Motshekga on the state of education

From another Limpopo textbook saga to children waiting for space - 2017 has already been tough. 

Slindelo Masikane sat down with Basic education minister Angie Motshekga. 

Question: What is your as assessment of the 2017 academic year sofar? 

Motshekga: We have stabilized but we still have a few hiccups. The fact that we haven't completely mopped up (finished placing learners) in Gauteng and the Western Cape is a matter of concern. I thought by end of January we would be done. But MEC Lesufi has promised me by the end of the week he would have mopped up. We still have a few hiccups in Limpopo, I will be going to KZN, I haven't received reports from there. The Eastern Cape has lots of hiccups I need to go back there immediately. It's not 100% as we would've planned.

Question: You are asking learners to read more and watch less tv. But how are you going to drive this in an era of technology. Isn't the use of technology more of a threat?

Motshekga: There is still room for a hard copy in this technological era. When families can afford to buy kids kindles and books through ICT that would be great. Whether they read hard covers or through a screen we just want them to read and develop a reading culture

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Question: The demand for education proves a problem every year in some provinces. What is government doing to start addressing the fact that we are running out of class space?

Motshekga: It's a major problem in Gauteng. Gauteng has land issues. It's expensive, the quality of land can be problematic, most is dolomatic and building schools is expensive. But fortunately the MEC has a supportive premier so we think they will survive. But we must increase the number of schools and still improve the ones already there. They also need to deal with asbestos schools in coloured areas and old township schools with no infrastructure as well as new infrastructure to deal with ongoing urbanization.

Question: Will you persist in the practice of progressing learners even though they have failed? What is the logic behind this, and what's driving this decision?

Motshekga: The Programme of progressed learners is policy. We have always had it. The policy says a child can't repeat a phase twice. In grade 12 you can't be progressed you have to write -so we give them extra support. In Gauteng it has worked really well almost 60% of them passed, in the Free State 68% of them passed which shows that failing a child isn't always the solution but by giving then dedicated support we can assist them. We will continue with the policy because we think it is working out. We want schools to have remedial classes from grade 1. We must remediate throughout the system not only in grade 12.