MPs reject Mpumalanga broken schools report as ‘vague’

Parliament’s oversight committee has trashed a progress report by the Mpumalanga department of education and ordered the province to return with evidence of what it has done about problems identified at eight schools.

MPs in the basic education portfolio committee on Tuesday shut down the department’s presentation, saying its responses to recommendations made during oversight visits were “vague, unsupported and did not show whether conditions” at the schools had improved.

The committee’s demand followed an oversight visit to eight schools and two early childhood development (ECD) centres in Ehlanzeni and Bohlabela in April.

The schools are Matthews Phosa College, Kamagugu Special School, Lekazi Central Secondary, Silindokuhle Special School, Phambanisa Primary School, Nkomazi High School, Mahhushe Agricultural Secondary School and Tsakane Special School.

The two ECD centres visited were Msholozi Early Bird Day Care Centre and Nkomazi Siphumele Day Care Centre.

MPs had identified unreliable water supplies, overcrowded classrooms, sanitation and maintenance backlogs, unsafe infrastructure and shortages of specialist staff and assistive devices at the two special-needs schools.

The committee set deadlines for several interventions, including filling vacant posts within 90 days and addressing classroom, water and ablution shortages before the end of the third school term.

Committee chair Joy Maimela criticised the department for sending the report to the committee at the last minute.

“The committee received Mpumalanga’s report and six attachments only last Thursday, with an updated version arriving on Tuesday morning before the meeting.”

This is despite procedural protocols expecting departments to share their documents with the committee at least seven working days before a meeting to ensure preparedness.

The provincial department had not provided evidence that the structures existed or were functioning, leaving MPs unable to establish how outstanding work was being tracked.

“We have to postpone this meeting to give the province another opportunity to redo the report because, according to this report some infrastructure and service-delivery interventions had been shifted to the next financial year without clear budgets, timelines or implementation plans,” Maimela said.

She said the committee required details of investigations, findings, consequence management and measures taken to prevent the problems from recurring. This was not included in the report.

MPs wanted evidence of what had been done after incorrect or inappropriate materials were supplied and whether action had been taken against officials or service providers responsible.

“Simply showing that items had been procured or delivered did not establish whether learners had received the materials they needed,” she said.

The department also failed to satisfy the committee on persistent water shortages.

Some schools continued using portions of their budgets to secure water because municipal supply remained unreliable, but the province did not provide evidence of agreements with municipalities to address the problem.

Maimela questioned why money intended for educational and operational needs should be spent on water because of failures elsewhere in the system.

She also wanted future reports to show whether the department’s interventions had produced measurable improvements, including in pupil performance, instead of merely listing activities.

ANC chief whip Pretty Xaba-Ntshaba criticised the province for failing to implement the recommendations and called for the department to take MPs “seriously”, and called for stricter standards against provinces that failed to implement the committee’s recommendations.

MK Party MP Siphetho Mkhize demanded an explanation for each recommendation that remained outstanding and called for the committee to show greater “teeth” in holding provincial departments accountable.

ActionSA whip Lerato Ngobeni proposed that the deficient presentation be made public so people could see where the department had failed.

DA MP Ciska Jordaan and Ngobeni said parliament could not enforce strict standards against some provinces while accepting inadequate responses from others.

The committee ordered Mpumalanga to return with a revised report responding separately to every recommendation. It needed to include what has been implemented, what is outstanding, why recommendations were not carried out and when the work will be completed. The department was ordered to also identify the obstacles that prevented implementation.

Mpumalanga education MEC Lindi Masina apologised for the weaknesses in the submission and acknowledged that it had not met the committee’s expectations.

The department committed to returning with a more comprehensive account.

• This story is produced by The Education Desk, a non-profit newsroom dedicated to addressing schooling challenges in SA