RESPONSE OF COPE TO REPORT BY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION ON FOLLOW UP VISITS TO HUMANSDORP DURING THE HOUSE SITTING OF THE 27th August 2013. By: Hon. Angela Woodhall (COPE MPL) Greetings to Hon Speaker, Premier, MECs, MPLs, officials and visitors. As we said in the report on visits to the OR Tambo District, common problems are identified. It should be of great concern that in spite of efforts we acknowledge being made by the department there are so many difficulties on the ground. The report by the SA Institute of Race Relation talks about an ‘underclass’ which is identified as largely, unemployed, without decent housing and services, and poorly educated. This is in spite of the huge budget that is given to the department of education and a large handing out of social grants and subsidies. But we agree that the government should not be developing this underclass who are dependent. Education is a golden opportunity to give people the opportunity to raise themselves up. If 1 million learners enrolled for Grade 10 in 2010 and in 2012, 500 000 dropped out we are experiencing a huge failure rate that no matter how we improve the pass rate, fewer are benefitting each year and are adding to the poverty levels. This investment of the budget is wasted and the Eastern Cape find itself in the worst situation. The usual problems of a lack of infrastructure, lack of furniture, poor access roads in some instances and inadequate scholar transport were found in Humansdorp among all the schools visited. The loss of educators and a high vacancy rate give fuel to the need to give rural incentives. This should be followed up without delay. The provisions of language and appropriate language educators are hampering progress. The situation of vacant posts, including non- teaching staff, lack of educator discipline, all paint a dismal picture which needs to be tackled in a creative way. One just has a sense of neglect to meet the HR needs in this district. The serious societal problems call for a need for cooperation with other departments and Local Government. Crime includes learners using and involved with dagga, high pregnancy rates and HIV/AIDS related problems, all these lead to a dysfunctional learning situations for those involved and affected. During harvesting those schools such as Misgund Primary in the rural farming areas experience a high drop-out rate as the community depends on the seasonal work available and move around to get to the work. This really underlines the need to provide hostels in such areas. This school is in such a deep rural area that there are particular problems such as a lack of qualified staff willing to teach there. It seems that there is a need to be innovative and look at the situation as a whole. It may also be beneficial to identify schools which could offer grade R to grade 12 all on one campus, even with separate primary and secondary schools. The location of such schools would need to take into account the problems particular to these rural areas in Humansdorp and other similar districts. The fact that the district cannot find technicians to maintain computers and the network mean that communications are poor. The link with the District office and Head Office is weak. We wonder why Head Office has not strengthened this by sending technicians even from other districts. COPE advises the MEC to do exactly this. The fact that the committee found that money was deposited into school accounts without proper information is worrying. It also means that accounting is inaccurate and we all know that the Auditor General has criticised the department strongly for this. The fact that in some schools, the School Nutrition Programme and Scholar Transport is non- functioning is deplorable and disadvantages the learners in those areas. There is not true basic access to education here. The report is a follow up to the report and findings of 2012 when the Legislature went to Humansdorp. It seems that very little has changed for some schools. There does not seem to be planning for improvements specifically in this district. How many follow up visits will we have to make to see changes? The Congress of the People supports this report and deplores some of the worst findings which we as a province should be ashamed of. We look for action soon. Thank You.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 13:14:34 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015