Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education will next week undertake an oversight visit to the Ekurhuleni Education District in Gauteng to monitor and oversee the overall state of schooling in the province.

The visit forms part of the oversight duty and mandate of the Committee and will take place from 27 to 30 March 2017.

Committee Chairperson Ms Nomalungelo Gina said the Committee will assess whether educators and learners are in school and in class on time and if learning and teaching are taking place for the full seven hours a day. The Committee further wants to monitor the timeous delivery of learner teacher support material, the provisioning of educators and the progress made in the registration and admission of learners.

“The Committee would like to have an understanding of any further challenges, the contingency plans in place and possible assistance that may be needed,” Ms Gina said.

The Committee will have formal engagements with provincial education officials, school governing bodies and organised labour. It also plans to hold formal engagements with the Gauteng Portfolio Committee on Education. Various schools in the district have also been identified for in loco visits.

“The oversight visit grants the Committee the opportunity to learn best practices as the province of Gauteng has been doing well over the past few years in the National Senior Certificate examinations. The Gauteng Education Department also operates a relatively effective and efficient ICT programme, which could be replicated elsewhere,” said Ms Gina.

Please find attached the draft programme for the oversight visit.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, Ms Nomalungelo Gina