On Monday, 15 November, the Standing Committee of Education deliberated on the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) Annual Report for 2020/21. We welcome in particular, for the period under review, the Department’s planned target of reaching 280 000 e-portal users culminating in a total of 2.4 million users. This speaks volumes about the WCED’s commitment to supporting teaching and learning amidst the pandemic and beyond.
MPP Lorraine Botha says: “The service delivery environment for the year under review demanded that learners, educators, and officials show an incredible level of resilience due to an estimated 2 month nationally-determined closing period. This led to the implementation of Temporary Revised Education Plans to help limit the spread of Covid-19 at schools, but also ensured that quality education in every classroom, for every learner, remained the main objective.
Evidence of this resilience includes the lowest decline in the Matric pass rate in the country, and moreover, an increase in, and the highest level of, bachelors passes in South Africa. Other notable successes include:
- E-learning: Where learners were unable to access the e-portal, the Department went above and beyond in the upward adaption of its printing budget for the 1 100 schools that could not access online support. The e-portal is used by learners and educators outside of the Western Cape, speaking to this province’s leadership in agility and innovation.
- The Department recorded an increase in the number of distinctions achieved by the Class of 2020. This target was exceeded by 1 607 distinctions, whilst the number of schools to achieve a NSC pass rate of over 60% grew by 20 schools for the year under review.
- To expand on Quality Teaching, the Department swiftly provided ICT support to conclude and adapt the curriculum training process. Covid-19 posed significant challenges to human resource management functions, and I welcome the psycho-social support interventions that are undertaken on group and individual levels.
- For the year, the Department established a new collaboration school in Ottery. Such schools enhance support to lower income communities though public-private partnerships to support the Department’s ability to provide the same quality teaching and learning as more affluent schools, through management and governance support in an effort to achieve better education outcomes.
Overall, the Department achieved an unqualified audit report for the year 2020/21. This is outstanding given the size and mandate of this public department. Many of the challenges cited in review of the performance reported have been affected by the demands of managing the pandemic in dynamic, congregate settings. This required innovative responses by teachers and officials.”
As with all aspects of our society, schools will not be Covid-19 free for the foreseeable future, but thanks to innovative, good governance measures by the WCED, quality education will not be compromised.