Chair, the question relates to the comparison between public and private schools in terms of quality. The answer is that this is something that cannot be compared, Baba uMpontshane, because there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the quality of education provided by independent schools is better than that in public schools.
What we actually have is that 75% of the success in the sector comes from public schools. You have public schools like Westerford High, which can compare very well with any private school.
I don't think that is the issue. We have lots of very good public schools. You have your schools like Mbilwi Secondary and Westerford High, and all of them are public schools.
You have the worst of private schools, which are your fly-by-nights. So, it is not a matter of whether it is public or private. For me, the issue is to make sure that we provide quality education for all our children across the cultural, racial and geographical sectors. That is where we have a challenge.
The main thing is that all the programmes that we are trying to put in place are really not looking at the comparison between private and public, as such. Indeed, it is a fact that in other communities and other areas we are confronted by challenges in education because of infrastructure backlogs. That is why we have the Accelerated Infrastructure Development Plan to address that.
We have problems with management and leadership in schools. Again, those are the issues that determine whether we get quality or not. It is not whether they are public or private schools. I thought I should just clarify that - that we have a number of very good public schools. It is not whether they are public or private, but it is whether we get quality or not.
The short answer is that we have, indeed, put in place a programme to address all those challenges affecting us in producing quality education for all our learners. This programme includes private schools that are registered with us but produce zero results. They may be private, but some of them get zero results; so the programme is meant to address all the challenges within the sector, whether public or private. Thank you, Chair.