Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature said it is set to monitor the functioning of schools across the province as it continues to monitor implementation through its education portfolio committee.
This comes as its members will be conducting oversight over the Department of Education. The legislature uses a programme called the School Functionality Monitoring tool to assess service delivery in various areas in schools.
These areas include availability of teachers compared to pupils, infrastructure needs, community involvement in the running of schools, the effectiveness of school governing bodies, and other needs that may negatively affect teaching and learning.
Legislature spokesperson Wesley Canham said that during the visits, recommendations to improve teaching and learning were generated.
“These are based on two areas, namely, there are those that are at athe level of schools, and those that require either the district or the department at head office levels to implement,” said Canham.
He added that a report would be compiled and debated in the legislature before it was ultimately handed over to the department for the implementation of the recommendations.
Education portfolio committee chairperson Sifiso Sonjica said the programme was of great assistance to the committee, and that it allowed them to get a sense of what was happening across the schools.
“It gives us an idea of the magnitude of challenges the department may be facing, and what needs to be done to improve the situation, and this means that the work of the legislature as the oversight arm of the state is fully enhanced,” said Sonjica.
Daily News