Mpumalanga continues investments in education
Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, who is passionate about education, said her administration will spare no effort in educating the province’s children.
One of the priorities of the government will be to resume the piloting of the robotic coding programme, which was postponed last year due to the pandemic.
“As part of the campaign of improving reading and learning capabilities at an early stage for our children, we will put more resources and emphasis on early childhood development as well as early grade reading for comprehension,” said the Premier.
“We will also increase the number of high schools that provide technical subjects to cater for learners who are more interested in skills development. Thirty-one circuits out of 70 will now have schools that cater for technical subjects,” she added.
The Premier further said the province was committed to working tirelessly to, among others;
• Eradicate sub-standard school infrastructure and add more classrooms in overcrowded urban areas that are experiencing an influx of learners such as Mbombela, Mashishing, eMalahleni, Govan Mbeki and Steve Tshwete.
• Award more bursaries to students who attend universities throughout South Africa. The province currently has 2 203 students at different universities funded by the government.
• Strengthen Mpumalanga’s national nutrition feeding scheme programme, which has yielded extremely positive results by reducing absenteeism and dropout rates, while at the same time fighting malnutrition and reducing hunger and poverty.
• Supply dignity packs to all needy learners.
• Provide learners and educators with a safe school environment by working with the police, police forums, school governing bodies, teachers, learners and other civil society organizations to fight crime and the substance abuse.
• Prepare plans and budgets to build a school for the deaf and blind in eMalahleni.
• Build a skills hub at eMalahleni as part of enhancing requisite skills that match industry expectations and requirements.
• Finalise the e-learning strategy in the first quarter of the upcoming financial year. Over this medium-term, Mpumalanga will roll out the distribution of tablets to all learners across the province.