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EDWIN NAIDU
ONLINE blended digital learning (E-learning) is one of the priorities of the Western Cape Education Department. It is not only about providing digital infrastructure and equipment to schools but a strategy of ensuring that the learners in the province are equipped with the necessary skills that will allow them to fit in and be able to compete in the technologically driven world.
Progress towards the provision of SMART classrooms and multimedia resources over time was described in a presentation before the National Council of Provinces last week.
Between the financial year 2014/15 and 2020/21, a total of 9 992 classrooms were enabled with technology (smart classrooms). Between the financial year 2014/15 and 2020/21, 912 schools were provided with multi-media resources.
According to the WCED Annual Performance Plan (APP), funding for education is divided according to seven programmes. National sub-programmes define each programme. In Programmes 2 and 4 the WCED deviates from the sector budget structure because school sport resides under the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.
“The Western Cape Education Department’s Annual Performance Plan for 2023/24 highlights our commitment to providing quality education for every child, in every classroom, in every school in the Western Cape,” said David Maynier, Provincial Minister of Education Western Cape Government.
He said every decision taken about education in the Western Cape would continue to be informed by the need to improve learner outcomes and to provide greater and more equitable access to quality education across the province.
Brent Walters, the Accounting Officer for the Department, said their vision for education in the Western Cape is to achieve quality education for every child, in every classroom, in every school in the province.
The Five-Year Strategy of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), published in 2020, supports this vision.
However, the ability of the department to deliver against this vision has been placed under strain over the last five-year period, with unprecedented growth in learner numbers, the advent of COVID-19 and the subsequent learning losses.
These factors, according to Walters, have heightened some of the other challenges faced due to socio-economic and psychosocial constraints, such as poverty, high levels of unemployment, gangsterism, violence, drug abuse, inadequate infrastructure and general population in-migration.
“Despite these constraints, our focus remains on our vision of quality education. This entails stabilising our schools, recovering the learning losses experienced over the past few years and creating conducive environments for teaching and learning,” Walters said.
INSIDE EDUCATION