Capacity building of STEM educators: DBE briefing; with Minister & Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening remarks from the Chairperson

The Chairperson asked that a minute of silence be observed for the late MEC of Education in the Free State, Mr Tate Makgoe. On behalf of the Committee, the Chairperson expressed shock over the news of the MEC’s death and shared fond memories of the late MEC. She commended the MEC’s contributions to education in the Free State and expressed her condolences to Mr Makgoe’s family, the Free State Government, its learners and educators.

Minister’s remarks

Ms Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, thanked the Committee for the opportunity to reflect on such a stubborn area. It was important for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to report and share its attempts and efforts with the Committee. She said this area was important and the Committee would get an idea of the challenges from the presentation. When it came to this area, the DBE was still learning a lot.

The Minister was honoured that a moment was given to recognise Mr Makgoe, who was a key proponent in dealing with concerns around maths. He introduced innovative interventions such as maths labs, walls painted with mathematical shapes and mathematical games in primary schools in the Free State. He introduced ways to inspire children to interact with maths. The Minister said the death of the MEC was a big loss and shared the details of his memorial service and funeral which would be a Provincial funeral.

Director-General’s remarks

Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli, Director-General, DBE, greeted the Committee and everyone in attendance. He requested that, in terms of the presentation, maths and physical science be seen within the context of technical mathematics and technical science that was introduced to Grade 12 in 2018. He said the success rate in these two subjects was seeing a gradual geometric improvement however, more traction was needed. The needle had moved regarding participation and success rates in these subjects. The DBE is not meeting the targets of the National Development Plan (NDP). However, it has to be noted that the NDP targets were set without taking the technical maths and technical sciences into consideration, because the conception of these two subjects does not feature in the plan.

DBE briefing: Capacity Building of SA Educators  

Mr Seliki Thlabane, Chief Director: MST and Curriculum Enhancement, DBE, and Mr Phillip Dikgomo, Director: Teacher Development, DBE, gave the presentation.

In collaboration with DHET & DSI, the DBE has reviewed and finalised the Integrated National Strategy for MST Education (2019-2030). Its key activities are:

• The establishment of MST Directorates and MST Institutes to ensure effective coordination, support, and monitoring of the MST Education activities across the provinces.
• Continuous Review of MST curriculum offerings responding to the skills required for the 4th industrial revolution in both GET and FET phases.
• Development of a Mathematics Framework, directed at introducing a balanced and multi-dimensional approach for teaching mathematics.
• Teacher development.

South African learners underperformed according to analyses done by TIMMS (2003-2019) and SACMEQ (2000-2013). 37% of Grade 5 learners demonstrated that they had acquired basic mathematical knowledge. Only 41% of Grade 9 mathematics learners demonstrated that they had acquired basic mathematical knowledge. The Mathematics Catch Up Programme (2023 – 2027) should be used in conjunction with CAPS. The programme still needs to be developed.

Nationally, in 2022 55% of learners passed mathematics at 30% or above. 37.8% passed at 50% or above. For physical sciences, 74.6% of learners passed at 30% or above and 35.3% passed at 50% or above.

Teacher development and support in South Africa are guided by the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework (ISPFTED, 2011 – 2025). In view of the weaknesses in Senior Phase Mathematics and

Science, the Teacher Development Implementation (TDI) planned and implemented a Grade 8 & 9 teachers’ capacity building programme in 14 districts. The programme was implemented in

2021 and in 2022 in the 2nd quarter. 1038 Grade 8 & 9 Maths (530) and Natural Sciences (508) teachers were trained in 2021.1009 Grade 8 & 9 Maths (505) and Natural Sciences (504) teachers were trained in 2022. In collaboration with the five Teacher Unions, more than 20 000 teachers were trained in Coding and Robotics as well as Digital Skills. Various other training programmes were undertaken.

(More details in the presentation).

Closing remarks

Dr Reginah Mhaule, Deputy Minister of Basic Education, said it should be acknowledged the late MEC Makgoe was not the only person who passed away as he was accompanied by his protector at the time. She said protectors were a part of the police force and therefore served the state. The Deputy Minister said he needs to be honoured too, much like the late MEC.

The Chairperson agreed with the Deputy Minister and apologised for her omission. She asked for comments and questions from the Committee.

Discussion

Mr P Moroatshehla (ANC) said it was a good presentation and emphasised the improvements made regarding maths, science and technology. The performance was encouraging and was starting to be comparable to other countries. South Africa is rising to the challenge and they could now see the light at the end of the tunnel. There were improvements and the DBE deserved praise for this, as encouragement of teachers and the Department was important in bettering learner outcomes.

However, he was concerned about continuing momentum in addressing these issues and maintaining the current standard. This meant that more effort was needed on the DBE's part. This is because there is a challenge of maths, science and technology teachers not extremely qualified to teach these subjects. The DBE initiatives ensured that these teachers were equipped with the necessary skills to effectively teach these subjects. However, what is being done to ensure momentum in addressing this issue? He asked if the Department had incentives in place. Some subjects would always have challenges. Once the standard is raised, it is important to keep the ball rolling at the same level and this could be done through the incentivisation of teachers. Ensuring that teachers do not leave the profession for greener pastures is important. He said this was an important issue for him as a former maths and life science teacher.

Ms M Van Zyl (DA) said that if sugarcoating was a subject, the DBE would get A grades. Slide 8 states that teacher development remains a critical dimension for the MST Education Strategy, which needs to be based on an audit of teachers’ competency levels. Ms Van Zyl asked if this audit had been done, what it revealed and what the DBE did about the information it revealed. Are there sufficient subject advisors to assist teachers? What gaps were identified and what is the DBE doing to close these gaps? Has the identification and conduct of relevant intervention programmes to improve participation and performance been done? If this has been done, what were the outcomes and did the DBE have to address any shortcomings regarding this?  

Ms Van Zyl also referred to slides 14 to 26 and the terms and examinations written in specific years. She asked how it was possible that in Grade 5, 63% of learners had not acquired basic mathematical knowledge and that in Grade 9, 59% of learners had not acquired basic mathematical knowledge. Year in and year out, some programmes are said to be improving learning. However, it is clear in the situation analysis presented that urgent intervention was needed as these programmes are not working. She pointed to slide 55 and its mention of the integrated strategic planning framework from 2011 to 2025 to assist teacher development and support. This programme has been active since 2011 and it is now 2023. The outcomes reflecting the maths percentages were not great. It is important to ask if this programme is working.

Mr B Nodada (DA) expressed his condolences for the loss of Mr Tate Makgoe and his protector. He said the loss was a massive blow to education as he would have made great contributions.

Mr Nodada said the issue he had was one he had consistently raised about the professional development of teachers. He said the maths, science, technology and innovation area was important. He added innovation because he recommends the DBE refer to this area as STEM. This is because it is advancing with many innovative subjects like coding, robotics, maritime and other things. Many new subjects are being added to advance the education curriculum, and the professional development of teachers and the outcomes of the inputs made in the education process needs to be monitored.

He said Ms Van Zyl covered the fact that although improvement has been made since the beginning of the country’s democracy, they must be honest about it. This is to ensure that challenges are nipped in the bud. It is not to be uncharitable about the progress being made, but rather to provide a true reflection of where the country is. He said the current situation was that 41% of the country’s maths teachers that participated in the international test for maths got as low as 41% for the test. This was something that should be concerning because it meant that there could be a large number of teachers who could not pass the subjects they taught. He said for languages the percentage rate was 32%. Honesty is needed about the depths of the challenges in the quality of maths teaching and whether the DBE was professionally developing teachers at a level that ensured they could compete at an international level.

It is also important to ensure that teachers are knowledgeable enough to transfer knowledge to learners in a manner that results in good outcomes. He said that the second component of the professional development of teachers was learner performance. There has been a drop in the uptake of mathematics as a subject over the years. This was concerning, particularly in the Northern Cape and Western Cape. As much as a claim could be made about the improvements made in STEM subjects, there should be concerns about the dropping number of students who take STEM subjects. Beyond the uptake of the subjects, what must be of concern is not the number of students who pass but the depth and quality thereof. It was found that provinces with lower uptake rates had more depth and quality of understanding in these subjects. How could the professional development of teachers be improved to international standards so that teachers could transfer knowledge to learners? He said these subjects opened academic pathways for learners, especially those intending to pursue tertiary education. This is why it is important to be honest about the challenges that South Africa has in terms of the quality of teaching in classrooms.

Mr Nodada suggested that an Independent School Monitoring Evaluation Authority needs to be established. The quality of teaching needs to be measured to identify professional development areas so that teachers who obtain as low as 41% in international benchmark tests have the opportunity to improve. This area needs outside intervention, particularly in STEM. This authority was not to police teachers. He said an intervention such as the one he suggested would not be new as similar bodies have been implemented in countries with a similar economic size to South Africa. He said thought needed to be given to the programmes implemented so far, if they were professionally developing teachers at the level they wanted, and whether the teachers were transferring knowledge to ensure that learners were performing internationally set standards.

He asked how many teachers had been audited and the outcomes of this audit. If an audit had not yet been done, when would this be done? Mr Nodada asked if the audit would include all STEM teachers so that a clear picture could be provided of the quality of the pool of teachers they had and what could be done in terms of professional development to improve the pool of STEM teachers. He said it was three years into the Integrated National Strategy for MST Education but agreements on specific roles and responsibilities had not been reached with all stakeholders, including DBE, DHET, DSI, businesses and academia. What was the reason for this? Have there been engagements regarding this and if so, how far along were they? This was to ensure that the stakeholders would know how to meaningfully contribute to the development of teachers because it could not be left to the DBE and unions alone. What measures are in place to ensure teachers coming straight from universities are adequately qualified to provide quality education? How could it be ensured that universities were providing what was needed in terms of quality teaching in classrooms? Studies have indicated that not all teachers are qualified enough to provide quality education, and engaging DHET and universities on these issues was important.

He noted the DG had mentioned that engagements with higher education were taking place but he wanted to know if this particular issue around the professional development of teachers in STEM subjects was being engaged with. To reach the 2023 target, double the improvement would need to be shown between the last two tests. Given the vastness of the education problem and the COVID lockdown, reaching this target would not be feasible. This was also indicated in the presentation. Is there a forecast of when they would see the performance of learners in particular tests? Results are supposed to be released soon. How many artisans have been trained and in what areas were these artisans trained? This information could be sent to the Committee if it was not readily available. The Committee had received a large volume of complaints from teachers regarding the admin they had to go through which resulted in, as per STATS SA, a 12% loss in teaching time in the classroom. He asked if thought had been given to what the DBE could do to address this issue, considering that teaching capacity is unlikely to improve if this problem persists. He said he had suggested before that education assistants be made permanent to assist in various capacities such as admin. He asked if there were other mechanisms the DBE was using to address this problem.

The Chairperson said that in terms of coding and robotics, the Committee could ask to receive a presentation on it to track progress specifically regarding ICT and connectivity in the provinces. The presentation acknowledged the large underperformance in MST subjects (of which mathematics was the worst) and provided reasons for the underperformance. This included insufficient number of teachers qualified to teach Mathematics, Science and Technical subjects, insufficient support given in terms of uneven and inadequate number of subject advisors in these subjects and an insufficient number of appropriate Departmental Heads (DHs) in secondary schools. Only 43.8% of DHs are fit to support mathematics and science.

There is a serious perception that non-South African teachers are teaching maths and accounting. The Committee needs a detailed account of who maths teachers are and from which country they come from. This would provide a clear picture of how many mathematics teachers the country had. This was also coupled with subject advisors in the country. The Chairperson said the DBE would need a unit to monitor and evaluate maths. Earlier, the Minister said that there was a stubbornness to improvement in the country and they needed to acknowledge this stubbornness. Maths is an important subject and they needed to put all their hands in to deal with the challenges faced. She welcomed the fact that young girls are the ones passing mathematics and appreciated the effort being put in to motivate young girls to take mathematics.

Responses from the Department of Basic Education

Minister Motshekga thanked the Committee and asked the Director-General to lead the responses to the issues raised. She noted that he would not be able to answer all of the Committee’s concerns readily as some of their concerns needed deep consideration and perhaps the Deputy Minister could speak to these concerns later. The country has been successful in the development of maths and science. When she started at the Department, the challenges with maths were dire and they used to import teachers from India, Zimbabwe and other countries to come and teach maths. The country is now at the stage, through the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme, that there are not enough posts for teaching graduates. She said the DBE could show the Committee the excess number of teachers produced that they were unable to place but this was a discussion for another time. As a result of this excess, she asked the DBE to redirect the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme funds toward maths and science. The introduction of new subjects such as robotics and artificial intelligence could be used to incentivise in these areas. There was adequate supply now in terms of the three-stream model and the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes. With the ECD programmes, there was a prioritisation of skills that were meant to ensure desired outcomes.

She said the system rests on the shoulders of teachers. If there are no good teachers, the DBE policies would be meaningless. Good teachers are needed for successful implementation. The Minister said the Department does have working relationships with Higher Education because it is responsible for the development of teachers. It was not good enough to rely on in-field professional development. Rather, what is needed is robust development of teachers in the higher education sphere. The new cohort of teachers has benefitted from improvements made since the establishment of a democratic South Africa. Teachers were not entering the field with degrees that come with strong content, as the students attended classes with medical and engineering students. The challenge was that although teachers had a good university education, because these universities were not teacher-training colleges, students would not be adequately prepared for classroom teaching. This is easier to address, though. With experience and engagement with other colleagues, teachers could pick up techniques and methodologies to teach different topics.

Mr Mweli said that the [former] Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, had been leading a team concerned with developing a South African framework for teaching mathematics. Prof Phakeng is a strong proponent of code-switching as she came from a school of thought that believes there is nothing wrong if a teacher switches the language being taught during the class. This indicates that much is being done in the system but it takes a while to take shape. In education, it takes 12 to 13 years to see results. He is aware that South Africans do not have this much time to wait, but even with the Integrated National Strategy, expecting immediate results would not be correct. Improving performance in maths, science and technology is crucial. 65% of learners are not prepared for school and the census in the ECD stated that of the intended 4.3 million learners, only 1.6 million were benefiting from the ECD programme. There was an improvement in MST but it was not as good as they wanted it to be. The targets were there in terms of the NDP. However, things are not improving fast enough and in a sustained manner to meet these set targets.

The DG said that Mr Nodada was right. Whilst celebrating the progress made, they must still recognise the present challenges which were mentioned. Incentives were important to galvanise the DBE’s efforts to improve MST subjects. Some incentives are part of the bigger incentive scheme of the National Teaching Award and the District Excellence Award. They were relooking all the incentives in the basic education sector. Teachers are qualified to teach maths and have been dealing with getting teachers fully equipped to teach mathematics at the foundation and intermediate phases. This was because at those levels, especially the foundation phase, there was one teacher in a class who would then be expected to teach all the subjects including mathematics. Many years ago, an audit revealed that these teachers were not equipped to teach math at the foundation and intermediate phases. The Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme addressed this issue.

In terms of teacher competency, pre and post-tests were administered. This was not just for maths, science and technology but other subjects. These tests were ongoing, and the Department did not only rely on international benchmark tests but also administered its own tests. Before a professional development initiative, a pre-test was administered as well as a post-test to assess the impact of the initiative. He agreed with Mr Nodada about not claiming easy victories and about being honest about the present challenges. What is also needed is to pair participation rates and success rates as provinces with high success rates had very low participation rates. Logic would then tell us the high success rates were due to the low participation rates and therefore there is a need to balance the two. Provinces are being pushed to do this through the implementation of the MST Strategy Plan. The plan is to get provinces to get more learners into mathematics and to ensure these learners do well in the subject. This was the balance that needed to be maintained. Regarding the drop in the uptake of mathematics, the DBE would be monitoring each province's yearly intake of maths students. The DBE would also push these provinces to improve upon these numbers as many were not where the Department wanted them to be. The inclusive basket being introduced to monitor these provinces would apply more pressure on them to improve uptake rates as it included both participation and success rates of STEM subjects.

Mr Mweli acknowledged that quality teaching of maths was crucial to their efforts and international studies have highlighted some of the concerns the Committee shared. In terms of the depth and quality of learners’ knowledge, this was something that was being looked at. Trimming the curriculum has afforded students and teachers time to focus on depth, which has been a weakness in the education system. In terms of an independent monitoring and evaluation unit, there was one which was a part of the DBE’s quality assurance policy mechanism. It was customised and was established in line with the standards found in the United Kingdom. He suggested that perhaps more could be done for this unit to have more expression when it comes to maths and science. In terms of teachers from universities, he said some of these teachers were fully qualified but did need some handholding and orientation like other qualified human beings. He said that teachers from universities were much stronger in subject content and knowledge, and the Department has asked universities to strengthen the pedagogy.

In terms of meeting targets for TIMMS, he said if they worked hard enough to make improvements, they could reach these targets as they did in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He did, however, take into consideration the impact of COVID and other challenges education faces but South Africans never fail to surprise in areas of performance. Concerning the huge amount of administration, when the Minister visited the Department in 2009, she attempted to address this through CAPS and we were told CAPS reduced this. However, complaints from teachers are still being received. This is being addressed through teacher unions and experts as the Department looks to strengthen the curriculum to recover from the teaching time lost. The permanent hiring of education assistants is something the treasury is working towards and this is also something the DBE wants.

He agreed with the Chairperson that the DBE should return to present the progress and plans for coding, robotics, ICT and connectivity. He was still waiting for the Committee to call back to present on the dropout rates as requested by the Department but he acknowledged the pressures the Chairperson faced with public hearings. In terms of underperformance in MST subjects and the insufficient number of teachers to teach these subjects, this is not an issue that the DBE faces anymore. A detailed breakdown of who was qualified and teaching MST subjects would be provided to the Chairperson. With the progress made according to TIMMS, Mr Thlabane would speak to the threshold used. Good progress is being made but they may not have exceeded the threshold that was set.

Mr Thlabane said that the Department did not train artisans as that was the DHET’s job. However, where there were shortages in technology subject teachers, government allowed for the employment of professionals who possess the knowledge and skills the DBE does not possess. These people were not teachers but could be appointed as per the provision and were usually appointed as assistant teachers. However, the DBE immediately placed these professionals in PGCE programmes to ensure that they became qualified teachers. In terms of reaching agreements with sister Departments’ roles and responsibilities, he said the DG had signed a protocol agreement with his counterparts in each Department which outlined their roles and responsibilities. The DBE’s defined role was to provide the curriculum that learners were exposed to and the DHET’s role was teacher preparation.

The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) was tasked with running a learner advocacy programme. These programmes are meant to stimulate the interest of learners in STEM subjects. The DSI was responsible for the administration of Olympiads and extracurricular activities. Each Department has clearly defined roles and responsibilities that, when combined, ensure that students are adequately supported. Regarding the comment about teachers not seeming to have acquired basic subject knowledge, his response would be yes and no. Some teachers have subject knowledge. The DG indicated that there are various factors and variables in the teaching profession, including dialectics and pedagogy, where teachers may demonstrate a lack of knowledge. The Minister indicated that the training structure received in universities differed slightly from that of the training from teacher colleges. As a result, though teachers are qualified, they continue to require support and orientation. This is not unique to teachers. Once students leave university and enter their professions, it is seen in all professions - orientation programmes are always needed. This is because the skills they have acquired in higher education need to be combined with practical experience. He is unsure if a solution to this issue would be universities restructuring how they teach to better prepare workers across all professions. Concerning TIMMS, the NDP and the MTSF have set targets for the DBE. They are confident with the structured programs that they had reported to the Committee. They would be able to make a difference and bring about the desired improvements. They were very hard on themselves about doubling the targets that the MTSF has placed. They were hopeful that they would be able to do this. the DG was correct in saying the South African education system is resilient and full of surprises. He noted that these surprises resulted from hard work being put in by the Department officials, schools, teachers, learners and support structures such as the Committee.

Mr Dikgomo said the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework guided teacher education and development. It has four outputs and one of these outputs is expanded access to formal teacher education policy. This policy gave rise to the Funza Lushaka Bursary, allowing more learners to access university education. The framework also says that teacher development needs to be supported from a local level. It was from this policy that the provincial teacher institutes were developed and established. More than eight of these institutes are currently operating in provinces such as Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. This is where teachers are being supported on a local level.

Regarding the teacher audit, he said a desktop TIMMS audit for mathematics teachers was conducted in 2016 and another audit would be done this year. This audit would be expanded to include other factors because the DBE was working in conjunction with the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT). The 2016 audit indicated that there are 157 000 mathematics teachers in the country and the number of foreign teachers in the country is less than 10%. The audit also assessed how qualified the teachers were. What they were able to get was what the teachers studied. He noted that the NECT had commissioned ten universities to work in different provinces and they would be accessing the classrooms to find out what was happening in classrooms. He said that the 2023 audit would hopefully be available at the end of this year and would provide teacher numbers, age, gender, citizenship status and subjects studied. He said this audit had already begun.

Deputy Minister Mhaule said that the DBE had responded adequately to the comments and questions raised. There was a notion that they still only did assessments on learning. She said they also dealt with knowledge. This meant that it was not only about students studying for exams to pass, but also the expansion of their scope of knowledge. Regarding the DBE’s working relationship with universities, teachers from the university entered the field ready and this was better than continuous professional development. Universities were responding to what the system needed as the system was not static but ever-moving. Life was now more geared towards ICT and MST subjects. This was why teachers produced ICT complaints but this was not to say those who came before were not trained as there was still continuous teacher development taking place. The Deputy Minister said that perhaps the DBE was not reporting enough, but the Department is working closely with universities and universities were responding to the Department’s needs.

Adoption of draft minutes

The Chairperson asked the Committee Secretary to flight the draft minutes. She said the Committee had the draft minutes of 28 February that pertained to the second and third quarterly report briefing from the Department of Basic Education.

Ms N Adoons (ANC) moved to adopt the minutes and Mr E Siwela (ANC) seconded the adoption.

Matters arising

The Chairperson told Mr Nodada he could raise his issue.

Mr Nodada had sent a letter regarding the billable which had received acknowledgement of receipt. He said, as this was a Portfolio Committee, this was the only platform he could use to raise this issue formally. He also noted that more letters had been sent to the Committee regarding invites and incorrect dates. He had sent the questions to the Committee Secretary as it was inappropriate to waste the Committee’s time asking the questions in the meeting. He asked if the Chairperson could assist in responding to these questions to ensure the communication of correct information regarding the right dates, times, participation and so on. He said it was concerning and that they did not want this to be a continuous issue. He asked for clarity on the issues they had now raised.

The Chairperson said there was an acknowledgement of the letter and a response would be sent on 8 March. Although Mr Nodada wanted a response within seven days, this was not feasible because the information still needed to be gathered by officials to respond properly. Time was needed to give him the response he wanted. He needed to be cognizant of the fact that the information he wanted was the same as what was used throughout public submissions. The Chairperson said that in the email, Mr Nodada had stated that 2 000 public submissions were made in the form of posters and no explanation was given as to what kind of posters they were, if they were in support or objection and if they had names, addresses and contact numbers to indicate who sent these posters. What mechanisms were in place to ensure there was no duplication of submissions? The Chairperson said these questions would require the staff to collect poster samples to adequately respond to Mr Nodada's concerns. She said officials were working on the response and his letter was not being neglected. She said she hoped he was satisfied with this response.

Mr Nodada said he was satisfied.

Mr S Ngcobo (IFP) said he had spoken to the Committee content advisor about being given a briefing about quality training provided by the DBE. This was because some Members wanted to use the briefing to present to their parties so that they could get proper mandates. He said perhaps it had been sent but he had not received this briefing or the Committee’s schedule.

Ms D Van Der Walt (DA) said she knew that people who did not get an opportunity during public hearings received the opportunity to complete a form and make submissions. She asked if they could receive these forms after each public hearing and not all at once after they had visited all provinces. She said they wanted to know how many written submissions were submitted at each public hearing.

The Chairperson said this would not be an issue and next week, a reflection could be made for the Limpopo, Free State and the province they would be going to this weekend. This could be done for all the provinces they would be visiting.

The Chairperson responded to Mr Ncgobo and said it would not be a problem to send the presentation from the researcher and content supervisor. They could provide him with the necessary information after this meeting.

The Committee would be going to the North West this weekend. They would be going to Rustenburg on Friday, Mafikeng on Saturday and Vryburg on Sunday. It was raised that public hearings on Sundays needed to start at noon so that was when they would start on Sunday. The Chairperson requested that the Committee respect the processes as this was a contested Bill [referring to the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill] and they all had different mandates from their political parties. It was important for the Committee to work together and not be seen to disagree with what was being said during the hearings as it was not professional.

It was agreed upon that legal advisors be present to provide legal expertise. This was not necessarily a Bill from Parliament but the DBE and any legal advice should be from the DBE. She noted that the public disagreement with the sentiments of legal professionals from the DBE, like what happened in the Free State hearing, was unprofessional and uncomfortable. This was a mandate the Committee needed to execute together and not a political mandate. Therefore patience was required from everyone. With the issue concerning letters from district directors, she had responded to the first letter, which was shared on the Committee’s WhatsApp group. There was another letter from the North West and it had been raised with the leadership and Department officials. She said they were just as shocked about where these letters were coming from and who gave them the mandate to send these letters. The DBE’s leadership would be doing something about it because the communication that they could account for had to do with communication from Parliament on the BELA Bill.

The Chairperson said that the issue with district directors and the sending of letters resulted in the limitation of participation as they disseminated inaccurate information on the times of public hearings. She asked if anyone had issues to raise about the BELA Bill, particularly in the Free State. Travel arrangements regarding the trip to the North West would be arranged with the Committee Secretary. If Members wanted to attend the memorial service or funeral of the late MEC, they needed to liaise with the Committee Secretary.

The meeting was adjourned.