Education Matters

During a parliamentary briefing, the Deputy Minister of Basic Education indicated that the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI), which aims to replace mud schools and any unsafe schools built with inappropriate materials, has made significant inroads.

On inclusive education, the Department of Basic Education said it is on a drive to provide sufficient workbooks in Braille as well as technology for partially blind learners. It has been providing psychosocial support at the district level, and a new grant intended to better equip schools catering for special education needs has been received. The first expenditure of the grant is intended for appointing a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Every school for the blind has a Braille machine, but the challenge has always been poor maintenance of the machines. To this end, the funds have been partly dedicated towards equipping maintainers of the machines with the requisite skills.

The Department stressed that the abuse of learners could not be condoned and is unacceptable, and particularly in matters where principals are involved.  A Bill dealing with the competency of principals would be open for public comment soon, and once that is concluded it would be sent to Parliament.

Most provinces were profiling teachers through the Learner Unit Record Information and Tracking System (LURITS) in order to match their qualifications with the correct needs for each school.

Teenage pregnancy is a huge concern. The Department has a policy in place to tackle this epidemic, with an emphasis on prevention and education. According to the policy, a sexually active child could not be denied a condom.

MPs asked the Department about its home education policy, noting that the Department did not have resources to monitor schools. They also enquired about school infrastructure, IT connectivity, statistics relating to teenage pregnancy and the vetting and verification of educators.

Read the report here https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/25001/

In a written parliamentary reply from the DA, the Minister of Basic Education revealed the huge teacher shortage in the country. As at June 2017, the country had a total of 15 888 teacher vacancies. The worst affected provinces were Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. Earlier this year, the Minister said the lack of sufficiently qualified and competent teachers remained a major problem in SA, with KwaZulu-Natal the worst affected province.