The Committee had a successful collaborative meeting with their counterparts; the Portfolio Committees on Basic Education and Higher Education, on improving the quality of education. At this meeting, the Departments' of Higher Education, Basic Education and Science and Technology had to explain their interventions in addressing the low rates in academic achievement in mathematics and science as well as the low numbers of science, technology and engineering students progressing to postgraduate studies. The Committees highlighted a number of shortcomings; yet remain hopeful that these challenges will be addressed by the Department of Basic Education's collaborative efforts between national and provincial departments through their "Action Plan 2014", which was developed to improve results by 2025. This further implied an improvement in the curriculum and content training of teachers. To give effect to one of the Department of Science and Technology's strategies of developing science, technology and innovation human capital to meet the needs of the South African society, the Committees undertook to have a follow-up workshop to further elaborate on these educational challenges.