Significant achievements in education
IThe Education Portfolio Committee, led by Joe Mpisi considered the Gauteng Department of Education’s (GDE) 2015/2016 Annual Report during a public meeting at the Magaliesburg Civic Centre, on November 4. The aim of the session was to bring the sometimes hidden oversight over provincial governmment the committee provides to the people.
In the 2015/16 Financial Year (FY), the Gauteng department of education (GDE) received R36 852 671 000 and it had spent R36 296 522 000 by the end of the FY, indicating R556 149 000 (1.5%) of the budget was not spent.
In terms of auditor general’s (AG) report, the GDE received an unqualified audit. The GDE recorded an irregular expenditure of R622 860 000 as a result of payments and goods and services for which proper procurement processes were not followed. Furthermore, the AG points out that goods and services with a transaction value of more than R500 000 were procured without obtaining the required price quotations as required by Treasury Regulations (TR) 16A6 1, and further procured without inviting competitive bids as required by TR 16A6 1, even though it was practical to invite competitive bids. In addition, contracts and quotations were awarded to suppliers without obtaining tax clearance certificates as required by treasury regulations. A school visit. The Gauteng Department of Education made great strides in several areas.
The GDE made significant achievements in the 2015 academic year which included the provision of scholar transport to 94 600 learners in 14 districts. There was provision of the National School Nutrition to 1 292 811 learners, while a total of 1 231 673 learners benefited from the implementation of the No Fee Policy. Amongst the successes that the Department has recorded, 240 learners were placed in formal learnership programmes and a further
1 479 learners were placed in Skills Development Programmes.
The Department recorded a grade 12 pass rate of 84.2% during the year under review, reflecting a decrease of 0.5% when compared to the 2014/15 matric results. The pass rate for physical science was 30.6%; for mathematics it was 34.1% during the year under review. The GDE has continued to provide support to public primary schools in the form the provision of training to educators, coaches
to schools, workbooks and other Learner Teacher Support Materials.
Fifteen new schools were completed during the FY under review, with 1 209 classrooms in Public Ordinary Schools built. In terms of Pillar 8 of school functionality and community involvement, the Department reports that it supported and developed school governing bodies (SGBs) and representative councils of learners, with the emphasis on improving management and leadership capacity in schools across the province, whereby 11 529 SGB members were provided with training.
The Department has recorded a noticeable increase of 2.8% in learner’s enrolment in Public Ordinary Schools. This increase in enrolment numbers shows that the GDE is committed to a constitutional mandate of providing access to public schools. Furthermore, in the year under review the Department has registered 11 additional public institutions; Public Ordinary Schools have increased by 10 from 2 070 in 2014 to 2 080 in 2015. The number of Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN) schools has increased from 137 schools in 2014 to 138 in 2015, of this 138 LSEN schools, 111 are public, four are independently subsidised and 23 are independent nonsubsidised schools.
In the 2015 academic year, the GDE had 83 036 registered educators including those in the independent institutions, of which 70% are state paid. This represents a 3% increase of teachers working in the sector when compared to 2014 statistics. In addition, the report indicates that there were 64 597 female educators in the province, including in independent institutions.
The report further indicates that the Department has continued to implement the Extra School Support Programme in order to increase safety in public schools, and to assist learners with sport and homework.