The DA in the North West welcomes the progress of Grade R-11 learners who advanced to the next grade. This a good step in ensuring that children in Kopela Village receive the quality education they deserve.

However, it was brought to the attention of the DA that since the academic year began, some learners from Grade 8 to 10 have not been attending school. Inexplicably, the Department of Education moved these learners to another school.


This happened despite promises from the North West Provincial Government to repair the school in Kopela Village.

This school was burnt during service delivery protest last year.


The learners lost months in the past academic year and it is evident that the crucial learning and teaching time that should have been dedicated to these learners has failed to be achieved at the beginning of this year. The substantial loss of teaching and learning time undermines the delivery of quality education to the learners of Kopela.

Kopela has become a monument to the inefficiencies of the ruling party in governing the North West province.  Their constant failure to deliver on basic infrastructure has resulted in the community losing trust in the ANC as a governing party.

The DA is of the view that it is not enough for the Department of Education to have only a recovery plan in place but should also implement an effective monitoring and evaluation system to ensure continuous progress.

The DA urges the MEC for Education Me. Wendy Matsemela to conduct an in-depth situation analysis to look at the number of learners who have left school, especially this academic year. She furthermore has to keep her promises to repair the school.

This will enable the department to fully understand the needs and challenges of Kopela and to address this. The DA will again highlight and represent the problems experiences in this community to the NW Provincial Legislature.

The DA also calls on Premier Supra Mahumapelo to accelerate the implementation of agreed programmes aimed at providing basic infrastructure to the community of Kopela, as this will help bring more hope of stability in the area.

Where the DA governs we have the best track record of service delivery. The DA has a pro-poor budget spending with over 76% of the provincial budget spent in poor communities, we have policies that create jobs and effective service delivery strategies.

Issued by DA