20 Feb 2013

Tati East MP, Mr Samson Guma has pledged to adopt all schools in his constituency for the purposes of improving examination results.                

Mr Guma made the pledge to the Minister of Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, at a consultative kgotla meeting in Tati Siding on February 19.

The MP said he realised during his consultative meetings with Village Extension Teams (VETs) that the ministry of education could not be left alone to face the challenges bedeviling the sector.

He said for that reason, he had decided to go into partnership with the education leadership and parent teachers associations (PTAs) so that together, they could help tackle the issues surrounding the sector in their area.

To pave the way forward, the MP said they had agreed to draw up an action plan at their quarterly PTA meetings, which he would attend as a matter of necessity.               

Furthermore, he said he had arranged with the ministry’s north east regional director of operations, Mr Oupa Masesane to organise a workshop in which, together with teachers, they would meet to address concerns and challenges that make their work difficult to implement.                

Mr Guma said although they would not be able to address all the challenges, they wanted to have a conducive environment that would help teachers to do a better job for improved results.               

Meanwhile, some residents were still concerned that some teachers were apparently still on go slow despite the fact that their strike had long been called off.

PTA chairperson at Tashata Junior Secondary School requested the regional office to intensify inspection on how students were being taught.

He alleged that there were some teachers who instead of preparing class work such as notes in advance, they would tell students to prepare their own notes from text books.               

Another parent, Mr Themba Mguni, suggested that government should consider dividing the ministry of education into two because it had grown so large that one person could not be tasked to lead it.               

He further proposed that stakeholders who could afford to establish private schools like the Roman Catholic Church used to do, be assisted with land to mark their presence.               

Minister Venson-Moitoi appreciated MP Guma's determination, saying she would support his efforts because there was a need to improve results across the board.

She nonetheless said her office had received numerous reports regarding teachers who were still on go slow, saying action would be taken against such teachers.

In fact, she added, "the regional director has set up service standards to be circulated in schools in the region and PTAs will be notified so that they can monitor such standards as well."        

On other issues, the minister highlighted that although her ministry had been allocated the biggest share of the national budget, the funds were still not enough because about P5.3 billion of the P7.9 billion allocated to them was for the 26 000 teachers’ salaries, which consumed P3.1 billion and P2.2 billion for tertiary and vocational training respectively

She said the remaining P2.6 billion was for any other business, which included maintenance as a necessity, since many of the community junior schools need to be refurbished. ENDS