Principals have renewed hope that the obstacles they were faced with at the start of the new school year will be removed, after a visit by a high-powered delegation earlier this month.
Principals have renewed hope that the obstacles they were faced with at the start of the new school year will be removed, after a visit by a high-powered delegation earlier this month.
Teacher shortages due to the contracts of temporary teachers not being renewed, the school nutrition programme and pupils' transport were issues raised by Vellem High School principal, Ntsiki Mpahlwa-Mene, when representatives of the Eastern Cape's Portfolio Committee on Education paid a surprise visit recently.
Vellem and Benjamin Mahlasela were some of the schools in Cacadu visited in a mission to check on the preparedness of schools in the province since they re-opened last week. Schools in Ukhahlamba, Alfred Nzo, Amathole, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and OR Tambo districts were also visited.
"I am pleased that they came, because we know that they will address those issues," said Mpahlwa-Mene. "Some of the issues we talked about were the nutrition programme, and the shortage of teachers. We are under-staffed, because seven temporary teachers are no longer with the school.
"They were satisfied with the way the school is operating. Our next step is to write a detailed letter to them about the issues discussed and they will take the matter up later," said the Vellem principal.
Benjamin High School principal, Sandile Dude, however, refused to speak to Grocott's Mail. In Port Alfred, Kuyasa Combined School also got a visit. Principal Xolani Mayana said issues regarding scholar transport and nutrition programmes had been addressed.
"The official's visit was brief. We have 700-plus learners, who need to be put on the nutrition programme. We cannot expect them to go to attend classes on empty stomachs. "We currently cannot feed them all, so as the school we have chosen to scrape through any budget that we have and accept any donations from businesses in Ndlambe. But this is just temporary, because the department said they would address these issues," said Mayana.
Nathaniel Nyaluza High School principal, Manga Nkwinti, described the visit held by the team and School Management Team as "very brief and promising".
"They enquired about our teacher shortage. We currently have three areas that need teachers, since the temporary ones are no longer with us. These are Geography, Business Studies and Life Sciences. We are worried about under-performing, as the teacher-shortage is affecting the quality of education we provide," said Nkwinti.
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Mzoleli Mrara, said the committee had discovered many irregularities and planned to conduct more visits during the course of the year. "The ruling party dedicated the month of January as the Month of Education," said Mrara.
"We follow up on all schools, motivate learners to love education and get an opportunity to interact with various stakeholders about challenges that they face on a daily basis. Seven teams were dispatched across the province to visit schools, and they are still compiling reports."
Mrara mentioned that the committee was highly disturbed by the high rate of absenteeism by teachers and pupils – especially in the Grahamstown district.
"The Grahamstown region is so far one of the highest when it comes to pupils and teacher absenteeism, and that's why we pay such schools surprise visits," said Mrara. "The absenteeism rate is high and very worrying. We don't understand why this is the case, because there are very few schools in the area compared to other districts. This is now one of our priorities," Mrara said.
Last Thursday, Education MEC Angie Motshekga said the provincial department was ready to lift the suspension of scholar transport in certain categories of school, "especially the outlying rural areas".
"When the new MEC and Superintendent General took over the department, it was decided that the School Nutrition Programme and Scholar Transport system be suspended, because they discovered that there were a lot of abnormalities and fraudulent activities," said Mrara.
The department's spokesperson, Loyiso Pulumani, said schools had been asked to provide information about these two programmes. Motshekga indicated that the province was in the process of identifying routes, especially in outlying rural areas in dire need of the service. Distances to schools in some places were so great that getting there would be out of the question, were it not for organised transport for the pupils.
"Principals of such schools have been asked to provide that data – the distance travelled and the number of affected learners," Pulumani said. To prevent the scheme being abused, a police affidavit had to be attached that confirmed the information provided was true and complied with the department's guidelines for providing school transport.
