ANC to play role in E Cape education

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Johannesburg - The Eastern Cape education department needs to develop a new culture to help accelerate turnaround strategies, the provincial ANC said on Monday.

“The ANC believes that at the core of the education problems in the province is the absence of an institutional culture that is harmonious to the values and the type of education system we need to build,” it said in a statement.

“The infrastructure development programme for the department of education needs to be accelerated.”

It said the ANC decided at its provincial lekgotla at the weekend to play a more visible role in furthering education.

“Through its education sub-committee, the ANC will be central in monitoring the implementation of a turnaround strategy on a continuous basis,” it said.

“To this end, the ANC will also strengthen its branches to actively play a critical role in ensuring education is a societal matter and that parents play a critical role in the delivery of education.”

Last year, the national department of basic education intervened in the province.

It found that most of the problems there related to governance, and financial and administrative problems.

Statistics showed that there was a 15 percent decline in education performance in the Eastern Cape in 2010/11, while other provinces had improved.

Last month, the DA said thousands of textbooks had been burnt at a warehouse in Fort Beaufort, and that many pupils had not received workbooks in the correct languages.

The ANC said it would create organisations to deal with education in the province.

“The ANC will launch organs for people’s education in the form of the provincial education co-ordinating committee, to be constituted by progressive education stakeholders in the province,” it said.

“These structures will be replicated in the regions and branches... (and) will complement the work of the organs for people’s power in the education sector, like SGBs (school governing bodies) and councils.”

The ANC had also resolved at its lekgotla to investigate problems around land acquisition in the province.

“Provincial government and legislature must harmonise all old legislation that hinders land acquisition and development, especially in the former homelands areas,” it said.

“Government must audit and release land for development, speed up implementation of land disposal policy, (and) also utilise the housing development agency to perform the land audit.” - Sapa