Chairperson, when dealing with the Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal report, I don't think I will be long. I am giving this report on behalf of the whole committee because we all passed it. The multiparty delegation of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and the Select Committee on Education and Recreation conducted the oversight visit to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
In the Eastern Cape, we went to Ntabankulu, and in KwaZulu-Natal we went to uThukela District. The purpose of the visit was to do oversight and also assess the state of readiness. Coming to the challenges in the Eastern Cape, last week we had a report from the Minister and a debate was held. We are aware of the fact that the Eastern Cape has been placed under administration.
With regard to KwaZulu-Natal, we looked at the flood damage. The challenges were the unavailability of access roads and bridges. Sometimes learners could not go to school because of that. In some schools roofs were blown down; and some still needed workbooks. The school nutrition programme was not operating. They also had transport problems.
Within our report, you will find our findings and recommendations. The multiparty delegation again discussed the release of the matric results. I would like to give the results: Gauteng had 78,6%; Western Cape, 76,8%; North West, 75,7%; Northern Cape, 72,3%; KwaZulu-Natal, 70,7%; Free State, 70,7%; Eastern Cape 58,3%; Limpopo, 57,9%; and Mpumalanga, 56,8%.
The Northern Cape recorded the highest improvement of 11%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 9,6%. As the committee, we would like to congratulate the Gauteng province for being the top province, by achieving 78,6% after being the second best after the Western Cape in the 2009 results. This was passed by the whole committee.
On the oversight visit to the provincial examination centres in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, the findings were that the delegation was unanimous in the observation of a marked improvement since the last visit. It was observed that the deployment of the officials to Mpumalanga from the national department to assume responsibility for the administration of the National Senior Certificate, NSC, process had a positive and huge impact.
The importance of the visit by the portfolio committee to those regions was noted, not only when the situation was challenging, but also when there was significant progress. I won't speak about the recommendations. I think it was important that we went on that visit last year because, with regard to the examinations and the marking, the results were positive.
In conclusion, a person can see that we still have a few challenges at those centres. The way the matric results were done was a success. All those reports were accepted by the ANC, DA, IFP, ACDP, and Azapo. I thank you. [Applause.]
Declaration of vote: