Hon Chairperson ...
Hon House Chairperson ...
Yes, hon Chief Whip.
Could this House note the influx of people who had left the House to create the impression ... [Interjections.] ... that members of this Parliament are not disciplined; they were not here.
Chairperson, the hon members were at a committee meeting. [Interjections.]
Listen, you were complaining about the Ministers not being here. You were the ones complaining. You are now saying that your members were in a meeting. So, let us just leave it at that. When we did the quorum, your members weren't here; nor were our members, so ... [Interjections.]
Chairperson, with all due respect, you are supposed to be neutral when you are in the Chair. [Interjections.] It's not "our" members. It's members.
Yes. Our members. [Interjections.] Starting from there - our members. I think everybody has had their little bit of fun. Could we get on with the work of this House? Hon Malgas, please continue.
Hon Chairperson, the report, as has been said, is on the visit of the Basic Education committee to the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, between 10 and 19 January. The purpose of the visit was to check school readiness. As a committee, especially from the ANC's side, this was discussed broadly in our Budget Vote.
The problems that we picked up were: the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement, Caps; transport in the Eastern Cape; textbooks and workbooks; placement and distribution of teachers and temporary teachers; and administration on all levels.
I will just go to the resolutions, because under each school we visited we put forward a concern and a recommendation. I will just give the overall gist of all our recommendations. Number one: when it comes to district support, there is a need to intensify it and make it visible to schools, especially in assisting when it comes to maths and science, and giving leadership to schools and ensuring that each school has a turnaround strategy in place. There must be an action plan in place to absorb teachers into the system, that is our temporary and displaced teachers.
When it comes to Caps, the department should explore other measures to get buy-in from all unions to be part of the training processes of Caps. There is a need to revive the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, QLTC, throughout provinces as it is not functioning according to expectations and the prescripts of the department.
Additional funds should be made available to cover all learners that qualify for scholar transport. That was very prominent in the Eastern Cape.
We have to look at the overall roll-out of the infrastructure plan and address bottlenecks in the system. When it comes to tranches, they must reach schools timeously. With regard to textbooks and workbooks, an assessment should be made to determine where the backlogs are when it comes to their requisition and delivery. This problem should also be addressed. Thank you.
There was no debate.
Chairperson, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.