[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

2 March 2009

Earlier this year, during education Minister Naledi Pandor's visit to Mbizana, as part of our back to school campaign, the Minister and Eastern Cape Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase agreed that the dire situation in some of our schools and continued under achievement required concerted and joint effort in order to turn the situation around. They both acknowledged the significance of the Premier's turn around plan introduced last year that is focusing on learner attainment improvement strategy, infrastructure delivery, timeous delivery of Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) and School Nutrition Programme.

Subsequent to the Mbizana ministerial visit, a follow up meeting was held on the 24 January 2009, at the Esselen Park Convention Centre. The meeting was attended by the Premier, the Minister, MEC, the Eastern Cape Provincial Director-General, Director-General of the Department of Education and Acting Superintendent General of Education in the Eastern Cape.

At this meeting an agreement was reached on the draft implementation protocol on the provision of administrative support to the Eastern Cape Department of Education with the national Department of Education. The purpose of the protocol is as follows:
* To support the implementation of the provincial plan by identifying and agreeing upon areas of support to the Provincial Department of Education and to schools that underperformed in the 2008 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations and take steps to address these in a co-operative manner.
* To identify the roles and responsibilities of the various authorities in regard to improving the administrative and management effectiveness of the Eastern Cape Department of Education.

The focus area, actions and desired outcomes of the protocol includes amongst others the following:
* To ensure that quality education is provided by all schools in the province, and that the ECDoE is properly organised and resourced to sustain an enhanced level of performance. This will be achieved by providing support to the turnaround strategy of the ECDoE.
* The department shall nominate a senior official as a representative to serve on the provincial "Overarching Task Team" established to monitor performance by the departments.
* An overall project head shall be appointed in the office of the Superintendent General, who shall take responsibility for managing the provisions of the protocol and reporting to the parties on its implementation.
* Project managers shall be appointed to manage each of the five aspects of the provincial turn around plan, and they will report to the oversight committee on their areas of responsibility. Project managers may be drawn from either of the two departments, or other government departments. Persons from outside government may also be appointed as and when required.
* Project managers shall be provided with necessary human and other resources to be able to constitute a project team, which will intervene directly in their area of responsibility, as well as ensure that sufficient capacity is built to sustain the higher level of performance.

The five identified areas by the province for immediate attention are:
* financial management, including procurement and supply chain management
* human resources management, including a review and adjustment of the organogram, the filling of management posts, and the strengthening of management and leadership at provincial head office, districts and school level
* implementing the performance management and development system
* school functionality issues, including resources provisioning and their improvement of under performing schools
* management post provisioning issues, including the declaration of a post basket, and the filling of teaching posts.
The desired outcomes of the protocol is to provide quality education for all, and to secure the necessary administrative and management conditions for this, by providing support in the identified areas.

It is worth noting that the protocol was agreed upon as a result of the MEC's request for assistance. Today the MEC welcomed two officials from the National Department of Education who were introduced by the Director General, Mr Duncan Hindle at a meeting with the Eastern Cape Top Management. These officials are Mr Martin Mulcahy and Mr Sihle Mlambo who will conduct an analysis and evaluation of the education system. After two weeks a detailed report will be presented to the Minister and MEC detailing the extent of support required in line with the needs identified by the Eastern Cape Department of Education.

Enquiries:
Loyiso Pulumani
Media Liaison Officer
Tel: 040 608 4797
Cell: 083 275 0675
Fax: 086 514 9815

Issued by: Department of Education, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
2 March 2009