This behaviour should be condemned by all of us who has the education of our children at heart. By illegally closing these offices numerous school-related issues will not be addressed.

The DA is appealing to the Premier and her Executive to step in and to prevent our education system from dissolving completely. This Executive has not taken any steps since the reopening of the Eastern Cape schools on 9 January to ensure that proper schooling takes place. Madam Premier now is the time for this Executive to stand up and be counted. We are not a banana republic and must never allow one group to trample on the Constitutional rights of another group.

I have today submitted legislature questions to the MEC for Education to explain why he is allowing the district offices to be closed by employees of the department and what he intends to do to resolve this whole issue.

Let us not allow Sadtu to use our children and legitimate institutions to enhance their own agenda in their fight with the Superintendent-General of the department, Adv. Modidima Mannya. Let us put a stop to the impasse between these antagonists.

The Eastern Cape education is on the verge of total collapse with the post provisioning of 2012 not fully implemented and educators on a go slow, resulting in a multitude of schools without their full complement of teachers.

While the Eastern Cape still boasts some of the country’s best schools (for example, Grey College, King Edward, Theodore Herzl, Riebeeck College, Selborne College, Cambridge, Alexander Road, etc ), the majority of schools, most particularly in the poorer communities and in the remote rural areas, are providing little or no education opportunities for our learners.

Eighty percent of schools in the Eastern Cape, as per information supplied to the Portfolio Committee on Education, are dysfunctional with only 11% of High schools responsible for 70% of the pass% of Grade 12 learners. Thirty percent of our learners in the Eastern Cape have no textbooks and there are more than 500 mud schools in the province, although, because of no credible data bases, this number may be much higher.

The eradication of mud schools are taking place at a snail’s pace and more than 10 000 classrooms are still needed to relieve the congestion. As a result of shortage of classrooms, the phenomenon of multi-subject teaching has reared its ugly head in a number of small schools in the rural areas of the province. Multi subject teaching is where more than one teacher teaches different subjects to different groups in one classroom.

The province also has a multitude of small and farm schools with an enrolment of less than 135 learners and a staff component between one and five that are responsible to teach all grades from grade1 to grade 7 or grade 10 to grade12. This scenario has resulted in the unhealthy practise of multi-grade teaching; i.e one teacher teaches more than 1 grade in the same classroom.

Eighty four percent of all schools are in dire need of repairs and ablution facilities and potable water are not adequately provided to the majority of rural schools.

Put simply, the ANC government is failing in its mandate to provide even the most basic education. The very people that the ANC promised to serve, are now filled with despair and uncertainty, and are leaving the Eastern Cape for a province run by a government other than the ANC.

Unlike in the Eastern Cape, in the DA run Western Cape ALL learners are afforded the opportunity to attend school and receive a basic education, whilst in the Eastern Cape a number of deserving learners who qualifies to be transported to schools as per the national scholar transport policy, are not afforded this opportunity.

In the Western Cape the majority of teachers are on time, in class and teaching, and unlike the Eastern Cape, which has the highest rate of absenteeism in the country, teaching time is not maximised. Research has shown that contact time in most of the schools in the poorer communities is only three and a half hours, whilst the seven hour school rule is not enforced, nor adhered to.

For the DA in the Western Cape, not even the right to a “basic education” is enough. It is this right – the right to a “quality education” – that guides every policy, action and strategy that the DA government takes. For in an Open, Opportunity Society for All, every child should be afforded the opportunity to realize his or her full potential through access to a “quality education”.

If we just take the 2011 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results into account, the Western Cape (WC) outshines the Eastern Cape (EC) in terms of quality in a number of ways.

The percentage pass in the WC is 82.9% as compared to the 58.1% in the EC. A total of 38% of the candidates in the WC achieved access to a Bachelor Degree study at university, compared to 15.8% in the EC. The number of schools in the WC that achieved a percentage pass of 90% or more is 191 out of 358 or 53.4% of all schools, while in the EC 116 out of 918 or 12.6% of schools have achieved this milestone. Only 30 out of 358 or 8.4% of high schools in the WC are still classified as underperforming (achieved less than 60% pass in the exam) as compared with 467 out of 918 or 50.9% of all High schools in the EC.

Good results in Mathematics and Physical Science subjects open up study and work opportunities for young people and are important for the growth of the EC and South Africa as a whole. Again, if we compare the WC and the EC – In 2011, 68.7% of candidates passed their mathematics exam in the WC as opposed to 33.5% in the EC. In Physical Sciences, 65.3% passed in the WC, as opposed to 46% in the EC.

It is clearly evident that the quality of education in the WC exceeds that of the EC, the question is why? If we consider something as simple as textbook delivery, one can see where the differences lie. In the WC, the Department has delivered to all schools at the end of last year (2011), over two million textbooks and readers, over and above the national norms and standards allocation.

In the EC, however, schools live in uncertainty whether they will receive any of the national norms and standards allocations. The EC is tardy in its payments and delivery of textbooks and other resources such as school furniture.

The problems lie within the EC Education Department, which is heavily influenced by the unions. It is financially mismanaged and there is increasing pressure on schools to fill vacancies with unqualified teachers, especially foreign nationals. In the EC we are seeing a system rapidly in decline, such as officials doing business with the Department, no credible data and information systems, absolute lack of filing systems, little or no internal control measures, resulting in the Department receiving adverse financial opinions as well as disclaimers. In short, this Department’s finances are in a mess, while in the WC all key indicators in the province are continuing to show a positive trend under a DA government.

The WC is a reflection of a maturing provincial education system responding positively to a number of systems improvements. More children have access to schools staffed with qualified teachers who are present, prepared and utilising textbooks effectively, and more children are at schools, managed by competent and accountable principals.

It therefore comes as no surprise that our parents in the EC are making the decision to relocate their children to a DA – run province.

If they as parents consider the uncertain future their children have in an education system in decline – who would blame them? It is opportunities that the parents of the EC are seeking, the same opportunities that the open opportunity society provides.

Loyiso Pulumani said the department was “pushing hard” to ensure schools’ staff needs were met and that teachers for core subjects were in their posts.

However a “go-slow” by the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in protest against poor working conditions and long hours was hindering the start of the academic year.

“Education in the Eastern Cape would be dramatically improved if all stakeholders worked together,” Pulumani said.

“This means principals, parents, teachers, learners and the department working towards a common goal.”

Teachers embarked on wildcat strikes when they returned after the school holidays to find that temporary teachers had not been reappointed to old posts, or had been sent to other schools.

Many permanent teachers felt their workload had been increased, without the help of temporary teachers.

Pulumani said schools were asked last year to provide the department with lists of vacant posts, most of which had now been filled.

“Some schools did not do this, but we are working to ensure their needs are met and that children don’t suffer.”

The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday commended the provincial education superintendent general Modidima Mannya for moving quickly to appoint temporary teachers in short-staffed schools.

DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren said the steps Mannya had taken had relieved pressure on schools where there was a shortage of teachers in critical subjects like maths, physical science, accountancy, and English.

“It is regrettable that excess teachers are not complying with re-assignment letters issued to them, but have instead decided to remain at their old schools where their services, as per the post provisioning, are not required,” he said in a statement.

Van Vuuren said these teachers were robbing schools of much-needed human resources. – Sapa

This will relieve the pressure on those schools with a dire shortage of teachers responsible for teaching critical subjects, such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting and English.

We appeal to the Department to have the outstanding 603 temporary positions filled as a matter of urgency.

However, it is with regret that teachers that are in excess are not complying with re-assignment letters issued to them, but have instead decided to remain at their old schools where their services as per the post provisioning are not required. They are robbing the receiving schools of much-needed human resources. Furthermore, Sadtu has in its misplaced wisdom decided to embark on a go-slow.

The DA welcomes the decisive stance of the Department that it will withhold salaries from those who refuse to teach or move to their receiving schools. All teachers have been contracted to work at least seven hours per day, and their refusal to adhere to policy, can and must be seen as abdication of their educational responsibilities. Parents were never consulted about the union’s action. These parents have placed their little ones in the supposedly caring hands of teachers. The actions of Sadtu must be unapologetically rejected and cannot be condoned by those that have education of our children at heart.

The DA agrees with the Department that it should intervene decisively to stop this illegal action by approaching the courts to issue an order declaring the actions illegal, and to hold principals and teachers accountable for any disruptions at schools.

It is a fact that Sadtu is using our learners as cannon fodder to settle scores with the Superintendent General of the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, Advocate Modidima Mannya.

It is also an undeniable fact that the Eastern Cape is the worst performer in the Grade 12 results. This in itself is an indictment of the perilous state of education in the province. The feud and acrimonious relationship between Sadtu and Advocate Mannya will dump our dismal education into a deeper hole, from which it will never be retrieved again.

It is time that our learners are put first, irrespective of disagreements not settled, as our learners have been denied the opportunity to get off the ground, since the dispute between the mentioned antagonists.

The Hon. Humphrey Maxegwana, Chief Whip of the Eastern Cape Legislature, Hon. Edmund Van Vuuren, DA spokesperson for education and Loyiso Pulumani, Department of Education spokesperson, at the ceremony of the grade 12 results held on 5 January 2012, at the International Convention Convention Centre in East London.

The process of post provisioning has been completed, but sadly 8 000 vacancies have as yet not been filled. This is of grave concern as the absence of teachers in classrooms will have a detrimental effect on the provision of sustained quality education.

There are currently 6 715 teachers in excess and a further 2 103 are to be employed to fill all existing vacancies within the Eastern Cape. The placement of the 6715 additional teachers have been slow due to resistance on the ground as well as non compliance by certain schools to identify teachers in excess and the non adherence by District offices to implement and supervise the movement of teachers.

Up to date only 200 teachers in excess have been appropriately placed, whilst 592 requests for retention of temporary teachers have been verified and endorsed for appointment. It has been confirmed that the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape has issued letters to the 592 teachers in 10 districts, to be appointed on a temporary basis until 31 March 2012. These interim measures should be accelerated so that all applications for retention of the other 1 511 temporary teachers in the other 13 districts are finalised sooner than later. This Department must ensure that all schools have a teacher in front of the class, whilst the process of teacher redeployment continues. It is clear that not all classrooms had a teacher when schools opened on 11 January 2012.

In certain districts, especially in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape, temporary teachers, whose contracts were terminated on 31 December 2011, were wholly responsible for the teaching of critical subjects, such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Accounting. Currently learners in these remote areas of Libode and Cofimvaba are not receiving any tuition in these subjects.

It is incumbent upon this Department of Education to exercise its responsibilities towards the core function of education which is teaching and learning, by providing a teacher for every available subject and classroom. Although there are challenges in the implementation of the post provisioning, this Department has once more horribly failed our learners. These 8 000 vacancies, if not filled soon, either through teacher redeployment or retention of temporary teachers, will result in not maximising teaching time, creating frustrations, uncertainties and disruptions which will ultimately deny our learners access to quality education.

This Department has delivered on some of the key performing areas.  School nutrition has been decentralised to schools, with schools taking full responsibility in providing meals to 1 692 643 learners in 5132 No fee schools across the Province. R600 million for feeding was transferred to these schools and all learners in these schools were fed as from the first day of school. There were some systemic issues encountered such as poor quality of food and inflated prices of food commodities, but these are being addressed.

The Department of Education needs to address other priority areas more adequately and effectively, such as School Infrastructure, deserving learners not transported, Caps (Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement) Textbooks and workbooks for Grades 1 to 3 and Grade 10 not delivered, Stationery to 892 schools still outstanding and the lack of sufficient furniture in schools. The high rate of absenteeism must be addressed with the necessary urgency. On a visit to schools in the Cofimvaba area a number of principals were conspicuous by their absence.

It has been confirmed that Caps textbooks and workbooks to Grades 1 to 3 and 10 will most probably only be delivered during the months of February and March, which implies that the above grades will have no material to work from for the first two months of the year.

Only 56 000 learners are transported, whilst there are a further 59000 deserving learners not transported. In the Cofimvaba District alone, which is rural in nature, only 1 900 are transported out of a possible 7 000 deserving learners. In Lady Frere the situation is almost the same with about 1 900 out of a possible 4 500 transported. This discrepancy should be rectified by the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape as the majority of learners that are supposed to be transported must now walk long distances, even crossing rivers to get to school. Too many of our learners in the least affluent areas are been disadvantaged.

There is a shortage of 10 000 classrooms in the Province in order to relief the digestion of overcrowded classes. Classrooms in most of the schools are filled beyond capacity which is unhealthy and not conducive for quality education. The physical state of classrooms also need immediate attention as 84% of these classrooms in the Province are not in a good condition.

School Principals have only utilized R107 million of the R370 million allocated to them for the procurement of textbooks. This type of behaviour can never be condoned whilst there is a 30% shortage of textbooks in our schools.  The Department needs to investigate this under spending and take appropriate steps.

The Democratic Alliance wishes all learners and teachers a successful 2012. All role players within the education system need to be committed towards providing quality education to our children by maximising teaching time.  Education is the foundation for opportunities.

Honourable Speaker, the core function of all those involved in education, is to unconditionally provide quality education and to create opportunities for our learners in order for them to realise their aspirations.

Honourable Speaker, benchmarks have been set by certain Provinces, namely the Western Cape and Gauteng, as to the key indicators for achieving excellence in the education field. The Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, which was given a whopping R22,68 billion for the 2010/2011 financial year and which has overspent on compensation of employees and under spent on school infrastructure, has for the past seventeen years not been catching up with the rest of South Africa. This Department is in no hurry, as can be deduced from the well documented declining nature and challenges within this system, to get on par with already set benchmarks by well performing provinces, such as the Western Cape and Gauteng.

Honourable Speaker, the Department of Education had a total adjusted budget of R23,183,440 billion for 2010/2011. R18,332,258 billion was budgeted for compensation of employees, which represented 79,1% of the total adjusted budget. The Department of Education, however overspent by R621,941 million as at the end of the financial year. The personnel versus the non personnel expenditure stood at 87:13 and is currently close to 90:10. This expenditure trends will clearly have a detrimental effect on the core business, which is teaching and learning.

Honourable MEC, the Department has intimated that it intents improving resource deployment to ensure an 80:20 split by 2014/2015. It is indeed brave to make pronouncements that aim to avail more funds towards the core function of the Department, namely teaching and learning. No plans were provided as to how it is going to be achieved and sustained. The expenditure on personnel is skyrocketing at the expense of other core non- personnel items, such as adequate Learner Teacher Support Material and Textbooks, sustained maintenance of school buildings, eradication of all inappropriate structures, funding of schools at the required national level for the norms and standards for schools funding. It is difficult to contemplate how this ratio of spending will be decreased in favour of non- personnel deliverables, when this Department has decreased the learner teacher ratio across the Province to 28:1, which equates to more educators in schools. Honourable MEC, the Department also wants to reduce the current subject advisors to schools ratio from 1:173 to 1:25 before 2014/15 and they also want to attract and retain more educators in rural areas as from 2012/13. It is indeed noble to want to implement the above that will subsequently give rise to an increase in personnel, which consequently will have cost pressures as a result of an increased budget for the compensation of employees, resulting ultimately in less money available for non personnel expenditure. The Democratic Alliance really hopes that it will be revealed in the Department’s plan as to how they are going to decrease expenditure on personnel while simultaneously increasing the total number of employees as alluded to before.

Honourable MEC, the Auditor General has not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion because of lack of documentation to substantiate expenditure incurred. The Department did not maintain adequate records nor does it have a credible data base. There is a clear lack of filing and archiving of important documentation. The lack of supporting documents and or sufficient audit evidence to support payments, transfer payment to schools, capital expenditure, irregular expenditure and contractual commitments, amounting to billions of rand, are also contributory factors for the Auditor General not to express an opinion on these financial statements.

Honourable MEC, in spite of progress made, such as the 1 531 550 learners are benefitting from the National School Nutrition Programme, the 1 657 888 learners benefitting from the No Fee School Policy and the 87 132 learners transported, although there were logistical and budgetary issues in providing these learners with meals and transport during the last quarter of the financial year and the 3544 learners that will benefit from the Fee Exemption Policy, the Department is still encountering a lack of oversight and accountability of senior management, which has perpetuated the negative audit outcomes over the last 17 years.

Honourable MEC, the unavailability and access to senior management to all departmental staff, as well as staff not being aware of their responsibilities is conducive to an environment where fraudulent activities can occur. There is also an intentional lack of direction by senior management, resulting in an ineffective human resource management.

Honourable MEC, it is no surprise that this Department has received a disclaimer from the Auditor General and there are no guarantees that the Audit rectification plan will be successfully implemented as well as recommendations made by the Auditor General in order to improve the audit outcomes.

The Democratic Alliance is appealing to you as MEC, to be alert to any maladministration, fraudulent transactions and acts of insubordination and to act with the necessary assertiveness in order to root out these unscrupulous frauds in the interest of the aspirations of our learners.

Democratic Alliance supports the report presented by the Portfolio Committee on Education.

Renovations to more than 60 schools in rural Transkei will begin later this month after the department received R125-million from the national Treasury last week.

About 114 schools were damaged last year. The department has fixed only 52 so far.

Now the department – which has no dedicated funding for repairs at schools ravaged by storms annually – aims to take care of the remaining 62 dilapidated schools this month.

Departmental spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the funds would be set aside for repairs to the schools.

“The national Treasury last week provided R125-million in respect of the natural disasters that blight our schools annually during the rainy season,” he said.

“We are allocating these funds to our schools disaster project to start in the next few weeks.”

But DA education spokesman Edmund van Vuuren MPL was sceptical, saying the department should allocate a portion of its budget to fix storm-damaged schools.

“Tornados and heavy storms are an annual phenomenon from November to February in Transkei. Policies and procedures are needed to manage this yearly occurrence,” he said.

“The department must set up a task team to monitor these natural disasters.

“An amount should be ring-fenced within a disaster management system allocated in the department, for storm-damaged schools.”

In portfolio committee meetings, the department reportedly blamed the failure to revamp damaged school on its chronic lack of funds, despite having returned about R443-million of the Infrastructure Conditional Grant that was not spent.

Pulumani said further details would be known in a fortnight’s time.

The Daily Dispatch has learnt from a reliable source that deputy ministers involved in the national five-a-side team arrived on Monday for a two-day visit to the province.

They included Department of Basic Education (DBE) Deputy Minister Mohamed Enver Surty; Finance Deputy Minister Nhlanhla Musa Nene; Constitutional Development Deputy Minister Andries Carl Nel; Higher Education Deputy Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize; and Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister Ayanda Dlodlo.

The meetings were held at the Stirling Education Leadership Institute in East London.

Eastern Cape provincial government spokesman Mahlubandile Qwase said the deputies were asked by the 10member ministerial team in a meeting with Zuma on November 18 to visit the province to monitor the implementation of the intervention.

Qwase said the team had met with departmental officials and stakeholders on Tuesday and yesterday.

“They will report to the full five-aside their findings. This is in line with the decision of the meeting with the president and five-a-side on September 13 that the Eastern Cape will implement and national government will monitor and support,” he said.

This comes after an insider in the department claimed the visit followed a meeting between DBE Minister Angie Motshekga and President Jacob Zuma where it was decided that a “total takeover” of the department should now be implemented.

The source said both education MEC Mandla Makupula and head of department (HOD) superintendent-general Modidima Mannya were among the officials “grilled” in the meeting this week.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj would not be drawn into commenting on the meeting between Motshekga and Zuma.

“I’m not able to confirm that. I suggest you contact Motshekga’s department.”

DBE spokesman Panyaza Lesufi, however, said reports that the meeting had taken place were “false”.

Lesufi confirmed that Surty and others were in the province to compile reports on the state of preparedness of the department for the 2012 academic year.

“They will meet with all stakeholders, including the MEC. They are going to get reports on whether there have been challenges since implementation of intervention.”

Opposition parties, however, claimed the intervention was not working.

DA spokesman on education Edmund van Vuuren said that since the implementation of section 100 (the legal provision allowing for national intervention in provincial government), there had not been changes.

“The same senior directors who are not accountable are still in charge and things are still the same,” he said. Van Vuuren said it was possible that some schools would begin next year without necessary learning material.

COPE provincial deputy chairman Mbulelo Ntenzwa said the intervention was not working.

“The HOD has not demonstrated readiness on the delivery of books to school early next year. Much time has been spent on who was the accounting officer of the department and there are no deliverables on the ground.” — msindisif@dispatch.co.za

Honourable Speaker, the Office of Premier must be commended for receiving an unqualified audit outcome for the financial year 2010/11. However, there are matters of emphasis, that were also observed, and which relates to:

• Irregular expenditure and

• Under-expenditure.

Honourable Speaker, material non-adherence to regulations as well as poor internal controls with respect to financial management and expenditure management were also reported by the Auditor General. In the statement of its Vision and Mission, the Office of the Premier aspires to be a leader in excellence at the centre of a coherent pro-poor provincial administration, and it also ensures responsive, integrated and sustainable service delivery to all in the Eastern Cape through strategic leadership, critical interventions and coordinated effective provincial government.

The Office of the Premier must therefore lead by example and walk the walk and talk the talk with reference to exercising good financial management systems and also to set an example for the whole province in its efforts to achieve the 2014 target of clean audits.

Honourable Speaker, the Office of the Premier has incurred an under-expenditure of R5, 468 million, whilst a negative impact on the implementation of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme within the provincial government was as a consequence of financial and human resource limitations. The common belief is that funds not spent and service delivery delayed is equal to service delivery denied. Access to basic services and information by the people of the province is a right enshrined in the constitution. Even though the acceptable percentage of under-spending in accounting processes is 2%, this allowable percentage may amount to millions that have a potential to improve the lives of the poor.

Honourable Premier, the vacancy rate of the department currently stands at 21.9 %, which marks an increase of 6% compared to the previous financial year. The staff shortages encountered in the Risk Management unit, includes operating without a Senior Manager from as early as the beginning of the financial year. The non filling of this most important position has compromised the unit’s capacity to implement risk management. Section 3.2. of the PFMA impresses on the Accounting Officer a must to ensure that risk assessment is conducted regularly to identify emerging risks of the institution.

Honourable Speaker, despite the high rates of vacancies, departments have displayed over-expenditure with regard to the compensation of employees. This means that either some posts had not been budgeted for, or the personnel in the department are being paid above the norm. It seems that unregulated extras such as bonuses and overtime payments are indiscriminately been paid, which have not been budgeted for. Honourable Speaker, most of the departments are transferring funds from the non-consumable budgets in the personnel budgets to irregularly prevent over-expenditure on the personnel budget. This is indeed indicative of poor planning within departments.

The consistently high levels of virement and shifting of funds is indicative of poor alignment of the budget to the operational plans at planning phase. Even though these mechanisms were designed to be interventions in cases where unforeseen circumstances arose during a given financial year, they have become a common operational activity.

Honourable Speaker, the Office of the Premier did not achieve its target of placing 2 400 unemployed youth in relevant work-based learning programmes through apprenticeships, learnerships and internships. Only 209 learners participated in strategic skills development programme. This is against the background of severe lack of critical skills in the province like town planning and civil engineering. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations, youth unemployment rate (i.e. ages between 15 and 24 years) in the country currently stands at 51%, which is more than double the national unemployment rate of 25 %. The youth unemployment rate varies considerably between the races – the highest being 57 % in Africans and the lowest of 15% being recorded in Indian men, at 15 percent. The survey also found that the average job created by a government programme lasted just 46 days. Of concern is the fact that, the longer young people remain unemployed, the more unemployable they become.

Lastly, Honourable Speaker, The Office of the Premier failed to meet the targets it set with regards to the establishment of the Provincial Planning Commission., The long-term planning function has been transferred as a unit in the Provincial Treasury, and to date the Planning Committee has not been established yet. The province is dragging its feet regarding finalisation of the Provincial Planning Commission and this will delay the implementation of the recently released National Development Plan which seeks to address social-economic challenges which include poor economic growth, high unemployment and pervasive poverty, by 2030. The department needs to expedite the establishment of the Provincial Planning Commission as other departments need to reconfigure their planning processes and taking a cue from the provincial planning.

The Democratic Alliance supports the report.

Members of the provincial legislatu portfolio committee on education, who visited all 15 marking centres in the Eastern Cape, said staff at the centres were well prepared.

Committee chair Mzoleli Mrara said marking had gone well with no negative reports filtering back to him.

“Even markers were satisfied with arrangements made by the department. They used to complain about meals and accommodation, but not this year,” he said.

Mrara said their members, who were dispersed throughout the province, were happy about the preparedness of the department. But he warned that it was still too early to conclude that there were no challenges.

DA education spokesman Edmund van Vuuren said everything was progressing well. “We are happy about the preparation. The department did prepare well for marking,” he said.

Departmental spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said about 3 200 markers were employed to mark 1.5 million papers.

“Security is tight at all centres and entry is restricted to only accredited individuals.”

Pulumani said officials from the department of basic education and umalusi were also expected to visit centres.

He said as the exams had gone well, with teachers showing high levels of professionalism, the department wanted the same from markers. — msindisif@