DBE Audit Outcomes; DBE 2022/23 Annual Report; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson congratulated the Springboks on behalf of the Committee on their victory in winning the Rugby World Cup in France and bringing the Web Ellis Trophy back home. South Africa had become the first country to win the World Cup four times, and the team continued to keep the 1995 Madiba spirit alive and strong. He quoted Madiba saying that sport had the power to change the world, and had the power to inspire people and to unite people in a way that little else did. The country had been united in its diversity towards one cause during the World Cup. This should be a lesson to the country, as it continued to strive towards a common cause, strengthening social cohesion and nation building for a better future, as envisioned by Nelson Mandela. The vision of all South Africans should be to work together to end the scourge of unemployment, poverty, and Inequality. He thanked the South African Rugby Union, the team support staff, the Ministry of Sport and the Presidency, for showing their continued support to the team. He also wished the Proteas well, and commented about their positive results in India during the cricket World Cup.

The matric class of 2023 had worked hard throughout the year to get this far, and he wished them well in their final exams. The Committee would continue with their oversight work, thus ensuring the smooth running of the exams.

The Committee Secretary said there was an apology from the Minister, as she was in Zambia on official business.

Deputy Minister's opening remarks

Dr Reginah Mhaule, Deputy Minister of Basic Education, greeted all Members, officials of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the Department of Basic Education (DBE), led by the Director-General.

She said the matric exams had commenced on 30 October, and learners were writing English paper one. No serious irregularities had been noted, except for service delivery protests in the North West, which did not affect the operation of the schools. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) had experienced storms the previous week, and they affected about eight schools. The provision of mobile classrooms provided for four secondary schools in the district ensured that exams were not interrupted.

The schools were encouraging pregnant learners to return to school to write, but parents were not allowing them to return as they were of the view these learners were now adults. Some learners had been admitted to hospital due to stress levels, but plans were in place to ensure they were not disadvantaged.

The DBE was ready in terms of preparation for the learners who had been behind in their work when they were enrolled for grades nine and ten. These were the two grades before the senior phase, and the entry grade of the Further Education and Training (FET) band. The teachers were working very hard, offering autumn and winter classes over weekends without compensation. The examination systems were ready, but human errors could still creep in.

She said the rugby World Cup had united the country and restored its dignity. The entire world had seen that South Africa was a great nation.

She said the Department had five programmes to present, and all the senior managers of the DBE were present in the meeting.

The Chairperson said they owed the victory of the Springbok team to the Department of Basic Education, as the players had started playing rugby at the school level. He said if South Africa invested more in school sports by opening rugby academies, for instance, it could pave the way for people from all over the world to enrol at these academies.

DBE audit outcomes

Ms Kgabo Komape, Business Executive, Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), and Mr Joshua Baganzi, Senior Audit Manager: AGSA, presented. Key issues noted were:

Education skills and unemployment

In its strategies and budgets, the government reiterated that education and skills development was a priority as a means to eradicate unemployment and poverty. However, more than 36% of South Africans were unemployed, with 64% being youth. This included graduates and/or individuals who had completed one or more skills intervention/ education programme.

Target

Integrated planning within the education and skills sector would facilitate quality education and responsive skills development programmes that met market needs, and would therefore reduce unemployment. This would further maximise the value of the limited fiscus invested by government, particularly in education and skills development.

Audit outcomes

Revenue for the DBE and the South African Council for Educators (SACE) had shown an average debt-collection period of 721 days, and debtors’ impairment provision of accounts receivable exceeded 10% for SACE (statutory receivable). The DBE had incurred R15.66 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure due to the duplicate allocation of the projects to implementing agents, thereby incurring additional costs. Its assets and liabilities indicated that accruals and payables exceeded a period of 30 days, with 20% (R83.6m) of the amount owing having been long outstanding.

Procurement and payment system

Key findings had been a breach of the five pillars of procurement -- equitable, fairness, cost effectiveness, transparency and competitiveness. There had also been an unspent conditional grant utilised without approval, resulting in non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

Irregular expenditure involving non-compliance by implementing agent

Awards were not made to the highest scoring bidder, and invitations to tender for commodities designated for local content and production did not stipulate the minimum threshold for local production, which resulted in R103 million irregular expenditure. Expenditure on multi-year contracts declared irregular in the prior year amounted to R786 million.

Overall audit outcomes

Overall, the outcomes for the sector had improved compared to the prior year after the Gauteng Department obtained an unqualified audit with no findings, while the Eastern Cape (EC), Limpopo (LP) and North West (NW) had remained with qualified audit opinions. The quality of financial reporting for most of the departments in the sector was still poor as a result of errors in accounting for infrastructure assets. Inadequate project management and coordination of implementing agents remained a major control deficiency affecting the preparation of quality and credible financial statements for most of the departments in the sector.

Non-compliance with legislation remained high and concerning, as the AG reported material non-compliance within the sector that negatively affected the audit outcomes. The sector continued to struggle with non-compliance with supply chain management (SCM) prescripts, and this was also the area where the risk of fraud was highest, so it was necessary for a culture of compliance, and respect for the law needed to be re-enforced.

This also resulted in an increase in irregular expenditure of R5.12 bn for the current year.

Committee recommendations

The Select Committee should:

• Continue to monitor and follow up on the DBE’s responsibilities of monitoring and coordination on the implementation of sector priorities, and encourage the leadership in the sector to ensure that the monitoring of adherence to compliance was strengthened and improved and that consequence management processes were intensified to address the root causes of transgressions.
• Monitor the inclusion of the medium-term strategic framework (MTSF) indicators in the annual performance plan (APP) of the departments, and monitor the progress made on implementation of the APPs and assess the impact which the non-achievement had on service delivery.
• Oversee implementation of remedial action to address deficiencies identified through an audit of school performance improvement, the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme, the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), school infrastructure, learner transport and the Presidential Youth Employment initiatives.
• Monitor the progress of modernising the education information management systems, such as the South African School Administration and Management System (SA-SAMS) capabilities to capture, review and consolidate reporting of basic annual management processes, school finance management and education facilities management, and the implementation of e-education across all provinces.

See attached for full presentation

DBE's Annual Performance Report

The report of the annual performance of the DBE was presented by Ms Nosipho Mbonambi, Director: Strategic Planning, and Mr Patrick Khunou, Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

They said the activities of the DBE had been structured into five programmes. These were Administration; Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring;  Teachers, Education Human Resources and Institutional Development; Planning, Information and Assessment; and Education Enrichment Services.

Comparison of achievements in 2021/22 and 2022/23

• In Quarter 4 of 2021/22. 100% of targets were achieved out of a total of 70 indicators.
• In Quarter 4 of 2022/23, 100% of targets were achieved, also out of 70 indicators in the five programmes.
• In the 2021/22 financial year overall, 81% of the targets were achieved, 13% were partially achieved, and 6% not achieved
• In the 2022/23 financial year, 90% of the targets were achieved, and the remaining 10% were partially achieved.

Overview of service delivery environment

The National Education Policy Act (Act 27 of 1996) (NEPA) inscribes into law the policies for the national education system, the legislative and monitoring responsibilities of the Minister of Education, and the formal relations between national and provincial authorities. The DBE’s statutory role was to formulate policy, norms and standards; monitor and evaluate policy implementation and impact; and lead the provision of the right to basic education.

Performance delivery environment 2022/23

The delivery environment requires the national Department of Basic Education to focus on technical leadership, oversight, and the setting and maintenance of norms and standards in the basic education concurrent function.

There were factors that influenced the plans and activities of the Department. Such plans were covered in the government mandates, namely the National Development Plan (NDP), the MTSF, and the Action Plan 2024: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2030.

Departmental outcomes were linked to the six priority areas of the sector as approved by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and the 2019-2024 MTSF.

Recommendations

It was recommended that the Select Committee discuss the performance of the DBE against the planned targets of the pre-determined objectives in the APP for the 2022/23 financial year, and the Department’s 2022/23 financial year expenditure.

(See presentation for more details)

Discussion

Ms D Christians (DA, Northern Cape) asked about the Department's consequence management and irregular expenditure. The AGSA had noted that the DBE needed to institute consequence management against officials responsible for non-compliance. How would the Department recover losses caused by irregular expenditure and, in turn, deter others from contravening legislation?

Could the AGSA elaborate on the assistance of the potential training that the DBE, the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and districts need, to successfully implement consequence management.

She said it was extremely concerning that due to persistent weak financial management and budgeting, the financial health status of PEDs was deteriorating. The AGSA had reported a deficit of R726.3 million because some departments overspent, which was extremely worrying. How did this happen? What monitoring was done by the DBE concerning its provincial departments? What measures are going to be taken to rectify these financial issues, and what steps would be taken to ensure an improvement in the financial health of the PEDs?

The learner transport system was another area of concern. It had been reported that service providers were not adequately evaluated, and there were incidents of overloading and drivers not picking learners up, impacting class attendance. What were the criteria for allocating these service providers at the PED level? The AG had reported the criteria were not clear. These providers were not equipped to provide these transport services,  so what criteria had been used to select them?

The AG had reported that the infrastructure had not been reported on in the North West, and facilities were not age-appropriate in Mpumalanga. There was some overcrowding in classrooms in the North West, with the teacher-to-class ratio being 40:1. The qualifications of teachers were not up to standard, and playgrounds and facilities were unsafe.

What was the Department doing to remedy the issues where the AG had expressed concerns with Early Childhood Development (ECD) provisioning? What strategies were in place to address the ECD challenges, and had they found any support mechanisms for implementing a fast track for ECD to up their infrastructure facilities to deal with overcrowding issues?

It was reported under infrastructure and project planning that R15 million had been lost due to fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the Department. There had been 271 projects cancelled and 242 projects delayed. What was the cause of this? Why had there not been progress in completing certain projects? Why were there reports on sub-standard building quality? What was being done about the vandalism and the underutilisation reported by the AG?

She said she had more questions which she would submit for a written reply.

The Chairperson responded to Ms Christians that contractors who were not in possession of a bus or a taxi applied for scholar contracts. The contractors offered a competitive price and were therefore successful in obtaining the contracts. These contractors then approached taxi and bus owners with the aim of employing their services. What was being done to ensure the contractors were in possession of transport and the transport was roadworthy, as there were many reports of breakdowns? The breakdown of transport often led to lost school days until the vehicles were repaired. What systems were being put in place to ensure the right people had transport that was roadworthy?

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) referred to slide 38, where it stated some schools were closed after orders which had been placed for workbooks, had subsequently been removed from the delivery list. Were these schools closed permanently or temporarily?

The Edulution Project had recruited young people from surrounding communities and trained them as coaches, and 70 coaches in 24 centres served over 7 400 learners. What was the report finding on the actual achievement and perceptions of attending learners on the quality of engagement with these coaches? She requested details concerning the provincial footprint of the 24 centres and the length of employment contract of the coaches. Could the training offered to the coaches be credited towards a higher education qualification?

The enhancement programmes and evaluation of school performance in the delivery of school books on slide 46, showed that Gauteng was the only province to have underperformed, with a 99.95% achievement. What was the reason for this underperformance? She asked for greater clarity on the reason why other provinces were performing well and Gauteng was not. What plans were in place to assist and support the linked schools and learners?

Responses

AGSA

Ms Komape replied to a question asked by Ms Christians about the training recommended by the AG. She said the prescripts of the supply chain change continuously, and were constantly updated, so it proved beneficial to have revolving planning by ensuring officials of the supply chain were on par with SCM requirements. When control mechanisms were watertight, it made it difficult for officials to deviate from the requirements and deterred service providers from taking advantage. The tone of leadership was important, and monthly inventory checks ought to be conducted to ensure only the finance division and supply chain purchased the necessary requirements. The internal auditors may not be able to audit all projects and procurements, but the field they audited was like that of AG, thus ensuring the recommendations were applied across different directorates within the departments. This was done to eradicate irregular, unauthorised and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the future.

The Chairperson asked what the mandate of the AG was in instances where the Department ignored letters. What legal recourse did the AG have in such instances?

 

Ms Komape replied on the legal recourse available to the AG when management letters were ignored. The AGSA was a Chapter Nine institution and its work done was an extension of what the administration would have done. This explained the basic education stakeholder ecosystem presented by the Department, depicting how everyone had a role to play. She said government was structured in such a way to allow the accounting officer to play a leadership role within the administration to ensure that everyone did their part. The AGSA would get involved and provide their views when government departments were not moving in the right direction. The intervention involved two steps. Firstly, for those charged with oversight in cases where the executive and accounting officer had to institute consequence management, the AGSA would provide support where a material loss of money had occurred. A material irregularity (MI) was issued in cases where officials still failed to do what was required of them. The sector or any government institution must then move on the backdrop of the functionality of the administration and on the consequence management processes of both the accounting officer and the executives. This was the most desirable outcome, as a Chapter Nine institution such as the AGSA should not inherit the responsibilities of the accounting officer, as that was not their mandate. The oversight structures, such as the portfolio committees and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) existed to ensure government entities moved in the right direction.

DBE

Mr Hubert Mweli, Director-General (DG), DBE, expressed his agreement with the findings and responses from the AG. The AG traditionally reported their findings to management and the executives first, and the findings were then shared with the oversight structures of Parliament, the National Assembly and the NCOP. The AG would have reported irregularities to management. If they failed to take action, it would be reported to the executive for them to intervene and ensure management took action. The Minister would have to act against the accounting officer if management failed to act on the findings of the AG. The oversight structures of Parliament would hold both management and the executive accountable. There were instances where consequence management was not carried out due to delays in finalising investigations, but other than those instances, consequence management was always carried out.

The AGSA had recommended the DBE strengthen the internal audit. The report of the assessment of the audit line function had recently been made available. The internal audit line function needed to be strengthened. The Department now delivered projects in provinces which the provinces themselves should deliver, and the result was the internal audit now had to cover a greater area by strengthening the control environment. The sector audits expected a response to the audit findings of the AG about the NSNP, learner transport, issues related to the presidential youth employment initiatives and a host of other issues related to the ten departments. This meant the internal audit would have to cover not only the DBE, but also the other nine education departments with the aim of strengthening the internal control environment. The capacity of the internal audit must be strengthened to realise this goal.

The outstanding consequent management investigations had been covered, and reports on the outcome were being generated. There were very few instances where losses had occurred due to irregular expenditure. The AG had indicated the majority of instances would be where people had not complied with legislation in terms of local content. The implementing agents had imported equipment instead of buying it locally, which did not result in losses to the state, but did translate to a loss of opportunity for local businesses in South Africa. The AG had reported that out of four irregularities reported, one had been resolved. The AG had also reported on instances where money was to be recovered, the Department had been successful in recovering it.

The findings of poor financial management in the PEDs would be addressed by departments individually by way of improvement plans. In a meeting with senior management, they had decided that each line function would develop an improvement plan. In addition to that, all these findings would find expression in the performance agreements of managers, which would be managed on a day-to-day basis, month-to-month basis, quarterly basis and semester basis to inform the performance reviews of senior managers. These were the mechanisms in place to address the audit findings.

The Audit Steering Committee was comprised of senior managers who reviewed progress made against the audit improvement plan. Money was available to address ECD issues, like learner transport and improving facilities. The Department of Transport was still responsible for learner transport. The Education Department identified the number of learners and their location, and the Department of Transport would then oversee procurement and the tender process. Therefore, the stance had always been that this would be better managed within the education sector. He said Mr Mafoko would be able to shed light on the criteria used when appointing a service provider. The observations of the Chairperson and Ms Christians were spot on about the tender process. There were instances where the people who did not own any form of transport applied for tenders, and once the tenders were awarded to them, they rented transport from a third party. The procurement regimes in place did not pick up on these issues -- if the applicant met certain requirements, the tender would be awarded.

The issues with infrastructure stemmed from the monitoring aspects in terms of capacity, where some companies worked with young and inexperienced individuals with limited support from more experienced staff. Following the Department's weekly meeting with the Minister and Deputy Minister, the monitoring aspect had been strengthened.

Regarding the APPs, there was not a single area where the Department had not delivered. There had been a marked improvement in infrastructure, with 90% delivered and 10% partially delivered. The target was for 32 schools to be delivered, and of that target, 30 schools had been delivered. This achievement was due to an increase in monitoring by the Department.

In response to the question posed by Ms Christians about fruitless and wasteful expenditure, he explained that they would start projects to provide schools with toilets and other amenities. While the process was ongoing, they would be informed the schools were no longer on the list. At this point, money had already been spent on equipment and consultants, which resulted in fruitless and wasteful expenditure. When they attempted to recover the lost money, they were met with a refusal from National Treasury. The Head of Departments (HODs) sign the lists for schools that need toilets, but cancel delivery of the toilets when the project is underway, which results in a loss of money. Unfortunately, this came from the vote for basic education, not for the PEDs. The Department would exercise caution in the future when assisting HODs with these projects.

Mr Mweli responded to Ms Ndongeni’s question on school closures. The schools were merged and closed permanently. When the DBE attempted to deliver workbooks at these schools, they had discovered the schools were closed and no longer existed. There were schools within the commercial farming areas which closed overnight, which was understandable because parents moved to areas with better economic activities, and schools closed for this reason.

Mr Solly Mafoko, Chief Director: School Infrastructure Planning and Delivery, said the Department of Transport managed learner transport in four provinces. These provinces were Mpumalanga, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape. As the DG had indicated, the procurement of service providers in those four provinces would be conducted by those respective departments. In most instances, the colleagues in the PEDs were not involved in the procurement process. In provinces where the Department of Education managed the function, the operations ran more smoothly and there were fewer queries about the roadworthiness of vehicles.

The goal was to collaborate with the Department of Transport to resolve the issues of overcrowding among other things. There was a need to develop a service design for learner transport, and all departments had been briefed on the guidelines and policies on what the service design should include. It should include route descriptions, vehicle types, timetables, trip costs and distances. The requirements should also include the required transport mode, as per specifications provided in the legislation by the Department of Transport. The roadworthiness of the vehicles should be inspected prior to allocating bids. The Members had mentioned tenders awarded to people who did not own buses, and that should not happen as there should be site visits to confirm the availability of vehicles. The qualifications of the driver should also be checked.

Buses would be available once the bid was adjudicated, but after the bid process, these buses were used elsewhere, resulting in problems. For example, if a route required the services of two buses, one of the buses would become unavailable and the remaining bus would be overcrowded. The provincial departments had employed the services of monitoring firms to check routes daily to ensure the correct buses were in use, there was no overcrowding and that buses were roadworthy. Each school should have a dedicated teacher who checks the condition of the buses when they arrive at the school. The teacher should also check that the correct learners were using the transport, and check if buses were not overloaded.

The learner transport policy was currently under review, as the Department had noticed issues in implementing the current regime. They were strengthening the parameters relating to the appointment of service providers. The draft policy would be made available for public comment, after which it would be submitted to the reporting structures for approval. The Department was developing a standard contract that would serve as a guide. The contract was being developed in collaboration with the Department of Transport. This standard guide would consist of parameters to use when appointing service providers and all other issues.

Regarding issues related to ECD infrastructure, cognisance needed to be taken of the fact that last year was the first time the function had been implemented, after it was transferred from the Department of Social Development to the DBE. This resulted in a myriad of problems, especially for the NorthWest province, which had struggled to implement the ECD maintenance programme. The challenges were identified towards the end of the financial year, and solutions to these issues had been implemented, which resulted in significant improvements related to ECD maintenance grants across provinces. There were monthly surveillance programmes in place which monitored the maintenance of ECD centres to assess if they qualified for subsidies.

He said the Department had 400 pending projects at the end of the second quarter of the current financial year, and since the end of the second quarter, 201 had been completed. This indicated a vast improvement in the implementation of the ECD maintenance, and they anticipated that all projects would be completed by the end of the financial year. The planning aspect had improved, as they already had projects for the entire MTEF in the pipeline, with plans outlining what would be done in each ECD centre for the next three years. They had requested additional funding from National Treasury to supplement the existing grant to ensure an improvement in access for young learners.

Dr Granville Whittle, Deputy Director-General: Educational Enrichment Services, said the coaches’ matter was a rural issue, which Ms Geyer would respond to.

Ms Simone Geyer, Deputy Director General (DDG): Delivery and Support, and Acting DDG: Office of the DG, replied that the Edulution Project had been running for a few years, and it had ensured that various young people in rural communities had been trained to equip them with skills they could use to find employment or pursue further studies. This training enabled them to become teaching assistants, which was the previous name, but they were now referred to as coaches. They essentially assisted learners in the classroom with homework and helped the teachers with administration work like photocopying. This was not a formal qualification, but the project had assisted coaches in obtaining Funza Lusaka and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursaries.

The Chairperson asked how the district development model (DDM) would assist the ECD in meeting its needs? The ECDs did not have accommodation and it seemed as if a creche in the townships needed to have five tyres and some space, and then qualified as being a creche.

Dr Mhaule responded that the DDM would help a great deal if everyone was united and worked together. In terms of the Constitution, local government was responsible for ECD facilities. Many departments were working together, and the DBE had inherited a system from the Department of Social Development (DSD) where people would get 50 children and register themselves at the DSD. The DBE was working towards a South African model of ECD. The municipalities were familiar with their population count, and knew how many young children were in their area. There were about 20 ECD centres in one village, yet only one or two primary schools were in the area. The new model would focus on equity, access, and redress. Many learners did not have access to ECD, and the DBE was working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure these learners were included in these programmes. The proposal would be presented to the Committee in the future.

Ms Komape added that AGSA would deal with the details once the model was conceptualised properly. The important fact to note was that a model must consider government as a network, so coordination across local, provincial and national government would always be best for the country, and that was what they were always advocating. Numerous challenges had been highlighted at the local government level, which still needed to be unlocked and attended to to prevent its magnification once some of the mandates were set at a particular level. Coordination would always benefit government in any aspect of service delivery.

Further Discussion

Ms Ndongeni asked about slide 57 in the presentation, which indicated that the LAMAP project, in partnership with the French embassy, had implemented an inquiry-based science education project in five districts across five provinces, providing support for grades eight and nine in mathematics and natural science. Given the weaknesses in senior phase mathematics and science, the Department had planned and implemented a grade eight and nine teachers’ capacity building programme in 14 districts. Could the Department elaborate on the success and further roll-out of the LAMAP projects? Regarding the 68% placement of Funza Lusaka graduates, she asked how these statistics were communicated to the general public, specifically within the context of attracting high performing mathematics learners to pursue teaching as a profession.

The Chairperson commented that some students who obtained the Funza Lusaka bursary and commenced teaching studies at Unisa were still unemployed. There were no available posts for teachers who were able to teach mathematics at a primary or secondary level. Was there a centre or website where teaching posts were advertised for these teachers? He expressed concern about people encouraged to become mathematics teachers, only to find no posts available.

Ms Ndongeni asked for an update on the process of vetting all educators.

Ms Christians asked about the school nutrition programme. The report of the AG highlighted discrepancies around unhealthy food products, lack of utensils and unclean environments which had placed learners at risk. The misuse of funds had led to inferior food and smaller portions for learners. The AG had reported that the reason for this was non-functional committees and coordinators at some schools due to capacity constraints. The reporting framework utilised for monitoring did not reflect the core areas to ensure progressive implementation. What was the Department doing to remedy the issues plaguing the school nutrition programme?

DBE's response

Mr Mweli replied on the school nutrition programme. He said they had been presenting to the Portfolio Committee on Education the previous day, focusing on KZN and the Eastern Cape, as those were the two provinces experiencing the most challenges in the past. The Portfolio Committee had received a report from the DBE and the two provinces indicating that the previous challenges had been addressed and no longer existed. He said Dr Whittle was working on a modernised national school nutrition program that would take it to greater heights. The aim was to provide learners with breakfast to provide the required protein.

In response to the Chairperson, he replied that vacancies were advertised in the provincial gazette. The posts were also advertised at the school level. There was a database of qualified people in different areas used by different provinces, particularly when looking for teachers for scarce subjects, like mathematics and science, accounting, business studies and economics. There was no central point where all vacancies could be viewed.

The process employed when allocating Funza Lusaka bursaries was executed at the district level, based on the needs identified, and from there it was elevated to the provincial level, and finally got collated at the national level.

Dr Whittle responded that the plan for modernising the school nutrition programme was to utilise economies of scale better, as the current budget was R9.2 billion and in the next financial year, the budget would exceed R10 billion. Both of the models currently being used on the programmes were not providing government with value for money. The Committee would be updated on progress related to the project.

In response to issues raised by Ms Christians, he replied they had had meetings with all the provinces to specifically address these issues and an action plan had been agreed upon. The national Department was tracking this plan, and they were confident these issues would be addressed during the course of the financial year.

Ms Geyer replied to the question raised about the LAMAP project. The programme, which was run with the French embassy and the French government, assisted in effectively identifying mathematics and science teachers who were part of the training programme. The training programme assisted them with skills in areas identified as difficult areas in which to teach mathematics. The focus was to assist grade eight and nine learners with concepts which would improve their understanding of these subjects in grades ten, eleven and twelve. The provinces which had visited France had been selected to be part of the training programme and to experience what was being offered in the training institute of LAMAP. Once the programme was completed, the next group of provinces would be taken to France to observe the learning programmes and materials, and what the development opportunities were. They would come back and participate in the training programmes within the provinces, and in time all nine provinces would be covered.

Mr Enoch Rabotapi, Chief Director: Teacher Development, replied to the question of whether an impact assessment had been conducted on the programme. He said they had not conducted any impact assessments. The Department had developed tools for impact assessments. Because the issue of impact was related not only to this programme, but also to other programmes being run in the Department, it was in the process of institutionalising the issue of impact assessments. It had conducted other processes as a way of measuring whether the work completed had made a difference. They used the pre-and post-test, although they had not used this test in the LAMAP programme. The tools would be piloted to be applied generically in any programme which required an impact assessment. This was a deficiency which had been identified, but there were plans in place to deal with it. The impact of this programme had not been measured at this point in time.

Dr Mhaule thanked the Chairperson for the meeting and promised to provide answers in writing to those questions that had not been answered. They were looking forward to returning after the examinations to report on their performance. The learners should perform well, but if not, it was beyond the control of the Department. She said this might be the last meeting of the quarter, and she wished all Members well.

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister, the Acting DG, and the presenters for responding to the Committee’s questions. They said the Department engaged with the issues not merely to comply, but aimed to solve the problems presented.

Committee matters

The Chairperson asked Members to look at the minutes from the 25 October 2023 meeting. He asked if there were any comments or matters arising from the minutes. He wanted to know if there were any new developments on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.

Ms Noluthando Skaka, Committee Secretary, replied that the BELA Bill had been formally referred to the Committee. They hoped to meet as support staff to look at the processes, and then brief the Chairperson with their proposals.

The Chairperson said they could be briefed at the next meeting on the progress of the BELA Bill.

The Committee adopted the minutes.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting.