Premier Noxolo Kiviet's statement on education matters in the province of the Eastern Cape as presented at a media briefing in Bhisho
23 Apr 2012
Programme Director, the MEC for Education Mr Mandla Makupula, Director-General Advocate Mannya, executive managers and officials of the provincial administration and media good afternoon. Thank you for your response to our invitation this morning.
I believe we all understand the ruling party declared education as our number one strategic priority and a societal matter. This service is central in developing the human resource we need for development in every sphere of life. There's universal acceptance that education is the best way of breaking the cycle of poverty and in building a citizenship that is empowered to effectively participate in governance and in their own development.
We have acknowledged on numerous occasions that the delivery of education services in the province has been fraught with challenges over the past 18 years, partly derived from historical factors, and numerous other dynamic contributing factors.
These challenges have resulted in education experiencing the highest leadership turnover, in many instances losing some of our finest leadership at political and administrative levels.
The Executive Council took a decision in 2010 to ensure a turn-around in education in many areas that include the provision of integrated technical and administrative support to the Department of Education led by an interdepartmental team. Over and above that, as part of the Section 100 (1) (b), National Treasury, Departments of Public Services and Administration, and Basic Education are providing on-going support to the department.
These interventions have resulted in a number of positive changes, which include the stabilisation in scholar transport, school nutrition programme, institutional capacity for effective use of infrastructure budget, as well as in improving the compliance of the department with policies and prescripts of government.
We also acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done to claim that we are getting out of the woods. There are still a lot of challenges affecting delivery of education in the Eastern Cape including a need for a more unified interpretation of the problems and a shared approach to the solution across numerous players who share the passion for the education of our people. An overriding factor we must all internalise is that the mission to educate our nation is a bigger common good to which we should submit and subject ourselves.
This context was part of our discussions with the Head of the Department of Education, Advocate Modidima Mannya, which culminated in a mutual agreement to re-determine his employment contract. In terms of this re-determination the contract will end on 30 April 2012, while his operational responsibilities as Head of Department will cease with effect from the date of the signing of the agreement, that is today 23 April 2012. This agreement was reached in the best interest of Education in the province of the Eastern Cape and is not by any means a pronouncement on the suitability or not of the Head of the Department of Education.
I wish to take this opportunity, also, to express my gratitude, on behalf of the Executive Council, the provincial government and the people of the Eastern Cape, to Advocate Mannya, for his contribution in repositioning the delivery of education services in the Eastern Cape. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
I also wish to thank you all for your presence and contribution in keeping education on the national agenda of development discourse. We trust that we will continue to work together to improve the quality of education in our province.
I thank you.
Statement issued by the Eastern Cape Office of the Premier, April 23 2012
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