Friday, 16 March 2018

MP's 'not pleased' with state of Eastern Cape schools


In this article, discussed are members of parliament who had hoped to see an improvement at schools identified for repair back in 2016 were instead met with the reality of service delivery failure. It is said a delegation of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is currently on the ground in the Eastern Cape.

They've described themselves as "not pleased" with what they are seeing. The leader of the NCOP delegation in Mdantsane, Lungelwa Zwane said that some projects are still in the same unpleasant state they were in, in 2016, during Taking Parliament to the People programme in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The delegation was tasked with checking progress made on service delivery challenges that were identified at schools in the area. After receiving a full briefing from the Eastern Cape Department of Education on what has been done‚ the delegation visited the schools.

Zwane also said they were left disappointed as they noted contradictory responses between what is reported and the reality on the ground. Both Ulwazi and Wongalethu High Schools had similar challenges of dilapidated infrastructure and inadequate Learning Teaching Support Material. The same problems were identified in 2016. Zwane's team said in a statement she "displayed her displeasure that the department sent junior officials who had no authority to make commitments on behalf of the department". "The delegation derived no happiness to see how learners were still crammed in dilapidated classrooms‚" they said. Although the delegation acknowledged progress made at Hlokoma High School in NU1 and Vukuhambe Special School in NU9‚ officials from the department were reprimanded for dragging their feet in implementing some projects. “The progress made shows that while today is bit better than yesterday‚ tomorrow can be even much better. However‚ there are still some outstanding issues and we will continue working towards ensuring that service delivery promises made to our people are implemented by all stakeholders concerned‚” said Zwane.

I think the NCOP's Taking Parliament to the People  programme is a great programme to have been established. It should enhance public education and pubic participation as it was designed for that. However, it seems the delegation is not delivering services as it should thus its not effective nor efficient. I'm glad that at least one of the delegation member does point out the mistakes done here. hopefully, they will stop dragging their feet in implementing some projects and  bring change.

Title: MP's 'not pleased' with state of  Eastern Cape schools.

Source: Times Live

Link: http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-03-15-when-mps-encounter-empty-promises/
 







1 comment:

  1. Really the schools in the Eastern Cape need the intervention of the govt, Eastern Cape is the province that the previous minister haven't been receiving any attention, in a way that they have scarce and limited resources even good teacher ran away from the Eastern Cape schools. They need to establish a team that will make it a point that there is development in the Eastern Cape and they must inject some Budget that will help with the development. Many ministers in the Parliament are from this same Eastern Cape, but they don't care about the development of where they are coming from that's what pains me the most.

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