Introduction
Provincial departments of education were requested to perform an evaluation of the opening of schools in the respective provinces under the following headings:
The responses have been summarised in the following subsections to give a general picture nationally, without giving details by province, except where this was found to be necessary and appropriate.
Admission of learners
Most provinces completed approximately 80% of the admission of learners by November 1999 in accordance with the policy on the admissions of learners published on 19 October 1998 (Government Gazette Notice No. 2432 of 1998). However, there were cases of late registrations in all the nine provinces during the opening of schools in January 2000. The major reasons cited for late admission and registration of learners are the following:
There have also been attempts to register children who are under-age and who would not be turning seven years of age during the year of admission. Most provinces have handled all the cases successfully. There remained, however, isolated cases which were not handled appropriately. These were largely refusal to admit learners in certain schools on the grounds that the school was already full, and school management failing to provide reasons for refusal in writing as required by the South African Schools Act (1996). All the cases for which the Department of Education received letters of complaint or appeal were referred to the relevant Members of the Executive Council responsible for education. The number of letters from parents complaining about how schools were treating them, with regard to admission, suggests that provinces are not providing enough support to parents on this matter.
The implementation of the Admission Policy has resulted in a drop in the number of learners in Grade 1. However no statistics have been provided to indicate in a quantitative manner what impact the decrease in the number of learners will have on the number of educators. All provincial departments of education are required to conduct a survey in this regard ten days after the opening of schools. More statistical information on the impact of the admission policy will be available as soon as the tenth day survey data has been analysed.
In general the admission of learners appears to have progressed well in schools that are properly managed. However, admissions were not completed on time in schools where management is weak. This appears to have been the case in all provinces.
Delivery of LSM for the opening of schools in January 2000
The Department of Education requested provincial departments of education to provide information on progress made up till 31 January 2000 regarding the delivery of learning support materials. The information is summarised in Table1.
Table 1: Summary of LSM deliveries to schools completed by 31 January 2000
| Province | Starting date of delivery | Grades | % delivered by 31 Jan 2000 | Projected/date of completion of delivery | ||||||
| T | W | S | T | W | S | T | W | S | ||
| EC | 22 Nov 99 (Grade 3) 18 Jan 2000 (Others) |
Grades 1, 2, 3, 7 & 12 | Grade 0 | Grades 1 to 9 | 10% | 0% | 60% | 18/02/00 | 18/0200 | 18/02/00 |
| FS | 20 Nov 99 (S) 02 Dec 99 (T) |
Grades 3 & 7 | Grade 3 | All | 90% | 90% | 100% | 17/3/00 | 17/3/00 | Done |
| GAU | 6 Sept 99 (S) 31 Oct 99 (T) |
Grades 3 & 7 | 3 Full 7 partial |
All | 98% | 98% | 100% | 28/02/00 | 28/02/00 | 28/02/00 |
| ZN | 18 Jan 2000 | 1,2,3,7 & 12 | Grade 0 | All | 20% | 0% | 10% | 31/3/00 | - | 15/3/00 |
| MPU* | Dec 99 | - | - | - | - | 98% | 98% | - | - | - |
| NC | Oct 99 | Grades 1 to 12 | Grades 1 to 12 | Grades 1 to 12 | 90% | 81% | 77% | 15/02/00 | 5/02/00 | 04/2/00 |
| NP | Nov 99 | - | - | - | - | - | 90% | 15/02/00 | 15/02/00 | 15/02/00 |
| NW | 11 Nov 99 | Grades 3 & 7 | Grades 3 & 7 | All | 70% | 70% | 100% | 18/2/00 | 18/2/00 | Done |
| WC | Dec holidays | All | Grades 1 to 7 | All | 95% | 95% | 85% | 28/2/00 | 28/2/00 | 28/2/00 |
| T – Textbooks W – Workbooks S – Stationery *Mpumalanga did not provide the breakdown according to grades and the 98% for stationery is an estimate. 70% of the publishers have delivered textbooks and are currently being delivered to schools. - Information was not supplied by the province |
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The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga experienced delays with the tendering process during the second half of 1999. Tenders were only approved late in November to December 1999. As a result of this, deliveries only commenced in January in KwaZulu-Natal.
From information supplied by the provincial departments of education, through provincial reports and responses to a questionaire, only the Northern Cape indicated supplying textbooks, workbooks and stationery to all the grades. The remaining provinces appear to have supplied LSM to grades which required materials for Curriculum 2005. None of the provinces had supplied all the textbooks by 31 January 2000 or by the due date of submission of the provincial reports. The reasons provided vary from shortage of funds in the case of KwaZulu-Natal to shortages owing to books that are out of print in the case of Gauteng and the capacity of suppliers and late deliveries by publishers in the case of the North West province. It appears from the table that some of the provinces, in particular the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, will only complete deliveries by the end of March 2000.
Attendance by learners and educators.
Attendance by learners varied from good to poor. In most provinces attendance in primary schools was reported to be good. Free State and North West reported the attendance to be above 80% in schools that were sampled, while in the Northern Province attendance at secondary schools was reported to be less than 70% except in former Model C schools, where attendance was reported to have been good.
Attendance by educators also varied from good to poor in some provinces. The North-West province conducted a snap survey in eight of its twelve districts. Six hundred and fifty three (653) educators were absent on the first day of school. Five hundred and four (504) of these had valid reasons for absence. No reasons were known for the absence of the remaining one hundred and forty nine (149). The Eastern Cape reported high absenteeism among its educators. Provincial authorities requested principals of schools to keep accurate records of educator attendance. The provincial department plans to charge educators who were absent without valid reasons and will give them leave without pay. I will expect reports from them on what they have done in the next report.
The Free State department of education plans, and in some instances has taken, disciplinary measures in cases of gross negligence of duty by some educators, e.g. in Bethlehem, a principal was suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. The remaining provinces did not reported any special measures that will be taken against educators that did not report for duty on the first day.
Start of lessons
In most schools nationally, teaching started on the first day. Follow up visits to schools which did not start with teaching on the first day were undertaken by the respective provincial authorities, and in particular attention was given to dysfunctional schools (schools with a pass rate of less than 40% in the 1999 Senior Certificate examinations).
Summary and conclusion
Members of the Executive Council responsible for education accompanied by senior officials visited selected schools during the opening of schools in January 2000. A general observation made during the visits, which applies to all provinces, is that all schools which are well-managed had made all the necessary arrangements for the opening of schools. Schools which were poorly managed on the other hand had not made any arrangements or very few, if any.
Most provinces had supplied schools with more than 80% of learning support materials ordered by 31 January 2000. The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga had delays in distributing learning support materials to schools due to delays in the tendering processes. As a result of this deliveries only commenced in January 2000. All provinces expected to complete remaining deliveries before the end of March 2000.
Since this was the first year we focused on getting the schools to start teaching on the first day, the situation is very pleasing. However, provinces will have to start now to prepare schools for next year. The Ministry will therefore ensure that provinces report fully on preparations for the admissions for the year 2001.