3. The purpose of the oversight visits was to assess the state of readiness of schools in these regions and the impact the extreme weather has had on them. There was an additional need to give support to the provincial departments of education in identifying the challenges and assisting in finding effective solutions to many of the challenges being faced. The visits formed part of the Committee's oversight responsibility to monitor and support progress in the implementation of education priorities, more specifically the expectation pronounced during the 2010 State of the Nation Address, for both learners and educators to be in school, in class, on time, learning and teaching seven hours a day. The Committee also aimed to assess school readiness in terms of the level of delivery of learner and teacher support material (LTSM), specifically workbooks to Quintile 1 and 2 schools as a key government initiative identified to improve the quality of schooling.