EE CALLS ON EC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO ACCEPT MOTSHEKGA'S LEADERSHIP

Equal Education calls on the Eastern Cape Education Department of Education to respect Minister Motshekga's intervention and accept her leadership

Equal Education supports the Minister of Basic Education's efforts to intervene in the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE). We applaud her call for President Zuma to support compliance in the province, showing commitment to the resolution of an urgent crisis in education service delivery. Non-cooperation and resistance by provincial department officials has led to "paralysis" of the intervention process, thereby derailing recovery from administrative collapse.

In March 2011, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) invoked section 100(1)(b) of the Constitution to intervene in the management and operations of the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE).

The takeover was necessary for the following reasons:

- Teaching Posts: More than 4,000 temporary teachers arrived at schools on the 17th of January this year to find that their contracts had not been renewed because the ECDoE could no longer pay them. This hit rural areas hardest. Some schools had extra teachers ('double-parking'), while others were understaffed before losing the temporary teachers.

- Transport: The funding crisis in the ECDoE meant the scholar transport programme was stopped in January 2011 leaving more than 100,000 learners without transport to school.

- Nutrition: The School Nutrition Program in the Eastern Cape was stopped due to lack of funds, despite huge under spending in previous years. Tens of thousands were going hungry.

- Mud Schools & Infrastructure: There are 395 "mud schools" in the Eastern Cape. Due to a settlement in recent litigation between seven mud-schools and the national and provincial departments, R6.3bn has been allocated to replace all inadequate structures by March 2014. There is little chance of the dysfunctional ECDoE implementing this on its own.

- Financial Mismanagement and Corruption: The ECDoE province has been receiving adverse and disclaimer reports from the Auditor General since 2005. Financial mismanagement is not a new phenomenon in the EC but one which Equal Education feels must now be addressed decisively.

We support the Minister in her intervention in the Eastern Cape. It was necessary for the Minister of Basic Education to in intervene in order to fulfil the DBE's statutory and constitutional obligations towards learners in the Eastern Cape. National ministers often have limited powers to implement and act, and S100 provides one such method of direct control, when necessary. Another important power in the Minister's hands is to prescribe regulations, for example for basic infrastructure standards, something she has failed to do.

This intervention is an opportunity for the ECDoE to be supported by the national DBE and receive training and development in managing and service delivery. We urge the EC administration in general, and ECDoE in particular, to work together with the DBE in providing children with the basic right to education and dignity.

The Constitution clearly stipulates that everyone has a right to a basic education and a failure to provide education in the EC will be a violation of this right, and a disgrace to our people. Our government has set education as a key priority.

We urge the President to support the Minister of Basic Education in order to fulfil one of the government's key priorities to provide our children with education.

Statement issued by Dmitri Holtzman and Karabo Monatisi, Equal Education, September 13 2011

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