NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION 1492
DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 01/06/2012
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 15/2012)
Mr M G P Lekota (Cope) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
Whether an audit has been done since 1 January 2012 of schools that
are operating without (a) built infrastructure consistent with any
predetermined and approved standards, (b) the requisite distribution
of text books that had been agreed to and (c) the full complement of
appropriately qualified educators holding full-time posts; if not, why
not; if so, (i) what did the audit reveal in each case and (ii) what
measures has she put in place to remedy the problems against a given
time line? NW1771E
REPLY:
a) No audit of infrastructure has been done since January 2012. The
Department is utilizing the National Education Infrastructure
Management System to determine backlogs as determined in the
Guidelines Relating to Planning for Public School Infrastructure.
Provinces are, however, continuously updating the data on completed
projects and the department will also be undertaking an audit to
update the database during the current financial year.
b) A survey was conducted with the 15 underperforming districts that
showed a decline in the performance of Grade 12 learners. To date only
6 districts responded and indicated that there are shortages in most
of the projects. In each case shortages were above 10 textbooks per
subject. Provinces have been informed they should purchase textbooks
for each learner, for each subject from the National Catalogue. In
addition the Department is monitoring curriculum coverage and has
prioritised the matter during discussions with provincial and district
officials.
(c) Yes, an audit has been done since 1 January 2012 of schools that
are operating without their full complement of appropriately qualified
educators holding full time posts.
i) The finding was that the teachers who are not qualified as teachers
have been placed in full-time posts in a temporary capacity due to the
fact that they are in some cases not able to attract a qualified
teacher for the phase or subject required by the school. In other
cases, provinces are still in the process of redeploying teachers
additional to their staff establishment.
ii) The measures put in place to remedy the problems include the
identification of such vacant posts that require teachers with scarce
skills (such as Maths and Science) and then to place graduates of the
Funza Lushaka bursaries into the posts by the end of March 2012.
Action plans are in place in provinces to ensure that the redeployment
process is managed according to certain timeframes. The timeframes
vary in each province due to their individual challenges. This is
monitored and reported on at the end of each school term.