronomy, and Solar Energy.

Learners would also be able to navigate various dimensions of each zone through the giant multi-touch high-resolution screens, watch 3D animations, take virtual tours, and engage with interactive content and simulations, giving learners continued career guidance and stimulation for innovative long-life learning.

These cyber labs were spaces designed for learners and provided learners with explorative hardware and software, which was exciting and meaningful.

The cyber labs also housed augmented reality posters, digital tablets, and virtual reality headsets, enabling learners to create an environment with a sense of presence.

Scholar transport was another issue highlighted in the Northern Cape's presentation.

The Department of Education in the Northern Cape said it hoped to resolve the learner transport crisis in and around Kuruman by the end of the month.

At least 900 learners struggled to get to school because of a lack of transport. The problem has affected learners from at least six rural villages since schools re-opened.

The service provider withdrew 16 buses because of a deadlock in fare negotiations with the Provincial Education Department.

See attached for full presentation

Discussion
The Chairperson said departments must ensure all presentations and documents must reach the Chairperson’s office timeously.The Committee would not engage with the North West and would send written questions to it instead. 

He said the Northern Cape seemed to be the only province which did not have pit latrines. This was surprising given the large rural geographical spread. The Committee would establish if this was indeed true.

The Chairperson called on Members to engage with the two presentations from the Western and Northern Capes.

Ms D Christians (DA, Northern Cape) said all her questions would be directed at the Northern Cape.

She asked about the state of affairs at the Landbouskool (Agricultural School) in Jan Kempsdorp.  
The school used to be an Afrikaans-medium instruction institution, but was changed to dual-medium instruction. At the beginning of 2022, English speaking learners were placed there to get instruction in English.

Ms Christians asked what would happen to learners who actually had an interest in agriculture. There seemed to be irregularities, and it was important to understand the real situation.

She asked if the Northern Cape School's mandate had changed. She stressed the importance of agriculture to the Northern Cape economy.

On the migration of the ECD function from Social Development to Education, Ms Christians asked what type of monitoring was conducted to assess if children were adequately prepared for school.

Members of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature complained ECD centres were glorified babysitting centres with very little instruction. The migration to Education was good.

On children with disabilities, Ms Christians asked if ECD centres were equipped to look after the needs of disabled children, and she asked if it followed a holistic approach to the needs and requirements of all ECD attendees.

The Chairperson raised the issue of pit latrines and asked if proper toilet seats at ECD centres were considered. Five-year-olds could not be expected to use adult toilet seats.

She said the Northern Cape had 0 pit toilets, yet five schools still had pit latrines which had to be filled. She was concerned these could still be in use.

The eradication of makeshift schools such as asbestos structures, remained a concern. Ms Christians asked if Northern Cape had tried to access additional financial support from national government or other external sources.

The Committee kept hearing about lack of funds. The Department acknowledged there were challenges with scholar transport and in a big province like the Northern Cape, this was a cause for concern.
She asked to what extent the tender issue had been resolved, and to what extent the special needs of disabled learners were taken into account.

Ms Christians was dismayed at the state of hostels in Barkley West and Delportshoop, as portrayed on social media. These hostels urgently needed refurbishments and no plans had yet been forthcoming, despite the evident lack of scholar transport. The mentioned hostels were in a state of disarray; many did not have door handles. This meant learners were not even safe while sleeping. Water damage to the hostels and schools has impacted the quality of education the learners received. There had also been complaints about a lack of food. The Northern Cape only allocated a paltry R500 per learner for both food and accommodation.62 learners were not receiving food at the moment. Clearly, this state of affairs could not be entertained.

Delportshoop had no mathematics and Afrikaans teachers since the start of the school year. She called for a speedy resolution to the accommodation woes at these hostels.

Ms Christians said she would send further questions in writing to the Northern Cape for clarity.

Mr M Bara (ANC, Gauteng) thanked the provinces for the presentation and asked provinces to say to which extent they planned to get rid of pit latrines.

He asked the provinces, including Northern Cape, the following questions:

He wanted to understand the successes of the cyber laboratories and the impact they had on deep rural areas; if monitoring visits had been undertaken to ensure learners got the right instruction since the conversion of Afrikaans spaces to English dual-medium; and from Western Cape Coast weather he wanted more information about the collaboration between the Department of Education and the Office of the Premier regarding violence prevention in schools. He wanted to establish which areas required intervention.

The Chairperson said the issue of violent crimes facing Western Cape schools remained a big problem and a concern.

Society had to ensure children went to school in a safe environment, patrols should be stepped up, and drugs in schools should be totally eradicated. People who do not belong close to or on school grounds should not be tolerated.

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) asked how the Department intended to stem the rising trend of high school dropouts.

She asked the Western Cape about the lifespan of White Paper Six, which was implemented in 2001.

It reached the end of its lifespan by 2021 yet the province still referenced it. She wanted to know its status and if there had been any amendments.

Given the emphasis on the White Paper, she wanted to know if it would advance to the stage of a Bill, what has not yet been implemented, and to what extent.

Pages 126 to 127 of the Annual Performance Plan (APP) dealt with the examinations and assessment of invigilators for the Senior Certificate exam. She asked if the province could provide more information on this.

She asked the Northern Cape about page one of its APP which dealt with the cancellation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Northern Cape Department of Sports, Arts and Culture about cancelling sporting codes. She wanted clarity on what this meant for sports in schools.

The Chairperson said the Department should provide information on all extramural activities offered and the type of support it provides.

He said it was important to show the impact of these extramural activities and how active it was.

On the Second Chance Matric programme, he wanted to establish what type of support the province was given to Second Chance matriculants.

The Chairperson wanted to ascertain the extent of the work the Northern Cape did, and he asked about the Presidential Youth Employment programme.

He also touched on choral music and asked if the provinces had enough music teachers to teach these extramural activities.

These questions were posed to the Western Cape as well.

Ms S Luthuli's (EFF, Kwa-Zulu Natal) questions were posed to the Western Cape. The first question related to page 61 of the 2023/2024 APP, particularly the School Evaluation Assessments (SEA) reports.

She asked for clarity on how these reports were used to encourage best practice. The next question related to page 79 of the same document, which dealt with special schools in the Western Cape.

She wanted to ascertain how the province had capacitated these Special Resource Centres.

The Chairperson asked the MECs to reply to the questions posed to it, and should it not have the information at the ready, it could reply in writing within seven days.

Replies by the Provincial Departments of Education
Western Cape
Mr Sigamoney Naicker, Chief Director: Inclusive Education and Special Programmes, said the WCED collaborated with higher education institutions to give more impetus to White Paper Six and to develop a working narrative on inclusive education.

To this end, work had focused on strengthening full-service schools, increasing the number of full-service schools, and the establishment of Special Schools Resource Centres. Selected Special Schools had an outreach function to ordinary and full-service schools.

Various outreach teams had also been dispatched to districts, especially on autism. All these efforts formed part of understanding the challenges at Special Schools. Learner support teachers were also
employed to give further meaning to the intended deliverable of White Paper Six.

The Western Cape was also currently busy with a review of White Paper Six and this should be completed in due course.

Mr Naicker conceded the point about violence in schools and lamented the rising incidents.

He said the Department used funds from its HIV-AIDS grant for an anti-drug campaign which was launched in schools, as drugs were associated with violence.

To further curb rising violence incidents at Western Cape schools, School Resource Officers had been deployed to schools and assisted in areas such as Manenberg.

These School Resource Officers have been trained in law enforcement by the City of Cape Town.

The Department was busy with school safety initiatives in the form of School Safety Committees based at schools. These School Safety Committees took responsibility for school safety plans.

These self-regulatory organisations (SROs) were engaged with crime prevention, relationship-building with stakeholders, and a Discipline programme premised on restorative justice. More SROs would also be employed to Khayelitsha, Delft, Philippi, and Westbank to stem violence and drug prevalence in Western Cape schools.

Ms Heather van der Ster, Director: West Coast Education, spoke about the Second Chance Matric programme and said it was up and running and provided face-to-face tutoring in 17 centres in all eight districts of the province. These learners received study guides, the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) guides, had access to past exam papers, and used laptops.

These centres were administered by centre managers, teachers, and assistants.

These staff members were all unemployed people from neighbourhoods and this programme worked because the WCED said it had a close working relationship with the circuits as well as the districts.

Remuneration was calculated according to a sliding scale; for example, a tutor might receive R387.50 cents an hour for 30 learners; R193.06 per hour for six to nine people; and R96 per hour for five or fewer.

These centres also employed administrative assistants who worked for 60 hours a month and were remunerated at R86.80 cents per hour.

Currently, 2 206 people were registered as candidates, nine as administrative assistants, and 59 teachers were on the books. All subjects except those of a technical nature were offered from Mondays to Saturdays.

Centres did not tutor every day. The Chief Director of Districts coordinated and planned the various classes and provided supplementary support with A4 paper for printing, for example.

The Western Cape after-school programmes were coordinated at the Chief Directorate level in the various districts. In the Western Cape, it was called the Schools Enrichment programme and included special projects and competitions.

A School Enrichment coordinator within the District supported and managed the afterschool programme, which also encourages social cohesion and inclusion.

This programme broadly had two parts: learner participation and training teachers to support learners in the rolling out of cultural diversity activities.

If the state were given the Budget and claimed its activities accordingly, in practice, it meant urban schools would not necessarily offer rieldans as an afterschool activity, whereas schools on the West Coast might.

Currently, the province participated in various initiatives such as the Moot Court mock court competition, the Youth Citizen in Action, the Oral History programme, and the High School Drama Festival in conjunction with the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.

On sporting codes, the Committee was told the Department currently offered 17 different sporting codes. When it came to Mass Participation, Opportunity and Access, Development and Growth (MODD) centres, the Department had worked in close cooperation with the Department of Culture, Arts and Sports within the Western Cape Province. To this end, the Department made a tutoring budget available for MODD.

These tutoring activities were aligned and incorporated into other sporting codes and Arts and Culture activities.

The aim was to ensure a hundred percent participation in after-school activities. Schools were very creative in learning from one another, especially regarding sharing timetables and hosting events on the same day. This prevented learners from waiting on scholar transport.

District Resource Officers report to districts after each event. The District Development Plan also set target sporting codes.

The Department continued to share best practices and districts continued to work with schools in areas which needed improvements.

Northern Cape
The Committee was informed that Landbouskool in Jan Kempsdorp was offering a mixed curriculum to meet the demand of English learners as well. 

The school had not abandoned its core function of teaching Agriculture. The Northern Cape wanted the school to maintain its agriculture focus. The Northern Cape Department of Agriculture had also been engaged in a partnership agreement to assist the school.

These dialogues are still ongoing. The school would remain tasked with teaching Agriculture and large tracks of its land were currently under irrigation.

The Northern Cape would also provide information on the current intake and the curriculum offered at the school.

On pit latrines, committee members were informed the Northern Cape eradicated pit latrines and only three pit latrine sites still have to be filled. A tender with the required specifications had been sent out for official gazette. All three of these schools had the proper sanitation.

Regarding Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, committee members heard the migration had been completed. Many of the ECD centres from the Department of Social Development (DSD) functioned as glorified babysitting centres.

The Northern Cape Department of Education had to ensure these former DSD centres were aligned to those already under Education's purview. Plans and policies were continuously being introduced to align these centres. Before ECD centres could be registered, they had to meet certain criteria.

Members were also informed about age-specific toilet seats, which would be a feature of all newly built ECD centres and the guidelines were sent out to all ECD centres.

The Northern Cape conceded, given current realities, there would be centres which still did not have these and remained a work in progress.

There were 160 primary schools which already had a specific toilet seat. Inappropriate school structures remained a challenge and the Northern Cape had what it called an entire asbestos belt comprising many schools.

The Northern Cape had, on several occasions, submitted applications for extra infrastructure funds, however these were never granted. It seemed Gauteng province was the only one that was successful in its motivation.

Nonetheless, the province currently had nine new schools under construction and was following the guidelines on asbestos. The province maintained a 60-40 split on Education Improvement Grant (EIG) funding.

The entire Budget of the province for infrastructure development stood at R997 million and laid bare the challenges for the prophets. If the province managed to spend its entire Budget on infrastructure development, it would unlock incentive funding from Treasury going forward.

Members were also informed a tender had been put out for both the hostel and the School at Delportshoop. 30 hostels were also currently being renovated to the tune of R212 million.

Two new hostels were also due to come into operation in the rural areas of the Northern Cape.

About the R500 funding per learner, she said this amount had been increased to R2 000 and would deal with the challenges, as outlined by Ms Christians.

On the Scholar Transport tender, she said the Department was in the process of finalising the tender.

Scholar Transport remained a challenge for the Northern Cape, given its geographical spread.

Members were also informed about the province not having a transport provider. However, this provider had withdrawn its services a day prior to the opening of schools in the Northern Cape.

Emergency discussions with this service provider proved fruitless and emergency plans had to be made. The end result was the community revolted to show its unhappiness.

On the question about there not being any Maths or Afrikaans teachers at the Delporthoop school, the official said additional teachers had since been appointed.

She had not heard of any ceiling which collapsed and recalled severe weather affected a school in the Brandvlei area.

Ms Christians was welcome to share any information she had with the Department to probe the matter.

On cyber labs, the MEC noted these labs brought technology to both urban and far-flung areas. It gave learners access to the world and a variety of subject matters

The Department of Education launched this innovation in an effort to modernise the education system and to provide solutions toward being responsive to the demands of the fourth industrial revolution.

These cyber labs were unique as they responded to four zones which represented the economic drivers of the Northern Cape, namely Mining, Agriculture, Astronomy, and Solar Energy.

Learners would also be able to navigate various dimensions of each zone through the giant multi-touch high-resolution screens, would be able to watch 3D animations, take virtual tours, and engage with interactive content and simulations giving it continued career guidance and stimulation for innovative long-life learning.

These cyber labs were spaces designed for learners and provided it with explorative hardware and software, which was exciting and meaningful.

The cyber labs also housed augmented reality posters, digital tablets, and virtual reality headsets, enabling learners to create an environment with a sense of presence.

Since the community members found out about these high tech centres the cyber labs have experienced high levels of vandalism and break-ins, with devices and other equipment being stolen. This matter was receiving attention in various communities.

The demand for English-speaking schools was high. The Department engaged with Afrikaans schools to phase out certain Afrikaans subjects to make way for English learners. This was only done where no interest had been shown in Afrikaans classes.

The schools had been equipped with the necessary to bring it up to speed. Hartwater in Kimberley was one such school.

Responding to Ms Ndongeni, the Head of Department (HOD) noted the issue of school dropouts was a societal issue which touched on many socio-economic ills.

The Department had a variety of initiatives which contributed to stemming rising incidents of school dropouts. Peer education had also been instituted with the help of the HIV/AIDS grant. Sexual reproduction health has also received particular attention.

The Department had a policy to encourage learners not to abscond and to return to school. Continuous psychosocial support to learners through the Special Education Unit was already in place.

The Department also leveraged its relationship with the Department of Social Development (DSD) to tackle issues such as gangsterism at schools.

The HOD said the National Nutritional Schools programme was another way to combat school dropouts as many learners faced food insecurity at home. The Northern Cape had taken a holistic approach to the issue instead of being simplistic about it.

The Department's relationship with the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) was said to be cordial and assisted the former with sports administration and social cohesion matters.

The Second-Chance Matric programme was also said to be alive and well in the Northern Cape. There was a lot of enthusiasm and results were always eagerly awaited.

Dr Ishmail responded to the question on capacitating invigilators and said after each exam cycle, monitoring and evaluation reports were drafted.

These reports, in conjunction with those of Umalusi, were turned into training manuals for the province's five districts. The District would then host "Coaching Clinics" and Training seminars on these manuals with circuit and district officials.

North West
The HOD hailed its relationship with the North West Department of Arts, Culture and Sport. The relationship was almost perfect and DCAS provided a lot of support. The Summer and Winter Games were run without a hitch. Currently, the focus is on athletics.
 
He also spoke about DCAS assistance with deaf learner instruction. The North West had one special school for the deaf, while the private schools struggled to attract suitably qualified teachers. The province engaged on this matter at various universities in the province, and the engagement was ongoing. BCAA’s would assist the Department in finding suitably qualified teachers for deaf learners.

On choral music tuition and competitions, the HOD said the North West employed several choral music teachers, though these teachers were not all necessarily qualified. Plans were afoot to assist these unqualified teachers to become qualified.

The North West had a total of four Special Schools Resource Centres attached to four full-service schools.

The Chairperson said terrible things were happening in the North West. The Chairperson asked for the province's responses, and asked the provinces to also focus on school infrastructure.

The meeting was adjourned.