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The embattled Eastern Cape education department can at least claim it is rivaling its highly successful Western Cape counterpart in terms of the provision of Grade R classes at state primary schools.
Last week the the Western Cape education department announced it had already met its objective of universal access to Grade R by 2014, but latest statistics show that the Eastern Cape is not far behind in respect of Grade R attachments.
While Western Cape education spokesman Bronagh Casey revealed that at least 88% of public primary schools offered Grade R, with independent pre-schools largely catering for the balance, Eastern Cape education portfolio committee member Edmund van Vuuren said at the weekend 95% of Eastern Cape schools had attached Grade R.
Currently, a total of 1 288 schools offer Grade R in the Western Cape. These include 932 public schools and 356 private pre-schools.
Van Vuuren, who is also a DA MPL in Bhisho, said: "There are 4 615 primary schools in the Eastern Cape. Of these, 4 393 now have Grade R classes.
"Given the many problems in Eastern Cape education, this is a huge achievement. This means that more children are getting reading and writing assistance from an earlier age, which is excellent at the beginning of the foundation phase. We are very excited about this."
The vast discrepancies between the quality of education in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape where highlighted last year when Western Cape premier Helen Zille caused an uproar on Twitter by branding the droves of Eastern Cape pupils seeking better schooling in her province "refugees".
"This... inhumane statement coupled with unfair labelling against school children studying in the Western Cape are further testament to the fact that the DA thinks Western Cape is a place for whites only," ANC Eastern Cape spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane said at the time.
However well-known Eastern Cape education specialist Ken Alton said while the Eastern Cape's provision of Grade R was "a positive step,", it did not necessarily translate into the standard of education being improved in the province.
"It is very good that this has been achieved, but the problem remains that the quality of the teachers is still not there. The Western Cape has one of the best education systems in the country, but in the Eastern Cape there are huge numbers of teachers that are under trained," he said.
"The Grade R classes may be there, but the kids might just be there getting up to mischief with no teachers. The fact is that 80% of the kids in some of the traditionally African schools are still illiterate in Grade 6. What the Eastern Cape education department needs to focus on is how they plan to use these Grade R classes effectively."
Earlier this month Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga announced the Eastern Cape was no longer under national administration.
The department was placed under administration in March 2011 after officials in the province admitted to have overspent the department's budget by a whopping R1.8 billion.
The provision of textbooks to schools and the retrenchment of more than 4500 temporary teachers, followed by years of court action, have blighted the department in recent years.
Casey said an additional 50 public schools that currently did not offer Grade R in the Western Cape would be assisted throughout the year to ensure that they had the facilities to expand access to Grade R by 2014.
"This will include the building of 50 additional classrooms at 30 of the schools. The remaining 20 schools already have accommodation available, but require the assistance of the WCED to prepare for the introduction of Grade R in their schools.
"This will increase the estimated percentage of Grade R learners at public schools. Over 90% of our public schools will offer Grade R next year."
