The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education will this week visit KwaZulu-Natal to assess the readiness of schools in the province to take on the 2023 academic year.

The visits form part of Parliament’s constitutional responsibility to oversee the work of the executive and follow the money Parliament appropriates to ascertain the impact on the lives of South Africans.

Committee Chairperson, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, said the oversight visits will assess a multiplicity of issues to ascertain school readiness for the academic year.

“The ability of the system to rollout the academic year is dependent on adequate preparedness, the availability of learning and teaching support materials, adequacy and availability of learner transport, effectiveness of governance structures, such as school governing bodies, adequate support by district and circuit offices,” Mbinqo-Gigaba said on Monday.

The visits will include an interaction with the Provincial Department of Education, including district officials, associations of school governing bodies and organised labour.

The committee will also conduct in-loco site visits to schools where members will hold meetings with school management teams and relevant stakeholders in order to learn first-hand the state of schooling, and to discuss the challenges faced by schools with a view to support them to find solutions.

The committee will visit three educational districts in the province, including Zululand, Harry Gwala and King Cetshwayo.

The oversight visit programme follows the announcement of the 2022 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results, which saw KwaZulu-Natal achieve an 83% matric pass rate.

Mbinqo-Gigaba said the committee will use visits to assess the results and find areas where there is potential for improvement to ensure further progress by the system.

“Improvements at National Senior Certificate level are based on a functioning system at lower levels. Also, the inculcation of coding and robotics into the curriculum is necessary to produce a cohort that is needed by an evolving economy,” the chairperson said.

Today, the committee is scheduled to visit schools in Zululand Education District, including Phumanyova Technical High School, Manzezulu ECD Centre, KwaMame Full Service School and Zamimpilo Special School.

Source: South African Government News Agency