Chairperson, there is no doubt that our education system, despite budgetary allocations, which is the budget we support, remains seriously dysfunctional at all levels. Firstly, I want to express the IFP's concern about the implementation of policy by provinces, and the monitoring thereof by the Department of Education. Take, for example, the KwaZulu-Natal department of education, which awarded Indiza a multimillion- rand tender to deliver textbooks to schools across the province, which were never delivered. Hence, quality of education suffered.
Then, look at the feeding scheme in the Eastern Cape which has collapsed completely, and as we debate now, thousands and thousands of children in schools in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, covering the entire Umkhanyakude District, are not being fed because the feeding schemes there too have collapsed.
The IFP calls on the Minister of Education immediately to investigate these matters.
It is clearly due to a lack of proper monitoring by the Department of Education that such glaring dysfunctionality within the education system is allowed to continue.
The Department of Education has on numerous occasions admitted that our system remains the weakest at district level. Yet for two consecutive budgetary years there has been no allocation to strengthen and improve education at district level, where we need more subject advisors, more adequately qualified teachers and more teaching aids.
Lastly, schools cannot remain "black boxes" where nobody knows, including the hon Minister, what is going on inside there. Open up schools across the country urgently for routine inspections. We cannot allow unions to continue protecting their turf. I thank you.