As a part of the National Assembly’s parliamentary education oversight function, during the first term of the constituency period, member of parliament (MP), Brandon Pillay, conducted a tour of schools within the eThekwini south region.
Pillay said his intention was to start oversight visits in schools within the Chatsworth area before moving in further south. “We covered Southlands, Protea and Chatsworth Secondary on day one. On April 14, day two of the oversight tour, we moved on to the greater south Durban area, visiting Umbilo and Lamontville secondary.” Pillay said they engaged with the principal and the senior management teams at the schools. “Learners were writing first-term control tests and exams. As this government is youth-focused, it would have been ideal to engage with learners about their issues and to get a view from the ground. But that void created the opportunity for future and follow-up oversight visits. Oversight visits at schools are aimed at establishing the issues affecting schools than to disrupt teaching and learning.”
Leading a delegation consisting of staffers from his parliamentary constituency office, Pillay set out to establish successes and challenges during the visit. This comes after the difficulties of changing a perceived incorrect school quintile ranking, departmental stationery, textbooks and Covid-19 PPE distribution, educator to learner ratio, school and class rolls, school developmental progress, school budgetary operations as well as short and long-term solutions required attention. “The school’s senior management team were quite happy to receive the delegation and discussed at length the issues plaguing the school as well as the management and support lent by the education department. They also arranged for the delegation to conduct a walkabout in the school.”
As an MP of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, Pillay focused specifically on learners’ ability in obtaining smart ID cards and any difficulties around applying for identity documents. The visit also threw light upon a special project which would be undertaken, aimed at taking pupils to their nearest Home Affairs office to facilitate the application for smart ID cards. “During the visits, I was reminded of the words by Nelson Mandela who said that education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. I have emphasised to all schools we have visited that the delegation was not present to make any promises, rather to form partnerships and build relationships to achieve government’s education goals.” He re-iterated his belief of continuing to strive in ensuring that learning and teaching excels and that the challenges schools grapple with must be addressed and supported.
