Infrastructure and the disruption of teaching and learning at schools by community members during protest action have been identified as some of the major challenges faced by schools in Mpumalanga. These inputs were given during public hearings on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, held by the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education in Kanyamazane.
Different stakeholders including teachers, unions, political parties and community members came in their numbers, to table their views on education in the province. They want to ensure quality education for all children in Mpumalanga.
“We have to fight for our schools. We have to fight for our education. To us, that is very important,” Thea Rix, DA ward councillor.
A school principal in attendance added that community protests negatively affected teaching and learning in schools.
“These community protests do interrupt schooling and at the end of the day, when the kids fail, the school is the one taking the blame” says Principal Isaac Moyane.
The public’s input will assist in aligning some of the clauses in the bill with new developments in the education system.
“We have had the first round, where we allowed people to write submissions to parliament. We have processed that, we had second round where we allowed people to come to parliament to do oral submissions. Now, we are at the third round where we go to the public and ask the people to give us their views,” says Portfolio Committee Chairperson Bongiwe Mbingo Gigaba.
The portfolio committee will consolidate the inputs from different provinces and present them to parliament for further discussion, before they can be adopted or rejected.
