Grim picture of education in crisis

The department of education in the Eastern Cape was in such a chaotic state that it nearly put last year's matric exams in the province in jeopardy.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga painted a grim picture of the department when she appeared before parliament's select committee on education yesterday.

In March, the province was placed under administration after critical service-delivery imperatives, including the nutrition programme, collapsed.

There were also serious problems in the appointment of teachers, supply of stationery and textbooks and provision of scholar transport. The province had also failed to address the problems related to unsafe schools .

According to a presentation to the committee, "the problems facing the Eastern Cape education department were extremely serious and had to be urgently arrested and remedied. There were clear signs of a crisis in the system, resulting from what appeared to be a deep-rooted discord between policy intentions and policy implementation".

However, Motshekga said the intervention had had its own challenges and that the national department had reached a stalemate with the provincial department.

"We reached an impasse with the department of education in the Eastern Cape and it was taking lots of energy and resources," said Motshekga.

"We had reached an impasse at a very difficult time of the schooling calendar, which was around October-November, and found that was going to disrupt the exams if the standoff continued. And as I say, it was robbing us of our responsibilities to other provinces."

Motshekga said the situation was so dire that President Jacob Zuma was forced to intervene. She told the committee she would like to see the problems speedily resolved. But for this to happen, the province's "cooperation" was needed.

She said the Limpopo education department also faced "challenges", but was more cooperative than the Eastern Cape.