Parliament, THURSDAY, 27 February 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education yesterday commenced with its oversight visits schools in the Ilembe Education District of KwaZulu-Natal where it visited three schools.
The committee visited Groutville Secondary School, Stanger Training Centre for learners with special needs and Stanger Manor Secondary School. Earlier in the week the committee conducted oversight in the uGu Education District.
At Groutville Secondary School, the committee was confronted with serious overcrowding in classrooms. The school has a learner population of 2 752 with 111 educators. Most classes at the school have at least 70 learners. According to the school, they requested four additional classrooms from the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
The large school learner population has also prompted the school to request extra ablution facilities for learners and educators and the DBE made a commitment to do that in 2023. The school is also working on increasing its mathematics pass rate and intervention programmes have already been implemented.
Committee Chairperson Ms Joy Maimela said the purpose of the oversight visit is to assess the state-of-school-readiness for the 2025 academic year. This included the following areas of focus, amongst others,: learner admissions and teacher/learner ratios, early childhood development, National Senior Certificate 2024 results and improvement plans for 2025 and implantation of curriculum, including coding and robotics, mathematics, science and technology.
The committee will also focus on support for rural education and special schools (i.e. provisioning of resources); user-friendly infrastructure; preparing learners for post-school education/entry to workplace-based learning programmes; social cohesion, including gender-based violence framework; safety in schools; preparing learners to participate in school sports; and talent identification in music eisteddfods is to be assessed.
Learner/teacher support material; ICT roll out plans to ensure that all schools have internet connectivity, textbook and laptop retrieval systems; workbooks/stationery procurement and delivery, learner transport; and the National School Nutrition Programme will also be in the spotlight.
The committee applauded the staff of Stanger Training Centre for the initiatives they have undertaken to assist with the maintenance of the centre and for working with the private sector to ensure the building of new infrastructure and a computer centre specifically for learners with special needs.
“These initiatives must be commended. The school is working with the community and the private sector to ensure that it does not only depend on government for funding, especially in the tight financial conditions that the country is currently experiencing. It is a best practice model that many schools can learn from,” said Ms Maimela.
At Stanger Manor Secondary School the committee noted that even though the school had a high number of applications, it limited the number of learners it accepted in order to keep smaller classes. “This is what Quintile 5 schools do all the time. Part of the frustration of middle-class parents is when their application for admission is declined, they must look for an independent school. There, they pay more, whereas you could be making class sizes bigger,” said Ms Maimela. She agreed that the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act will address this matter as the Head of Department of Education in the provinces will now have the final say on admissions. The oversight visit continues tomorrow.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON BASIC EDUCATION, MS JOY MAIMELA
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Rajaa Azzakani (Ms)
Tel: 021 403 8437
Cell: 081 703 9542
E-mail: razzakani@parliament.gov.za
Arrange a tour