Education committees to visit KZN
Parliament’s basic education portfolio committee and the education and recreation select committee will visit KwaZulu-Natal, specifically the uMzinyathi education districts, from Monday to Friday.
“This forms part of the committees’ annual oversight programme to monitor the state of readiness for schools for 2016,” Parliament said in a statement.
The committees’ oversight approach entailed visiting provinces, districts, and schools to continually monitor and oversee implementation of key priority areas.
The committees, would among others, focus on the state of the school environment, the state of the admission and registration of pupils, the provision of pupil and teacher support material, school improvement plans, the availability of pupil transport and nutrition programmes, staff establishments, and updates regarding allegations of copying and cheating in certain examination centres in the province.
Portfolio committee chairwoman Nomalungelo Gina said the committee would like to have an understanding of the problems faced, contingency plans in place, and possible assistance that may be forthcoming.
KwaZulu-Natal was chosen for the oversight visit as this province had experienced the worst decline in the 2015 national senior certificate results and performed second lowest of all provinces.
The province had registered the highest number of candidates at 200,945 out of the overall national figure of 799,306.
Gina said there was a need to seriously look into the factors behind the decline in the province’s performance with the view to support and find solutions.