This article may contain graphic and/or adult content unsuitable for minors and sensitive readers.
Deputy Education Minister Enver Surty says he's encouraged by the progress that the Eastern Cape is making in addressing several issues affecting education in the province.
Surty wrapped up a three-day visit to the Eastern Cape on Friday, meeting officials and school principals in Port Elizabeth and East London.
He said the Eastern Cape has presented a comprehensive plan to address concerns around teacher vacancies.
Deputy Minister Surty says the Province has also managed to place a large number of excess teachers within the system into those existing vacancies.
He says the Department of Basic Education is confident that they're beginning to turn this ship around and steer it in the right direction.
The province has been holding public meetings with stakeholders in a number of the effected districts and 194 schools have been identified to pilot the provinces school rationalisation programme.
The Deputy Minister suggested that an innovative approach is needed to address urbanisation which has an effect on the provision of infrastructure and LTSM in schools. He inspired senior management with a number of possible ways to tackle the issues they faced and called on them to report back on their findings on the best ways to deal with this reality.
The Deputy Minister wrapped up his visit with a meeting with over 800 principals from two districts and communicated the plans and priorities of this government under the new administration with an emphasis on ensuring quality education for all our learners.
He covered the non-negotiables to effectively ensure we work together to deliver quality and efficient education to all of our learners. These include effective management of the curriculum and use of LTSM, the benefits of ICT, continuous teacher development and the use of the newly launched teacher development centres, an emphasis on MST and the important last push from the province to ensure that they are ready for, and improve their NSC results.
"These provincial visits are an important part of the monitoring and oversight role national government needs to play. It is also extremely valuable from the point of interacting with officials at a school level to get a real sense of the situation at schools in the province first hand. I look forward to returning to the province on my next visit to monitor the progress and see implementation of our discussions here," said Surty.
